ABSTRACT
Society is largely based on the gens, as Engels calls it, which is exogamous in the sense that a woman must marry a man belonging to different gens. The old gentile society without classes is undermined and brought to fall by the most contemptible means: theft, violence, cunning, treason. In all cases, social changes are thought to be brought about by changes in the means of production. Only the immense increase of the productive forces attained through large-scale industry made it possible to distribute labour over all members of society without exception, and thereby to limit the labour time of each individual member to such an extent that all have enough free time left to take part in the general both theoretical and practical affairs of society. Marx and Engels recognized that the transition to Socialism could only be brought about by the efforts of the workers. Engels certainly reached this view independently of Marx, and possibly before Marx.
