Communist Morality

A moral system derived from the overall interests of the proletariat, adapted to the social and economic form based on the public ownership of means of production, and with collectivism loyal to the Communist cause as the basic principle.

In 1920, Lenin first put forward the word “communist morality” in “The Tasks of the Youth Leagues”, and discussed its characteristics and social functions. “Fighting for the consolidation and completion of the Communist cause is the basis of the communist morality” and “morality serves for the human society to rise to a higher level and for the human society to get rid of the exploitation of labor”. Since then, this term has been widely used in the international communist movement.

Communist morality is the highest moral type in human history, which is adapted to the social ideology based on the public ownership of means of production. Its basic characteristics are collectivism and the revolutionary spirit of serving the people wholeheartedly, which is essentially different from the morality of various exploiting classes. As a new type of moral history, communist morality has a process of emergence, formation and development. It sprouts in the middle of the self-serving proletariat in the capitalist society. It is produced by the proletariat and the broad masses of working people in the revolutionary practice of fighting against the bourgeoisie, and gradually forms a scientific system under the guidance of Marxism and proletarian political parties. It is an organic part of the communist ideology. The basic and spontaneous proletarian morality is the embryo of communist morality. The scientific theory of Marxism and the conscious struggle of the proletariat make it sublimated into conscious communist morality. Its development can be roughly divided into three stages. Before the proletariat seized power, the communist morality “obeyed the interests of the proletarian struggle” and “served to destroy the exploiters’ old society and unite all the workers around the proletariat who founded the new communist society”. At that time, the communist morality was only that of a few advanced proletarian elements. After the proletariat obtains the political power, the communist morality will gradually become the dominant morality and be followed by the vast majority of social members. At that time, the communist morality was also called “socialist morality”. With the development of new relations in all aspects of social life, the content of communist morality has become richer, it involves all fields of social life, forming a new type of social moral relations and labor ethics, professional ethics, marriage and family ethics and socialist humanitarianism.

Since socialism is a historical movement to the advanced stage of communism, it is necessary to advocate collectivism and communist labor in the whole society, and to advocate the lofty communist morality of striving to open up for the communist ideal, to be selfless in public, and to be brave in devoting oneself to oneself. In the future advanced stage, that is, the Communist society, the communist morality will become the morality that the majority of social members consciously abide by, and its specific content will also develop and change with the development of society.

Communist morality embodies the social ideal of communism. It unifies the all-round free development of individuals with the free development of all people; at the same time, communist morality establishes moral ideals on the basis of scientific understanding of historical inevitability and connects its realization with the revolutionary practice of social transformation, it believes firmly in the inevitability of history and man’s creative ability, and believes that the realization of moral ideal and the perfection of human beings are possible, which reflects historical and moral optimism. Communist morality is the regular result of the historical progress of human morality. At the same time, it critically absorbs the excellent morality of the working people and the progressive class in history and the basic moral code of conduct formed by mankind for thousands of years. It is the most advanced and highest type of morality in human society. Communist morality embodies the fundamental interests of the proletariat, and is an important spiritual benchmark for the proletariat to unite the people and strive for the liberation of all mankind. In socialist society, it is an important task to promote and develop communist morality in the construction of socialist spiritual civilization.