Transition Period

Abbreviation that generally refers to the “period of transition from capitalist society to socialist society”. Concretely speaking, it is a period of revolutionary transformation from the beginning of the acquisition of political power by the proletariat to the basic establishment of the socialist economic system. In China, it refers to the period of transition from new-democratic society to socialist society.

Marxist theory on the transition period from capitalism to communism is connected with the question of the dictatorship of the proletariat. In his works such as the Class Struggles in France, 1848 to 1850 and Marx’s Letter to J. Weydemeyer, Marx clearly pointed out: (1) that the existence of classes is only bound up with particular historical phases in the development of production, (2) that the class struggle necessarily leads to the dictatorship of the proletariat, (3) that this dictatorship itself only constitutes the transition to the abolition of all classes and to a classless society. In 1875, in the Critique of the Gotha Programme, it was pointed out: “between capitalist society and communist society lies the period of the revolutionary transformation of the one into the other. To this there corresponds a political transition period whose state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat.” Lenin held that “the transition from capitalism to communism represents an entire historical epoch. Until this epoch has terminated, the exploiters inevitably cherish the hope of restoration, and this hope is converted into attempts at restoration.” “We must overcome resistance from the capitalists in all its forms, not only in the military and the political spheres, but also ideological resistance, which is the most deep-seated and the strongest.” The communist society here refers to the first phase of the communist society, i.e., the socialist society.

The emergence of the transition period has historical necessity. From the economic point of view, the transformation of private property requires a gradual historical process. From the political point of view, after the proletariat has overthrown the rule of exploiting classes, the exploiting classes have not been completely abolished, and the proletariat still needs to resist the exploiting classes for a considerable period of time. In the Principles of Communism, Engels pointed out: “Will it be possible for private property to be abolished at one stroke? No, no more than existing forces of production can at one stroke be multiplied to the extent necessary for the creation of a communal society. In all probability, the proletarian revolution will transform existing society gradually and will be able to abolish private property only when the means of production are available in sufficient quantity.” Lenin later greatly developed this doctrine of Engels and vividly called the transition period “a period of struggle between dying capitalism and nascent communism—or, in other words, between capitalism which has been defeated but not destroyed and communism which has been born but is still very feeble”.

According to the theory on the transition period of Marxism-Leninism and taking into account the actual political and economic situation in China, Mao Zedong divided the Chinese bourgeoisie into bureaucratic capital (big capital) and national capital (small and medium capital). He pointed out that after the conquest of political power, the proletariat first of all confiscates bureaucratic capital and turns it into the socialist economy owned by the whole people, thus abolishing the main part of the capitalist economy; at the same time, the proletariat would carry out land reform in the countryside. After the state has taken control of the lifelines of the economy, various economic elements such as socialist state economy, capitalist economy, small-scale production and individual economy and other economic components exist side by side, as do various classes such as the proletariat, the peasantry and the bourgeoisie. In order to transform the non-socialist economic components of the economy into socialist economy and fortify the dictatorship of the proletariat, the CPC put forth the general line to be followed during the transition period in 1952 and basically accomplished the socialist transformation of the means of production in 1956. Mao Zedong creatively opened up the path of socialist transformation suited to China’s characteristics and led China into the socialist phase.

The economic components of the transition period are complex, including socialist public economy, capitalist private ownership economy and the individual economy. Correspondingly, the principal contradiction of society is the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. The task of the transition period is to abolish exploitation, abolish bourgeois property, on the basis of striving to develop large-scale socialized large-scale production, gradually realize the socialist transformation of the private economy and establish a socialist economic system. Due to the different historical, economic and political conditions in each country, the duration of the transition period and the forms to be adopted to reform the old economic relations are also different. Lenin pointed out: “The more undeveloped a country is, the more arduous is its socialist revolution in the vicissitudes of history. It must confront the task of not only destroying the old, but building a new organization.”

From the victory of the October Revolution in 1917 to the basic establishment of the socialist society in 1936, the Soviet Union was in the transition period. And from the founding of New China in 1949 to the completion of the socialist transformation of the private property in the means of production in 1956, China was in the transition period, and realized the transition from new-democratic society to socialist society.

The doctrine of Marxism of the transition period is a concrete and scientific application of the principles of dialectical and historical materialism and a sharp ideological weapon of the proletarians of all countries and its political parties. The greatness of this theory, apart from pointing out that there must be a transition period between capitalism and communism, lies in pointing out that this transition period must be politically the dictatorship of the proletariat. This was Marx’s clarion call against the reactionary currents of right opportunism and anarchism of the then petty-bourgeoisie.