no money, that is to say. In like manner, he will pay no money to society when he receives whatever he requires from the common store. A very different state of affairs prevails in socialist society, which is inevitable as an intermediate stage between capitalism and communism. Here money is needed, for it has a part to play in commodity economy. If I, as a bootmaker, need a coat, I change my wares, the boots that I make, into money. Money is a commodity by means of which I can procure any other commodity I may please, and by means of which in the given case I can procure the particular thing I want, namely a coat. Every producer of commodities acts in the same way. In socialist society, this commodity economy will to some extent persist.
Let us suppose that the resistance of the bourgeoisie has been overcome, and that those who formerly constituted the ruling class have now become workers. But the peasants still remain. They do not work for the general account of society. Every peasant will endeavour to sell his surplus product to the State, to exchange it for the industrial products he needs for his own use. The peasant will remain a producer of commodities. That he may settle accounts with his neighbours and with the State, he will still need money; just as the State will need money in order to settle accounts with all those members of society who have not yet become members of the general productive commune. Still more is it impossible to abolish money immediately, when private trade still continues to a considerable extent, and when the Soviet Power is not yet in a position to replace private trade entirely by socialist distribution. Finally, it would be disadvantageous to abolish money altogether so long as the issue of paper money is a substitute for taxation, so long as it helps the proletarian State to cope with the exceedingly difficult conditions now prevailing.
Socialism, however, is communism in course of construction; it is incomplete communism. In proportion as the work of upbuilding communism is successfully effected, the need for money will disappear.