On the Questions of the Period of Transition From Capitalism to Socialism and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat

On the Questions of the Period of Transition From Capitalism to Socialism and the Dictatorship of the ProletariatGrappling with the questions of socialist construction in Korea and internationally, in this speech Kim Il Sung defines the definite role which both the period of transition from capitalism to socialism and the dictatorship of the proletariat play, stressing the need for identifying them as separate phenomena. While the transition from capitalism to socialism may be completed, if the imperialist threat persists, it would be unthinkable to abandon the

Grappling with the questions of socialist construction in Korea and internationally, in this speech Kim Il Sung defines the definite role which both the period of transition from capitalism to socialism and the dictatorship of the proletariat play, stressing the need for identifying them as separate phenomena. While the transition from capitalism to socialism may be completed, if the imperialist threat persists, it would be unthinkable to abandon the dictatorship of the proletariat, as the Soviet revisionists did during that period. Marx, and Lenin to a certain extent, could not foresee this circumstance and imagined that the most advanced countries would make revolution first and smash imperialism (as the most developed proletariat existed in those countries to make them the weakest links), in which circumstance the transition period and the dictatorship of the proletariat would more or less coincide. The original discovery that these two features of society are separate, while not mentioned by name, was made by J.V. Stalin, until the wheel of history was turned back by the 20th Congress of the CPSU. This key question of socialist construction is more or less summed up most succulently in this speech. Korean conditions especially, Kim Il Sung describes, newly emerging from backward feudalism, certainly did not allow for accomplishing even the full transition to (i.e. victory of) socialism; the productive forces needed to be developed to an advanced level under socialism and not capitalism; distinctions between countryside and town, mental and physical labour, etc. objectively still existed and would still exist for a very long time.