社会主义本质是随着社会主义的产生和发展的实践进程而被逐步认识的。作为科学社会主义的创始人马克思、恩格斯没有提出社会主义本质的概念，他们及以后各国的马克思主义者都曾不断地从各个方面、各个角度试图揭示社会主义的本质。无产阶级战略家、理论家邓小平在社会主义思想史上首次提出了社会主义本质的概念，并科学地揭示了社会主义本质的基本内涵，发展了马克思主义的社会主义学说，在科学社会主义的理论和实践上作出了历史性的伟大贡献 The essence of socialism has been gradually recognized with the practice of the emergence and development of socialism. As the founder of scientific socialism, Marx and Engels did not put forward the concept of the essence of socialism, and Marxists in these countries and in various countries in the future tried to unveil the essence of socialism from all aspects and from all angles. Deng Xiaoping, the proletarian strategist and theorist, first proposed the concept of the essence of socialism in the history of the socialist ideology and scientifically revealed the basic connotation of the essence of socialism and developed Marxist theory of socialism. In the theory of scientific socialism and In practice, made a historic contribution