Annotations on the Excerpt Translation of Tugarinov’s [1] “On the Composition [23] (Categories) of the Law of the Unity and Struggle of Opposites in Socialist Society” [(1) September 1964 — (Has it been eliminated? — Mao’s note) (2) (Has it developed? — Mao’s note) (3) Full of contradictions.
Over the past forty-seven years, a workers’ aristocracy and a peasants’ aristocracy—namely, two types of bourgeoisie in the urban and rural areas—have gradually emerged, oppressing and exploiting the working class and the peasantry, who constitute the vast majority of the population.
They pose as representatives of the workers and peasants to deceive them.
However, the broad masses of the working class and the peasantry—the poor and ordinary farmers—do not trust these groups and are engaged in sharp struggles against them in various forms.
The urban

and rural bourgeoisies, though both parts of the same bourgeoisie and jointly in power, are also locked in struggles over control and counter-control.
Even within the urban bourgeoisie itself, there is a division, leading to life-and-death conflicts.
Recent events are manifestations of these struggles.
Such situations are also widespread in our country, fraught with numerous contradictions.
Nevertheless, we are beginning to recognize them and are taking steps to resolve them. — Mao’s note) (4) (Nonsense — Mao’s note) (5) (Nonsense — Mao’s note) Printed from the manuscript.
Notes [1] Tugarinov was at that time a lecturer in the Department of Dialectical Materialism and Historical Materialism at Leningrad University in the Soviet Union. [2] This is Chapter Two of Tugarinov’s edited work, “The Characteristics of the Operation of Dialectical Laws During the Soviet Union’s Transition to Communism,” written by Tugarinov.
The book was published in 1963 by the publishing house of Leningrad University. [ ] All five of these annotations were written on an excerpt translation prepared by the Philosophy Section of the editorial department of the magazine Red Flag, submitted for review by Chen Boda, the editor-in-chief of Red Flag, based on Chapter Two authored by Tugarinov.
An important point in this chapter is that the path of development in a socialist society proceeds from opposition to differentiation, and from differentiation to unity and integration; the relationship between the working class and the peasantry is not one of contradiction but rather one of difference.
The excerpt states: “The relationship between the Soviet working class and peasantry, as well as that between town and countryside, serves as a vivid example of the second process (the transformation of opposition into differentiation). The elimination of the exploitative classes in both urban and rural areas, together with the development of the collective farm system, represent stages in this very transformation.
If, in the early years of Soviet power, the relationship between the working class and the peasantry still bore the character of non-antagonistic contradiction, then today their relationship can be described as one of difference (essential difference)—in other words, essentially non-contradictory.
Certain localized and temporary contradictions arising among the basic classes in our society do not provide grounds for characterizing their relations using the category of contradiction, even if it is non-antagonistic.”
This piece (1) was written immediately after the nine characters “the elimination of the exploitative classes in town and country”; (2) followed the nine characters “the development of the collective farm system”; and (3) came after the passage stating, “If, in the early years of Soviet power, the relationship between the working class and the peasantry still bore the character of non-antagonistic contradiction, then today their relationship can be described as one of difference (essential difference), that is, essentially non-contradictory.”
The excerpt further asserts: “The defining characteristic of the most important social relationships in the Soviet Union—those between classes, between town and country, and between mental and manual labor—is no longer contradiction (even non-antagonistic), but precisely difference.
Difference (rather than opposition) constitutes one of the principal social categories in Soviet society during its transition from socialism to communism.”
This piece (4) was placed immediately after the five characters “but precisely difference,” while (5) was written at the very end of that passage.