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Academician G. P. Frar.tsov
(\9Q~ ~ !969) was .1 leading Soviet
sci !nti~'. fr.rominent publi,,-, and
political tigure. talented writer
and a man of encyclopaedic
kno ..... ledge.
His research covered a broad
range of vibrant problems in
Marxist-Leninist science. history. philosophy, sociology and
-.cientific atheism.
l'ftilf)~f)phy and Sociology is a
summing up of O. P. Frantsov '
re .. earch into the history of social thought . Marxist-Leninist
philosophy and .. ociology,
In hi" lifetime. G P Frant\ov
wa.. Director of the Institute of

f Ilternational Relations. Rector

of the Academy of Social Sci
en ... e'l under the ('PSt' Central
Committee, anr . F " 'Ot i.,Chi'r ..........
of the journalReview,

G. p. FrantsOv's Philosoph"
and Sociology presents a broad
historical panorama of the
development of mankind's phi
losophical
and sociological
thinking over the centuries and
shows how fo"",,ardlooking social thin\..ers soughlthe answers
to the basic questions of social
progresS until these were pro
vided by Mar~ism.Leninism.
This is a profound and crea
tive philosophical and sociological analysis of the basic laws
of transit ion from capi talism to
socialism. of the socialist revolution. the construction of socialism and communism. and of
scientific. technical. spiritual
and moral progress.
ThIs is also a cri tical analysis
of the historical evolullon and
contempOrary state of bourgeQis
philosophical and sociological
thought.

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G. P. FRANTSOV
G, p, Frat
lind 56ciolof(
hislorieal p'
de\<elopment
10sophicaJ
thinkin, (we
sho"-s how
cial thinkers
10 the basic
progres\ unl
\<ided hy Mll
Thi~ is a
ti\<e philoso
aieal an3Jy~i
of tran~jtion
~ociaJi~m. 0
lution. lhe e
lism and c
,cicnlific, t
and moral p
Thl' i~ ai_
of the hl~to
eonlemporar
ptJilo\OphICa
thought.

and

1"'1nl

Prol>rcss Publ ishers. Moscow

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Translated from the Ru ssian by Y U RI SDOBNIKOV

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4lI1IlOC04lH1i H CO UHonO rJ1.s1

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CONTENTS

"t

. .. .. ' ... .. ....... .

Preface.
Introduction. History of Social Thought: Irs Messagt: ... .

. ........... .
........... .... ... .. . . ... .
"

Sectioll Ollt
SOCIAL THOUGHT SEEKS AND FINDS THE WA Y .................................

...

.... ...

..

......

... ...

~Tran\lal io n Into English, Progress Pu blishers 1915

Printtd in lite Union of SOI'iel Socialis l Republin

10500-270

OI4(Oi)--:tf' 73-16

,.

":n
"
37

49
49

"63
n

.."
97

lOtI
103
104

...
...
...

10'
11~

..

SUlioll Two
\o!ARX ISM.LENIN ISM: THE THEORY OF SOC IAL PROGRESS IN nil'
MODERN EPOCH . ......
... .."..... ....
Chapter O ne. Social Thinking In Ihe Ncl'o- Epoch,
Lenin'5 Wort.. on Ihe pwhle:ns of S<.:ientific Communi,m

21

,.. .

......

First pnnti ng 1915

II

21

Chapter One. How the Basic Question in Social Thought

Arose ............................................................................... . ............. ,

Social Thought in Antiquity .............................. .

Medieval Theories of the Social Process ......... .
Allempts to Produce a Social Theory and the Utopias
The Ideal of Progress ........................... .
Chapter Two. Harbingers of the Great Future ........ .
Eighteenth.Century Utopian Communi~ts
astmg
V"ISlono f L

Peace ......................... " .... . ..

Utopian Socialism in the Early 19th Century and the Idea of Social
Development , ............................ , ............ , .... ..
Ru ssian Revolutionary Democrats and the Problem of Social Deve
.. ..
topment ................................................... . ......
Chapter Three. Revolution in the H iSlory of SOC1al Thought
The Maleriali~1 World Outlook and Communism
Dialect ics and Scientific Com mu nism , ...... , .... .
The Key Sphere of Man's Activity.... .............. .. ..
The Source of Class Society'S Development ............ . .....
The Political O rganisation of the Working Class ..... .
The Way of Social Progress ............................ " ....... ..
Scientific Communism and its Struggle Against Utopianism .....
The Problem of the Future Society ........... .............. ..
The Idea of a World Revolutionary Process ...... . . ..
. ........
Marx and Our Day ........ .. .. ............... .

Pagt
7

"'

124
131

loll

lol~

1.).1

, .. ,10 men! of the New Social Fo rmaU on

P
d S'" otific and Tec hnical
h :!{}th Century an . ( I t
Soclal Re.,.olullOn In I e ~
Progrc \ \ '
The Role of the Massn in Hi~t ory

TwoSlage~lOlheD.

Theory of Suugglc In ~tcad of Admu'auon

_
APproa, h to Revolution: Proletarian and Pett y- Bourgeol ~

'04
210

211

....

...

21~

.....

..

222

Ch .. ptcr Four, Revolution. War and Pell ct

. ..
.
.....
. ...... . .
What Lenin Actually Said ahout Revolution and W1lr .................... .

Lcnin'\ Idea\ of StrUl!J!le for Peace .... .. . " " .. . ....... ......................... ,
I'rc\cnl- flay Soc ia1Thooght and the Proble m of War a nd Peace ... ., ... , .. ,'
C'ommuni \ m Is Peace and Friend ~ hlp among Nalion ~ .. '
., .. .
. .
Chapter Hve. Sl:ie ntifi c Communism and the Mod e rn Theory of Proilre s~ .,
Path of I'rogre ~~ for All Mankind
.................... .
Growing Producti vity of Labour - the Il;l \ i\ of S()(:ial Progre\\
... ..
l'rvgre\\ III the Organi ~ ahon of Socmll .ahour
The Edul: ation al Po wer of Example in Building the New Society _
l.enin '\ Idu \ ahout the Develo pme nt of C ommuniU LAbour
The Highroad of the Free S()l;iet y
The Way of Intellectual and Moral Pr08re\ \ ..

......

S,ar"n Thru
OIlSOI .En: IDEA S PERSIST

.....

..........

., ..

(lllOptcrOnc , 8ouf'Keoi \ Social Th ought Retrc;lt,

Thco rie \ of Unaba\hcd Reaction

llIe Emcrgcnce of Liberalism and It ~ Co nnection with Bourgeoi \

Soo:iolo8Y .
.
..
..
........... ,
( 'omlC', Sociology

.. .....
Spcno:u\ Sy~lem and Ili s Evolutionism
............ .............. ,
'Rehlrm,"' Against RcvOlution
. .. . . ..... .
Suhlcdr'I\m TriumJlhs 11\ Sociology

("1a"i~al Pll\llivis\ Scheme\ in Cri\i\

..

.. .............. .

..

...

....... ...... .. ......... .

..... ..... ...
,

Ch.\ptn

rllil'_ Hl\lory MarchesOn Despite Bourgeoi~ Theories

H,mier to Bourgeoi, So.:ial Thought
Anh '('ommUrIl\t \!ythology ._._ . ,._"

1'7
1114
198
198

,', Th hl.( and Revoluti onary Practice

Ch"pttr Two . Soual OU&"
, , of Spontaneou\ Moyemenh

Chapter Three _The O rigin of Rev olutions

,
DOf;;trine o f the Revolutionary Sllua[lon
The Fundamental Law of Revolution
Timeof Revolutionary Change

''''

., .

...

l'hr(lrllo: Ie of the Spiritual Impoveri\h menl of A ntj.Com m~'~;~~

C'harao: \cri'lic Fealure~of NeO. Libera1i~m _

.. ....
.. ..

.............
.... ::: ....

~'~tIC~I. (,(lncern, and Ihe SPiTIIUallmJ'Overhh~enlof \h~'~~~lvidual .

at dPp"n. tn Rourgelli\ l,lberal Slogans ..
....

228
229
232
242
2~4
2.~1I

'\9

'M

270
274

277
2M7
'90
J06

' 07
'07
'09

In
115

'"
320
' 22
32('

327

:ns
332

m
341

144

Chapter Th ree, Conceptions of Social S tagnation ..

l.o" of H istorical Perspective

34S
149

"Social Change" Instead of Progress ...............

.... ..
Bourgeois Co ncep tions of Civilisat ion and Culture
.
Revival of the "Cyclic Theory"
.,. ,..... .. .
. . .
Chance Instead of Objec ti ve Regu larit y ..... . _....
. . ..
"Economic Grow th" Theory: Ersatz Theory of Progress
Bourgeois Sociology: No Sol ution for Social Relations Problem

1~1

'"

'"

372

....

Conclusion. Soc ial Progress and Ideo logical Struggle. ..... .. .....
Trans ition from One Formation to Anothe r and Ideolog ical Struggle
Concerning Some Aspects o f the Prese nt Ideolog ical Struggle
The Impact of Ellsmple on the World H istorical Process ......
. ... .
Suhje(l l nde~
.,..
.. .. , . ............................
,,, .... .
Name lndell
., ............... ,. . . . . . . . . . . .

WI
391

'"

404

422

427

PREFACE
Georgy Frantsov (1903- (969) wa s a leading scientist who specialised in
philosoph~. history , scientific communism and sociology, an ardent
propagandI st of Marxism-Leninism. a prominent public figure and
political leader, a gifted journalist and a man of great erudition and
c harm. He was a man of encyclopaedic knowledge . With his broad
philo sophical and. si multaneously . Party approach to problems in social
development , he was able creatively to work on many key problem s of

historical materialism and sc ientific communism, and to produce a

profound c ritical a nalysis of pre se nt-day bourgeoi s sociological conceptions. In hi s life time . he helped many young scientists to start out on the
pat h of soc iological research and criticism of bourgeois sociological
conceptions. G. P. Frantsov* generously shared his knowledge , thoughts
and plan s with them . A man of great erudition him self . Frant sov sought
to fo ster in hi s stude nts a keen dedication to sc ience .
He was well known and respected as a public figure, an organiser of
scientific act ivity and training of personnel. He was Director of the
In stitute of Int ernational Relations . head of the Press Department of the
USSR Foreign Ministry , Rector of the Academy of Social Sciences
under the C PSU Central Committee, Editor-in-Chief of World Marxist
Review , and Deputy Director of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism
under the CPSU Central Committee, in all these posts revealing his
brilliant personality and kee n mind. Above all , G. P. Frant sov was a
fighter for the cause of Marxi sm-Leninism.
Hi s book s pamphlet s and articles constitute a large and valuable
scientific. literary and journalistic legacy, which in his li~etime
commanded muc h intere st among a large readership . The reaso n IS that
hi s writings were a blend of scientific and profound philosophical
Many of his works were published under various pseudonyms. indudin8 y, P.
Franl~v

and Yu. Franlsev.

analysis, and impassioned Communist Party spirit. for he t?ok a

militantly implacable stand on present-~ay r~actlO.nar~ ,bourgeoIs a~d

petty-bourgeois trends. We find thi s in hi,s capital SCientifiC work s a nd In

his articles for the periodical press. Co ncise and short the latter may well
have been, but they , too , were a blend of his scientific knowledge and
brilliant skill of a Party journalist .
The bulk of the book consists of hi s work, Tile Historical Path of
Social Thought. which was fir st published in 1965. The author himself
regarded it as summing up hi s re searc h into the hi sto ry of social thinking.
It presents a broad panorama of the dialectics of soc ial thought, closely
connected with the advance of hi story itse lf, and with the class struggle ,
which permeates the whole hi story of hum an society. In this book ,
Frantsov displayed his talent of philoso pher and historian, giving a
profound summary of the prehistory of scientific ideo logy, and showing
how progressive thinkers had probed their way to the truth , until the
fundamental turning point in its evolution when the founders of Marxi sm
gave scientific answers to the Questions the course of history itself had
posed .
The author show s the revolution in soc ial science carried out by the
founders of Marxism, and also the crisis of prese nt-day bourgeois
thinking, its reactionary and unscientific nature, its abandonment of the
scientific approach to the analysis of social progress, and its theoretical
impotence .
The sections of the book dealing with Lenin 's de velopment of the
Marxist doctrine contain a wealth of concrete facts and scientific
treatment of hi storical events. He shows the emergence of Leninism in
the struggle with ideological and political bourgeois and petty-bourgeois
trends, which were hostile to the cause of the working class and soc ial
progress as a whole. He show s very well the worldwide hi storical
importance of Leninism as the ideological banner of social progress
throughout the world , and the greatness of the world's first triumphant
soc ialist revolution , exploding the attempts by our ideologica1 adversarie s to minimise its importance and confine its experience to a regional
framework. He does this by giving a scientific analysis of the role of the
principal and universal regularities governing socialist revolution. He
also show s how the ideas of the October Revolution and its experience
~ave ~~en spreading across the globe and providing an inexhau stible and
hfe-glvmg source of revolutionary thought and action.
Th~ book. i.nc1udes . chapters on the historical importance of the
Marxlst-LefliOist doctnne and its role in the development of socialist
culture and ideological struggle.
G. ~. Frantsov gives a deep analysis of the development of the Marxist
doctnn~ and show s very well how Lenin organically combined
unbe~dmg lo~alty to the scientific principles of the founders of the
Marxist doctnne and a profoundly innovatory and creative approach.

together with boldness in generalising new phenomena and tendencies in

world social practice throughout history .
G. P. Frantsov 's articles on Marx and Lenin , the founders of
Marxism -Leninism, and the problems of scientific communism were
mostly written in the last few years of his life . Each of these is a
well-rounded work in itself, but all are connected by a single line of
thought which runs organically through them all. In these articles, G. P.
Frantsov put forward many ideas, which were theoretically novel and
practically important and which undoubtedly deserve further elaboration
as independent studies. Some of these articles are presented in abridged
form.
G. P. Frantsov was closely in touch with the practice of communist
construction, and these pages show him once again as a sc ient ist of great
intellect and theoretical boldness, and an impassioned fighter for the
communist cause.

INTRODUCTION

HISTORY OF SOCIAL THOUGHTITS MESSAGE

The world is peering ever more intently into the future. The
Programme of the CPSU has indicated the way along which the Soviet
people are advanci ng into it. Once again, this puts one in mind of what
Engels said in 1883: "Russia is the France of the present century. To her
belongs rightfully and lawfully the revolutionary initiative of a new
social reorganisation .... "I
The French revolution keynoted the end of the 18th and a large part of
the 19th century. including the period of the Paris Commune. The
French revolution paved the way into the future. Marxism was tempered
in the flames of the 1848 and 1871 revolutions. followed by the
emergence of the Social-Democratic parties. which gained much
experience in organ ising the working class. The early years of the 20th
century were marked by the emergence in the arena of world history of
the Leninist Party. wh ich gave a lead to the masses and made the
Russian proletariat-as Lenin had predicted at the beginning of the
century _ the vanguard of the international revolutionary movement. It
was its initiative that sparked off major transformations of society and
fresh advances in social thought.
Marx. Engels and Lenin atlached much importance to revolutionary
initiative and the power of example. Revolutionary initiative is highly
important in helping the new elements that have matured to defeat the
old in social development. Revolutionary initiative ha s helped to realise
the historical posl.ibilities thal have been comprehended and to blend
revoluti onary thought and revolutionary acts.
A new stage has now been reac hed in mankind's lo ng development and
in the history of soc ial thought. Marxism-Leninism has provided a
scient ific analysis of the prospects of social development and ac tivity by
masses of people in making a reality of the unfolding historical
possibilities.
1 Rtmillisctllct5 of Man:: (/lid CII/:cl5. Mo\cow. 19H. p. 20~.
II

:.J

do to translate into reality the potential of the historical process? The

answer is provided by the historical and materialist approach to social
phenomena.

That is something bourgeois theorists today refuse to accept and in a

chorus of discordant voices keep singing the old song: scientific analysis
of reality. they claim, rules out consideration of the future, which
remains a dim dream instead of being the object of scientific analysis.
This is one of the important issues in the ideological struggle today.
Bourgeois theorists cannot admit that the true theory of soc ial \
development is also a theory for the fundamental tran sformation
of society. tn the light of their class preconceptions, they have falsified
the history of social thought, aUeging that it comes to no more
than a succession of diverse subjective wishes and armchair ideas
and declaring war on any idea of a fundamental transformation of
society.
Bourgeois scientists have written many books about the history of
social thought but these have distorted the concept, giving it all sorts of
twisted readings. But what is the real meaning of this concept? It
includes trends in social thinking which seek to shed light on social
development and tackle social problems. Of course, the history of social
thought is closely bound up with the history of political thought, which
mainly brings out various questions bearing on the political organisation
of society, and also with philosophical trends. The main question
thinkers have tried to answer over the centuries was thaI of the origin and
essence of social and national oppression. That is a question social
thinkers have tried to answer from time immemorial. At first, the
answers were naive, for they were not based on science. As social
science developed more and more data were available for a sc ientific
answer that carried conviction. The true answer came only with
the emergence of the proletariat, the grave-digger of capitalism,
when history first posed the Question of whether the exploitative
system could be destroyed. Scientific communism has provided the
answer.
Bourgeois theori sts refuse to see the logic in the development of soc ial
thought and seek to distort its history in every way. They have done their )(
utmost to twist the idea of the past. th~"pr~_sent.-and the...1utyre. of the
working "'f5eople. 'I hey want the working-class movement to have no
'hisrc'-rlcal prospect and to deceive the working people into thinking that
they mu st be sati sfied with capitalism, reformed and refurbished,
because history allegedly offers no other alternative. To suggest the
contrary is to draw c harges of being a utopian. The reformists have
\. ,Eursed sc ientific communism and branded it as utopianism, denying the
)
pOSSibility of socialist revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat.
and fabricating out of various elements of capitalism their own "ideal
society" which continues to have private property in the means of

"

 ~-----------------------------

f
production and capitll:'ist. free ent~rprise. Their "socialism" is nothing but
an embellished capltah~m at Its I~st, monoP.Dly ~tage. Bourgeois
ideologists present the history of social thought In a hght that suggest
that ~hey have ~rovided scientific proof of a fe.formed capitaJism bein:

the fmal stage In the long development of society. They have tried to
present the history of social thought in such a w.ay as to suggest that

socialism. once a utopia, has never developed mto a science, these

allegedly ~ein~ ~'the t~o main streams" of s~cial thinkin~-the utopian
and the sCientifiC-with the latter not allowmg any consideration of the
future society.
Bourgeois ideology and capitalist soc iety , which have produced these
view.s, ~ow confron~ a mighty and developing soc iaJi ~t syste m of society
and Its Ideology , which corresponds to the new stage In mankind's social
progress. The struggle between these two opposite ideologies on various
aspects of social development is highly important, because it is a struggle
over the issue of mankind's future. Now that the majestic edifice of
communism, which is being built by the labour endeavour of minions of
m~n, is acql!iring e~er more d~stinct contours, bourgeois ideology is
bemg dealr Its heaviest blow smce the appearance of Marxism. The
re~ol~tionary ini~iative of the CPSU and the Soviet country, now
b~ll~mg commu~ls.m, have been exerting their transforming influence on
mllhons upon millions of men and women in the struggle for a better
futur~, f~r a ne~. world. It has had a regenerating effect on the whole of
mankmd s pohtlcal and spiritual life . Bourgeois views of social
dev~lop'me~t now appear to all honest-minded men in their true colours,
as vmd~catmg stag~ation and as urging regress.
<;on~lder the praises sung ~y bourgeois ideologists to militarisation,
which IS a product of t~e rottmg present-day capitali sm. These praises
~ow very well ~he ~eactlOnary nature of bourgeois ideology and the drag
?nop?ly dommatlon tends to exert on social development. Defence
are the most powerful client s ordering large consignments of
p
obsolesc.ent goods at high prices. This is a good business.
~~~aps nfver smce the period of feudal absolutist regimes have the
~~~=~~h: ~~~d su~h an important role in state machinery. Feudal
uniforms E r their vassals sl:lffocated in fancy gold-braid military
to the sta~d:;dl:~~~h slave-holdmg Rome, ~rmed. to the teeth, according
of history. However eaflg~f h~~ ~oped that Its. legions would stop the tide
down to its destructi
t IS IS merely a sign of the old system going
on.
Th e outcome of the com 1"
b
was ultimately decided in pe It~on . etween the new and the old system
ro
human activity. Indeed t: lucllon , the most important sphere of
advantage. Today the s~t I~ a so gave the new system its military
social system wh,'c'h h '",a"ho n has changed in the sense that the new
.
as se t e task of r ' .
sOCiety, has also established .
e .Im~nat~ng wars from the life of
Its supenonty m the military sphere,
14

thereby preventing the reactionaries from carrying the issue in the great
historical contest between the new and the old world onto the field of
bloody battles. The new system looks confidently to the future. well
aware that it will win out in peaceful competition. The idea of lasting
peace, also resulting from the long development of social thought, has
been winning ever more supporters and active fighters all over the world.
In the minds of masses of people this idea is being wedded to the ideas of
communism, which advances under the banner of peace and carries
peace to mankind.
Some of the more farsighted theorists in the West realise that the \i
prestige of capitalism has been. .Jummeting, while that of socialism has ~
oeen soaring. More and more intellectuals in the West have been
criticising capitalism, giving greater recognition to the forces of scientific
communism. What bourgeois theorists fear most of all is that in the
capitalist countries men cannot help thinking more and more about the
objectively possible future, about the need to work for the triumph of the
progressive tendencies carrying mankind forward. All of this means that
men have been ever more active in
a conscious attitude to social
reality. The
of a
assessment of the
itself. We find evidence of this in the whole
That is why
ideologists seek to prove that any assessment of
the prospects before social development has always been and will always
continue to be subjective and never a scientific conclusion based on a
profound analysis of historical tendencies. For roughly a century now,
bourgeois theorists have tried hard to prove that the ultimate goals of the
working-class struggle are not rooted in the objective course of social
development. These old objections to the Marxist theory of social
development are now being put forward in a somewhat refurbished
form, because the ultimate aims of the working-class struggle .have
become practical tasks in the activity of millions of working people m the
countries of the world socialist system. Indeed , bourgeois ideologists
have appealed to dialectics to back up their objections to th.e Marxist
theory of social development. Thus, Professor Georges GUfVltch of the
Sorbonne wrote a book about dialectics and sociology in which he urges
the need for applying the dialectical method if sociology is to develop
successfully. That would, of course, be fine, ~ut for the ~act t.hat
Professor Gurvitch takes a curious view of dialectics and the dialectical
method. He start s by extolling dialectics fpr its critical and revolutionary
character which makes it irreconcilable to any dogmas or preconceplions. B~t then he goes on to say that dialectics in sociolog>-: is
incompatible with any idea of progress. However , fo~ MarXism
dialectics continues to be the line of man's ascent to a radiant future.
Marx's dialectics is a triumphant march through revolution towards a
,<

I(

.'
. f all servitude and reconciled with it~elf.' ~rofessor
humamty fmal~Y ntr Oct invented a special term for ,the dl3iechcs which
Gurvitch has. In e e H'
ails it the "dialectique ascendante". the

he cannot accept.... e c

"as~endant diale~~lcs ~odern "critics" of Marx. Professor Gurvitch

y
Like mahn ?M:~X'S 'historical diale~tics' tends to cover up a
~ec.lares ~ 3!C history' and serves to' confound the reality of. history,
eEI19~O.P Yh - 7or historicaT Knowledge) and an eschatologIcal and

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hlstonograp
. ., ,4 H e a dd s th at th e M arxis
. t th eonst
.
.
. Yf ~the future of society
utopian view 0
.
d' I . h' h'
h
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nkind's future even "Without 13 echcs W Ie IS W Y
IS aware 0 rna
"
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. II
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Marx's "historical dialectics" becomes ~~gmat lc "-, _e_~eJ.La. e,ge y
. of the human destmy. Gurvllch also claims that
.. becomes "the apology for the second phase of commu
. m" I have quoted these assertions at so me length because they appe
~~Sto be typical of mode!"n bourgeois soc~ologi st~ ~ho have.been putting
u a stubborn fight in face of the MarxlstLemmst offensive along the
!ttole front of the social sciences.
Bourgeois theorists refuse to accept the incontestable fact that a great
revolution in social thought took place a century ago. They refuse to be
reconciled with the fact that sociali sm has ceased to be a utopia and ha$
become a science, and that scientific communism has emerged and is
developing. The various forms of neopositivism, including ~urvitc h 's
"dialectical empiricism", seek to assure men that the questIOn of the 'v
direction the historical process is to take allegedly lies outside .the /'
framework of science. Neopositivism denies socio logy any philosophical
content and any connection between sociologicaJ theories and
philosophical doctrines. But to deny human thought the right to make
generalisations about the development of social life is to kill social
thought itself, to deny it any future and to scrap its past.
It took centuries of efforts to produce a generalised picture of the
development of social life, these efforts being naive, weak and utopian
so long as the working people's class struggle against the exploiters was
being carried on at a low level. These attempts were idealistic and
metaphysical until the emergence of revolutionary materialist dialectics,
the weapon of the working class whose historic mission is to transform
the wor.ld. This weapon has b~en sharpened in class battles. It is b~ing \..
used with great skill today In the working people's st ruggle agam st)\
capital and in their construction of the new life .
. Today dialectical m~terialism ousts bourgeois neopositivist concep'
hons everywhere, deahng them shattering blows. Some soc iologists who
have criticised the "ascendant dialectics" inevitably ended up by denying
1 G. Gurvilch, Dialtctiqllt et .sociolagie, Paris. 1962, p. ISS.
~ Ibid., p. 149.
, Ibid .. p. 149.

"

the very idea of development, assuming that the dialectics of the ascent
from the lower forms to the higher in the history of society could not
possibly serve as a basis for a scientific theory of society.
From that standpoint, the history of social thought is a history of the
gradual oblivion of the surges towards a radiant future, with these surges
being replaced by positivist "scientific" formulas, which put a ban even
on thinking about fundamental social change. Such is the bourgeois
caricature of the history of social thought. Such is the bourgeois
distortion of the role of social thought in the history of mankind's
struggle for emancipation.
)
However, when social science ceases to shape men's convictions and
their motivations for activity for the sake of progress, it begins to serve
reaction, whatever its advocates may say concerning their claims to
"objectivity", and the separation of "science" and " ideology". Of this
some of the modern scientists in the West, who are not in any sense
Marxists, are also aware.
Professor Alvin Gou ldner , who delivered the report at the annual
meeting of the Society for the Study of Social Problems in the USA,
sharply attacked the fundamental tenets of the leading US soci~log~ sts
who claim that it is not their business to assess the facts of SOCial hfe, ) I
and who try to release the concept of sociology from value judgements
so as to make sociologists indifferent to the moral conclusions suggested
by their work. Professor Gouldner also attacked various objectivist
claims which, he believed, sprang from the huckstering that determined
the sociologist's status in this world , forcing him to supply ideologically
neutral and purely technical studies wh~ch could be offere~ to. any
prospective buyer. Gouldner gave a remmder th.at before HlToshlm.a.
physicists likewise claimed to be "neutral" with respect t? SOCial
phenomena. Today, he added, many physicists are ~ot as c?~vmced of
this. Gou ldner held that concentration on the techmcal traml~g of US
student s and the elimination of any responsibility for their ethical sense
or lack of it could produce a generation eager to serve a future
Auschwitz (Oswiec im) . That was an excellent w.arnin~ to those who take ~
the neopositivist view of social science . A SOCial sC ience t~al does n~t
serve the great cause of social
ceases to be a SCience, for It
abandons the
.
of
men
stake and
' . of
"science", said Professor Gouldner, can be no more than a checkhst of
technical ru les.
. .
However Professor Gouldner failed to show the true an.d objective
connectioQ 'between human ideals and ~he dialectics ?f SO~lal develoPj
men!. Whereas Professor Gurvitch inSists. that the dialectics of socla
r
development should make do without Ideals. Pr~fesso.r G~uldn.e I
considers various ideals outside the context of the dialectics 0 SOCI3
development. But what is the real answer?

."

,-

-L

,
,
'",

h"

dO'

,,'
!hi
'h,

em

,'"0

vid

liv,
gic.

,r

-' ~------------~~-----

There can be no depth to men's conscious attitude to the'

environment without a scientific knowledge ,of the facts. but this can ~r
obtained only by connecting the f~cts to ~lscover th,e ~egularities an~
trends of development. Any conscIoUS. at,h,tude to eXlstmg reality Tests
on a scientific cognition ~f t~~ poten~l~htles, pr?spects and trends of
historical development: SCientifiC cogmtlon e,stabhshes .th~ potentialities
lalent in historica1 reahty and consequently gives a reahstlc definition of
the potential possi~ilities in men 's histo.ri~al acti:,ity.
The Jess scientific the method of cogmsmg reahty. the less clearly are 'V
the real possibilities for massive historical action brought out. In the ~
period when soc ial thought was still forced to make do with a vague
utopia, it was unable to determine how precisely the masses were to act.
Sc ientific commu nism showed the working people the real path of
struggle.
Many social scientists in the West have been confused by the
following "argument" in defence of the neopo sitivist, empirical approach
to the study of social phenomena. Men in the West are taught at school
tha~ social theo~y should never allow a~y confusion between two types
of Judgement: Judgement about the eXistence of facts and jUdgement )
~bout their value .. Science, they are told, must operate only with
Judgement of ~he first type, for evaluation of the facts is a matter of
'persona! convictions, _which are subjective, andtfierefore arbitrary . .X
Evaluat~~ns are b~st. Jeft to "i?~ology", because they belong to ethical
and pohtlcal convictions, to VISions and utopias.
Th,~ .stat~ment that "so man.y per cent of the population in society are
poor IS a Jud~em~nt concermng the existence of a fact. But can social
thought confme Itself to stating the existence of such a social
ph~nomenon? ~oes it not require the working out of a science-based
att~tude on. ma~ s p.art to the existence of such a phenomenon? These
attitudes :-VIII differ 10 depth depending on the level of the class struggle.
Only. a high level of social dev~lop.~ent and ~he class struggle helps to
provide a .truly 'p~ofound and SCientific analYSIS of this phenomenon and
to. s~ow. ItS. ongms a.nd trend of development, and the possibility of
ehml~atmg It dependmg ?n certain conditions. In a naive fo rm these
q.~.est]on~ were ~lso considered by social thought even in the prescien~t IC .penod. of ItS development, when it was dominated by various
?pl.an projects. But even then social thought developed on the basis of
~xlst~ng . knowledge, however inadequate leaving much room for
Imagmatlon
'
.
a~ d
.mv~ntlon.
At the time , hi' story was yet to pose the
~~::t~~ho:h:I::I~~mg poverty in t~e wo~ld, for the force that could
social life itself a d t~S yetdto emerge m society. The embryonic state of
level of social th~ k. e lOa .equacy?f k~~wledge about it determined the
Wh
m 109 at Its presclentJflc stage
en we say that capitalism mu t .
.
the necessity for social d I s gl~e w~y to socialism we express
eve opment~ a hlstor~cal regularity that has been

18

-.

well established. At the same time, we determine, on the strength of this,

our duty, the .duty of the working class and of all the forward-looking
forces. That IS the way the notion of ultimate aim in the struggle is
formed and the possibility of the working class taking historical action
determined.
The class stand of the person concerned may either hamper or help
him to gain a knowledge of social phenomena and their objective
connections. That is the most important aspect of the Marxist-Leninist
doctrine of the Party approach to social science. However, for that )
reason the phenomena and their connections do not become subjective,
for they exist outside the cognising subject. Indeed, his social stand it self
is ultimately a phenomenon determined by objective condition s and not
merely a result of his subjective preferences, arbitrary approach or play
of the imagination.
To return to the question of moral values, let us add that moral duty
and moral inducement to activity can be fuJly developed only when man
comes to comprehend existing reality. Among modern Marxist theorists who have written on the subject, it
was Antonio Gramsci who attached special importance to massive
understanding of the need for the historical process. He wrote: "The
scientific base for a morality of historical materialism is to be looked for,
in my opinion, in the affirmation that 'society does not pose for itself )
tasks the conditions for whose resolution do not already exist'. Where
these conditions exist the 'solution of the tasks becomes "duty", "will"
becomes free'." Morality would then become a "search for the
conditions necessary for the freedom of the will in a certain sense, aimed
at a certain end, and the demonstration that these conditio.ns exist".6 T,hat
is, indeed, one of the key tasks of so"i.\
to
these individuals
Man comes to
must seek, which tasks are
by the
stage of social development sets before him. ,
sion the firmer his convictions and the
. .
ince~tives. the more effective his
.. .
by
I I
science, the scientific theory of social development. Therei.n li~s the
strength of the Marxist-Leninist parties, which formulate their SC lencebased policies, the demands and the tendenc~e~ of .social dev~lopment.
and mobilise the masses for historical activity iO the fulfilment of
urgent tasks.
. , .
..
\"'
h
The Marxist-Leninist parttes SClence-based political lOe. IS now t e
highroad for massive activity and development .o~ socml th?ught.
Utopianism has been left to the reactionaries. and It IS the theOrists of
6 Antonio
"

Gr:lm~ci. St"/(di(lIiS from ,h.. Pris~m N(l,..h~)(lk~. Ncl' Yor". 1973. pp

409- HI

'"

imperialism who tend to produce more and more reactionary utopias .

Where utopianism has penetrated the mind s of work ing peop le chiefly
under the influence of petty-bourgeois trend s in social th ought. it
hampers the advance of the masses in the pre sent-day ideological
struggle. The invasion of social science by reactionary utopianism kills
its probing scientific thought. Science is also ruined by un inspired
empiricism which is essentially an attempt to retur~ ''Qcia l thought to
stages it had passed long ago. a period in which sCience was'still unable
to shape man's convictions concerning his social environme nt.
The following pages deal with some of the basic aspects in the
formation of social thought. its development from utopia to sC ience, and
the development of Marxist-Leninist science into a great force in the
re volutionary transformation of reality on communist lines .

Section One
SOCIAL THOUGHT SEEKS
AND FINDS THE WAY

Chapter Olle

HOW THE BASIC QUESTION

IN SOCIAL THOUGHT AROSE

Bourgeois sociologists today are inclined to start th eir account of the

origins of social thought in almost any imaginable manner: by relating the
myths of man's origin; the early guesswork about the origination of the
power of kings. and so on. But they always avoid putting the question of )
great philosophical importance about how men came to realise that their
social state was not someth ing eternal and immutable, inexorably
foreordained by nature.
That is the very idea Marx stressed with remarkable profundity and
brilliance when analysing the spiritual world of the ancient rural
communities. He wrote: " ... they subjugated man to external circumstance~~ in~lcad of elevating man to be the sovereign of circumstances, that they transformed a self-developing social state into never
changing natural destiny.'"
There we find the essence of various mythological and religious
conceptions in antiquity relating to men's social life. Strictly speaking.
when applied to social phenomena the myth does not explain anything
but merely transfers this or that phenomenon to hoary antiquity and
ascribes its emergence to the will of the gods. Only a few of the features
of any myth providing the framework for its basic anaemic idea bear the
marks of the power of human obse rvat ion, and the features of historical
epochs and social relations. The answer a ny sc ientific history of social
thought must provide is where and when these religious conceptions,
fettering man's mind, were broken. Mankind's release from the harmful
preconception that it s social state is a foreordained natural destiny-that is onc of the great achievements of awakened soc ial
thought.
Religious legends sanct ified and gave religious ~a~ction to exi~t!ng
social relations and consequently recognised the eXlstmg order a ... bemg
immutable .
1 K. Marx and F. Engels, Selected Worl.;s. in three
pp. 492-93.

volume~,

Vol. I,

Mo~.:ow,

1"1''-'.

The earliest attempt s to explain the origins o~ in equality. as th e Soviet

ethnographer L. Y. Sternberg has shown, were connect ed
th
WI t
re r'
IglOUS 1'dl
eo ogy.ln the period in which the primitive communal soc'
disintegrates. men first developed the notion of inequality and of
y
as resulling from a special "benevolence of the gods": good fortun ~s
by, the, gods on their favourites. Sternberg called this
dlvme election Ideas" co~plex .. which was largely stimulated by the
fa~t that the emergent nch elite performed the functions of th
priesthood and had a direct bearing on the cult and the realm of the
supernatural. But this question inevitably arises: how and when does th,e
group of ideas begin to disintegrate, how and when do men cease ;s
as a fate foreordained by the gods? That is th e ke a
question In the history of social thought.
y
In his, L~ctu,res 011 the Hist?,)' of P/ti/osoplly. Hegel correctly pointed
to the distinctIOn between ~hdosophy and religion which lay in the fa ct
that truth needs lO be cogmsed. ~hereas for religion it is already given.
although we do n~t know where It comes from , so that it only remain s
for man to accept Its truths in all humility, Reference to the will of God
and t? Divine Prov,idence amounts to no more than an unfounded
~s~e:rtl_on that_ the_~.!l.iples,. of sociaUife. are primordia I and that their
~ngms cannot be explained, It is impossible to eliminate the contradiclion ~etween b~ind faith and knowledge from the history of human
conSCiOusness. Just as from the history of social thought.
Let us also recall this idea of Marx's about another obstacle which
emergent social thought met on its way and which it subsequently
overcame, Marx wrote that in antagonistic class society "the soc ial
power .. , appears to these individuals, since their c.a::opera.!iQ.n.ls not
, voluntary bU,t has come about naturally, not as their own united power.
6ut, as an allen force existing outside them, of the origin and goat of
which they are ignorant...".3
Wi~h the emergence of class society the notion of social force assumed
the ,d~storted form of notion of power, of domination by the exploiters,
ReligIOUS legen~s were told about the origins of this power, deifying the
opp,ressors and Investing them with supernatural antecedents. The great
achievement of h~man thoug~t in the process of social development
w:,) the destructiOn oLJbe Ide.a. .that ...the_SQciaL ioLce was a kind
ih-- supernatural.'power standing over and above men and oppressing
em.
Ex~mination of the historical facts also allows us to consider the time
at which the science of society emerged, Indeed, today . we have detailed

~e~t~wed

ri~~
~~!

regar~ oP'pressio~

jf

studies of the eady stages in the emergence of the science of nature. It I'>
well known that natural science and materialistic philosophy aro!te in a
~ingle process. Following the initial period in which empirical knowledge
about nature was being accumulated came a period in Ancient Greece.
China and India. in which the first sc ientific philosophical theories were
propounded, including the atomic theory. which had a great future
before it. But how are we to determine the date at which the sc ience of
society emerged? This question has been extremely confused by
bourgeois theorists who. as I have said. have sought to find the origins of
~cientific knowledge about society in religious views. in mythology and
in mysticism.
The prominent 19th-century historian and ethnographer. Heinrich
Schurtz. wrote the following about the development of primitive culture:
"The odds with the demands of society at which one's ego frequently
finds itself makes one think and. however frequently ossified custom
may be taken as something immutable. however frequently the seq uence
of logical thought may have broken off to be replaced by some myth or
fable lulling the strident question of the caus_es. m~nkind nevertheless
entered OpOIl lite -path whlchwilTUftiiTlately carry it to self-awareness.
There i" a growing understanding of the difference between the
immutable taws of nature and the transient customs and usages of
men ," 4 There is here one erroneouS assumption: like all other social
conflicts. the conflict between the individual and society sprang only in
the period when class society was taking shape, The primitive communal
soc iety had no such conflicts. Engels compared life in primitive
communal society and in class slave-holding society and stressed:
"There the mode of production of the means of subsistence. which. year
in and year out. remained unchanged. could never give rise to such
conflicts. imposed from without. as it were: to antagonis'!' .betwee~ rich
and poor. between exploiters and explo ited." ~ With the dLsllltegratlonof
communal relations under which the way of life remained unchanged,
man's attitude to his social being tended to change with the developme,nt
of class differentiation and the class struggle. Life posed before ~Lm
more and more questions, A number of ancient hterary ,memo nals
describe the break up of communal relations. the rupture of tnb~1 bon? ....
the crisis of patriarchal morality and the emergence of an order III whLch
some men plundered others. when violence reig~ed everywhere. an.d
when so me were aU-powerful and others without ng~t~. How~ver.' these
changes were accepted as divine punishment. as dlvl~e retributIOn.
Nor is Schurtz right in saying that the history of soeml thOug~t be~~n
cal
with the contrast between the immutability of nature and the hl,>IOfi
L';" OIl \Vien PH~. S h.l9_
4 Heinrich SchurU. Urgufhit-htt dtr ku Ill".
hCIPZoe U
lume
\"01' \k~,,;O". i'rn.
~ K. Marx and F. Engeb. Sdt{lt'd Work s. In t Tee ,.t)
~,
. _.
. I

, I~~.~~. ~. Slernberg. Primith'C Religio n in 'he Light 0/ Ethllog,aphy. Leningrad, 1936.

rro.. e al~o Ihe Journal Ethnography. 1927 , No.1 (in Russian),
K \1arx and F, Engels. The German IdtOlogy . Moscow. 1964 . p. 46.

"

p. :!78

mutability of men's life. Actually, the process fan a different course.

The (act is that both natural and social phenomena ceased to appear to
men as being immutable a nd as being subject only to the arbitrary act s o f
some s upe rnatura l force, some fate o r the gods.
..
Science stems from scattered knowledge. But as this IS accumulated it
is arranged in a system in accord a nc.. wjth ~he aspech of objective social
' life and the regularitieS-they express. This gives rise to the individual
"soc ia l disciplines. Generalisation o f all the concrete socia l sciences is
co ntained in hi storical materialism which means an application of the
pri nciples of dialectical materialism to soc ial phenomena.
However, it does not mean that th ere were no in itial attempts to
generalise this inadequate soc ia l knowledge. Very early on, knowledge
ran into conflict with blind faith.
At the early stages of slave-holding society , the socia l a nd political
orders were declared to be an extension of th e order establi s hed by
nature and the gods. Th ey it was who had appointed the rulers to rule.
just as they had created plant s, animals and the whole world. They too
were to blame that people on the earth were divided into the h appy rich
and the unhappy poor. That was the overriding idea th at the order
es tab li shed by Divine Pro v idence was immutable. Any violation of this
order by men was considered to be a sin , which was frequently regarded
as being the result of intervention by ev il s upe rnatura l fo rces. It is wrong
to regard th ese notion s as the starting point for the development of social
thought , as the idealists insist. On th e contrary, social thought has its
beginning in the overthrow of this soc ial theolog ical dogma.
Spontaneou s materialism developed in slave-holding soc ie t y and dealt
a blow at these rigid religio u s notions. In a naive form, it asserted that
there was no divine will in the world, eith e r in nature o r in soc iety. The
world developed in accordance with its own law s. Men had to s h ed their
fear of divine power a nd the so-called world to come. "So ngs of the
Ha rpi st", a text popular in Ancient Egypt, urged that men s h ould arrange
their affairs on earth. Similar ideas were developed in Ancient China,
India a nd then in Greece. The idea was gradually shaped in men's mind s
about a common regularity which operated in nature, soc iety a nd all over
the. world. In Ancient Greece , thi s was des ign ated as Logos. O n that
bas~s, men hazarded all kinds of guesses about th e origination of various
socia l ph~nomena and institutions, and thi s pa ved the way for th e
accumulatIOn of more knowledge a bout soc ial rel a ti o n s.
Heracl itu s a ppeared to be close to discovering th e idea that the
struggle of oppo~ites reigned not only in nature but also in soc iety. So me
remarkable conjectures a bout the origin s of so me social phen omena
we~e hazarded by Democritus. Lu c retiu s. taking his ideas from
Eplc uru s, essayed a hi story of soc ial development. Th ere is n o doubt at
all that ~II. of these were the beginnings of the sc ie nce of society,
emb ryonic Ideas evaluating socia l phenomena. All these thinkers so ught

"

to purge ethic'l f~om the influence of faith in the supernatural and

In'llsted that the will of the gods had nothing to do with the standards of
human behaviour.
However, sp~ntaneous materialism _did not consider the relationship
between conscIOusness an.d heiDi, tor It assumed its-materialistic
r
principles to be given. But without an answer to this question it was
I
impossible to understand men's conscious activity, and consequently the
development of society. Once the question of the relationship between
consciousness and being was posed, the thinkers of the ancient world
saw the world as being sp lit into the s iritual and the material. into the
celestial and the terrestrial.
at came to pre val was e idealistic
explanation of human activity, the habit of starting from consc iousness )
in order to explain the "works of the hands", as the Egyptian priests
put it .
However, it would be wrong to assume that knowledge of soc ial
reta~ons, phenomena and processes disappeared or that it was no longer
being accumulated. The idealistic approach hampered the correct
generalisation of this knowledge but could not eliminate it. Life set
befOre man more and more questions as the class struggle developed and
life itself gained in complexity.
Social thought is not in any sense rooted in the "supersensual", which
is the sp here of faith, but in practice. in the social life of men. This does /
not cont radict the fact that initially social thought was unable firmly to
rely on sc ience, to give a scientific prospect for social development and
largely had to deal in fantasy and utopia.
.
Bourgeois philosophers and sociologists have been unable to expla.1D
the prescientific and the scientific stages in the development of SOCial
thought, preferring to consider two forms. instead of two stages. of
social thought. which they metaphysically separate from each other: T~e
fir st , pre sc ientific form is frequently designated as "ideology. ': .ID
co ntrast to sc ientific knowledge. a division which rests on the POSltIVI~t
contrast of philosophical thought and empirical kno,,:,ledge. From thiS
standpoint, philosophy is not a generalisation of available knowle~ge.
but something extraneous to this k~owl~dge. !he actual r~latlOn
ship between social thought and social sCience IS a totally different

on~efo re a ny truly scie ntific theory of social development evolved. men

the less
still st rove to comprehend soc ial
I
had
more
.
ana,
.
The history of social thought. that is. the hl stor~ of men. s. conhsclo~~
d th 'r own soc ial condition as Its
attitud e to social phenomena ~n
el. I .
wh'ch they initially
beginning in their struggle agamst the e:,p olters,
I
Th's struggle
carried on inst.inctiv.el~ a!,d with verybhttle t~;:~~;~s~~ciall condition
_.
inev it ably carnes wlthm Itself doubt a out

,-

having always existed. This inevitably made men th~nk about whether it
\o,-o uld la st forever. Consequently. the very, assum~tlon of the po ssibility )
(If soc ial c ha nge is of tremendou s revolutionary Importan ce.
On the one ha nd . such an assumption was impossible without marked
cha nges in men's soc ial being. c hanges which wou ld i?lpel me~ to think
along these lines. When the struggle of the exploited against their
explo iters is in it s ea rl y stages. it is spon taneous and involve s no mOre
than an emb ryon ic awareness. On th e ot he r hand. in that period social
science itself was embryo nic and was st ill unable to be of effective
ass ista nce in that struggle . The de velo pm e nt of social sc ience implie s a
relatively high level of social development and class struggle. and the
emergence of soc ial for ces with a stake in scien tifi c knowledge about
soc iety so as to establish the prospec ts and trend s o f its dev e lopment.
Il is wrong to assume that th e growth of sc ientific kn owledge about
soc ia l phenomena and the development of the class struggle are two
unrelated processes, Actually. the growth of th e class struggle poses the
most important question s in soc ial thinking, At fir st. social thinkers try
to answer these questions merel y on the basis of their fragment ary
knowledge and obse rvation . using their imagination to fill in the
gap.
Hi stori cally speak ing. the idea of a se lfdeveloping social state in
contrast to the age-old notions of it s foreordainment by nature. fate or
the gods did not. of course. a ri se in the abst ract form of "social state in
!!encral". In ant iquit y, men's first conce rn was to decide their attitude to
that soc ial stat e. but recently inaugurated. in virtu e of which some were
plunged into the bestial life of slaves while o th ers wallowed in riches and
lu'(ury . Some in sisted that this o rd er had been o rd a ined by the god s. and
other') claimed it to be the handiwork of nature it se lf , both being no more
than ref~renc~s to a di vine will or a fa ta l predestinati o n by nature .
Indeed. If SOCial thought had bee n sa tisfied with that kind of answer it
would have remained in the cradle for all tim e, However. soc ial thought
was powcr~ully stimulated by life with it s socia l cataclysms, th e
transformatIOn of free men into slaves, the ruin a nd destruction of some
men and the triumph of others, who amassed vast wealth, Social life did
not ~evelop as a re sult of some accident al falling away of scales from
men s eyes. but as a re sult of class battles flaring up in soc iety acrosS its
hl .. tory .

SOCIAL THOUGHT IN ANTIQUITY

Providence c e w~r d ~y the gods and th e existence of any divine

-Ihought I ~ reate ~n.lmportant prerequisite for the advance of social
.
matenahst'i of Ancient Greece he lp ed t o destroy the
"

religious notions of nature and had some brilliant insights about

development and change in human life.
The thinkers of antiquity tried to explain social phenomena on the
strength of their naive materialist conceptions according to which the
social order had not been created by the gods and that social phenomena )('
were not ruled by supernatural forces. Blind faith was being pushed
into the background and the field cleared for the activity of social
science. But that is as far as the social thinkers of antiquity ever
went.
The idea that social change was possible in contrast to the idea of
soc ial immobility implied this question: were the relations of lord and
master. oppression and slavery in the human community everlasting?
That is a key question that the social thinkers of antiqu it y did not pose,
because the real
'
in which such questions are posed w_er~_ ye~
to develop,
'
o(slavery alSoprov ide-d-the fou-ndation for all
1he social theories developed in antiquity. including utopian dreams of a
better society.
The transition from primitive communal society to slavery was the
most powerful socia l upheaval in the lifetime of s~ve ral generations, in
ancient society. The great swing from preclass society to siave-holdlllg
society left a deep and peculiar mark on the minds of masses of men and
.
._
"
on their legends and traditions,
That is the period which produced the fairy tale of a golden age
allegedly lying somewhere in the hoary past. The legend abou.' ~ happy
life having existed on the Earth some time in the ,past before gIVIng way
to the fierce realm of evil and violence is a refleCtion, of the em~rge.nce of
slave-holding society, where antagonistic cl,asses first arose In history,
That was perhaps the first dim notion of SOCial ~hange: The myths o,f th.e
primitive communal society bear no companson With these noh?n~.
although one must admit t at even the m ths ~~.~~ <!. recor~. oj reahstl~
observations a '?':I~. ~!..n:~_.s~cial re allons... ut these myths explained
through the medium of faith in supernatural forces the emergence of
var iou s social institutions. etc, The new legends were,an attempt ~y ~en
to contrast two major stages in the history of society-the pnmltlve
communal system and the slave-holding system-Ill an effort to
comprehend and evaluate the transition from the one stage to the othe,r
Those who had fallen into slavery were nostalgic,ov~r the 'it ate of m~~~n )
the tribal system that had gone for ever. When thlllking of the future
Y
had visions of nothing but the past.
J'f f men
The legend of the "golden age" suggested that the happy Ih' 0. th
.
had been lost somew ere In e
was either a thing of very distant past or.
a
some 10rtunate
boundless exp~l}~s _Qf _~h~ land or tbe se;: cePthen the way to that
traveller had"o nce stumbled on by cha~ce. k III
in antiquity and the
country had been lost. Such legends \\-ere nown
"1iddle Ages.

iiac'e

ucvelopmenl and was concerned only with his logical scheme. His idea
of the ev~rlasting. "division of labour" between men was designed merely
to estabhsh that In any future society inequality of social status and the
social functions performed by men would remain. Indeed. the more one
considers Plato's conception. the clearer it becomes that it did not
contain even in embryonic form any idea of a se lf-developing soc ial
state. On the contrary. his conception was designed to back up the idea
that slavery as a social state had been predestined by nature itself. a state
which Plato transferred into the future society in a slightly modified
form. S~vie~ sc ientists. i~ their polemics with advocates of the patently
bourgeOIs View of Plato s theory, have long since established that his
utopian views tend to restore the social relations which by the early 6th
cent ury B. C. had already worked themselves out and which had been
characteristic of early Greek history. Other Greek thinkers likewise
pro~o sed a caste stru ct ure (or the ideal soc iety , being inspired by the
social order at the early stages in the development of slave-holding )(
society in the Ancient East. They did not look to the future, but to the
past, to a re-establishment of this or that order which had gone down in
history. Having failed to decide on the ultimate destiny of exploitation,
soc ial thinkers in that period lost their bearings and became superficial.
so being condemned in one way or another to provide an apology for the
existing state of things.
It is true that Aristotle (384-322 B. C.). who discerned a general
regularity in the tran sition of the peoples from family life to urban life
and then on to the establishment of big states. inquired into whether the
establishment of s lavery had not done violence to nature. The question
itself was an indication of the awakening of social thought. But having
taken this timid step. it began to mark time. Aristotle's answer was
unequivoca l: some were born to rule and others to be ruled. and this was
necessary and usefu!' because some were destined by birth to subm it and
ot hers to dominate. It is a curious fact that the US sociologists
H . E. Barnes and H. Becker comment on Aristotle's idea as follows:
"There can be no doubt that Aristotle was much nearer the truth than
ce rtain democratic writers of later days, particularly those of the
eighteenth centu ry and after. who discoursed about the natura l biological
equalit y o f all men.', 7 Indeed , the s lave-owners of ollr day appear to be
see king support among the slave-owners of antiquity.
The most striking insight into the history of society will be found in the
writings of Titus Lucretius Carus (99-55 8. C.) one of the great
materialists of antiquity. His poem. De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of
Things). g ives a picture of the change in men's lives from a state of
barbarity to the beginnings of culture and men's domination of the force:-.
7 H . E , 8,"
s , d H . .B""'M.
So,al
Thol,ollf
from Lori to
re."n
..... ,
~
'"
Wa\hington, t952. p. 189.

'"

Sdclll"~.

\'01. 1.

"

"

of nature. Here we find the beginnings of scientific knowledge of Ihe

history of society and an in<;ight into the idea of dcvcloJllllcnt . of a~cenl
from the lower forms of soci~11ife to the higher. The "golden age" legend
gives way 10 a true picture of the hard and barren lifc primiti ve men had
actually led. But that was only onc aspect of the matter.
Lucretius was delighted with mankind's successes in its ascent from
the state of barbarity to ancient civilisation. and had none of the doubts
which Rousseau subsequently expressed about men having lost their
precious equality of the primitive period by entering the epoch of

rehgIO~'"

civilisation.

Thinkers in Ancient Greece and Rome looked only to the pa st and the
present in an effort to connect the first two stages in the developm ent of
society. The present had been prepared by the long and arduou s effort of
the past-that was the fruitful idea without which there could have been
no notion of social development even in the most primitive form.
However. the great minds of antiquity did not consider the future state
of mankind. What they did note was that by their time men had travelle d
a long way. having mastered what then looked like many kinds of skills
and knowledge. The mental horizon of the thinkers of antiquity was
limited to the past epoch of barbarism. followed by a period domin ated
by slave-holding relations, carrying with it civilisation, a flouri shing of
science and art. the rule of law and state power.
Thinkers who could not or would not praise the present as being
lasting and immutable ended up by denying any furth'er development of
society. In the writings of the materialist Lucretius we find hint s of an
inevitable end of the world. a disaster threatening mankind in some
distant future. The Pythagoreans. a school of ideali sts. developed this
expectation of a world disaster into a theory of cycles, each of which
started afresh and ended with another cataclysm.
Some thinkers wanted to re-establish the "golden age" legend . but they
could not add anything to it and it remained a fairy-tale dream. It took
ages for this legend to give way to utopias. the first project s for a future
society which tackled the question of the essence and ultimate destiny_oI
exploitation.
There was no class in ancient society capable of making a marked
advance in social thinking. Whenever social thought begin s to look to the
future. this means that social groups have emerged in society to whic~ .
the fulure belongs. In ancient society. neither the slaves nor thelT
masters had any future to look to, for with the emergence of the neW .
feudal system. both these classes were doomed. The slaves had visions
of a return to the past to regain their lost freedom. The slave-owners
could not conceive of a society or civilisation resting otherwise than on
"lavery.
There arose various theories. like the one about the origin of religion
and the ... tate. theorie ... oriented mainly upon the past. Some contained

1
f

,-

t t' te of ,ociety and the current

very keen oh<;ervation ... ahout.th~ p~e ... ~no~i:1 thought were hroadly u<;ed
:-.oc;al . . truggle. and th.e ... c hegl~mnhg<;.o ~ t world \oclal thought did not
in the <;ubsequent period. But In t e ancien
.
.
f r f n Virgil, the Roman
go beyond its fir<;t begin~ing....
The future wa<; dealt With hy the w.rtter~ ~ IC 10.. ' .
. d
ob\cUfity ..
n
poet had vbions of the future veiled LO
u
.. d
e" could return with the mlraculo , arnva 0 a rna
.
t~~I~t~~e b~o!h:n g~gds, Thi<; idea of \Upernatur~1 .deliverance was ;e~y
eo ular among the early Chri ... ti"n'). The dim Vl\lon'" of. a re~urn o. t ~
~g~lden age" of equality in di."tribution and cono;um.ptlon. tnclud~~g a
",
f" WI" . , urced men to live in the "."anctlty of povert~ . to
commuOi Y 0
v. ,__
.'
'.
d t 1 ve '1<;
renounce the sinful world with all Its ~,ches and luxune.", an 0 I < .
the birds of the air do. relying in all th~ngs on t~e supernatural forc~. on
the redeemer. on divine salvation. While these Ideas may
rebellious. they did not in any sense present a danger to the e~p~oltatlve
system. As time went on and me'.' from the ~pper ~Iasses Jomed ~hee
Christian community. these fantastic and rebelhous attitudes, expressl:of the impotence of the exploited, were suppressed and re~laced by a
law which referred to the same supernatural force and which ordered

h~ ~u?~e\t~

haveap~ea~ed

'ilaves to obey their masters.

.
Social thinking in ancient society shows that the prospects ~f SOCial
development constitute the key question i.n the ~he~r~ of soclet~. To
inderstand the present. there is need to discern In It _IJ~ tenqe.o~_I. ~;~ of
development. The present paves the way for the future .... An analYSIS of
t~ p.t sent is inevitably bOllnd up with ev..aluations of the past and the
possibility ot loofing into the future. Such is the logic of the theory of
soc ial development. When thinkers in ancient society insisted that
slavery was a last ing state and could disappear only with the
disappearance of the world it self they were. in effect. testifying to the
fact that the idea of a self-develo ping social state did not exist in the
ancient world.
MEDIEVAL THEORIES
OF THE SOCIAL PROCESS

In the Middle Ages. social thought was strongly influenced by official

Christian doctrine. which declared that men were absolutely unable to
make any changes in soc iety at will. Beginning with St. Augustine
(354-430). the Church insisted on a theological conception of social
development which boiled down to the idea of a gradual establishment
of the "Kingdom of God". that is. the establishment and triumph of
the power of the Church in all secular matters. Augustine's main idea
was that the whole of history was predetermined by God. 'l
supernatural power, that all the defects of social life resulted from the
Fall. and that it was a part of Divine Providence to convert men into

slaves. Perhaps never before was the ancient id ea l,hat the social \late
had been foreordained by divine fate expressed w ith such repugnant
straightforwardness as in the writings of the " fathers of, the Church"
Thomas Aquinas (1225.1274) asserted thal, hum an society was based
on inequality . to which men had to reco~clle th.e~selv.es. The rUling
. classes had the duty to deal mercifully Wlt~ thelT ,mferlors. while the
latter . for their part. had the duty to exercIse patience and hu mility.
Inequality was not in any sense the result of the Fall. and was inevitable

'7Z.
/

because God had willed it so.

For centuries, the Church drove home to the working people that they
.
and th at in this world

no power on earth was

social state wh ich had been supernaturally

. Its Principal S,s ttms SI. Petersb urg,

1902 M
P Stasyu\evlCh
106 1 R .' Tht Philosop h yo f H!Story In
,.
In usslan).
'

l4

~ovem~nh

against the rule of the landowners and the Church reached a

high pOint.
Howeve.r. the mor~ sp~n.taneous the mass revolutionary movement,
the .less eVidence we fmd In It of any positive programme. of any clearcut
}
notion s of the goals of the struggle or the possibilities of soc ial reform.
Thu s, Fra Dolcino, _who led a peasa!l.Ul.Pri:iing in Northern Italy in the
early tou~teenth century , did not consider the abolition of private
property 10 general. but confi ned him se lf to the requirement that the
leaders should adopt an "apostolic" way of life. have no property of their
own, and "set for others an example of the holy life, that is, a life without
property as an ideal, a life in poverty, an apostolic life as the er t
life".? At the same time , Dolcino urged that a c urchmen , clericals and
monks should be punished by a "cruel death" (morte crudelissima).
)
There alone his programme is extremely concrete.
the
whole attack was aimed to eliminate the top
The positive programme put forward
_Munzer ~ who led a peasant war in Germany, has much more gist than
Dolcino s programme, but his ideal-the establishment of the "Kingdom of God" on earth-is still very vague and merely includes the
demand to destroy oppression, private property and power which hold s
sway over men. indeed , the leader of the peasant uprising seems to have
a vague notion of a soc ial system without estates or class distinctions and
private property, or a government alien to the people. Subsequently, this
vague urge and general ideas were to be unfolded in various versions of
~ytQpia in the form of more or less detailed scenes of human life to which
the working people asp ired .
About these spontaneou s movements of the urban poor and the
peasantry, Engels said: "There were theoretical enunciations corresponding with these revolutionary uprisings of a class not yet develo.ped:
in the sixteent h and seventeenth centuries. utopian pictures of Ideal
soc ial conditions; in the eighteenth, actual communistic theories
(Morelly and Mably)." 10 Thi s is of great importance for the history of
social thought. Utopians from the 16th to the 18th centuries shou ld ~ot
be presented as daydreamers, head in the clou~s a.nd out of touch ~lth
rea lity . 1ndeed, their visions and extreme utopIantSm were determmed
by th e level of the class struggle in tha~ period ..
That was precisely Lenin 's approach m analYSing the developm.ent of
soc ial thought in Russia in the first half of the 19th ce~tur~. Reactionary
theorist s who publi shed their writings in the VekJu (Mlle~tones) collection he ld the ideas expounded by Belinsky and other enhghten~rs to
be expressive on ly of the views of the inteJligentsia, the upper section of
, S. D. Skaz.kin. "Dolcino's First Epistle". In t~e collection: From lilt HislO,,' (If
Socio-Politicalldtas. Moscow . 1955. p. \29 (in RUSSIan).
10 F. Engels. Allli-Duhrilig . MoscoW. 1959 . p. 27.
J.

order in the form of a hierarchy of ranks and powers running from the
intricate hieran:hy of feudal lords to the angels and archangels in the

skies-all this was shaken. The order on earth was likewise subject to
change. The feudal. medieval o~t.lo..pk. quavered and shook...as the cbain

of rigid 'dogmas wa.s broken- it one QLits- key-links. But changes in the

' vlew-~ 'o f the social process did not follow all at once. The idea of social

development had to. make headway through a thick veil of agc-old

preconceptions.
ATIEMPTS TO PRODUCE A SOC IAL THEORY

AND TH E UTOPIAS

Present-day bourgeois social sc ientists willingly start the history of

modern social thought with Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), and his
views open a work published by two prominent US sociologists. Why is

that so? Because, H. E. Barnes and H. Becker tell us, "Machiavelli''>

analysis was frankly based upon the premise that intrig1l ing self-interest
,and iosatjabJc desire5_sonstitute the mainsprings of allhuman activity",n
The explanation is that '''MaChiavelli's epoch marked the start of
capitalism's sanguinary advance heralding the rule of hard cash, the
advent of the period of primitive accumulation. one of the most terrible
periods in human history, That is what suggested the idea of
self-interest and insatiable desires as the mainsprings of history, One
cannot deny the great importance for social science of the exposure in
exploitative society of self-interest as the method behind so~ial action.
but if it was to become truly scientific there was need to bnng out the
existence of classes and their conflicting interests and !,Q.!!'2derstand th~l
exploitation was the bas~~ .of tmR!.q~lety, What Machia v e,lli had was no
more than mdivlouafsm the grip of insatiable lusLleaving m the dark the
main point of exploitation, of private property and social inequ~lity.
Indeed it was not Machiavelli but other men who blazed the trail for
advanc~d soc ia l thought and a theory of social development. going much
farther in bringing out the motives behind the, individual's so~i.al action,
The emergence of bourgeois relations carned great c~lamltles for the
people, Those who saw this in the 16th and 17th centun~s re~soned on
lines different from those of Machiavelli's, who made msallable lusts
legitimate by derbtg, ~hem from hU}l)~n,n.iill!rs: These other ~en ca~e
out against The' oody world ot pnvate property. a world m which
everything was up for sale,
. ,
Forward-looking social thinkers in the 16th an~ 17th ~e".tune~.were
still to discover the po~sibi,lity of human soc.lety eXlsllng ,,~V1thout
exploitation. How was thiS discovery made and m what term

"

11 V" I. I.enin . Collected Works. Vol. 1Ii. 1', 125.

IhlOj, , Vol. ~. pp. 374-75.

IJ

H. E.

Barne~

,Ind H Becker. Sf/dal Thol/gill from Lor., 10 Sdt'IIt't'. p ..\O~

.(
I

The !:>harp criticism of the ,system o f c\. ploitalion and opprcs .. inn ~nd
yearning
for a better hfe and h a~ py. fU~lI rc WC~C ~\prc\\cd in the
.
in I
In '." ~ll;h cap lt~lh ... m ~a .. laking

Ile,;,

VI SIOn o f ,>ot:ml JU .. lll:c and Ih C

idea that a," ord~r. under which I~erc were r~c h .and poor W~I" unju\t
Some utopian wntmgs reflect the Idea of ega htarl a n communism, a .. a
expression of the peasant ideal of,SOCjal. ~eJa lio!1 " under which all gOO~
were
But utopIan writings a l,so s l~g!!:cst~d that society
I
property. and that lIS e hm lllat ion would not
result in the
of mankind. but in it s prosperit y. That was, in
that period.
advance in soc ial thought. It is hard to overrate the
vast importance of this idea. however a bstract a nd na ively expressed. It \
<;howed that the notion of society had . even in th e form of a v ision gone
beyond the framework of private-properlY re laho ns. - . -'
)
At first, this idea was expressed in the form of a logical assumption.
Even in that period, some thinkers felt that bourgeo is re lations, which
were taking over from feudal relations , held no promi se o f happiness for
the people . These thinkers got to thinking about the kind of soc ial system
that would truly bring happiness to men . It is sa fe to say th at in the
history of social thought the utopias were the fo rerunn ers of the theory
of soc iety's progressive development. In one fo rm o r a nother, they
contained critici sm of the contemporary order , and o f pri vate ownership
as a principle of social life . and suggested that men could arrange their
social life without the bond s of private pro pert y, g ross self-seeking or
money-grubbing.
At the dawn of capitali sm , Machia velli saw self-inte rest as the
moti~e force behind society' s advance. while the authors of th e great
utopias asked them selves whether thi s forc e c ould be e lim inated. and
what would happen to society if it were. But at the tim e. no one was yet
prepared to say that this kind of social order was in ev ita ble. le t alone
su~gest a .real way for reaching it. Nevertheless, the ve ry approach to )
thiS. question sprang from the condition s of social being. in th e g reat
peflod of the breakup of social relation s .
. Tho":,as More' s (1.478-1535) main idea was expre ssed in these words
10 the first bo~k of hl.s Utopia: "Thu s I doe futlye persuad e me selfe, that
no equall and Juste distribution of thinges can be made , nor th at perfecte
wealt,he shal ever be among men , onle s this propriety be ex il ed and
banOished. But so long as it shal continewe , so long shal re ma ine among
thedmost and best part of men the hevy . and inevitable burd e n of poverty
an wretchedne s." I.
. HhowUdid ~ore arrive at this radical conclu sion? Hi s line of reasoning
10 t e
s that _he wa s a man 0 f h umane Instmcts
' .
a nd profoun d
. topla. show
.

" Thoma~ More. Ulopia . LJ.M . Denl & Son~ LTD , 1935, p . 44 .

J'

_!'.cn ... ~tivili'.t~) !.ol.:ial mattcU.. According to hi., contemporaries. \10re had
ohtalneJ an excel.lent knowledge of property relation .. through hi ... work
at the har, What" more. he had given much thought to the relationship
bctwec.n prop.erty. wcalth and power. He had a good knowledge of the
law, ha~ .penet~atei] Jeep Into the .,ecrets of government. and had the
ke.en .crltlcal mind to a!>!;ess it!> <,ubstance. Starting out from humanistic
prlo(;lpies, he compared these with reality. "Is not this an unjust and an
unkynde publyque weale, whyche gyveth great fee !> and rewarde!> to
gcnt lemen. a'S they call them, and to goldsmythe!>, and to !>uche other,
[cl!>cwhcrc More add .. usurers to this list-G. F.] whiche be either
ydle persones. or eb onlye flatterers. and devysers of vayne pleasures:
And of the contrary parte maketh no gentle provision for poore
plowmen, coliars, laborers, carters, yronsmythes. and carpenters:
w it~o u t who me no c,?mmen wea lthe can continewe?" IJ Considering the
period, that was a n Idea worthy of a genius. He goes on with equally
telli ng force: "The rfore when I consider and way in my mind all these
com men wealt hes, wh ich now a dayes any where do florish. so god helpe
me, I can pe rceave nothing but a certein conspiracy of riche men
proc uringe theire owne commodities under the name and title of the
com men wealth, ... '!> These devises. when the riche men have decreed to
be kept a nd observed under coloure of the comminaltie. that is to saye.
also of the pore people, then they be made lawes."" Can there be any
do u bt in a nyone's mi nd that in his Utopia More comes down on the side
of the " pore" against the "ric he"? Of course. at the time the notion of a
"third estate" was just tak ing shape in contrast to the idlers and the
spo ngers from among the aristocracy. so that More's "riche" are the elite
of the absolut ist fe udal state, the noblemen. the usurers. and all the
se rva nt s and menials catering fo r the royal court and its entourage. More
had no illusion .abgut the nature oLth~.absalutist.ie.udal Slate. which
Issued its laws on behalf of both rich and poor but favouring only the
ric h, and which constituted a peculiar and legalised. conspiracy of t~e
ric h against the people. Wealth and idleness undermined the very baSIS
of soc iety- the working people. without whom there can be no soc iety.
That is a view which may have been accepted by many of those who. like
More ca me fro m th e mid st of the bourgeo isie. But ;\10re went much
farth~r , for he did in e ff ect proclaim that society could exist and develo p
without th e idl ers and the ric h.
Another tragic questio n More posed in his Utopia was whet her a.n:'an
with such radical views cou ld ac hieve anything wit h the use of political
mea ns, as we would now put it. Thi s is a matter which causes. More to
have doubt and do so me serious thi nking. The only way to Infl uence
I~ Ibid .. p. 112.

16 Ibid.
11 Ibid.

"

x'

b
, 'e counciJlor but More is aw.He that not much can
-- po IItles IS to e a s a '
be gained in that way.
-'
In the first book of h is work., More shows the tr.lgedy of the
d well-educated man of the 16th century. He
- I - d d
ra d lea -mm e
an
. .-, himself rose high in government office. but expre.s~ed hiS distaste f~)f the

feudal monarchy by supporting CathohclS,m, when the ~mg of

England himself came into conflict ~ith t~e Cathohc Church. Thl,s CO~I
More his life. He failed'
hoe that
accord w it h hiS
radical views.
.
the
Reformation in Germany. His pol itical cred~ seems to boil down to the \ 1
view that while the King should not ab u.se hi S power. th~ people ~h ould \
not be toO wilful. He was aware t hat t h iS w.a~ a makeshift , but failed to
find any outlet fo r h is rad ica l v iews in politics.
The thoughts of Tommazo Campan.ella (I5~8~1639) ran on so me~hat
different lines. The outlook of t hiS Dominican monk wa s highly
contradictory. incl uding both vi sio~s. of a com mun i.s! societ~ and plans
for the establ ishment of a rehglOus and polit ical unity of the
contemporary world which he hoped to achieve. m.ainly with th e ~id of
Catholicism. Together with an element of materlahsm and a pa ssIOn ate
faith in the power of human knowledge we find him belie v ing in
3!)trology, which he held to be the most important science. and sti ll
clinging to some elements of scholastic philosophy. In that contrad ictory
age this kind of outlook was fairly w idespread. so that th e fierce
advocate of atheism, Lucilio Vanini. who was burnt at the stake in 16 19.
believed that the stars had an influence on human destiny . On the
\trength of his astrological findings. Campanella predicted an early end
of the old world and the advent of a "golden age". He regarded as
remarkable the invention of printing. firearms and the use of the magnet.
which he believed to be the means for integ rating humanity. He was
proud of the fact that there were more developments in his century than
had occurred all over t he wo rld over th e p reced ing 4,000 years; that more
books had been published in his century t han over t he preceding 5,000
year\.IR
. He ha~ ~ st rong premo nition of grea t c h anges but ascribes these to the
Juxtaposition 01 planets and stars, "which p romote ... new navigations,
new realms and new weapons", and under whose infl uence "there will be
a tran~formation and renewal of the laws and sc iences" 19
How d~d Camp;llh::lla come to have such ideas?' Academician
V. P. Volgln say ... Ikn Campanella
the 16th-century rlm..:ntine
one
I
outlines of utopia. In a preface to
Cit)' of tile SIIII. Volgin
...ay'i that in the late 16th and early 17th centuries there emerged a

abs~lutist

" See
Ihld.Tommazo Cam,anell, . c-It)' of the SU/I. ~oscow,

)
1954. p. 120 (in Russian.

... tralllm of inl el1e..:tlIa!... who h-,d

no pace
I
-m th
<
..
hierarchy , who were naturally ... har I
.
e eXI ... tmg ...oem1
accordingly highl y scn ... itive 10 the '!.ufie~ oPPorsed to LI. and were
1
I~
t~e.ople" lO
Campanella says: "I'hose have honour as th .
deserving who have studied more arts and
noble'>t and the mo ...,
app ly these with much knowledge. That iscr!~s and w~o. are able 10
Y
ca lling c raft smen ignob le and regarding as
bl t~ey ndlcule us for
craft. who live in id leness and keep a gre~tO e t ose who know n.o
idleness ilnd debauchery.,,:1 The City of the su;:any serva.nts for their
""people. and ha s no idl ers or spongers. Campanlslla~epu~.hc.ofw':lTk ing
_
b
- d
e a s maLO Idea Lt, thai
soc iety can e orgamse
On
,-,
-ts head
-Id
Id a sc ient ific basis with sc-e
I n IS sat L
so 1hat even c h I ren wou be ab le to learn much
I b I
.
'
the drawings of st ars, plants a nd anima
ls on the walml<e~e'Yh
OOkLlng
at
., LO e y.
city.
et ut,
'
nO'le. however, t h at Campanella s scientific basis also includes as.
tro ogy.
. As a youth .. Campanell ~ t~ok"part i~_ a revolutionarl plot in Calabria
m the south of Ital y. The plot was d iscovered and Ca-mp- - -I-I' - ,
'5
Th
, a n e a spent
a Imost _ years In pn son.
e plotters had ties with the people and had
hoped to rou se the p ~a~ants to revolt. At that time, much was being said
about the early Chrlsllans. and of the apostolic life without wealth 0
publ.ic
These ideas were interpreted in the spirit of
e~ahtananl s m and equal s hari~g .. Thes~ ideas are echoed in Campanel
la s work. and he refers to Chnshan wnters and explains his demand for
a c~mm~nitY?f wivc.s by th e early Christian tradition. He says that in the
soc iety In which he hves "property originates from and is maintainwhy
-L
the fact th_at each has his own individual home and hiso\\in-wife and I'
chlldl en ,-" WlleliCe the efforts to amass riches and-til kave them to
one's children. etc. Campanella' s writing was a lso influenced by Plato ...
ideas, especially hi s presentation of marital relations.
In many respect s. Campanella' s work falls short of the level of
elaboration and thought that we find in More's Utopia. but it was st ill an
advance on the latter. More was a radical-minded humanist. a
thinker who wa s
I
I
Campanella was
a man of passionate
i
and see king to conv ince others of their
truth. It is true that Campanella did not find a ny real ways to implement
his ideals either. No wonder he h ad recourse to astrology. Like More, he
was a Catholic and hostile to Protestantism. But in hi s crit icism of
Protestantism he levelled hi s attacks on the dogma of predestination and
t he denial of free will. Of course, he himself was not alt ogether clear on
this question, for he was influ enced by the will of God and by astrology.

~o~ours.

\1

peasan~

~ Tommazo Campanell3, City 0/ tile SUII. MoscowLeningrad. 1934. p. 15 lin Ru,~ian).

" Tommazo Campanella. Cit)' (1/ tile SUII. \loseo\\'. 1954. p- ~O.
-. Ibid .. p. 45_

But Campanella. an impassioned fighter . y; ho ha~ withstood..torture

wrote the following toward s the clo se of hi s book about the viewso-r th~
citizens of the City of the Sun: "Man is fre e. and it is said that if in the
course of fierce torture lasting for 40 hours to which a respected
philosopher was subjected by his enemies [mean ing Campan ella
himself -G. F.] they failed to get him during the interrogation to utter a
single word in admission of what they wanted him t o admit, becau se in "'
his heart of hearts he had decided to say nothing, it follows that the stars.
which exert their influence softly and from afar. cannot make us ac t
against our determination either." B The voice of Ca mpanell a was that of

J(

~ fighter, which comes to us for the fir st time in the hi story of utopian
communism through the then conventiona l ro ar of th e waves of
mysticism , astrology and Catholic scholasticism.
The idea that had made More and Campanella write their works was
that men will not be happy so long as private property is there, so long as
the ~blic wealth falls into the hands of the few , while masses of men
and women are doomed to poverty.
More's Utopia and Campanella 's City of til e SIIII are the first two
well-considered schemes for a society without privat e property and
exploitation, and that is why they have gone down in history. Even the
abstract ass umption that society could exij.' withoucerivate prope[~y
naturally impelled men to con sider way!"pf social development,
especially in view of the fact that both writers constantl y drew analogies
between the present and the social order to come.

THE IDEAL OF PROGRESS

\I

At the great historical breaking-point between feudalism and

capitalism. the vision of a fair social system continued t o be no more
than a vision. The very notion of regularity in maQkind 's histo rical
development was just emerging, supplanting the theological notions of
predestination.
By the 17th century vast knowledge of social history had been gained,
a~d th~r~ w~r~ m.anx. facts ~ot only ~bout a~ti.9uity, but also a bout the
tnbes hVlOg 10 pnmltJve society. Earlier on. at the beginning of th e 16th
century, there appeared some fundamental reports about the c ustom s
and ~sa~es of various tribes and peopies.2' containing fairly det ailed
descnptlons of primitive society. In their works. the Engli sh materiali sts
of the 17th century used such descriptions of the way of life and mores
;,
" Tom~azo Campanella. City of ,ht Sun. Moscow. 1954.p . 45 .
p, Sa_lOt yves. "Les origines de la melhode comparative ella nai ssance du rolklore.
~l.:!~uper\ltlons aux survivances", Rnue de !'hiSlojre des rc/igiolu. I. CV. No 1. Paris.

"

o~ t.~ibes. inhahitin~. Ameril.:a and had a knowledge of tribal and

patn~rchal c~mmuOl.tles. Thus. Locke refer!'. to the life of the people~ in

Braz.11. Peru and Afr!.,:a. In the 17th and 18th centurie!'. many book<. were
published aoout the Innocent savage". and the happy life of men who as
yet had no knowledge of government or wealth. The point was whether
man wa!'. good by nature, or whether he was in need of the har~h bridle of
powe~ a.nd man's domination of man.2 S For its criticism of the
explOl.tatlve .system. mankind was already in posses!'.ion of the historical
expenen~e of th~ primitive commune and the peasant commune. which
had sur~ l ved until the Middle Ages. This experience suggested the image
of a soc iety based on the peasant egalitarianism and equal sharing which
I
the leaders of peasant uprisings had looked to.
. Maxim Kovale.vsky. the 19th-century Russian sociologist. was quite
nght when he smd the following about the social order reflected in the
utopias of More and Campanella: "This order was apparent ly quite
sim ilar to the family communes which at one time were known not only
among the Southern Slavs as :.adrugas or common kllpas. but also
among the West European people under various names."!6 Kovalevsky
also points out that the utopians had a preference for the "city-republic
or a federation of cily-republics".~ notions which must have arisen
. from a knowledge of ancient history. Neither More "nor -Campanella
could have been inspired in their visions of better societies by the
absolut ist feudal state which had taken shape by that time. These
forward-looking thinkers saw no way of changing these feudal states .
and so transferred their visions of a new system to distant lands lost in
the ocean.
By contrast. the advocates of the rising bourgeoisie praised private
property and extolled the state. an instrument in the hands of the ruling
class. Their theory of society wa!'. perhaps most clearly formulated by
Th omas Hobbes: the state, a peace-making power which saves men
from the condit io n of war of everyone against everyone. from lack of
governm ent and total chaos. and leads mankind out of a sem isavage
state. Th e ideologists of the bourgeoisie campaigned for u nli mi ted
domination by the upper classe!'.. having abandoned the medieval
theories of the "div ine" origin of the state. and havi ng divested all
political in stitutions of the aura of sanctity. That w.as o.f course a.s.tep
forward from the theories of "divine" predeMinahon tn the political
o rga ni sation of society and the historical process a!'. a whole.
Rel ying on the knowledge already gained by then. the ri~ing

:~

See R. Y. Vipper. S"dal /Jourillts and Historical Tht<JrifS in Iht 18Ih-I9Ih

ctlltllries. Mo~cow. I90S. pp_ t9-30 tin Ru~~ianl.
y, M. Ko\'alevsky. Prom Dirtfl Popular Rult 10 Rtprestlilalirt Rult and irolll Ihe
I'lIlrillrc/1ll1 MOllore/I\' 10 p(lflioUlenforislII. Vol. L Mosco\\. t906. p- 500 tin Ru,,,anl.

.,-

Ibi!.l .. p. 4SJ.

"

bourgeoisie proc laimed the idea of a "natural" ad\'aor.:t' \l( manJ..il1'!,

which was not subject to god's will. but hOur~Clli" ,ol,:i.:ly wa .. the
ultimate goal of that mo vemen l. The \\ or'" o f kan Bodin . Thoma ,
Hobbe .. and many other bourgeois writers were J..cy notl.'d '\-ith the idea

that the pillars of the e'p loi13Ii\'c ,oelel)' ami the ... tatc '\cre

unshanerable. More a nd Campanella refu .. cd tIl :l(ccpt thi ... idea. and
aban doned lhe pre.,enl for a vision of utopi a clHltra ... lcd 10 realit y
In the carly 18th century .Ihe idea of law-governed '0';1<11 d c\-clopmclll
occurred here and there in the writings of the Ne:lpolitan ph ilosopher
Giovanni Battista VieD. who refused either to sing the praises to the new
age of the bourgeoisie or to entertain any visions of.:l happier society.
Indeed . his theory of social development had no future . Vico's wo rld
history goes through three main stages: the divine period, the heroic
period, and the human period. The initial period is described in
mythology, a chronicle of mankind's early advances in cu ltu re; the
second period is that of Homer' s epic poems and the rule of the
aristocracy; the third opens when the people become stronger and the
dominatio n of those of "noble" birth comes to an end. Howeve r. the
"human age" is once again followed by decline. and the whole cycle is
repeated.
Bou rgeoi s historians of soc ial thought have written many abs u rdities
about this "mysteriou s" thinker. but have studiou sly obscured th e main
point that helps to explain Vico's attitude. What were the hi storical
conditions for the emergence of Vico's ideas? Italy. Vico's nati ve land,
was then in a state of decline. which is why he did not become a
tr.oubadour of the rising bourgeoisie and of capita li st c ivilisation. In
hI story. this Italian thinker saw not only progress. but also decline .
What were the notions of history and it s period s that Vico had to deal
wit~" The humanist writers we re using the term "M iddle Agps" [0 deRote
the lD~eryal between the ancie nt world and the epoch of the Renai ssa nce.
t~ "7'~lch they them se lves belonged. In the 16th-~and r7th centuries. thi s
dIVISIo n of hi story was being ever more widely accepted with the Middle
~ges regard,~d as a. period of regress. while th e Renai ssa nce ope ned a
go '~ en age. VoltaIre s ubsequently said that the Middle Ages had to be
studIed fo~ noother purpose than to be despi se d .A mong the work s which
ap.peared In the '.ate 17th century so me were entitled A IIden t History,
HIstory of tlie Mrddle Ages froll1 lite Period of Constantine lite Great to
~~e Sack of C~l1sta/ltil1ople b~ tile TlIrk s, and Modem History)R In th e
Uer the RenaI ssa nce was at fIrst given pride of place, a nd attention wa s
centered on Italy. with the whole of this period regarded as an age of it s
glory. But the thinking Italian was coming to reali se that by the 18th

See.. ndV. 'Elllight

N. Lazarev ...."Tne Pro bl em o.f Ih
'
.
.
Writen
e R
enalssance
as DeSCribed
by Renaissance
'10"':0"" 19'5, 13~"{~r~R In th e collection: From the History of Sario /'IIUl jca/ldecli.
'.

In

I,I ~Mall).

I.;enlury that r~riml , fur Ital y OIt ,my ratc, had come to a clo~e and that,
~lew d;lri-. renod had hegun.lltis que~tron aro\e:wa\ lllK only tile
Illllivulu;l! Int (~f l!;tly n~ wa~ the "human age", which had opened in Italy
III a. floml of It~ht. ~nl!rcly It) he 10\1 in the twilight"
. Vn;o wa<; faced WIth t'"':o fatOlI enigmas in ..ocial development. How did
It happen that manktnd. having advanced from barbarism to
Grccn-Roman civili~ation, had then come to lo~e itself in the harbari
Middle Ages? Italy . which in the age of the Renaissance was th~
c,yno\ure of all the progre\\ivc minds, and which had proudly been the
fIrst to enter the "homan age". wa .. it too moving into decline" In other , I
words. why was the civiJi":ltion of the 17th-18th centurie~ that i~
bourgeois .. ociety. emerging with the stamp of doom. ~f acut~
contradictions and patent imperfection?
Vi co was sure that the "human age" was in no sense a period of la'>ting
prosperity: morals and manners were deterioratin while self-seeking
weT
rea 109. eyond the horizon of this age
and the Ius or
once again lurked barbarism. which had once advanced to replace
Roman civilisation. With evidence of barbarism in the new "human age" .
Vico reached the conclusion that the seeds of decline and destruction
were also latent in that period of history. This was a new idea voiced by a
lone individual in the midst of general jubilation over the entry of society
into the "human age". But Vico saw no way leading lothe future; history 'had to reverse its advance. Consequently. the visions of \fore and \
Campanella were not to be realised.
/
However, the Enlighleners of the 18th century. who reflected the
views of the rising bourgeoisie. did not believe il possible for history to
reverse its march and to give way 10 another epoch of decline. and
accordingly insisted on the idea of mankind's boundless progressive
advance. This social development. they asserted. was not a divine bpt a
,nat ural process. In the 17th century. Spinoza already insisted that man
was a part of nature. that rea son impelled man to pool his efforts with
ot her men and that the banding of men into society was a natural
process. while th e state expressed the power of the men it brought
together .
Montesquieu's L 'Esprit des Lois (The Spirit of the Law s) appeared in
1748 and gave even
depth to the i
natural
.

I
emphasis on geographical conditions, the nature of the soil and the climate. but he was st ill
far from conce iving the ide~. of social development. for his thoughts
were concentrated on politicalinstitutions. state power in the first place.
The idea of mankind' s boundless development was propounded in his
own way by TurgoL He was not entirely free of Machiavelli's influence
and in his DiSCO/lrse 011 Ullin'rsal Histor" (1751) said that "through the
alternation of agitation and calm. of good and evil. the total mass of the

human race keeps marching ceaselessly towards its r~rf~~til\Il" \I

Another French Enlightener. Condorcet. spok~ of rrogr~ \S in v i rtu~ of
which man "has been able to enrich his mind wilh n~w truth s, 10 l:ultivalt:
his intelligence. to develop his faculties, 10 k'Hn Ih~J1l bett ~r 1\) ~mploy
them both for his own wellbeing and for the l:ommon good ".w
Nor was the idea of boundless social progress alien to th e me n of the
German Enlightenment. among them Herder. a thiOKer of the second
half of the 18th century, who first dearly c:\pressed the idea that social
development was a process rooted in nature. The men of the Ger man
Enlightenment believed that if history did have an epoch of dec line - th e
Middle Ages-it had ultimately nevertheless served to e du c at e ma nkind, for the substance of world history was man' s education and th e
unfolding of his spiritual potentialities. However, social progress was a
question that remained obscure.
The stumbling block for the emergent theory of social developm e nt
was idealism. Notions of the historical process were made rigid by th e
too straightforward and metaphysical approach. All the Enlightener s
were agreed that progress manifested itself in the advances of scien ce,
the spread of knowledge and the decline of superstition and prejudi ce,
which gave way to reaSOn overcoming darkness. That is the main idea of
the theory of social development propounded by the French Enlighten ers. Generations of thinkers in the 17th and 18th centuries showed th e
vast importance for mankind's development of science and knowle dge
which helped it to conquer nature. They also pointed to the re lation
between mankind's moral and intellectual progress but reduced th e
whole idea to the view that the spread of knowledge ultimately also
determined the changes in the sphere of ethics.
Apart from spiritual improvement, progres s , they held. included th e
development of political institutions, notably the state, which were
stripped of the medieval aura of supernatural, divine oriein, being now
regar~ed as the handiwork of man. This put on the order of the day th e
question of society's political development, but the thinkers of the rising
bourge~isie believed that the progress of society's political organi sati o n
was ultimately connected with the spread of knowledge, the moderation
of morals and manners, and the development of the intellect.
~he social. organisation of society was a concept the 18th-century
Enhghten.ers Identified with its political organisation, with the state. The
early n?tions of the "civil society" - as the social structure was being
IIlcreaslll~ly designated - were just being formulated, but there were no
~lear-c~t Ideas On thi.s point ~nd the te~m "civil society" itself remained
ery ~ag~e. The baSIC question of SOCial theory-the origins of man 's
eX.PI~allon of man and his lot in the development of SOCiety-had not
: H - E Barnh and H. Becker. Sodal Thoughl from Lort
Ihid., p. 474.

/Q

SdtlKe . Vol. I. p. 41 3

heen ro\c d , ICilv ing a great nurnherofunso lv d

bl
h'
fit.i.n to ~hc .. c herne of straightforward progr~s:ro em., w l<:h ftllied

of

Ilh~~ J~x~hccnC~~~I;y-JiI~~~C~ ~OUh\.seau, o~e of t~e g~eat

_

. -

n e

I')

(I)

E.nlightcnc rs

warning. HIs (Irq dissertat ion

~~e.~~ ~t~d at t~e Acadc'!lY of Dijan, sharply criticised culture

and )(

lV I, 1 "<l tlO~, ~h lc~ h: ~e h eY~d~i!1 no se~se an unmixed blessing.

W ea lth Wd\ ,I gTe,at eV Il. ~hlle \Clence and art spra ng from wealth and
~ u x ~.ry" ROU\,icau s rea~onmg once again echoed the legend of a "golden
~ge .IYl ng somew here In ~he past, of the "happy savage", both echoing

I.:

'i

)1

II

Idea li sed e poc h s o f t he dl ')tant past.

Ro u ss,ea u '<; writings s ~ ow t hat t here was no plain sai ling for the
bo ~rg e o l s t.h c? ry of .. t~al~ hl ror~a r d progress. In deed. if prog ress did
eXi st wh y di d It ca rry wit h It dominatio n by the strong and suppress io n of
the wea k ?
Wa s soc iety ca pable of escaping from the tight grip of soc ial inj ustice?
Ro ussea u did not issue a call for a ret urn to the "go ld en age". He
wrote :"What th en a re we to do? Are we to destroy society? To annih ilate
th e thine a nd the min e, and to retu rn to a life in the fo re st alongside the
bears?"JI Ro usse au had no positive answe r to that questio n. He believed
that ma n had to ad vance a nd not retreat if he was to solve the di ffi cult
prob lem posed by hi story. But whic h way was he to adva nce? Hi s only
anSwer , as he peere d int o the fu ture, was improvemen t of the political
structure of bo urgeois soc iety and the estab lishment of a democra tic
bourgeoi s regim e.
It is tru e th at now a nd again Rousseau spo ke of a state and a soc iety
whic h were " better organi sed" . In his Social Contract he wrote: "Th e
better the constituti o n of the state, the more public aff airs prevail in the
minds o f c iti ze ns. Ind eed , there are fewe r pri vate affa irs because out of
th e sum total of common welfare a more considerable port ion is being
provided for the welfa re of eac h individu al, so that it re mai ns for him to
seek less in his privat e co ncern .'3~ Latt er-day thinke rs concerned wilh
problem s in social development. it s tende ncies a nd prospect s we re
influenced by such just and profo und ideas . But neither ROll 'i;SCaU nor
those who came a fter him kne w wh at had to be do ne to produce a n
abundance of "public welfare" for eac h indi vidual to draw o n and 10 la y
aside his "privat e concern s". More and
I had alread y reali sed
that that could not be done without the
;;1;:.;
But they did not know e ither how
. . ,
such a state or whether it would do so at a ll.
IS a que stion whic h
they, too , w~re in effec t unable to an swer. Ro usseau held that to bring

\.
Jt

Colleclion {'(l mplel e dn oelll'res de J. J. Rousseau. Ge nh e.

178~, lome premier. p.

209. NOle 9.
l~ J J . Rou,scau. Le COIII"" socia l . Pa ri ~. Li\ re 111 , Ch. X \ ', p ..~(l~.

)1

about the welfare of men one need merely avo id the e_\,treme~ of wealth
and poverty, for which purpose private property had to be equal ly
dist ributed . That was the vain ideal of the petty bourgeoisie. We fin d.
therefore. th at neither Rou sseau nor his followers considered the

Chllp/er Two

HARBINGERS OF THE GREAT FUTURE

all.important question, that of exploitation, private property and what

to do with it.
Rou sseau's followers saw a way out in spreading the ideas of abstract .
nominal bour eois e ualit
reedom. They believed that changing

Ho",:,ever, even in the .18th century: the boldest minds in the society
eme~8.IO~([Qm ~- e.nUat.l.s...Qf feu~alism strove to peer into the future.
b~yond, the peflod which wa s becoming historical reality. While
dlscus,smg freedo~. equality and brotherhood and the possibility of
chan,gl~~ the s07 1~1 o~der, these thinkers once again considered the
posslbd,lty of elimmatmg man's exploitation of man and cla ss -based
mequah~y, They had visions of a different social system which was to do
away With the age-old division of men into rich and poor. into the haves
and the have-nots. In the period when the bourgeois revolutions in
Britai,n and France we re being prepared. and when the peasantry and the
plebeian elements of the towns were set in motion, giving scope and
strength. to, these revolutions. the best minds of the period were
neces saflly mfluenced by the people's moods and aspirations. That was
of tremendous importance for the theory of social development and the
quest for ways of historical progress. These thinkers appeared to say: if
the new soc iety being discussed on every hand is bound to appear. if it is ')
to meet the requirements of human nature. there is need to go beyond the
proposals of many advocates of a new society,
./

politica in stItution s would d o the trick. Many leaders of the Fren ch

re volution of 1789 were inspired by these ideas, a nd the ideologi sts of the

bourgeoisie sa ng paeans of praise in many voices to it s "millennium" ,

cal ling it an era of freedom, equality a nd even brotherhood. They
declared that the new system held in sto re const a nt happiness for the
human race. exhausted and langui s hing in the feners of feudali sm and
the Middle Ages. The brotherhood of men would be es tabl is hed once the
proud and impregnable castle s of the feudal s an d the bishop s were
destroyed, th eir walls razed to the ground, and their moats filled up. All
one had to do to establish equality among men was to abolish the
monstrous privileges of the feudal lords. for apart from the Lord s
Sp iritual and the Lords Temporal everyone else be lo nged to the "third
estate". The bourgeoisie. which had not yet had much opportunity to
show it s true co lours. was not expected to do much harm to those who
toiled, and so was not co nside red apart from th e genera l notion of the
;'people". Because the question of man's explo ita tion of man had not
been ~~~r.!y formulated. the notions of soc ial development and it s
prospects were also hazy and vague.
The bourgeois slogans of freedom in effect me ant freedom only for
.... private e,nte_rprise, a nd the abo lition of rights whichJ.Qang from feudal
landholdmgs. while th e slogans of equaliTy amo unted to no more than a
proclamati o n of formal rights. which workers and toiling peasants had no
actual possibility of enjoying.
The 18th cent ury was one of the mo st important periods in the history
of soc ial thought. The bourgeoisie was prepa ring to storm the pillars of \
the. f~udal system with mass.es of people under the ba nner of progress ,
cla lml~g that the new SOCIal syst em to be established in place of \
feuda .hsm ~o uld meet the requirement s of rea so n a nd hi storical j ust ice.
That IS an l~portant idea bec ause it implied the po ssibilit y, th e necess ity
of transformlOg the soc ial order. and had the future on it s side. It marked
the first important advance in the emergent theory of social development, which is inseparable fr om the historical. revolutionary activity of
the mas!)es. From then on, the hi story of social thought consisted in the
hlasti~~ of illusions, in the course o( the class strugg le. about the
capablhty of ~apital i sm t o establish freedom . eq ua lit y a nd brotherhood.
~her~by openmg the way to the real triumph o f progress and social
Ju<;tlce.

48

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY UTOPIAN COMMUN ISTS

One of the bolde~t minds of the 18th century was the French writer
Morelly, who in his utopia made use of a new form of '"ready-made draft
laws divided into articles".' This was a peculiar feature reflecting the
historical period which lies between Morelly's utopia and those of More
and Campanella, It was a time of great soc ial and political change. and
thinkers began to clothe their visions in the form of legislative acts
ensuring the t ransformation of society.
Academic ia n Volgin is quite right when he says that MoreJty first
formulated one of the basic principles of socialism: ea.ch must work
_ accordi ng to his abilities. for the common weal. Morelfy also inclined to
the idea that distribution had to be in accordance with requirements.
Vo lgin a lso observes that this idea also appears between the lines in the
utopias of More and Campanella, Thus. humanism. which started out by
demanding the release of the individual from the fetters of feudalism.
inevitably advanced to a new demand: the individual must have the

1 V, P. Volgin. "Morclly\ Communisl Theory", See Morelly's book, TIlt' Codr

of Natl/rt, or the True Spirit of lis Lall"s. Moscow-Leningl'3d. 1956. p, J6 (in Ru,
,ian).

I.

opportunity to develop his endowments. to lise them for the \.:umm ~\I1
weal and to satisfy his requiremenh. Unless th erc is room for the
expression of man's capabilities. unless his requiremenh are satisfied
there can be no question of individual de\elopm e nt. That was a logil: ally
necessary stage in the development of humanism .
Here. social thought is on the threshold of formul a ting one of the key
principles of communism. the fundamental demand for ,-ocial iystic e.
But the question that remained unan swered wa !;: when anu how the ne w
system was to be established. with the law that each was to work
according to his abilities and to receive according to hi s needs?
The discussions of communist society still rem ai ned in th e realm of
speculative abstractions. some holding that communism was logically
impracticable because it contradicted human nature. while others said
that it was possible because it accorded with the dem a nd s o f social
justice and human nature. By contrast. Morelly argued that it was
private property that had spoiled and di storted human nature. Having
gone through the peculiar ordeal of the Fal1 - the introdu c tion of private
property- men would come to reali se their mistake s and were bound to
return to the order of the "golden age".
While these debates may have been spec ulative they were a necessary
stage in paving the way for a new view of the historical process and the
key problem s of mankind' s soc ial de ve lopment. The vision of soc ial
justice and a soc iety without exploitation also flared brightly in the
minds of masses of men , as it did , for instance. during the I7thcentury
Digger movement for common landownership. The working people
hoped that the downfall of the ab so lute monarchies would u sher in social
emancipation. but thi s was no more than an abstract pos s ibility becau se
the real conditions for it were yet to be created. However. it marked an
important advance in mankind's s ocial thinking: the idea of re vo luti on.
of the opportunities open to revolutionary power, and the idea of soc ial
justice were moving closer together.
Two of the mo st radical trends in the Engli sh revolution were the
Levellers. who stood for political equality , and the Diggers, who wanted
the land s to be owned in common. with the people holding the land as
socia l property. This movement first emerged in the early 17th century,
~hen th~ _peasants destroyed mar~s of prope~ty like hedges and ditch es.
In an efforf to turn the land into common property. In 1607, they iss ued a
proclamation which said: "Encroaching tyrants ... grind our fle s h upon
the whetstone of poverty so that they may dwell by them se lves in the
midst of their herds of fat wethers. They have depopula ted and
over~hrown whole town s and made thereof s heep pasture s nothing
profitable to our commonwealth."2 The views of the Diggers were set out

a', a more or Ics, coherent systcm later , in the cour-;e of the revolu
l Ion.
. In ~i . . I:."W of l:rf'('do/1l (1652), Gerrard Win<;tanley. depicted a society
In which .all l.he labour ... of hushandmen and trade ... men within the lund.
or bY"nlav~g..tlon to or from other lands. shall be all upon the common
stoc~.. hom the ~ommon stock each was to have "according to hi . .
need . He wrote: And as everyone works to advance the common
stock. so every~ne shall have a free use of any commodity in the
storeho~se for hiS pl:asure and comfortable livelihood. without buying
and se.lhng. or restramt from any." Social property is to prevail in the
repub lic. Let us note that Winstanley. like MoreJly. but a century earlier.
presents his utopia as a project to be carried out by an authority set up by
the revo lu tion.~ Winstanley pins his hopes for a republic on measures to
be taken by the Cromwell Government. whereas in Morelly's utopia it
was not at all clear who was to put through the new laws. But both hoped
to help carry society from the feudal order under an absolute monarchy
to a communistic order ushered in by means of legislative enactments.
Naturally. this kind of leap remained in the realm of the imagination.
Winstanley hoped that the collapse of the absolutist feudal order in
England could pave the way for fundamental social change. an idea that
also gain ed ground in France as it approached the period of decisive
battles for the overthrow of the absolutist feudal order. These early
hope s for a fundamental transformation of the social system flickered
and died .
The important thing about Winstanley'S utopia is that it was directly
connected with massive revolutionary struggle. In the 18th century.
social thinking also entered a new stage in France. where the connection
between utopian communist ideas and mass ive revolutionary struggle for
the overthrow of the abso luti st feudal system was ever more pro
nounced. Jean Meslier. a rustic clergyman, witnessing the ruthless
exploitation of the French peasants and their sufferings, set out in his
Testam ent hi s vision of a communist new system without oppresso rs or
oppressed , insisting that revolutionary stru~le wa~ t~e ~nly way to d~al
with the private property system of o ppressIOn and injustice under which
a handful of rich men ruled the working people.
Profe sso r B. F. Porshnev says in his work about Meslier's views that
"a ll th e popular disturbances. riots and uprisings. however immense the
variety of the causes and circu mst ances in which they occurred .
f
rt'''!n
centered on questions of property and over the matter 0 prope Y .

IX

1 Gerrard Win stanley. SelectiOlls. LaM' of Frudom, London. \{C\{XLl\ p. \79.

Ibid .. p. 179.
. ' " In the .:ollection: A Histor-" of Sodal
-~ See M. A. Barg. "Winstanley's SOCial U~opm
Doctrilles. Moscow, 19ft:!. pp. 5$-88 (in RUSSian).

W .H .R. CUrlier. The Endo sure Illid Redistributio ll of Our Lalld. Oxford. 1920. p. 13:! .

<"

"

"

all t~cse riots "it is hard to imagine that any of those \\'ho took part in
sackmg the manor-houses or castles should have regarded themselv es as
robbers and should not have soug~ttQjustif'y' their actions to themselves
and to their kith and kin. in the form of no!ions. however vague. of the
injustice and illegitimacy of the wealth. ihClf plundered from the people
etc," (, These vague feelings and fragmentary ideas were brought togethe;
into a system and elaborated by Meslier. Porshnev stresses that while the
popular aspirations may have been spontaneous and negative . they
hinted at the idea of a victory for the popular uprising, overthrow of the
existing authority and establishment of the people's power. an idea
expressed and developed by Meslier. The peasant uprisings were a
breach of the most solemn ban established by church and faith , the ban
on rebellion". These anti~clerical and anti~religious attitudes were
e laborated by Meslier on a materialistic basis, and he himself ended up
with an atheistic outlook.
A further important advance in social thought and action was made in
the period of the 18th-century bourgeois revolution in France. The
conclusion that it would take a revolution to establish a communist
society and the rule of justice was considerably enriched and developed.
There appeared the idea of a revolutionary dictatorship. The Diggers
pinned their hopes for social justice on Cromwell's dictatorship.
Meanwhile. the French revolutionaries had already abandoned such
illusions. T
Howers of Gracchus Babeuf, lwho expressed the
aspirations of the preproietanat, t e poor 0 ans. Ine pTebeianelements
of the towns, hoped to establish a revolutionary dictatorship to
reorganise society on communist lines.
The Manifeste des egaux, written by the poet and philosopher
Pierre-Sylvain Marechal on behalf of a group of "Equals". said: ;;The
French revolution is only the front rider of a grander and more majestic
revolution that wiJl be the last one .... Equality has been nothing but the
fine and sterile figment of the law", and the task now was to sec.me
actual equality, the Babouvists insisted. This idea of a coming
-revolution was vastly important. Indeed, the "Enrages" were already
aware that the 1789 revolution had produced a strata of "nouveaux
riches" and had failed to bring about social justice. One member of this
group said that a bourgeois and commercial aristocracy had been )
installed in place of the nobility and the clerical aristocracy.7 Thus, the
"Enrages" had already shaken the hope that the elimination of th~
clerical and aristocratic privileges would usher in the rule of the 'people
n

" B. F. Por~hoev. 'The Popular Source~ of Jean Meslier"s OUllook". In Ihe colleclio :
From Ihe HislOry 0/ Socio-Politieal Ideas. pp. 221-21 (in Russian) .
~ See M. Zakher. "Concerning the Importance of the Views of the Enrage,, in 1M
Prehi'lor), of $ociali'>t Ideas'. In the colleclion A His/orr of
Do("/rilles. p. I.V.

SOdllli~1

fin

Ru,,~ianl.

,md c .. tahlish equality But they did not draw th . d' I

.
the Bahouvi .. t<;.
era Ica conclu.,lon., of
The. pri.mary demand put forward by the grou of'E
.......
more mdlvidual property in land. the land doesPnot bel~un~~o S:~don~?
They declared that men could be "content with th
. Y
same qu rt
f f ,I" 8 T
e same portion and the
. aIy 0
oOu.
he Babouvists' main idea was that the
revolut~on was not yet over, that there was need to prepare a fresh
revolution to ta~e power; actual equality was still to be established. all
"!embers of soc iety were to be made to work, there were to be neither
flch nor poor. and no one was to appropriate either landed or industrial
property.
"Th~ projects o~ the Babouvists, the first revolutionary group to
proclaim the estabhshment of communism as the aim of revolution were
emphatically centr~li~t." 9 Their programme contained the foll~wing
planks: I. Al~ the :~Istmg wealth was to be taken over by the Republic. 2.
All able-bodied Citizens were to be made to work. each in accordance
with his abilities and habits. lo For a long time. projects for social
~econstruction were c~aracterised by the fact that 'a small economically
mdependent commumty" was the economic unit and administrator of
common property".J] Let us recall the same idea in the context of the
utopias proposed by Morelly and Campanella. This outdated notion was
discarded by the Babouvists. who suggested social property on the scale
of the republic.
Thus, the vision of another and grander revolution which was to
establish social justice throughout the world emerged in the course of the
18th-century bourgeois revolution in France. A revolutionary dictatorship was to be established as a result of the revolution. but the Equals"
believed that this great revolution could be stafte~ instantly by a grouJ> of
.conspirators. They had only the vaguest notions aoout which classes
were to carry out the revolution and on what class basis the new
revolutionary authority was to be established.
Still, the Babouvists played a great part in the history of social
thought. In his synopsis of Tile Holy Family, by Marx and Engels, Lenin
made this entry: 'The French Revolution gave rise to the ideas of
communism (Babeuf), which, consistently developed, contained the idea
of a new Weltzustand [world order-Ed.]."I~
In summing up some important ideas of social development advanced
in the 18th century, let us note. apart from the theory of progress. the
following. At the dawn of history there was a social system without
8 Philippe Buonarroti . Grace/III' Raheu/ ef la conjuration des t1!I!IH. P:Jr;\.I!,flQ.

pp. 6970
9 V. P.

Vol~in""The

Legacy of Utopian Socialism' In the colieclion:'"A Histon of

.'>ociolist Doc/ri"e~: p. 10.

10 Ibid .. p. 17.
II Ibid . p. 9.
I~ V. L. Lenin, Col/eefl'd Wori.s. Vol. 38. p. 40.

.
I
s a system in which social property prevailed :lIld
private Pd,odPer:'tYh' th' w~ictates of nature. The division of property was a
11 accor e WI
e
. dE
' I't
" . ' ) ICI.l
,.
'
.
.1. the history
of mankm.
gu<\
I Y-_~J. IQnt:,.AI,;,U{
'\'Ith
major eVI tin
nd created the conditions for norm.}1 individual
1Jum~n na ~~~ :Quahfy had an ugly e1lecton men and destroyed them.
deve opmen In
1 Th .
..
.
IS Im~orbt:ll.nth PdroPbosltlon 10
Private property was the root of all eVI .
the theory of social development had been esta IS e. .ut there
. d the aradox formulated by Rousseau, that the centunes under
rematne
p
. 0 fclvllsatlOn.
' 'I"
'
't
operty
had.produced the benefits
art, sCience
~wep,
,.
f
'
'
and culture. Would not the abohtlon
pn~ate propert.y stem. thiS
advance of culture and civilisation? The utopl3n commuOists believed
that the new system could be established on .the. basis ~f "saintly
poverty". The question of developing and mtilUpl~lOg soc.131 wealth,
which was to flow in great abundance, was not yet bemg considered. The
right answer was to be obtained only through _a Slu~y ..~ ec.onomic
'deVeiopment and production. Consiquentry~ In the 18tfi century, the
fundamental problems of social development were not solved and even
appeared to be insoluble.
The new age that followed upon the French bourgeois revolution
inherited the vision of a social system which was to practise the principle
of "each according to his abilities, to each according to his need s". The ' \
French Abbe de Mably believed that there was, in effect, no straight way
to that kind of social system, so that there was need to put through
partial reforms so as to curb the inordinate greed of the private-property
owners. The men who took part in the "conspiracy of equals" insisted
that the system could be introduced right away through revolution and a
revolutionary dictatorship. It was up to the thinkers of the 19th century
to sort out the question and express their views on mankind' s future.
Accordingly, Mably entitled one of his main works as follows: Doubts

Set Out for Philosophers and Economists Concerning the Natural and
Basic Order of Political Societies (1786), in which he considered the
question of how it was possible to advance from the contemporary
political order to an order based on social property and egalitarian
communist distribution, an order that, he was sure, accorded with
human nature and that was the origin of the history of society. Mankind
had blundere.d by sharing out the land and introducing private property. \
Ma~ly be~leved the oppressed had the right to rise up in "defence of
m~nklfld's fights", the right to stage a revolution. He said: "Will anyone
fa". to see that our societies are divided into different classes of men,
WhiCh, because of the existence of landed
of their avarice and \\
of their vanity have
' say !iifferent, but }
~~~raQ' JI? each
interests'or the
propertied and. the prop.ertyless, "how are you to go
making those
w~o have n.othl~g, that IS, the great majority of citizens, believe that they
eVidently hve 10 an order in which they are able to find the greatest

)1

54

!~().'iSihlt' (m/(JII~1t

of fnjoyment\ and happiness?" n This idea of the

grcatcst. p~)'islhlc amount of enjoyments and happiness" as the

commUnist .I~eal sets: Mahly_aQart from tb~ ..9jher..utopian communists
who had VI'iIOnS of a system equally satisfying the minimum requirements of all.
Mably abo sought to discover how the "golden age"
be
so
achieved, believing that the
~'~:;,
of
corrupted m~n that it ~as impossible
to
nature and directly to Introduce the communist system.
~n order to foster men's needs, to strike at the passions generated by
pnvate property, there was need to regulate the law of inheritance, to put
through a land reform limiting the right to own land, and to establish a
democratic republic. Here Mably came close to an idea expressed by
Rousseau, but went beyond it when he said that the democratic republic
implementing partial reforms was to be an intermediate element between
the period of unbridled private-property domination and the communist
utopia. In his utopia he sought to meet the objections of those who, like
the Physiocrats, insisted that private property provided the only
powerful incentive for men to work. Mably suggested that those to be
offered incentives for emulation were "the farmers whose fields were
the most fertile , the shepherds whose herds were healthiest and most
prolific; the hunters who were most adroit and best habituated to
withstand the fatigues and inclement changes of the seasons: the most
indu strious weavers; the women busiest at their household chores: the
fathers of families most dedicated to the instruction of human duties in
the family, and the children with the greatest application for lessons and
the most willing to imitate the virtues of their elders".'~.
. ..
Mably strongly criticised the idea of mens "natural mequallty "
allegedly resulting from their different capabilities_ and the urge for the
accumulation of wealth as_the_on.IY inc~ntiv.~. to_labQur.
However , Mably did not yet give. thought ~o the problem. of the
members of the new society being paid accordmg to .the quantity an.d
quality of their work, and took the egalitariancommuOlst approach. Sttll
the idea of society's rewarding outstanding effort f<:,r the common weal
was a harbinger of the utopian socialist idea in t.he nmeteenth century. of
men working to the best of their abilities and bl~ng re~arded accordmg
to their work. This was seed that fell on ferttle soli .. Decades later~
Saint-Simon and Fourier would consider th~ pr?blem. Wlt~ t~e f~I~~wers
of Saint-Simon clearly formulating the prm~lple of .socla1~~?'M F~Or.n
each according to his ability, to each accordmg to hiS wor . a y ~
attempt to find a formula for soc ial life that ,,:,ould. p:ve t.he :ar9~~
communism was also of great importance. SOCial thm ers m t e

..:enlUry were confronted with th e q uc ... till n ." lu..: h ~tably forlllulated in
the most general terms . Indeed , w as ma n\... IIlJ t"llHItlU III travel the long
way of reform. as Mably bel ie veu. tll I:l' ill,:h thl' lleW ... y ... tem'J
Saint -Simon and Fourier foll o wed M:1. bly l'a..: h III h i'" {lwn way. HOwl'vcr,
there was another way whic h w a ... still to be d isco\"l'red. I:ngl'b valued
Mabl y very highly . When d ealing with 18th ce ntury communi ... t themi c ...
in his Allti-Oiilrrillg. he me ntioned onl y the name ... of ~t orclly and Mahly.
the two minds paving the w a y fo r 19 th-c entu ry soc ia l t houf!hl.

--

VISION OF LASTING PEAC E

Mably was perhap s one of th e fi r~ t 10 ..:o m bin e the vis io n of a social

recon struc tion of life with the vi sion o f lasting peace a mong nations. He
declared peace to be a "natural state" for me n to li ve in , and private
property and the self-seeking inte re sts it generated to be the source of
plunderous. aggre ss ive wars. Hi s democ ra tic re public was the mainstay
of las ting pea ce, where a ggre ssive w ar was regarde d as a crime. Only
defen sive wars were a llowed in fa ce of enemy attac k , w he n t he republic
issued a call on 311 it s c itizen s to ta ke up a rm s and dis play hig h martial
valour. In ge neral. Mabl y's democ ra t ic republic purs ued a foreign policy
determined b y the vital intere st s of it s citizen s a nd a im e d at peaceable
re la tions w ith o ther states . It marke d a new stag e in the d evelopment of
the notio ns of lasting pea ce . 15
The vis io n o f e stablishing lasting peace in the w orld o rigina ted in the
Middle Ages in Europe, w hic h ha d been a n arena o f constant fight s
bet ween the feudal lords . It originated as a n idea to put a n end to the
fe udal strife and naturally suggested the po ss ibilit y of e nding wars in
genera l. There we find the origin s of the W es tern ideas of an
in te rnationa l o rder a biding by the rule s of inte rnatio nal law.
Mea nwhile . the official and pre vailing view , ex pressed , a mo ng ot hers,
by, the Catho lic Church, wa s that war wa s eithe r a boon or a bane , both
bemg
i
cau sed by Divine Providence . S t.
he ld t hat
the Ro ma ns
been enabled'-"'
QOd 's merc ), .
use p o lit ical means
to -e nd alT wars a t will may
been utopi a n a t tha t time it did have a
pa rt to play in e manc ipating socia l tho ught.
'
So me hi stori a ns be lieve that the earlie st project for a political union of
E u ropea n sta tes o rig ina ted during the Cru sade s in the 13th century. A (
lawye r , Pierre Dubo is , was saying that Chri stia ns s hould no t fight 1
C hri stia ns . an d propo sed a union of Chri stia n rule rs to be head e d by a )

I~ See S_ Safronov. "Milbly's Poli lical and Social Idea ..." In the collect ion: From I/le
Hi.l/or) of Sodo-Po/itkal Ideas, p. 258 (i n Ru ~~i a n ).
" See N. Golublsova, "The Ideological
.
Struggle in Ro me in the 4th-5th CenlUries'. In
the collect ion: From Ihe Hislo ry of Soc io Politicalldea s. pp . 701 1 (in Ru s~ i an).

56

l."uundl c.:onsisling
uf ~piritual and temporal lord.. Th C- '),Ime
d
.
I C:I') were
developed ~n Ihc J .~ Ih c.:cntury by Marini. who urged the e ... tahlbhmcnt of
all international
c.:ourt to ...ort out conflict'>, All of the ... e were
-ff-,
.,f.
,IOCCC,
pro~~c ... _ or it linton of European ~tales under thc ideological and
politIcal Influenc.:e of the Catholic Church. These project<.; reflected the
Ide,., .of peace no more than indirectly, through the peculiar pri ... m of the
poh~lcal conSClou ... ness of some medieval ruling circle.... But thc ... e
proJects. al'>o revealcd the first attempts to establi<;h the usage of
mtcrnatlonal legal standards so a<; to be rid of the rulc of might and the
l7
constant bloodshed among the feudals.
In the 16th century, Viloria and Suarez held that war was legitimate
only when all peaceable means had provcd futile. Both were Spanish
mo nks and lawyers and their writings contained ideas of "natural law" .
Without abandoning the notions produced by the absoluti<;t feudal order,
they bel ieved therc was need to moderatc this order by putting some
limits on the arbitrary acts of autocrats.
In the 16th century, thc humanists came out against war. In 1515.
Erasmus Roterodamus, the prominent humanist and a friend of Thomas
More's. issued his work under this characteristic title: War Is Sweet to
Those Who Have Not Tasted of It. Erasmus started from the concept of
a "human" relationship between men and criticised war in the light of
h uman ism. In another one of his works. Tile Complaint of Peace (1517)
hc wrote: "War is the p.ci.mary ca~.se_ of all calamitie~ and e_:i1s. a
bou nd less ocean which en.&ulf~_ al1 without distinctiouLBecause .oLwar.
....a ll that is flourishing stagnates, aU that is healthy dies~ all that is sound
collapses, all that is bcautiful and useful is.destrq'y_ed, all that i~i.w_eet
becomcs bitter." 18 We a lso fInO - Erasmus condemning war from the
standpoint of soc i31 justice. He said: "Today, princes start war.s and
remain in safety. t heir military commanders become grea~ men. whllc the
largest part of the burden of all the evils is borne by the tillers of the !and
and the common people, who had not intended the war and had not gl:,en
a ny cause for it." 19 H is writing breathed with indignation and accusation:
.....~ "The bulk o f thc peoplc hate war and pray for peace. Only a !ew who~e
.))(,-...... welfa re d epends on the people's misfortunes want war." He Issued this
caJ1 : "T ry to unde rstand the great power that lies in the concord of the

. .

.w

multitude rcs lstmg tyranny.

. .
However thi s idea does not become the overndmg onc~ because
E rasm us beiicved that it i~ the w isdo m of pri nces and nC!'t._t~e wl~1 a~d t~e
power o f the pco ple that will put an end to war. The mam thmg IS t e
mo ra l condem nation of war.
17 G_ Bouthoul. Les suerres. Elelflellt5 de polim%gie.
18 Erasmu~ Roterod3m us. Quere/a pads. 1641. p- 10.
19

Ibid .. p.

1<1

Ibid., pp. 15, 1).

54.

Pari~.

1951. p- 482.

In the 17th century. Emeric Crud w role hi ... dl.'I..'l,UlI'''l'., Lt, Nou\'('(11/
"the opportunities :lnd mean s of c:-. ta hh ,hmg ullin.'. '\011 J'Il'<I\:I..'
. '
on of commerce for the who Ic \nl~ II
" '1'11(' Illllh,' ":;II~ll' (luI 10
C \nce.
a~d
liberty
l.
16")'
d nequivocally condemned waf . \\Ith the ilut hllll..'llnllng dllWIl

_. an U
I f"'
"
I.
most resolutely against the fe!Ld~1 ( onccpl (1
Wnour. \\ lH.:h "j" ~\
mi s'crable thing)f it has too_be ~u.ht al the pril.: c of b lood,hcd ", BUI the

author was most concerned with thc development of Cl)mm('rU~ and the
growth of wealth. Men shou~d engnge in u seful C: lllk avours. build roal.l .. ,

Wilh 1:(1IKt'lIl for Ihe development of commerce and the cl:(JIlumil.:

pw ... pt:nly of cuuntrles, hy the American Quaker William Penn
(1(,.t4-171~), alter whom the ... tate of Penn ... ylvania in the USA i" named.
Penn helleved that Furope ... hould have a well-ordered ~y ... tcm of
... tatc ..... ;1 ... (lther_w~i~c no internationall~g~ll _r ulc ... ~.Q.ul~ he pracli,cd. He
plOduced a detailed plan for the establi')hment of a General (ur
I':uropcan) 1)let, Parliament of State of Europe. which wa ... to put an end
not only to all war, hut aho to e ... pionage and all ill will among Europe ..ln
cOllntrie ....
The utopian idea of ending wars through a union of all European
... tates, which remained feudal, wa ... inherited by the 1Bth century. From
1713 to 1717, this idea wa') set forth by Abbe de SaintPierre in hi,
Project for Lasting Peace ill Europe. It was based on an urge to stop wars
between absol utist feudal forces through a proclamation that from 17\3
on the boundaries of the European states were to be inviolable: all state,
wou ld always have the same boundaries they then had. no territory of
any state could be dismembered. and no other could be added by
succession, pact between the various houses, election, donation,
cess ion, sale, conquest. voluntary submission by subjects or in any other
way.!4 We find the author examining all the causes of wars between the
absolutist feudal states. It was a utopian project for absolute stability in
international relations and total elimination of arbitrary acts by
sovere igns on that basis. At the same time, the scholarly abbe totally
de nied all sovereignty and all expression of will by the people.
.
Hi s project was openly ridiculed b~ feudal. stat~sm.en: ~hu!;. KI~g
Frederick II of Prussia wrote to Voltalfe: "ThIS thmg IS m Itself qUIte
possible, but it lacks only one thing: the consent of Europe and a few

dig canals. and do everyth~ng that promot es co mmen:c. tils ~Jtopian

project envisaged the es tabh s hment of nil :uise m~)ly of statcs to Include
the rulers not only of Europe. but abo of C hm a. J apan. Per))ia . the
Tatars and the Great Mogul. The a ssembly fir~ t takes the gentle
approach but uses force, whenever the need a ri ses.~1 The reasoning had
changed. but the recipe s for lasting peace remaine d the same.
In the 17th century. the humanistic ideas of uni ver sa l peace were
elaborated and substantiated in greater de tail b y Jan Amos _Komen sky
(1643-1670). the great Czech thinker. who al so gave tho ug ht to the idea
of a union of state s . He produced a voluminou s trea ti se w hose main idea
wa s the eradication of aU inhumanity. Truly huma n re la tio n s should be
based on three principle s : first. the principle whic h conde m ns dissent ,
strife and abuse among men ; second, the principle rul ing out t he use of
force in impo sing on other men one ' s own philo soph ical, theological and
political idea s ; a nd third , the principle of genera l accord o n what is good
fo r all. Komensky hoped for an end of all di ssen sio n a mo ng men in the
three basic spheres : philosophy. religion a nd politic s. H e holds that each
kingdom or republic should have " guardian s of wi sd o m ", "guard ians of
faith" and " guardian s of peace". To each of th ese sphe res o ne of the
\ worthie st men s hould be elected in Europe , in Africa a nd so o n . States
. " s hould become a true bond uniting human socie t y", a n d an effort
should be made that in its diverse ties and relations human socie t y should
not give up the laws of wisdom. 22 This was the fir s t time in the hi story of
social thought that the idea of social bond s was s et fo rth wit h such
clarity , althc.ugh , of course, the author still had a lo ng w ay to go in
di scerning the basis of these social tie s . His utopia n proje ct for universal
peace , which included the establishment of variou s interstate councils,
in a sen se put the finishing touches to the "elements of so c ia l or p ersonal
security". Komensky wrote: "Universal peace and sec urit y are the aim
o f human society. " As far as we are aware, Komen s ky w as the first to
pro pose the "prohibition of weapons ... guns s ho uld b e u sed against
pre dators .. . cannons should be recast into bell s" .:1:)
The idea of lasting peace in Europe was s ubst a ntia te d in legal te rms ,

.'
.
oth er t rifles of that sort."25
Let us note that the idea of a military-political Unlon of absolutist
fe uda l Eu rope was increasingly acqui~ing an aspect that was a far cry
e
fro m the vision of universal peace m the world. It c!!.m. ~o be the
of mili tan alliao.c~......aimed agains.ub e CO!lolnes of the
is the view of a "European organisation" taken by ~ully, the
17th-century Fre nc h po litical leader. and the German ph Ilosopher

h mer ence of
de velo ping into sa nguinary wars.
Political thinkers were at fi rst inclined to assume that tee
g

~4

G. Bouthoul. Les guerres. Elements de po/elll%git. P 486,

25 Ibid.

G. Bo uth~ul . Les gue~,es. Eliments de polimologie . p. 48].

"n Sec
Trelltlses li n Llis/mg Pea ce, Moscow . 196] , p. 78 (in Ru ssian).

~~

'1

"

L e ibnit z inclin ed to the sa me vIew.

..
I
Thu s the q uestion of establi shing peace by pohtlcal means was c~~se ~
connec~ed with the questio n of the political force th~t was ~~pa f~O~
ma int aining order in t he internatio nal arena, and keepmg con Icts

Ibid. p, 80.
(

Ibid .. p. 484,

'th the quc<,linn uf growing tlrmamenli. Komen<;~y had carli,cr

w/()PO~cd "<.1 prohihilion of weapon",". But how w~s thl'" to he d{~ne.) ,
p Rou", ... c<tu cxprcs!-.cll M.:cptici,m ahout the achlcvement ~r 1'lstll1~
C'ICC hccau ... e the idea "i" too good to be accept~d. hecau ... ~ eVil
p, ,h. from which ... 0 m.my people !ltand to .l@IQ. ~cr life hy
~~~'~e~;~~~whIIC that which is u<;cful to <,ociety needs to ~c lI1.troduc~?
nl by force bccaU''>c it i'io almo..,t alway.., oppo<;ed .by pnv~te mte~e.~t .
~h~"', forcc wa.., required to overcome the "priv~te mtere..,t. for the <;'l~e
of the common good. Having ~xpre!)..,ed th~ Ide~, we fmd .R~U""~.IU
him self cons iderably apprehen..,lve a~d saymg,: F.ed~ral le.agu:" are,
a arentl y establi .. hed only by revolution: on thl~ prmc]ple .'Aho among
pp '11 dare to say whcther thi .. European league IS to be d~s]red or to he
~ s WId') It will perhaps do more evil at one stroke that ]t can prevent
eare the centu~i es .. 211 R~usseau was apprehensive of the po~erful new
~r:~ds exp ressed 'i ~ the incipient ideas of revolution and forCible change
f olitical order by an insurgent people.
, . d
o .the lead ing minds of the 18th century be:liev.ed that wars were ca~s~ .
. I b the wb.iJ:Jls of monarch~_a!:,-_~. thIs ~Jew. wa~also ac~epte
)'
~all1l y d:rs of the 1789 revolution which IS why they beheved the
.
t e ea
f rants to be the most radical and only way out.
ov~~:r~;90 ret~olution, which destroyed the absoll!tist feudal ord;r If~
France, proclaimed peace to .be its policy. A~~m:k;~~a~~~ht~dth~ep~ty

powerful absolutist feudal stat es and the growing power of emperors and

kings would help to keep the feudal lord :o. in line , ilml lead (0 the
cstabl~shment of peace in long .s uffcrin~ Furope. ~lllt "the weakening
and dIsappearance of the feudal lords duj nol suffll.:c 10 put an cnd to
European wars. From the dust of the medieval co nflict... MOSt:: the great J
\vars conducted by powerful kings ... ~1 The aggressive aspiration ... of 1\
absolutist-feudal circles were frequently vei led in dynastic claims,
struggles for legitimate succession . etc. Abbe de Sain t-Pierre ', project
had provided for all these causes of war and he had hoped that an
all-European treaty could eliminate th ese. It appeared in t he 17th and
early 18th century that some sort of European organisation could put an
end to strife between the feudal mona rc hs. Th e fin a l ve rdict on these
utopian vi sions was handed down in the late 18th century.
Political thought in the 18th century drew a tot ally new conclusion; it )
was the existence of the monarchies, the tyrannie s and despot ism that
bred wars. so that military conflict s would end in Europe on ly with the
triumph of the "pacific spirit of republics".
Voltaire was perhaps the most pungent critic of war in the 18th
century. In his Diclio1l1wire Philosophique he s harply criticised Montesquieu for suggesting an armed peace. implying a n arms race. Voltaire
held war to be the mo st terrible crime that " natural religion " prohibited
and only "artificial " religion sanctioned . War contradicted man 's very
nature . An enlightened monarch. guided in hi s policy by the dictates of
reason, could direct the development of international relations to the
path of peace . This kind of "radical" so lution of th e problem required
only a change of monarchs and made any organisation of European
states altogether unnecessary.
However , Voltaire wa s not quite fair in hi s co mment s on the views of
Montesquieu, the author of the Spirit of tlte Laws, the firs t political
thinker to draw attention to the danger of the growth of ar maments
(C hapter XVII, Book XIII). Europe was in the course of c ha nging it s
medieval weapons; with the discovery of gunpowder and the growth of
indu strial production, weapons were becoming an important force in
politics and Montesquieu noted this. He wrote: "A new malai se has
spread acro ss Europe; it has infected our princes and has made them
maintain an inordinate number of troop s ." He s tre ssed that this malaise
was growing and "was becoming contagious, because as soo n as one
state increases what it calls its troops, the others in stantly increase their
own , in s uch a way that no one gain s anything (rom this except common
ruin ". He believed that such growth of armament s led to the
impoveri s hment of the people s and to a decline of culture and
commerce. There we find 18th-century political thought fir s t confronted
!'I

G. 8oulhouI, Les guerres. EUments de poitm %gie, p. 473.

il~sn;~;at~~~' I~ehr;~i~~~i~:s~~;e!~~~~ "~;cpeo~~eqsU;~~:yer:~~~~:~~~

her in face of the dethroned tyrants.
~~ghleenth cent~ry political think;rs ,~er~.

on

' . .'

cons~d~~i~~c\~~e~Ot~;b~~t; ~f

~~~a~iisdh~~eg ~~~I;~~O~~~ Pae:~:I~ti~t f;~d~~gp~:i~d. 10 be crimes afain~;

humanity, They emphas ised the dangers of growl~g armament~n~r t~e

n~~i~~ti~~d o~r~~t~~i:t:~~d~.r :~~tet~~od~~~:~i\~t~n oCfo~;:~~fbi~~ona~~

p
They held that peaceful means had to be used 111 arrang g
r
di"putes that arose,
weapon s.
.
'
d
establi s hing int ernational re lat Ions an set~ IIlg an.Y
The French
Howev er, they did not know how I~ estab~l sh la.stmg peace. h . in the
r volution of 1789 did much 10 modIfy their notlon3: by ,emp aSI') g ..
r~le of the people but confined it I? ~olitical aC.llon 10 overthro\\- 109
t ra nni es and monarchies and estabhshll1g repubhc s.
b
YThe fini s hing touche 3 to the,e 18th-century Ideas of p~a~ef wer~I~~!d ;
Kant 's philo sophica l essay, Perpetual Peace (l7?~~, whlc ~:m... aid that
serie s of requiremenh that were t<? help es.tabh::. ~e~~~~re \~ars. no
peace treati es should not conta1l1 the seeds 0

61

independent state should be swallowed up by another, standing armic,>

should disappear with time , state debts should not be used in
foreign-policy struggles, and no state shou ld forcibly interfere in the
administration and constitutional system of other states. He also in Sisted
[hat "dishonest stratagems" should not be resorted to in time of war, as
these would "make mutual trust under a future peace impos sible", Kant
summed up and further elaborated the rules for international relations
formulated by the leading minds of the 18th century.
He condemned the colonial pOlicy of the "cultured and mainl y

commercial states" for carrying to distant countries the "l itan y of a ll the
calamities burdening the human race", Hi s conclusion was that )
"international law should be based on a federali sm of the free states", By
"federalism" he meant an alliance of nation s which, however, should not
be a state of states s uppressing their sovereign rights, It implied that "the
civic order in each state s hould be republican", It is true that in say ing all
this Kant admitted that it was extremely difficult to establi sh and
maintain suc h a n arrangement.
The philosopher sought to find an a nswer to the question of when and
how lasting peace would be made possible, and sa id that thi s would
occur through objective necessity instead of s ubjective good wishes, a
definite step forward in this matter. But it also s howed that there could
be no correct approach to the problem of peace without a sc ientific \
theory of social development. Kant pinned his hopes on the ;'mechanism
of nature ", which had also produced the selfis h inclination s of men and
states, which acted against each other, Thi s contradiction was lat ent not
only with the possibilities of armed clashes but ultimately al so with the
possibility of establjshing peace, which was "not established and ensured
by some despotism (in the graveyard of freedom ) through a weakening of
all forces, but through their equilibrium and their most vigorous
competition",30
Considering the problem of peaceful relations between na tion s , Ka nt
pm ned mo st of his hopes on commerce, and exclaimed: "The spirit of
comme rce , which sooner or later subordinates to itse lf every nat ion ,
can ~ot exist alongside war!" He was, of course, quite right in say ing that
socI~ty cannot ,exist exclusively in a state of war and that peaceful
relatIons were dIctated by the development of economic ties but being a
man, of his age, he ,was unable to say why these peacef~l economic
relatIons s hould ultimately rule out all war. He him self drew the
followi~g conclusion: "lndeed, that is the way, even through the
m~challlsm of human inclination s itself, nature guarantees la sting peace
wIth an assurance, of course, which is inadequate for a (t heoretical)
predictiofl of the day on which it will be established, but which , however,

11

"

1(1

Kiml .

711m (,,-i/.:1'11 FriedI'll, Leipzig,

r9.~4. p. 7],

"ible in practice and put ~ on us the duty to work for this (not too
I~ eas
.. 11
chimerical) goal .'
The utopian socialist~ of the ear.ly' 19th cen~u~y made further headway
on the question of peac~, e.mphaslsm~, even If m. vague. terms, the need
f a new soc ial orgalllsatlOn of society to attam iastmg peace. They
o;re sure that wars harmed soc ial development and that social progress
was promoted when men 's efforts were united instead of being divided
W
through military con n"Jcts.
.
.
.
The revolutionary democrat s III RUSSia gave a c1earcut formulation of
the visions of the utopian socialists about lastin~ p~~ce, :r~e first editi~n
f Alexander Herzen 's Thoughts on the Past, said: Soc lailsm alone Will
~ring peace .... In the glimmering ~awn of th~ risi~g commu nity order,
the nations, now driven kneedeep Ifl bl~od, WIll ~alfl ~ better knowledge
of each other; the wild cry of envIous nationality and p~edatory
patriotism will die down. The se. hatreds d~ not belong to the nations, but
to the states; the nation s aregUJlty only of Ignorance, but how are. t~ey to
know anything when they are being preached a whole false rehglo~ of
blood and madness, national exclusiveness, honour.of.the f1~g, the fI.ght
of might, all of this dull and limited valour of patrIotic e~OIs'!l ' agamst
which the early Christians had a lready rebelled and whIch IS now so
n
assiduously preached by the latter-day Christi.ans ... Thu.~, war "7'as
rooted in the existing despotic states. Herzen said as much: Despotism
means "exclusiv~ne~s and hat~ed: empire. means war: ~hlch IS wny
'\ ' Napoleon called it peace, "n- Here we fmd Herzen s Ideas not far
advanced beyond those of the 18th-century' ~evolution in France. He
went on to remark on the meaning of the religIOn of blood and ~adness
being impo sed by "despotism", All of thi s was u~doubtedly qUite true,
..
but the root s of this "religion" were yet to be dIscovered.
Marxism alone proved that it was not enough to change t~e pO.litlcal
form of government as the leaders of the bourgeoi s revol utiOn S III the
" '
" was to b'
The pomt
flng about a fundamental
.
f
18th century beheved.
change in the economic and social structure of society, The ques.tlo\,!
peace also turned out to be inextricably' connected with the sC Ient I IC
theory of social development.
"" f

UTOPIAN SOCIALISM IN THE EARLY 19TH CENTURY

AND THE IDEA OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

k' d'

roach to the fundamental

To sum up , let us note that ~an III s app
nd to the development
and most acute problems of sacral development a
" Ibid .. p. 74 .
V I 11. MoscoW. 1948. p. 346 (in
32 A. l. Hen'en. Selected Phi/osopllic(J/ Works. o.
RUssian).
33 Ibid " p. 3405

.,

"

" "f" h
f (he social process was very different from thdt
of a SCIent I Ie t eory 0
,
. t d by bourgeois histonans,
d epic
e
f " ) d e)opment and its most impOrlant prerequisites
The theory 0 socm ev
, ) b)
d h
'thout
the
great
SOCia
alt
cs
an
t e answers
could not have emerge d WI
d )"f " )f Th " h
""
d b the class struggle an I e Itse ,
IS teary
to the questIons pose
Y
d
""
d
"
d b the urge to sort out the ten enCles a n pro spects of
wa~ g)ednera)le y t and to discover what lay in store for human history,
SOCia eve opmen
"
f
f d) "
T he great c )ass b a tt)es of the period of tranSition
f
" romh e u a "Ism to
")"
t"
)ated social thinkers by can rontlllg t e m wIth the
capita Ism s Imu
Th h "
f
"
fundamental problem of social developmentf"
') dlstor) y 0 SOCial
thought clearly shows_ that a ~nuinf?_~,~~_().ry '?..~()cm _ ev,e o.PIlle.DL, was
also bound to be a theory of ,theJundamJ!ntalJ~ansformalloo of society.
-Th-;twa-s fhe resuTt of'the development of SOCial thought on the eve of
the 19th century.
,
",
These problems were tackled by the great uto~lan SOC I~!J stS J,n the
early 19th century, seeking in their o~n way to contmue consldera~lon of
the question raised by the Babouvlsts: what was to be done wuh the
society produced by the French revolution, and what were the prospects
for its development? The theory of the hi storical process could not be
advanced without a solution of this problem, Whereas the utopian
communists of the 16th-18th centuries in effect simply brushed aside the
capitalist way of development. thinkers in the new age had to start from
the fact that the world had already entered upon the capitali st way. Some
part of the way had already been travelled , the "age of indu striali sm"
was on. Europe's tempestuous indu strial development was becoming a
historical fact, and the considerable successes scored by human labour
in mastering the forces of nature were there for all to see. In their efforls
to answer the questions posed by life , the utopian socialists asserted that
mankind had to evolve towards a new society, whose main virtue would
be labour, instead of greed and gain. However , the new stage in the
history of social relations and in the development of labou r a nd
production forced them to give thought above all 10 how the labour
process would be organised in the future system in view of what had
a lready been achieved, Their picture of the new society was diffe re nt
from that of the utopian communi sts of the 18th century, The
19th-century utopian socialists did not believe tha t th e realm of
private-property money-making would be followed by a system on
whose banner would be inscribed: "From each according to his ability, to
each according to his need." They inclined to the idea that each member
of the new soc iety would work in accordance with his abilit y and receive
according to his work.
They felt that many of the positive elements that had al ready appeared
in soc ial life had!o be retained\._and atl the n~ative, c!emi!lnts di scarded.
But what was to be regarded as "positive" in bourgeois societ y, what ~as
to develop a nd what was to be codemned by hi story? The utopian

~odalists gave

)(

'"

it 'iharp criticism of many aspects of )"f "

"
d' g
h i e 10 hourgeOl~
~ocle~fY" Oltnh ~uc't~O ~dv)ance social.thought. But when it came t~
Identl ymg CPOS! Ive c ernen!s a~~leved in bourgeois society, the
clements that were to be the prerequIsite for building the new society,
they were confused and well off the mark. They were even" )" d t
"h"'
me me 0
carryover mto t CI.T new SOciety the capitalists, who were for that
purpo se to merge with the workers.
They w~re ,unable ~cie~tifically to analyse the essence of exploitation
under .c~pltailsm , thel ~ view of the economy of bourgeois society was
superficial a nd they fmled to understand the kind of social structure this

economy produced. They did not realise that the working class was to
destroy the soc ial st ructure of the exploitat ive society and to create a
new social system.
They kept saying that the time would come when man's exploitation of
man would give way to the cooperation of all for the sake of society's
domination of the forces of nature, a period in which social justice wou ld
ulrimately triumph. Progress would be everlasting, it wou ld cease to be a
process of ebb and fl ow, while the social system was to serve mankind's
boundless impro vement.
"The golden age, which up to now blind tradition put behind us, b
before u s." With these excellent words Saint-Simon (1760-1815), the
famou s Frenc h utopian soc ialist, opened his Literary. Pl!i/osopll~cal and
Industrial Discollrse. 14 Mankind's "golden age" would open with "the
establi s hment of an organisation that is most favourable for the
development of a ll useful capac ities".ll No satis~action o_f ,the needs of
the majority o f men and development of t~elr capacllles could be
achieved in a society ruled by gross self-seekmg. It was ne ce~sary to
organise society in such a way as. to allow the devel~p~ent of Industry
and agriculture and to serve the Interests of the m.aJo~lty"
h' h
Saint-Simon believed that "the best social orgam~atl?n IS tha~ w I~
makes the conditions of those who constitute the majority of socf,le~y), t, ~
""
h
'th the most means and aC I Itles
happiest possible by providing t em w~ H"
"
of the summit of
h'
'ary wants'"
IS view
for sat "ls f"
ymg t elr pnm
.
, these words' "Up to
mankind's progressive development was set out In no more tha~ purely
now men have brought to bear on nat~re, so tOt~r; efforts have largel~
individual and isolated efforts" What IS n:o~le, to now mankind has been
always been mutuall y destruc~lve becau s
of which has constantly
divided into two unequal faCllons, the sma er rt of those of the greater
employed all its forces, and frequently eve~,~ pa
greater faction has
the
faction , to dominate the latter; meanW I e,

Ir

. ,

:u Oem-ft'.f dlOIsles de S(lwt-SIIIW/I, '

.

S-

3_~ OeUl-re.f de C-H de Smut- mum..

III, Bnn:elles. 1859. p. ::!I5

'966

V Pans, I
.

IT'.
.P

l6 Ibid .. p. 56.
S-S94

"

hy men's joint activity !n br~nging their influence to bear on nature. Of

course,. there: too, Samt-S tmo~ remained an idealist. a')<;uming that
harmonious tt~S c~u ld be estabhshed between the bourgeoisie and the
work~rs. Consldermg that human society was a "great workshop", it was
not ~,ght for some men to dominate others, but for all men together to
dommate nature.
The. ~a~k of soc ial org~nisation lay in the utmost development of men's
capabth!les and potential for their joint labour, creative effort and
productIOn. Man's status in society shou ld be determined not by his
wealth but by the capabi lities which he contributed to the common good.
Earlier epochs did not accord with this requirement, and the
domination by warriers together with the priests, the domination by the
"law-makers and metaphysicians" hampered man's creative effort.
giving precedence to idlers instead of "producers", and slowing down the ,
advance of reason and scie ntific knowledge. However, these ideas of
Saint-Simon's were vague, bacause he was not clear on the concept of
classes and the class struggle , and had a very faint idea of the substance
of exploitation.'8
Of course, it cannot be sa id that Saint-Simon's views marked an
attempt to break with the capitalist order and the exploitative society.
But. on the other hand, neither can Saint-Simon be regarded as an
ordinary apologist of capitalism, as many present-day bourgeois
theorist s insist. Much of Saint-Simon's writings were basically reformist. because he believed that the structure of society he was advocating
would not be realised through class struggle and revolution. He merely
considered the need so to direct the development of capitalism as to
render it harmless, to purge it of sores and to transform it into a new
society. Saint-Simon believed this could be done by creating the cells of
the new soc iety within the entrails of capitalism. Although he did deal
with the succession of the evolutionary and the revolutionary types of
social development, the succession of "organic" and "critical" epochs,
he was at heart an evolutionist. However, one should not underestimate
th e importance of Saint-Simon's views, for his was an attempt ~o
discover tendencies in the historical process which ultimately made
explo lrMive soc iety rf6 'more than ' atran-sltionru s'tage in history .
Sa int-Simon tried to review the course of social development.
He held that the slave-holding period of antiquity "favoured the
advance of enlightenment and provided the ruling classes with the
opportunity of engaging in the development of their intelligence".'9 The

wasted a considerable part of it s strength in resisting that domination . It

is certain, however, that despite this enorm?~s waste o~ effort. the
human race has achieved in the most civIlised countnes. a fairl y
remarkable degree of welf~re and prosperity. One can ~el1 imagine in
the light of this what it would have achieved had none of Its forces ~een
wasted and had men, ceasing to command each other, organised
themselves to bring their combined efforts to b~ar on ~ature, and had the
nations adopted the same system in their relation s with each other." 37
That being Saint-Simon's view of th~ hist~ri cal proc.ess. w~at is hi s
contribution to the development of sociology . BourgeoIs theori sts have
a ready answer: they stress in Saint-Simon's writings. everything that
Auguste Comte borrowed and then went on to distort. Actually,
however. Saint-Simon's niche in the history of socia l developm ent is not
at all determined "via Comte", but by the following achievement s.
First. Saint-Simon formulated the important problem of social
development concerning the relation between soc iety and nature , a
problem earlier considered by German and French Enlighteners, notably
Montesquieu, who stressed the idea that the geographical environm ent
had an influence on social development. Elaborating the idea s of
Condorcet and other French Enlighteners, Saint-Simon brought to the
fore the idea that man was steadil mastering the.-i9rces oLn.~.ture and
that soc iety was exerting an active influence on the environment. That.
Saint-Simon held, was the substance of the historical process. He
attached much importance to production, to men's economic activity,
the true source of wealth and socia l prosperity. But Saint-Simon did not
go beyond that point. Remaining an ideali st, he did not reali se that
production was the basis of social development , and continued to pin hi s
hope s on reason, the mastermind of the historical process, believing that )
the succession of historical epoch_s was ultimately determined by the
change of ideologies.
.
Sec~nd.' Sain~-Simon stressed the importance of society' s soc ial
org?OJsatlon. for. ItS successful mastery of the forces of nature . Society's
sO~~LOr$~~.lsatmn was most progressive when it gave mo st freedomJor
men s development anooest allowed them to pool their efforts to master
.the forces of nature. Man's domination of man and wars between nation s
were a ')he~r waste of effort, which could be joined together for society
to exert an mfluence on n at urean d toa d

.
Th"d
vanceltswelfarcandprospenty.
I"> I ea was ~erely outlined in the most general form but it had a great
ruture before It.
'
a pproac h .to t h e hlstoflcal
.
.
. to
Third, Saint-Simon's
th
b
process allowed hIm
conside
the pro~le e p;o le~ of t~e relatIOn between the individual and society,
m 0 men s socl3l connections, which he held to be determined
n

~8 Of all the bourgeois wriling~ published

paper in Oi/liers IlItenratiml(l!u lie S(lri(lla.l!ie. "t'lIld." ou~, bUI. he: 10t.l. ob~cure .. Ihi" mO~1 imporlant point and makes an efforl III identlh SaHlI-SImon" 'Ie .... " .... Ith

G.

Otl,jl'rtS dt C-H dt Saint - S1n/011.

II, Paris, 1966, p. 195.

Gur\lilch'~

to mar\... Saint-Simon' .. bicenlenary.

tno,e of Marx.
)9 Oell\'rts de C-H de Saint-Simon. t.

v ..

p. IJ .

,7
S"

)(

Middle Ages, feudalism. were not a peri?d of complete, declin e and

"Th b barian peoples did mankmd a great serv ice by totall y
regress.
e ar
.'
" h d b th G
k
destroying the social organisation e~!ab ~s e h ~ \ ~ee .j' and the
Romans ".., having had the task of cas,m g t .~ oTt hO t ~ sa, Ye s and
paving the way for the IOlal abolition ,of savery :"
e easier 01 of the
he emergence of serfdom m place of s lavery mark ed a mOst
,
d
t
5 ave an
important step in social develo~ment. W h"Ie h"IS W h Y th e.M Iodd Ie Ages ~
should not be regarded as a period of regre ss and sl,agnatlon.
The medieval order was broken up by the new sO~l al system. "From
the 15th century to 1793. the
worked with ,reat ardour to
i
I
put they did oot SUCceed
-,:; I
a
they had destroyed."42The
French revolution was a forced act in the fight against feudalism but it
introduced disorganisation because "insurrection ... absOlute ly contradicts the interests of industry".43
The task ahead was to create a new social organi sa tion to elimin ate the
rule of the minority over the majority of the people , and to establish
relations between men on the, princ;iple of common effort by all fgr the
common good.
For all the remarkable guesswo
ossibilities fo r social
development . amt-Simon presented a very vague pic ture of the new
social system. It was to be without those who did not work , being an
association for the conquest of nature. The function s of administration
were to become functions for directing all the works of soc iety. The state
was to lose its erstwhile importance and disappear , becau se society
would have no need of it. Society'S main purpose, Saint-Simon believed ,
was to be the best satisfaction of the needs of all its members . the
proletariat. the poorest class, in the first place. "This great goal" had "to
be attained".44
~ut Saint-Simon feared a "war of the poor against the rich " and
be,l,leve~ that the establishment of the new society would not entail such
a war but the spread of the "new Christianity" with its message of
broth~rhood"s. That was the reactionary aspect of Saint-Sim on 's
doc tnne . and It was subsequently seized upon and elaborated into a
whole system by Auguste Comte.
:

Otuvrts dt C-H de Saint-Simon, t. V, p. 71.

Ibid .. p. 73.

42 Ibid .. p. 91.

"
"" Otlll'rei
. . de Saint -S"mlO.n por 01"mde Rodnglles.
Pari s. 184\. p. 348

OeulrtS de C.H de SaInt-Simon. t. III. Paris 1966 piT'

See M. A. Alpalov ''The F
h U'
.....~.
.
f
Class Struggle in lhe 19th
~~nc
topran ~ocrahsl s a nd the BourgeOIs Th eory 0
401'''()2
Cenlury . In the colleclron : From the History of Socialist Ideas.
pp.
. The author shows Saint S
.
.
flO Ru~~ian).
.
- Imon s awareness of the need of revolulron

. On the ot~er hand, the. follower\ of Saint-Simon strove to specify the

pic tu re outllncd by thclr teacher: the universal association was to
practise the prinCiple of "to each according to his capacity, to each /
capac ity according to its works". They were the first to give a precise
formulation of this demand. but they failed to realise that it could
characterise only the first phase of the new society. and held it to be the
ultim ate goal. 411 They stressed that man's exploitation of man had to be
e nded and were the first to formulate this demand in clear terms: "In the
past, the social system was always variously based on man's exploitation
of mati; henceforth the most important progress will consist in putting an
end to this exp loitation ill wlwtever form it may be cotlceived." 47 In their
plan s for remodelling society, they did not consistently abide by this
prinCiple, but in historical terms it was important that the great principle
wa s proclaimed, heralding the end of the realm of idlers and the start of
the new era, the realm of labour. Man had to join man in order to exploit
the force s of nat ure . Some of Saint-Simon's followers did not accept his
"new Christianity", and took an atheistic stand, while others increasingly
evolved into so mething like a religious sect.
Neither SaintSimon, nor his followers saw any real ways for realising
their ideals, and were unable to assess the importance of the class
struggle. the greatest motive force of history. That is why their picture of
the futu re soc ial system was vague: industrialists continue to run
production, and the concept of "industrialists" itself includes both
capitalists and workers.
.
While Saint-Simon and his followers may have been inconsi stent. thelT
idea of the poss ibi lity of a socia l system under whi.ch each wou.ld work
according to hi s,ability and recei ve according to hiS w~rk was Itse.1f ~f
vast importance. This prin ciple became a. plank m t~e soc la~l st
-/
prog ramme. Equal import ance attached to the. Idea that soc iety, hav~ng / \
rid it self of man 's exp loitation of man, acqUired tremendou~ creative
power , adopting for its mott o the utmost develo~ment of s~ lence and
tec hnology to harness the mighty forces of nature 10 the s~rv lce of man.
A great futur e also lay ahead before the .idea of t~an s~ormmg the state . a
machine for admi ni stration . int o a machme for diTectlOg all the works of
soc iety.
E
,
'dtht
In their Manife sto of the C0I11I111Ulist Party , Marx and. nge S sal
a
the ut op ian syste ms expounded by Saint-S.imon, :ouner, ~wen and
others , were " fanta stic pictures of future soc iety. pamted at a time wh~n
the prol etari at is still in a very undeveloped .state a.nd has ?ut ? fa~tas.ttc
conception of its ow n position", correspondlOg "With the f irst IOstmctlve

4!1

68
"

"s ee V .P. Volgin . "The Legacy of Utopian Socialism". In the collection: A Histor)" of
Social ist Doctrill u. pp. 20-21 (in Russian).
41 Doctri ne SOilll-Silll()llielllle. Exposilion. Paris. \854. p. 107.

"

.1 '

f thai class for a _eeneral reconst ru ction of society" .4~ The

. _ -, -- -- ..
'II ," ,
of the ul-opian soc iali st s were h,hCu on Ill.! ... 11 vim y reali sed
!iyslemS
.
. ' . .'
f ."
.
'
,
5
of
the
proletanat
for
a
recon~IItH.;11011 (,) <;O\,:lcly .It a lime
yearning
. .
when its anticipation of slic h change W:l'" Inrlu cm:l.'d h, the Illu siun'!
spread by bourgeois libera l.i s.m . because, '.he "'1 1~tI~t~ hetween t~c
pro letariat and the bourgeOIsIe \\ a ... ont) Ju ... t hc.:g~nnm~ . B~)urgcol\
writers have long tried to separate the theory of Saml-SlIllOll s soc ial
development from his u~opi ~ n. so.cialism, an a~lempl w~ich. at ?C'il
amounts to gross oversimplificatiOn. In th e ,hg ht of hl!i Idealism,
'Saint-Simon strove to work out a theory of soetal development and an
ideal for remodelling society . Hi s efforts s howed th at th e time was ripe
for producing a theory of soc ial developme ~lt to indu.de the solution of
the question on the fundamental restructuring of soc ie ty, th e future of
f capitali sm. the elimination ~f so~ ial inju st ice. a nd that ~t w~s impossible
) \ to do so in the light of Ideali sm. Only a brea k with Ideahsm and
metaphysics. and the discovery of the inner dialectics of the histQrical
process could
ur ent need for a sc ientifi c theory of society.
Auguste Co mte. the French bourgeois theorist a te Irst alf of the
19th century , took a different way: he drew generously on the treasure
house of Saint-Simo n 's idea s a nd em ph as ised in every way the
reactionary aspects of hi s doctrine . Comte pro du ced his own socio logy
based o n the assertion of harmoniou s class interests. denial of the
imporlance of re vol ution s in socia l development. emphasis on the role of
ideas, which determined hi storic a l epochs. e tc. In sh ort, he strove to kill
the living spi rit of Saint-Simon's theo ry and t o nullify hi s remarkable
a ttempt to consider the question of c ha nging soc iety 's social structure.
Com te produ ced hi s "system " from the fragmentary id eas left by
Sai nt-Simon, making use of hi s incon s istencie s and limitation s. emphasiSing hi s idealism in considering soc ial ph e nom e na , and leavening it
all with agnosticism and mysticism. Comte's system was fa ith fully to
se rve bourgeois liberali sm and the apology of cap itali sm . On the strength
of thi s. bourgeois sociologist s, di stort ing the true picture of th e
development of social thought , began to rank Sa int -Si mon as a
"p redecesso r" of Comte's and eve n as a n advocate of positivi sm.
Ind eed. Sa int -S imon had envisaged the creation of a " political science"
to crow n the whole system of the sc ience s, but for all th e limit ations and
inconsistencies of hi s views, he had never intended to base thi s scie nce
o n apologe tics for bourgeoi s society.49
C ha rle s Fourier (1772-1837) exerted a considerable influ ence on
contempo ra ry soc ial thought. and made a co ntribution to the theory of
social development. Hi s writings a re s hot through with the idea of soc ial
yearnm~ 0

_(

49 K Marx and F. Engels. Selected Works. in three volume .... Vol. 1. p. 135.
. ~ee N. Y Zastenker. Henri de SainI-Simon". In Ihe collection: Tile His/or)' of

SOfia/lSI DO('/r;n,.s. p. 208 (in Russian).

70

(;hal1~c

V
1\

and the development of 'Iociety's 'Iocial <,tructure. De..,pite hi ..

ideali<,tic and thcological error.,. which still fettered his mind that idea
clearly .. tilnd .. out.
In hi .. "olo:i<ll theory , Fourier advanced the idea. however vaguely and
incon .. i\tently, that man was a 'Ioc ial being . and that his 'Iubstance and
nalUrc were exprc .. ..,ed and hi.., inclination s developed only in ..,ociety. in
hi .. connection.., with other men. A characteristic feature of eighteenthcentury bourgeoi., theories was a kind of soc ial atomism, presenting the
"lone Robin\on Crusoe on a desert island", the lucky individual who
stood out against the background of the "rest", and we find a series of
Robinsonades expressing this view. In contrast, Fourier suggested that
man' s act ivit y and ..,ub .. tance were expressed in his soeiHI relations.
However, Fourier only took the first step along this way, for he believed
that men were impelled to action by their passions. These were
everlasting passions with which abst ract man was invested. In
consequence. Fourier failed to understand and show the substance of
man.
Fourier attached more importance than Saint-Simon to the social
organ isation of society. He did not identify the historical pr~cess with
the development of indu stry. and stressed that the latter reqUired. a new
social structure, as otherwise it held in store for the people nOl~l~g b~t
unhappiness and misfortune. But ha\oing realised this conlra~ lctlon 111
social deve lopment. Fourier did not draw the necessary concluslOns_ and
we nt on to seek a way Ollt in social "harmony" in an effort to prevent any
sharpening of the contradiction.
.
Furthermore. Fourier criticised a number of Ideas propounded by
18th-century bourgeois Enlighteners when he said t.hat the stat~ was not
an expression of universal c~nc~)fd. of some "SOCial contr~ct . bul th~
res ult of opp ression of a majority of the people by the nch. He als
rejected the idea of straightforward progress. ~e saw the muchfvau~ted
bourgeoi s c ivil isation in such a repugnant hgh~. thaI he re use I \~
consi der it th e c rowning achievement of progressive development: t
true that Fourier did not see the material basis of progress and b~lIeve~
soc ial development to run both along an upgrade and a dow.ngra e. an
so like Vico ended by believing that deve lopment was cyc lic. Afterd~l1
a ;o und basi~ for judging progress ~s provi~ed c~~ b:e~~i~~~~r~~~ ;~~
of the . development of produ~tlo~ :n Th!Oidea1ist approach 10 this
CtiO
. . g that socia l development
success ion of the modes of pro
problem will always leave room or dassu;.'~; n~\\ retreating . Fourier
run s alo ng in volved curves now a viano I
his idealistic melhodowas led to a fal se and harmful cone uSlon
.

by

logy.
.
.. I attitude 10 the ideologi sb of the
However. Founer took a cr~llca d
d'ng to their philosophical
,
'd H
ote' Habltuate . accor I
.
a ncien t wor . e wr
.
,
.1
'se themselve~ in companson
maxims a lways to face the past anu 10 pral

.,

with the barbarians. they regarded e,,'ery ~ol'iat stal e as the en d i\f
movement; every philosopher of anli~uity w.uuld have support ed the
idea that civilisation could not have eXisted With o ut the enslavem en t of
the tillers of the soil and household servants ," \0.' Th e utopian sOcia li ,;ts
did science a reat servce b ' stron 1Lat~~l_c_kin{:. the id ea t hat the sO( ial tt
order 0 bourgeoIs society marked the "e nd of m(,)Vc mc nt", SOl:iety . they fi
held. must advance. The slaves "became the frce men of the mod ern
period. while civilisation. far from declining becau se o f Ihi 'S freed om,
ha!. in effect advanced", says Fourier. 11 "Modern civili sat ion," he goes
on to say. "having caused the disappearance of the horri ble slave
system. has risen to plenitude." ~~
Fourier insisted that little by litlle feudal bondage was raiSing th e
people to the freedom they had been deprived under the Gree k s and the
Romans. One must use one's imagination to reali se the p o w erful ri ng I
these words had at a time when bourgeois ideologi st s were ex to ll ing the
slave-holding democracy of antiquity, always omitling to sa y th at it had
been based on slavery, driven to arduou s labour, and forgetti ng that
bourgeois democracy was based on exploitation. Fouri e r stressed that
"all the famous republicans of Greece and Ro me , all de v oted lovers of
liberty, turned the'
of executioner into a pa stime"})
whom
did not
to v ".

was
working hard to cover up its gaping sore s .
The civilisation of the modern period , that is, the bou rg eois social
~ y s tem, 3-bounded in vices. Comparing the lot of the po or fa mi lies of
Joble ss workers and that of the savage, Fourier decided th at in a c ivilised
society the lot of the former was the more terrible o n e. Th e social
structure of modern civilisation wa s it self defectiv e . Fouri e r boldly
e xposed the gaping sores of capitali st society castigating the system
based on the rule of the rich.
He att~cked the i~eologists of bourgeoi s civili sation ju st a s strongly as
the theon sts ?f ancient slavery. He wrote: "How are we to e x pla in the
base c omplaisance of philosophers with re s pec t to the com merc ial
abuses~ Those wh? have trumpeted the crime s of pope s and king s dare
t s e of
c~lm.
f commerce." ~ Naturally, Fourier did no t go to
the root s of explOitatIOn un er capitalism, but his beginning wa s a good
o~~ .. A .ne~ sy stem was to be built "on the ruin s of barba ri sm and
CIVili satIOn ..'!S . ~?uri.er expressed a remarkable idea th at un der t he
sy 'S t_em of c lvlhsatlon indu stry could merely create elem en ts of
.

:!

Ch . FOUrie r, Egartmtnt dt la rais on . Paris, 1847, p 48

Ib id ,
'
.
Ibid .
') Ibid.

~ Ihid .,

jR.
Otu ~'rel comp!tttl de Ch. Fo uritr , tome premie r, Pa," , 1846 , p , 101.

"

p.

)l

happ ines . hu.t n()~ ~~pp~ne ... ~ ihelf and that "the excessive growth of
IOdu ... try carne ... cIV II1\<llIon to very great misfortune!'). unle,;<; the mean~
o f rea l progre~s along the scale of social development are discovered" M
Th ~rc ~a~ ~eed not. o~ly to develop industry but also to improve
soc iety s ~oc l al or~am s atlOn , and to de stroy the \ystem under which the
w~alt h and happmess of some were based on the poverty and
ml!\fortune!\ of other~. Fourier critici sed the "industrialists", that is . the
~ d voca t ~ ... of capitalism who believed mankind's happy future lay alone
In tec hmcal advance and education. What was the U<ie of education for
t he unfortu nate ones who had no means of Jlvelihood1- 'Uiiaer
cTvilisatio n. f)oVerty- spra-ng from abundance itself. Fourier said, and the
vic io u s circ le at this stage of mankind' s deveJopment_.hadl0 he broken.
Th ose we re ideas of t remendo us povier and importance for the
develop ment of soc ial thought and for the emergence of a scientific
th eory of soc ial development.
F ou rie r's strongest point was his criticism of bourgeois "c ivilisation"
of wh ic h the ideolog ists of cap italism were so proud. He succeeded in
thro ugh t he vei l of lies by means of which the advocates of
Fouri er d eclared
ma ny "paper
these li nes: a right was illusory when o ne was unable to exercise il.
E v ide nce o f t his was the people's constit utio nal right to sovereignt y.
Desp ite t his b ri llia nt prerogat ive, t he commo n man without a ce nt in his
pocket had to go without his d innerY He declared t hat the "right to
work" was t he most important o ne: "under civi lisat ion il is t ruly
un feasib le, alth ough wit hout it. a\1 t he other rights are quite useless".'IS
Th e g reat utopian soc ialist clea rly saw the anarchy of prod uction
characteristic of capitali sm unde r which wh ole cropS of grapes had to be
du mped because of overp roduction. He was aware of the cont radict ions
of bou rgeois c ivili sat ion under whic h t he re was a growth of ric hes but no
"guara ntee fo r t he producer or the worker of pa rtic ipation in the grow ing
wea lth " )9
One q uestio n of t remendous impo rtance posed by Fou rier was how to
turn wo rk whic h th e ideologist s of th e exploitat ive system declared to
be ma n 's ~ urse, into a so urce of pleasu re. However, F~urier could .not
prov ide the right answer. In his prepa ratory ma n,usc n pt for Capl,ral.
Ma rx sa id th ,at Fourier was wro ng to assum e th at m the futu ,re ... oc
lely
'
work would become an amuseme nt. Work wou ld become ma n ~ J?Tl_mary
need. but it wo uld never becomean empt y playt hmg.
,
Fo u rie r a tt ac hed mu ch importa nce to huma n passion<;, and behc\'ed
that the ha rm ony t hat was to be establish ed in societ y wo uld be ba<;ed on
OeUl' res comp/tlts de CII, Fourier.!. 6, .Paris . 1848. p.lo.
.
~
57 ".3 Ph;rl ange". Re\"lIt'de III .(t'ifllt~t' Iocwle. tome premIer. Parr~. I~; r
~ Oeu r-rt's complete de Charles F Ollntr, Pans, 1846. lome premIer, p. ~.1.
W rh. Fourier, Olllrt.f ('fl/tlplt' /tJ, t. O. p. :!8 .
.\6

,*,

a satisfaction of human passions. He produce~ a fairly complicated

classification of human passions because he believed that thes e should
be reckoned with in establishing harmonious relations between individu_
als in society. There. Fourier continued the line started by Mahly, who
held that passions determined social relations. Some passions Were
virtuous. having been generated in the period when social property was
in the ascendant. while others owed their origins to private property and
were harmful (greed. self-interest. elc.).60 One modern French specialist
in social psychology considers Fourier to be a predecessor of modern
specialists in this field. He claims that "Fourier's soc iali sm is structured
on this social psychology" .61 which he had tried to develop in his doctrine
of passions.
According to this doctrine, men's association in the process of labour
should be based on sympathy. Fourier suggested that the labour process
had to be organised in such a way as to be a source of satisfaction, to
prevent man from being forced constantly to do one type of work, and
to enable him to choose the type of work which best fitted his capabilities and inclinations. Thus, we find Fourier also pondering the ways and )
means of doing away with the capitalist divi sion of labour which tends
to distort man. and the contrast between town and country. That was
undoubtedly a great achievement. but Fourier's recipe s for the future
soc ial system were utopian. and were based on totally wrong idea s.
Academician Volgin was right in saying that "two trends on the
question of the form of social property can be discerned in the history of
social thought as it paved the way for the emergence of scientific
communism'.61 Fourier was among those who believed that a small and
economically independent community had to be the unit of the new
society , in other words. that social property was to be held by the given
community. The followers of Saint-Simon took a different view and
suggested a centralised national economy, "clearly se tting forth the idea
of a general economic plan" .63 Let us s tress that the Babouvists. as I
have .. aid, had come close to the idea of state property owned by the
whole people. In Fourier's writings we find the idea of cooperation and
coope ratives that were to transform society. Here. he was a predeces .. or of Robert Owen's. who also had visions of transforming
capita li "im by means of cooperatives. Owen expected his cooperatives to
..,p read to the factories and plants in the first place . whereas Fourier
believed that the units of the new society would rest on a peculiar
See S. Safronov. "M&bly 's Political and Social Idc& s. In the colleclion: From a
His!~lry of Soci{l-Polilifa/ Idea s. p. 249 (in Ru sl>ian).
". J. Stoetlel. I.a pSYfh%gie sociale. Paris. 1963. p. 15 .
V. P. Volgin. ''The Legacy of Utopian Soci.dism". In Ihc collection: A Hiswryof
\1/(~~IiSI Om trines . p. 9 (in Russian).
Ihid p. 11
II)

14

r.:omhin.ati?n of .agricultural an.d industrial production.

Founer s ..,oclct.y ~a<; organl"ied in separate phalansterie ... and "'0 had
no overall organisation. It began. its life with the e~lahli~hmcnl of
isolated cells. and the whole of ... ocml life. in effect. boiled down 10 Ih .
.'
I' 1
h F
.
elr
aCllvlt~. t IS r~e t at. oUTler assumed that the phalansterie~ would
enter mto relatIons With each other in order to tackle production
problems that no phalanstery was able to tackle alone. but he had no
elaborated system of bonds between the phalansterie<;.
Present-day bourgeois sociologists in sist that Fourier's view<; had no
direct bearing on the theory of social development. and fundamental
writings on the history of social thought deal with Fourier in a few lines.
Of course. Fourier was a utopian and far removed from scientific theory.
But he s howed the potentialities for social development. and opposed
the idea that socia l institutions were fixed and everlasting. His idea about
the possibility of changing the nature of labour and men's attitude to
their work. together with the established principles underlying the
division of labou r. undoubtedly helped to emancipate many minds.
Fourier was concerned with enhancing the soc ial power of associated
men as the key problem in social development and opposed the view
that soc ial forms were ossified. But that is a problem which could not
be solved without materialist dialectics . Fourier was also inclined to
tread on the verge of mysticism. Life was posing problems that could
not be solved in the light of idealism.
The idea that private property had become the greatest drag on human
development was proclaimed more powerfully and .in mor~ ~Iear-cut
terms. than Fourier did. by Robert Owen. the utopian <;oclahst. \\ho
played a great role in enlightening Britain's .wo~k.ing .class. He ~ttack~d
private property as the taproot of the soc.lal IOju.stlce that reIgned ~n
soc iety. "Private property has been. and IS at thIS day. t.he. cause f
endless crime and misery to man"'.64 Here is a shorl descr.lptlOn of ~he
misfortunes and crimes it has caused: "Private property ahenates. mind )(
from mind. is a perpetual cause of repulsive action throughout socIety. a \
never-fa iling source of deception and fraud between man and man and h
. .
en It has caused war Ihroug
strong stimulu s 10 prostitutIOn among worn.
'
. I It
all the past ages of the world's known history, and been a sllmu an a
innumerable private murders."6~
.
k f soci'll intellectual
Owen argued with great force Ihat the l:"al t?S 0
"
M kind
.
in destroYlng_pnvate propc:rty. an .
:;;"0,"1
'mere pers~na1~ sn~ll be pub.he
11 I
be mamt:'l1ned m superflUIty
property . and public property sh? ? ways ha i'ness would dawn only
for all" .66 In other words. mankmd s true
pp .,
6-1

Robert Owen. TIll! Book of till! Nell' ,\Ioral World . I.ondon .

6~ Ibid .. p.41
M [hid .. p. 4:!.

1~~9.

Jl.

~O.

with the establishment of communism. O~e.n believed that the lim e

when "the incalculable superiority of a system of public
WOli Id C orne
'I
..
r
.
property be duly appreciated over the eVI s anslIlg rom PriVat e
.. 67

properly.
F .
d S S
Owen laid much greater emphasis tha~ ~uner a~. amt Imo~ on the
great progressive importance of mankmd s. translt~ol~ from pnvate to
public property. He was a tireless propagandist of this I~ea. and made an
outstanding contribution to the development of social th ought. His
develop_
i
led
arrived at
the domination of private property, and what were the way s of changing
this social state. A correct answer to these question s would hav e meant

the emergence of a scientific theo~y of social developm~nt..

However, Owen himself took an I
approa~Ch' bellevmg that the
>ric:'ll
vi~ws and for that reason
transfor ation of the social
system, He
quite naively that because it was rat io nal the
rational idea would ultimately triumph , and so kept submitting proposals
for reform to the governments of his day, But his ach ievement was his
consistent advocacy of the idea of the superiority of a social system
based on public property,
Owen also went beyond Saint-Simon and Fourier in the theory of
socia l development by resolutely purging the theory of all theolog ical
and mystical elements which we still find in the writings of the French ) \
utopian soc iali st s, Owen did not believe that religious v iew s provided
any basis for progress, He did not accept Saint-Simon's new Christianity, or Fou,rier's mystical notions, Owen was an atheist.! insisting on the
reactionary role of religious idea's
soc ial development , boldly
continuing in the new conditions the atheistic tradition of the French
Enlighteners of the 18th century,
Meanwhile, some early 19th-century utopian socialists in Germany
were developing a vague notion of the historical role of the proletariat , In
the 1840s, Wilhelm Weitling wrote about the working class as a " new
Messiah" wh ich was to "destroy the rotten structure of the old social
order, to channel the fountains of tears into the sea of oblivion and to
transform the earth into a paradi se" ,68 We find the German utopian
socia li st going beyond the French utopian sociali sts, but hi s approach
was a lso idealistic and was not based on the law s of soc ial development ,
his social and political program being extremely utopian , Franz Mehring ,
the Marxist historian of the German working-class movement. was quite

in

right in saying thHt Weitling

. d d had a long way
' to go to the pr01 e t
Mlan cIass
awarenes s. but he regar e the proletanan revolution in
h th .
regarde d t h e ml11'lonalfe-saviour
.
muc b eIsame
w,y
itS
F
'o
uner
But
Wetl

.
.
, l i n g e leved
that revolution woul~ <;pnn~ not from the growing <;trength of the
worker<;. but from their growing need.oW Henceforth. the transform.t
.
depen de d o~ th.e pro Iet,3nat
' s,
.
Ion
of society.
revolutionary
activity. for it was
the gravedlgger of capitalism. ThiS marked an end to the utopian vso .
. I
h h
1.1 ns
of .so~la Ism , US enng m. t e epoch of revolutionary struggle for
soc lah sm and the forn:ula.tlOn of the theory of revolutionary action.
Here. a great contnbutlOn to the development of social thought was
made by the Ru ss ian revolutionary democrats, among whom we find
such remarkabl e r evo luti ona~r,theg.r.lli~ as Herzen. Chernyshevsky and
Dobrolyubov. 'I heir achie"\/eme nt lay main]j.;]n their efforts to blend
social,i ~ t i,de,<l.S..-with_revolutionary stJuggle. They gave thought not only to
a revolution in Ru ss ia. but to a worldwide revolutionary process.

RUSS IAN REVOLUTIONARY DEMOCRATS

AND THE PROBLEM OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Alexander Herzen. one of the brilliant thinkers and publicists of the

epoch. which abounded in literary talent. was a man who dedicated
him self to the revolution and allied himself with the progressive
.
democratic movement of the people,
the
the hi sto ry of ideological struggle. I
. history of materialist philosophy. Lenin remarked that H erze~ "ca.me
right up to dialectical materialism, and halted - befo re h.lstoTlcal
materiali sm" .70 Herzen was the first social thinker to conSIder the
question of Ru ss ia 's ro le in the 19th-century revolutionary process. This
was of fundam ental importance because it led to the mo!e ge~eral
question about the role in this process of agrarian countnes Wlt~ a
predominantly pea sa nt population lagging in their development behmd
the advanced indu strial state s. Th at was one of the importan t problems
. I depth and much
. Ioglca
in world dev elopment , a problem of great SOCIO
political significance.
.
' 11 fte the
Radical West European circles regarded RUSSIa. especta ya r.
1848 revolution as a reactionary force which could pla~ only a ~fg:tl~e
role in the tran'sformation of soc iety . Nicholas 1 was Justly ca e t e
gendarme of Europe .
.'
d wrote' "We do not ) \
Herzen decided to change thIS notIOn .. an h t the destinies of
prophesy anything: but neither do we beheve t a
5

Fran? Mehring. "G<!,chichle dcr deulsc h~n

D'
V ria, Berlm. I
.
G eWllllmfifl' Sclm!lfll. Rd. I.. ,ctz c, .
70 V . I. Lenin , Co/ltclfd Works. Vol. IS. p. 26.
I:b

67 Robert Owen, op, cit., p, 42,

68 Franz Mehring, "Geschichte der deutschen Sozialdemokratie",

G~$(Jmm~ll~ Schri/ten. Bd,I., Dietz Verlag. Berlin, 1960, S. 105 .

76

Er~ter

Teil. In :

. IdemOCr:1tie". Er,ter Teil In:

960'" S [0'
.'

~.

17

manl...ind are riveted (0 West ern Europe. If Europe (aib to rise to "'o~ial
tran sformation . other countries will transform thems~lve'i; there are aho
some among them which are already pre,pared for thI s movem.ent. while
others arc preparing for it. One of these I S know~ to be the Umted States
of North America: the other. which abounds In strength. but also in
.' 71
savage ry . is little and poor Iy k nown .
.
Herze n expressed doubts about soci,a l c han,ge I~ Western Europe
fo llow ing the failure of the 1848 revolution. w~lch dId much to change
his view of the historical process. Herze n had pmned great hopes On that
revolution, a nd so was greatly di saP Po inted . What had been the basi s of
hi s hope s? Herzen had assumed that the rule of the bourgeoisie was to be

short -lived. and that the 1848 revolution and the establi shment of a
republi c would bring about the most profound soc ial c hanges. Indeed. he
had mistakenly
I
's .
to be
I and
. _
I
mea n
the
decisive battle. He
bourge-6Ts{e. but a takeover by th e working people a nd profound social
change .
Following the co llapse of th ese hopes, Herzen made a co mpar ison of
bourgeo is socie ty in the mid-19th ce ntury and th e fin al centuries of the
slave-holding world. All about him he saw disintegration and corruption.
This philosophlCo-historical conception was crit icised by Chernyshevskyo who argued that Western soc iet y sti ll had cons ide rable creative
qrength an d Ihat it was not at al l in need of salvation from outside.
Herzen subjected bourgeois radicalism to withering criticism for
talking too much about a "republic" while in vesting it with the old
conte nt inherited without c hange from the 1789 revo lut ion. Meanwhile.
"rep ublic" was a term that no longer accorded with th e new struggle.
because the struggle had gone beyond the limits o f th at term . Herzen was
a resolute advocate of socia li st id eas. and hi s genera l socio log ical
conce ption was characteri sed by the idea of inequality a nd the hi storical
nature of c la sses. He wrote: 'The rise of estates was a tre mendous step
forwa rd , for it meant enlightenment. the end of animal uniformity . the
division of labour . The di sintegration of thi s stru ct ure was even a greater
step forward ."n That was the substance of mankind 's soc ial progress.
About him se lf , Herzen wrote: "I did not beco me a social ist overn ight.
Thirty years ago the title of soc iali st was bes towed on me by Tsar
Nic holas."H However. it is hard to rank him a mong any of the
contempo rary trend s then dominant in the West. Herzen observed that
after 1830, with the appearance of Saint-Simon's th eories. socia li sm left
a grea t impression on men's minds in Moscow. He st ressed that "in
Moscow \oc iali sm deve loped together with Hegel's philosop hy". that
" A I Hcuen.

"orl...~.

Vol 1. MlI~":o",.

18",. pp WO-91 (in

Ru~ ~ian).

A Iller/en . .'ie/eoed Philosophkal Works. Mo~cow . 1956. p . WI

'" Ihld r ~41J

7K

.... hou Id alignI it ...elf with sociali ... m.-and-u'"ed

.... "_.I.:'Io ... e

.
,'4 He admitted Saint-Simon \
, rei; I .. ~nd described the ideological
of
assoclat~s fro'!1 SalOl-Simon onwards a ... follow ... :
"Havmg. m~de <I study of hiS wrlllngs. they quite naturally arrived at
Proudhon. Just a ... they went on from Hegel to Feuerbach".~~ However
Herzen should not be unconditionally regarded as a supporter of
Proudhon s. for he_acceyted some of hi ~ ideas, but nOl his sy ... t~m of
views as a whole .. Subsequently. Herzen specified his views of the ">tate. In 1869 he
wrote: "Between Lassalle's view and the sermon about the imminent
dissolution of the state into a life along federal communal lines lies the
whole span between ordinary birth and parturition. From the fact that a
woman is pregnant it does not at all follow that she is due to give birth
tomorrow. From the fact that the state is a transient form it does not
follow that it is a past one." 76 This was open condemnation of
Proudhonism and Bakuninism. Herzen asked: "Was there any people so
mature that state tutelage could be withdrawn from it?" He added that no
nation could "begin ">uch an experiment with impunity. surrounded as it
is by other nations passionately clinging to their state .... Is it ~i?ht to
speak of an early immi~ency of a stateless ord~r whe~~he abolition of
the standing army and disarmament are remote Ideals? . !hat wa ... very
bold guesswork. But the positive aspect of Herzen's vI.ews was also
limited. He agreed with Lassal1e and wrote: "Lassalle Wished to make
use of this state power in order to in~roduce a.social order :l'~~ thought.
why break the mill when its stones Will also gnnd o~r flour.
By. then.
hi')t ory and advance_d..Lev_olutiona~lhe()Jy" had r_? l s~d the_ ques~lon o.r
break ing up tnc-bourgeois state machme and establlshmg a new sl,lte - a
proletarian dictatorsh ip - in its stead.
. '. . .
Herzen noted th e positive aspects of FOUrier s views. b~t "har~ly
criti cised his system as a whole. He wro te: "The phalanstery I~ n~:.hlOg
but the Russian commune and the workers' barrack'roo.~~ a ffill1ary
settlement on civil ian lines, a regiment o.f factorrd handS'cciselY on the
Herze n did not believe thaI the revolution .wou run pr ':lnste'ld of
lines predic ted by the doctrin<lires. and th<lt It ha~ stoppel d. ... ''''d '0
.
.
. . the \~orker IS deep i engIO.,,,,\. 1_
IncautlOlIS a ~temp t ~ and COnsplfaC le\_ 'ld ' v01utronarie~-: not \\Tth the
thought and IS seeklllg cqntact no_t,\"'lt ,gul re

.. ,

7~ A. t Heran . Wf)fks, Vol. 3. p. ~Ol lin Rus~ian)

'I

Ibid .. p_ 502.
76 Ibid .. Vol. 20. p. WI
n Ibid.
"'8 Ib id.
~ Ihld_. \'01 '. r ~U::

"'
,

', rso f Joournal but with the petl.w flts."1JI} Her7en insi"ted that the re
d
elo
..
h
t"Ah cavy storm i~ "
volulionary tide was already rJsmgamong t e pea san s:
gathering in the peasant's breasl.. . He ca~ts gloomy looh at th e rich /'

owner. at (he notary. at the usurer: but he sees, that ~_~_~er much One
works the profit goes into other hand s -=- a~~ sQ lend s an e_ar to the work
er. "81 Herzeffpinned'greaf hopes on the alliance of workers and peasants
adding Ihat when the peasant ~ad heard out the worker an~ we!' un der_
stood him. "with his stubborn firmness of the ploughm a n . with his fund amental solidity in every undertaking, he will then take stock of his strength
and will then wipe the old social structure off the face of the earth. Thai
112
will be a new revolution of the people's masses." Consequentl y, '\ .
Herzen believed that the peasantry. rather than the working class. was )
to play the decisive role even in the revolution in the West.
Herzen's idea of a popular revolution which alone would save the
)
West from destruction and corruption wa s a vague one, but he was Sure
that the "present-day state system with it s civilisation will die, will be
liquidated. as Proudhon politely put it".83 Herzen felr that such "polite
expressions" did not fit this revolution. for he beli eved that "the
it had
Communism
rage
"
sWift ly. In the
mid st of the
and lightning, in tbe glow of burning palaces . on the
ruin s of factories and government offices new comm andments will
appear . tbe features of the new credo will be writ large." 84 He rzen qUite )\
obviously believed the proletarian revolution to be above all a
destructive and not a creative force.
Let us now consider the question of how Herzen saw the world' s
revolutionary process and Russia's role in it. In the mid - 19t h century
Russia continued to be the gendarme of Europe . " It is she , this
barrack-room Russia that ':Y~n~~.to use the bayonets in putting an end to
all the problems agitating the wor1eL" 85
But the revolution would not be put out even by the tsari st attempt s at
intervention against revolutionary Europe. "Revolutionary Europe
cannot be vanquished by imperial Russia. It will save Ru ssia from a
horrible crisis and will save itself from Ru ss ia." 86 Herzen wa s sure that
revolutionary forces were matming - in Russia and that the au1Pcracy,
having triumphed over civilisation , would find it self confronted with the

.,II A. I. He rzen.

Works.

.... Ibid . pp. 209-10.

eo: Ib'd
, 1 . p.lIO.
1- Ib-d
I ., p . 211.
'" Ib-d
80\ Ibid .. p. 506.
Ibid.

"

80

,.

Vol. 3. p. 209 (in

"

indignation of the peasants, with a great uprisin I"k h

pugachov . Herzen believed that the two revolution~' I .ed t e one led by
.
Id'd
I'
ary 11 es would merge
In a war WI e revo uhonary process. Consequen'l h d'd
.
I .on
f
y. e I not believe
)
that the .revo uf','h waslc~n med ~o Western Europe, but he took the
wrong view 0
e revo utlonary tide that was rising' R '.
h Id h R ' 1 " '
In
USSld.
He . e
t <Eat uS.~lab ,vebd . With the "hopes and a<spiration'\ of
revo lutlonary urope. ut e lleved that Russia had a s ' I I
.
pecla
ro e. tof
play. "Th e na"lona I e Iement
Introduced
by
Ru'\sia
is
the
f
h
I'
.
res ness 0
I
yout h an d a natura mc matlon for a socialist order."1t!
He i~sisted that forwar~-Iookin~ men should work to promote the ;
revol ulionary process. which reqUIred human activity. He stressed the
importance of propaganda for revolution, and said in one of his letters to
Ru ssia that his only desire was to act as an uncensored voice of the
people of Russia, which is why he had not sought to return to his nat ive
country but had remained in Europe so as to acquaint it with Russia and
to be it s "uncensored mouthpiece" .88 Herzen was sure that the revolution
was bound ultimately t? triumph and thatl~is _ ~riu~ph ~~u~~ Q~ ~ela~Q.
for some 15 years, while the temporary "triumph of reactIOn Will bnng
"about such a rebuff and suTter such a debacle of which we have never
dreamed" .89
The "natural inclination for a socialist order" that Herzen saw in
which had a different
In
. He wrote: "The German and
the Ce ltic communes collapsed inJh~J~~_~Qftw9_social ideas which w;re
totally opposed to' conim'unal lifelfeudalism and Roman .lawl~'-applfy.
we have arrived with our commune at an epoch m which the
anti-communal civilisation is being destroyed in conse.qu~nce of ~ total
inability to do away. in virtue of its J-undamentai pnnnples, With Ihe
contradiction between individuaUig!lt and J2ubli~ ri~~t."'lO Comm~nal
property les61ved this contradiction betw~e~.the.ln~lvld~al and S~C~~y
and triumphed over the "anti-communal CIVIlisation .whlch preval e . m
the West . Herzen's ch ief m~~take was ~~t .h~ E~heved _the R~ss~an
commune to be confronted with a dYmg mste~d. ~r a deve opmg
capitalism which had enougl\ strength and potentlallttes to erode the
commune in Russia.
"
of property so to
l'f
In 1869 Herze n wrote. however. that the tranbs Ion and vague': 'II He
. .
lIec(l'e property was 0 scure
.
say. from pnl'llte. to co
I
.

erty for the Western peasant

reali sed the great importance of pnvkate r~Ppeasant abandon the age-old
and did not know what could rna eta

Russia n) .
., A. I, Herren.

88
...
90
91

W(/rk~.

V 0 , - ' . p,

~().I

(in Ru~sian)
.

Ibid ., Vol. 24. p. 200.

.
. '01 \\'",'\s. p, 'iO~_
A . ,.
Herren
.
-)
' Sdnlt"ll PI!llo.~oflllll
3
~111' (10 RussIan.
A. I. Herzen. Works. VpO,"" . PPh;~ol \\~rks. p. 585.
A. 1. Herzen. StltCftti 11 osop
81

)
~
\

dream of it. The only thing that one cou ld hope for wa~ the ~'conlinlluu\
parcelling of his dwindling land:' 3".d the con..,c.qlle~! ~~cneflt of a. "free
economy of the communal c ulllv at,'o". of, the fleJd~ . ~ He~l.en did not
see. as Chernyshevsky did. the capltahsatl~n ~f agriculture 10 the W e~t,
and the growing potentialities in the apphcal10n of technology On the
large farm s.
.
.
Herzen was sure that the RU SS ian peasant Wi\\ unable to give up his
right of inheritance.93 Communal far~ing. W;:~ S the only. l~ing that
rem a ined. and this was what the "naturalmchnatlon for a SOCialist orde r"
ultimately boiled down 10. Meanwhile, Che rn yshevsky envi saged
communal land ownership supplemente d with comm unal production , so
going well beyond Herzen' s idea s.
,,"
Herzen's remark about the "freshness and youth. which RUSSia was
to introduce into the world revolution a ry movement, was a tr ibute to th e
masses of Russian peasants. who "bowed low in adve rs it y so that it
pa ssed over them. without touching them ; that is why , despite hi s
condition. the Russia n pea sant po ssessed such abi lity , such brains and
beauty as to have arou sed the amazement of C u stine a nd H axthausen " .94
However. because of hi s historic a l limit ation s. Her zen was un able to
discover the working class, the strength of its character, its intellect ,
ab ility a nd beauty. That is what left a mark o n hi s approach to th e
question of Ru ss ia 's role in the world re volutio nary process.
Herzen rejected the charges that he was idealising the Ru ss ian people. )
and wrote: "We did not tran sfer our ideal to the Ru ssian people and then
begin to admi re it as a discovery. as people wllO 'are ea sily carneaaway
are wont to do. We s imply met each other. The events of t he past few
years a nd the questions aroused by the pea sa nt cau se, opened the eyes
of the blind and the ears of the de a f. Since then th e vast northern
avala nche has started to move and. whatever is being done in Russia,
even the most contradiGtory, it keep s moving from one soc ial question to
another ." 95 That was a good guess about the s ha rp ening class
co ntra dic tion s in Ru ssia , and recognition of th e abundance of highly
important social problem s which the country was by then facing in its
social development,
Che rny shev sky and Dobrolyubov c riticised Herzen 's conce pti on and
~ade va ri ~ u s important changes in it. The great Enlighteners took a
d ifferent view of capitalism, ~heir critique of it was muc~er, and
they also strove to take a different approach to (he question of the
commune.
The breaku p o f the old soc ial relation s. the early st eps taken by
~ A. I. Herzen , Selected Philosophical Work s. p. 585.

capitali<;m in RU'isia , the

revolutionary

class contradil:tions and the

I
.
. that wa ... emerging in the country.
. of c'. I
and aga1l1 ')t the .,erf-owners and the landed
,e,.II{' ,n,,,ii,,e The I.deas of ut?pi~n sociali sm infiltrating from the We'lt
wcr~ purge? of their ?our.8eol s-hberal, reformi .,t character. which they
had 1I1creasmgly acquired 111 Europe by the 1840'1. These idea., were alse
5leared of the mystici sm = witLw~iC;h Sain_t- ~ imon iind Fourier had J
1I1vested them. The two men stro . . . e to combine these with the traditions
of ma.te~ialh.m. While .the .re . . . olutionary democrat s did not produce a
matenahst view of social life. the elements of materialism nevertheless
also penetr~ted into their view s of social phenomena . Cherny<;hev.,kys
powerful mmd was not to be content with Feuerbach's materialism. and
he tried to apply Hegel's dialectic s to social phenomena. Chernyshevsky
rejected the theological halo which still surrounded Feuerbach's concept
of man. In contrast to Feuerbach. the Ru ss ian materialist s concentrated
on social issues. The spirit of the clas s struggle emanated from
Chernyshevsky's writings, for he clearly saw society di . . . ided into
antagonistic classes and came very close to an un.d~.nt~.ngiDg of 'be great
,role of the cla ss struggle i~_his~~~y. Cherny shevsky considered very
important aspects of world development and the world revolutionary
process.
Engels said Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubo\' were two socialist
Lessings, and compared their activity with that of the major figure in the
German Enlightenment. The two great revolutionary Enlighteners were
equally conversant .
't [ature and a.r!... economics and hist..Q!.Y. a~d
the Iverse tasks of the political struggle in Western Europe and RUSSia.
Lenin said that Cherny shevsky had been "a remark~bly profoun~ critic
of capitalism despite his utopian socialism":~ The two revolutiOna:y
democ rats exerted a powerful influence on the development o! SOCial
thought because they combined the sharpest criticism of feudalism and
its vestiges in Russia with profound criticism of capitalism and the
bourgeois-liberal apologists of "enlightened capital".
Nikolai Chernyshevsky. a tireless fighter against serfdom. also struck
o ut at the ideology of the bOlJrgeoisie. He believed that instead of ad\"a~c.
ing. bourgeois social thought had retreated from ~he 18th centu~y, a,nd t:Xpre ssed his attitude in these words: "Adam Smith was.esse.nl1all y a follower of the French encyclopaedists: jllst as .they had Imagilled Ih.at the
people had no need of anything except the things th~t the bOlirgeOls ~ad
need of and ju<;,t as the people themselves were not Jet a\\.are at the tr,m <
: <

I
Ih sm,la, 10 the Interests 0 t he
that their reqlmements \\ ere not a lOge er I

Ibid.
9<; A .. J. Herzen, Works. Vol. 3. p. 513 (in Russian).
. Ibid .. Vol. 18. D. 277.

9-1

82

% \.

,. '

J. Lenin. Col/rded Works. Vol. ~O. p. '!~6 .

middle class. which then marched at the he a~ in th e common struggle

against the fcudals. so Adam ~mith failed to ~otiCC I~e dl ffc~ence bet,ween
the content of his theory. which ac~orded w~th the ~con omlc condition of
the middle class .. and his own rrin~l.al doclnne thattlabour was the Source

)(

of all value." 97
. .
.
The time had passed when the bourgeOI sie a nd th e workmg people

both belonged to the "middle class" . Th ere arose the need for a theory
expressing the intere st s of the working people . He wro te: "The old
theo ry says: everything is produced by labour : the ne w theory adds: that
is why everything mu st belong to labour. " 98 On this basis, said
Chernyshe vs ky . there should be "a working peopl e's theory ... , as we
shall call the theory which accord s with the requireme nts of the new
period , in contrast to the backward but domipant theo ry , which we shall
de signate as the capitalists' theory".99 Thi s "working pe o ple's theory"
was already being created in the course of politic a l, c la ss struggle, "For a
lo ng time, the middle cla ss and the working men behaved , es pecia lly in
Britain , a s two different parties whose demand s are different. In France ,
o pen hatre d between the comm o n people and the middle class has
resulted in the formulation of c ommunis m in ec o no mic theo ry," 100 But
by this Cherny shevsk y meant utopia n c ommuni sm , whic h he was unable
to overcome in view of the bac kwa rdness of Ru ss ia in that period,
Chernyshevsky also attac ked some of the fund a me nt a l principles of
the bourgeois theory of social developm e nt. Bo urgeo is th eo ri st s. for
instance, "a ssure us that in its present state ri valry is necessary for the V
imp rovement of production " , He continued with thi s iro nical remark: 1\
"The see m to think t
a man find s his br d tasteful 0
'I has
been wreste rom another."
He himself believ ed that there was no
g ro und to a ssume that private enterprise and c ompetitio n were th e only \
motive fo rc es of
including technic al progre ss. H e said: "The
I
advan t ag~ of
today
, ,
i
at the
"
enterpri se", and their
Ju st.lc has bee~ prov ed by the deed s of million s o f working people in the
7
soc la hst co untn es ,
. The wo rking people had their own common intere sts of c o mradesh ip,
m co nt rast to the bourgeoi s class intere sts , whic h we re based o n the cash
nex us, He wro te: "The working people , not having an y reasons for

11

_ 'T1

N. G.

Cherny~hevsky. Selected ECOIwmic Works.

410 Ru~~ i an).

98
99
""
101
.p

Ibid"
Ibid .
lbld.,
Ibid.,
Ibid. ,

p. 309.
p. 352.
p. 346.

p. 363.
p. 362.

Vol. II. Mo'>cow. 1948. p. 345

wi\hing ill to .each other, hav.e no cause to stand aloof from each other.
On the contrary. they. are duectly impelled by economic necessity to
seek a common aIl4ance." 1<)) But from this correct proposition.
Che~nr~hevsky we~t .on to draw incorrect conclusions about the
POSSlblhty of e<;ta,bh .. hmg so-called working people's societies. Here.
Chern~<;hevsky did not go beyond Saint-Simon and Fourier under
whose,lOf~uence he described his "working people's societies" which had
a~ t.helT dIsposal workshops. hospitals, schools, libraries, concert halls,
dlOmg halls and even shops. The members of these societies also
enga~ed i~ farming. Th~ workin.g men received wages, and the society
prov lde~ I ts.m~mbers WIth houslOg, for which rent was paid. "In short,
the socIety IS m the same relationship with its members as the factory )
to their working men and
ow ner and the landlord are with
tenants." I~ The effect was to
contrast to private property: mankind's true economic, social and'
progress
to be
con nected with the establishment and development of social property.
In the light of this, Chernyshevsky considered the historical prospects
befo re the commune. He ridiculed the views of the Slavophiles. who
cl ai med that the commune was exclusive to Russian or Slavonic
hi sto ry. H e st ressed that "the communal land system in the form in
whic h it now exists in this country will be found' among many other
peo ples w hich have yet to emerge from relations close to the patriarchal
orde r, and ex isted among all the others when they were close to that
order .... T he preservation of the commune in land relationships, which
in this sense has disappea red among other peoples, merely goes to show
that we have lived much less than these other peoples."lo~ The
estab li shment of private land ownership was a progressive stage. but the
int roduction of communal ownership in the fu ture would in no sense be a
mere prese rvat ion of the existing order or a return to the past. It would
would be simi lar
considered the
o peratio n of th e d ia lectical
of negation of the negation, taking his
fa ct s fr o m th e natura l a nd social sciences. including linguistics, and then
returned t o consid er the history of the commune.
What we re the cond itio ns in wh ic h the comm unal form of pro perty
would sig nify a new a nd higher stage of social developme nt ? To answe r
th e question , Che rnyshevsky considered that p~i nt in ~gra.rian hi story
when "the c ultivation of the land begin s to require capital JO excess of
th e resources at th e disposal of th"e_ vast ma jo ritY ..f J.~rm.e.r..,.. while

10)

N. G.

Chcrnyshev~ky,

Selel'fed En)llolllic \\'orks. Vol. II. p.

~6~

(in Ru .... i;ml.

Ibid .. p. 373,
lOS Ibid .. Vol. I. p. 6%
l(l.l

"

agriculture calls for a scale that is well in exce ss of the po tential of the
individual family. and in the extent of economic trac ts a lso excludes
(under private property) the vast majority of farmer s from pa rticipatio n
in the benefits accruing from economic operation s . a nd converts thi s
majority into wage labourers.
the
advantages of private land
had existed in the past." 106 Thus.
transition to communa l property
paved the way for the development of capitalism. it s in vas ion of
agriculture, as in the West. In these new conditions. Chern yshevsky
believed. the advantages that private property had over the commune
disappeared and "communal ownership appears to be necess ary not only
for the welfare of the farming class, but a lso for the s ucce sses of
agriculture itself: it turns out to be the only reasonable and full . fl edged
way of combin ing the farmers' benefit with land improvement , and
production methods with honest work" .107 Chernyshev s ky did not
consider the question of whether civilisation had attained the highest
stage at
.
~or ? e was
, m v irt ue of
which social property in land must inevitably substitute fo r p ri vate
property, so becoming the higher stage. For his period, Cherny shevsky
obviously gave a striking and profound interpretation of one of the key
aspects of material development. even looking well into the futur e and
considering the question of the inevitable triumph of s ocial pro pert y in
agriculture.
Chernyshevsky erred in assuming that the development of capi ta li st
relations in agriculture in the West. which emphasi s ed the a dv antages of
social property in agriculture, made it unnecessary for Ru ss ia to ad va nce
along the Western way. The problem arising for Cherny shev s ky in this
connection, and one which he was very much concerned with , was th e
possibility of accelerating the historical process. He wrote: " W e a re
concerned with this question: must a given social phenomen ~:m in the
actual life of every soc iet y go through a ll the logical moments. or can it
under favourable circumstances go from the first or second stage of
development directly on to the fifth or the sixth, missing the intermediate
ones, as we find it occurring in individual life and in the proc esses of
physical nature?"I03 Chernyshevsky found the right answer : " Wh en a
social phenomenon in a people has reached a high stage of developm ent
its course up to that stage in another, lagging people can take plac e much
faster than it had in the advanced people."I09 In thi s contex t.

)(
)
,

\
'

Chernyshev!\ky ~a i d th at "hi sto ry. li ke any grandmother, has most love

fo r her younger grandch ildren".llo
Marx and Engels be li eved that only afte r the socialist revolution
triumphed in the West wo uld it be poss ible fo r the lagging cou nt ries to
take shortcuts in development.
But while Chernyshev<;ky posed th e question of a noncapitalist way of
developme nt for the lagging countries and provided the right philosophi.
ca l and soc io logica l substantiation, his answe r was closely bound up with
the ideas of utopian ~oc i a li sm. He believed that the stage of ca pitalist
development in the West had almost run out and he saw no possibilities
for ca pital ism in Ru ss ia. Th is showed his utopianism. He had come very
close to fi nding the right answer to one of th e most imp ortant problem s
of soc ial dev el op ment but had missed the right path under th e influence
of sociali st ut opian id eas . In ord er to fi nd th e right answer one had to
kn ow a bout th e pro letari an revo lution . its role in hi story and it s
preparati on in the West . Th at is a key catego ry of sc ientific soc iology of
which Chern yshevsky was not awa re.
He was a close stud ent of la nd relations in the West an d re ac hed th e
conclu sion th at capit al th ere was being invested in agriculture on a vast
sc ale , so that th ere were no pros pec ts fo r the development or fl ourishing \(
of s mall peasa nt fa rm s, because "th e pett y producers are unable to rival
the big on es",111 He stressed that in virtue of this there was. in France.
for in stance , an urge to set up "ag ricultural union s".
Chernyshev sky was aware that in the West the pro letariat was mo.vin~
to a peri od of battle becau se. "o n the one hand . the proletanans
dem ands still remain un sati sfi ed , and o n the other. the number ~f
pro letarians ha s bee n growing steadily and , wh~t is most i~po rtant. their X.
awareness of th eir ow n strength has been growlDg and thel[ understand. 1\
ing of th eir own requi rements is being clarifie.d".112 That is a ~?st
profound obse rvation . But what were the reqUIrements of the n smg
prol etariat ? Chernyshevs ky quoted an item from the pre~s a n~ full y
accepted it: "The working cla ss in .W~stern Europe IS .ag ltate.d , \
demanding that the principles of aSSOClatl.on. sbould...be a pplied to ItS
labour and proc laiming with ever gre ater mSlstence on work fr om ~~~
gover~ment and collecti ve work shops ." III Howe ver, Chern y.shevsky I.
not quite see the importan ce of thi s mo~ e~ent , fO.r he beli eved th~n~
heralded the early re ali sation of the soclah stutoplan programme.
that again wa s evidence of hi s utopianism,
' bTI of
Chernyshev sky apparently assume,d ~h at t.he~ ~a.s sO~u~ Pho:I~1 :~ar in
peaceful development tow ard s soclahsm 10 ntam.
110 N. G. Chern yshevsky. Sdected Economic Worts, Vol. L p. 727.

:~ Ibid , pp . 716-17.
1011
11)9

IbId .. p. 717 .
Ibid ., p . 728 .
Ibid., p. 729

III

tbid ., p, 323.

11 ~ Ibid ., p . 30 l.

113 Ibid . p . 305.

France it was bound to involve the usc of hln:c_ At any rate

Chernyshevsky contrasted the twO countries: "Compare Brit.lin and
France: in both countries private property hold s sway; whence, in that
case, Britain's successes in agriculture, which a~c not pamlleled In
France ? In Britain there is a sound legal order which no one dare ':! Or
wants to upset. because any requirement of which soci~t~ has become
aware comes to triumph through the peaceful way of leg iti mate dem and
and debate: there is nothing of the sort in France, where howev er clear I
society may be about the need for reform ~r however reasonably it may 1\
argue in favour Qf one. reform can be achieved only through the use of
force-and that is the main distinction." 114 But eve n in France , he
believed, the use of force led to the establi shment of workers' societies.
Chernyshevsky was sure that the socialist revolution was an in superable
movement. but his view of the revolution in the West was wrong.
He also believed that Russia. with it s patriarchal survivals in the form
of communal ownership, was also being involved in the irresi stible
process, and there was nothing new about this for the West , as Herzen
had insisted. Chernyshevsky felt that Europe had nothing to learn from
Russia's communal system, but he did not identify the futur e socialist
system in Russia with the commune that had come down from the past.
He believed that the future socialist system and the commune had only
that in common that they were based on the sa me principle. a nd so held
that the commune should be pre se rved until the period of sociali st
change after the revolution.
In a Manifesto addressed To tile Serf Peasal1ts. Chernyshevsky put
forward a programme which provided that " the people s hould be the
head of everything, while its superiors s hould submit to the village
com munity , justice should be meted out equally and justly to everyone ,
and no one should take liberties with the pea sa nt".1IS In the same appeal ,
Chernyshevsky said that in France, for in stance, there was no legal
difference between man and man. "whether he farmed th e land , or
whether he hired others to farm his land for him ; whether he had much
land and was rich. or had little land and was poor , the re was no
d~fference in title" .116 He said that the first thing to do wa s t o sec ure this
kmd of order through revolutionary action, this required only "that the
pea sant s should be united within them selves, that they should have the.
skill and build up their strength".111 Only after the revolution when the
question of a better system arose, would there be u se for the'commune
as a form for tackling the problem of fundamental social change. He
urged the people to revolution and prepared for it.

".~ N . G. Chernysh evsky . op. c,t..

. p. 300.
I. Ibid .. p. 613.
I:~ Ibid .. Vol. II. p. 611.
Ibid_. p. 6 14 .

.Che~ny ... h~v\~.y~ s.ocial idea'i were elaborated by N. A. Dobrolyubov,

Wlt~

it

hl'i gre,lt cap~clt.y for clear and imaginative thinking. He attacked

t~e ap.~~ogy of capitalism a.nd drew a comparison between two important
hlstor.. cal. epoch~ - feudalism and capitalism - showing their common
explolt_?tlv.e I}asis and pointilU:. out that "with the- development of
educat~on m the exploiting classes only the form of exploitation changed
bec_Qmmg su~tler .and .more refined; but the substance of it remains th;
same so long as the.possibility for exploitation is there" .118 This analysis
of. the .two formations comes close to Marxism, going well beyond
SamtSlmon and Fourier.
Dobrolyubov c riticised bourgeois liberalism and exposed the alliance
between the bourgeoisie and the landed reactionaries based on their
common class interests. He wrote: "A closer look shows that despite the
apparent discord between gross arbitrary action and enlightened capital
J.here is a secretaod jmpli_cit alliance ... which has one end in view: to
resist the working men in a common effort to p-revent them from in sisting
on their rights .... "1,9 Elaborating on this idea. Dobrolyubov sketched out
the historical origins of this alliance: "The struggle of the cities against
feudalism was hot and resolute only up to the point at which the
distinction between the bourgeoisie and the working man began to
emerge for the one side and the other. Once this distinction was realised,
both warri ng parties began to restrain their impulses and even to make
attempts at a
in face of a_n~_~nd CQUUll..OIlenemy."'2(1
other -minds in Europe, apart
from Marx and Engels. who were able so clearly to expose the social
substance of the reconciliation _Oetween_-"enlightened capital" and the
landed reactionaries.
- _.
On the basis of this analysis, Dobrolyubo v drew the conclusion that
bourgeois democratic tasks in the West European countries still had to
be fulfilled: "This has happened in every revolution in Western Europe
and thi s circumstance was. without doubt. highly favourable for the
survivals of feudalism as a party already weakened. But for the petty
bOil rgeoisie this. timidity, . restraint and accommodati_
Qn was, not advantageous at all: instead of inflictmg a final defeat on the weakened p~rty and
destroy ing the very "principle maintaining it. t.hey allowed I~ t? be
_stte ngtheneC1 out of the pusillanimous fear 01 havmg to share the.l r ~Ights
with the rest of the people." m Such was the balance of forces wlthm t.hee
ruling classes which had taken shape in Western Europe: a c?mprOmls
be twee n the landowners and the bourgeoisie in face of their common
enemy. and the cowardice of bourgeois liberalism.
II' N. A. Dobrolyubo . Col/eelI'd Works, in Ihree volumes. Vol. 11. MoscOW. '9~2.
v
p . 658 (in Russian).
119 Ibid., p. 663.

12(1 Ibid.
PI
- Ibl'd ., p. 6"
UOt.

This balance of forces was also reflected in the political system of

We';t European states: "In consequence of s uc~ se l!-seekin.g mistak es
the s urvivals of feudalism and its principles-arbit ra riness. violence and

plunder-have yet to be eradicat~d in West e.rn EUf?pe a~~ ,are

frequently e.xpressed here and there In the mos t dl ver'~ '. even cIvIlised

forms." III The "self-seeking mistakes" of the. _bourgeoIs ie ensured the V

triumph of reaction. arbitrariness and v,o,ience.
...
1\
On the strength of this brilliant analYSIS of the political situation in
Western Europe. where capitalism had won out. Dobrolyubov drew
some conclusions for Russia's own development : "Indeed. it is fortun ate
that we entered the arena of historical life later than other people s.
Looking closely at the development of the peoples of We stern Europe
and realising the state which it has now reached. we can entertain the
flattering hope that our way will be better:'In But Dobrolyubov did not
in any sense mean some special. noncapitalist way of developm ent and
said quite explicitly: "That we, too, must travel along the sa me way is
beyond doubt and is even in no sense regrettable for us." 124 Dobrolyubov
quoted the Russian liberals who said the same thing. but from that point
on he differed sharply with the latter. emphasising hi s main idea; "What
has been done by other peoples is still too little." Consequently , there
was need to go on and do this more con s istently than West ern Europe
had done: "There is no sense in doubting that we , too , will not entirely )
avoid mistakes and departures on the way of our future development. \.,
But our way will nevertheless be easier: after all. our c ivic developm ent
can run somewhat faster through the phases which it has so slowly
passed in Western Europe. And the main thing : we can and must
advance more resolutely and more firmly , because we are equipped with
experience and knowledge." 125 In other words. the Ru ssian revolution
woufd not involve a compromise between the landed reac tion aries and
bourgeoi sie and could and would fulfil it s bourgeoi s -dem oc rat ic tasks.
One can hardly put any other construction on these words of
Dobrolyubovs.
These brief lines published in the censored pre ss contain v irtua ll y the
whole sociological conception of the revolutionary democ rat s.
It ~oes not co~tain any statement of the final goal of the s truggle or
mention of utopian socialist ideals , but we know -that Dobrol yubov
shared these. He wrote a long essay on Robert Owen, popul arising as
bes~ h.e could under the press censorship the ideal s of the great utopian
~oclallst. Chernyshevsky referred to the essay . apparently con s idering it
Important for the spread of socialist ideas. There is no doubt that

m
'

0 664 .
" N.
IbdA. Dobrolyubov. 00. cit ..

- Ib Id.
. Ibid .

," ~~

90

p. 667.

Dobrolyubov ~hared Chernyshevsky's view that utopian socialist ideals

would be re~hsed after the revolution won out.
The RUSSian revolutionary democrats sought to do no more th
~ke~ch out the con~ou,~s of revolutionary theory. as a synthesis ~~
sCience and ~evolullon . as Herzen put it. Their attempt to considerthe
worl~ revolutionary pro~ess .. and the place in it for Russia. which was
movmg t~wards re~olutlon. IS of special importance. Their attempt to
analyse vll~1 questions heralded the new stage in the history of social
thought .wh~c~ renewed mankind's whole spiritual life and formulated a
truly SCientifIC theory of social development.

n_U

C hapter Tllr ee
RE VOLUTION IN THE HI ST O RY
O F SOCIAL THOUGHT

" to of the Communist Party appeared in 1848, marking a

.

. Of all the
period, Marx and
oC t~ e
..
the time. They
a
.
obtained the mo st profound c omprehenSion a nd c ntlca lly reformulated
the achievements of the mo st advanced soc ial thought. a n~ a l_s~ studied
in practice a nd ls ummed uQjt he experience of the working-c lass struggle
in Germ a ny. Fra nce and Britain. th e le ading c apit a li st countries of the
period. Lenin stressed that "the geniu s of Marx c on sist s prec isely in his
having furni shed answers to question s already ra ised by th e foremost
mind s of mankind". ' Marx and Engel s were giant s of revo lutionary
thought and revolutionary ac tion. gaining a deep in sig ht into the
pas ~. analysing the ""present and l foreca sting the futu re of human
societ y.
All earlier development of social thought related to th e pe ri od of the
downfall of feud a li sm, the serf system , and the e me rgence o f cap italism.
Th e most acute social conflic ts of the epoc h , storm y re vo lut ions and
upri si.ng s stimulated the de v elo~m e nt o~ soc ia l th oug ht , impelling
pro minent men to con sider the destmy of soc iety. t'he ways of its
deve lopment , and its future , which , they belie ved , wo uld he lp t o heal the
deep wounds inflicted on mankind by the orde al of hi sto ry. Men had long
since gi ven deep thought to the question of soc ial justice. Indeed. man 's
exploitation of man had been condemn ed in moral term s w he n capitalism
was still in its c radle. The outcry bec ame even louder wh en capita li sm
de veloped and its horrible sore s were re vealed . Soc ia l thinke rs raised
m~ny. ~ue s tion s but no scientific an swers were to ha nd . A genuine
SCientifiC theory of social development wa s still to be fo rmula ted .
M~a n-:vhile , in. the late 18th century it was held that the e poch of the
do mmat.lOn of sCience was at hand. Indeed , scienc e had be en scoring one
great vic tory aft:r another. Natural scien ce s a nd tec hnology had
ad va.n ced to a pOint where the earlier period appeared to be a mere
pre histo ry. It wa s becoming clear that the age of stea m , w hic h had
tran sf? ~med the world , was about to end , giving wa y to the age of
elec tnc lty , a n e ven more revolutionary force . What was th e impo rtance
of these .new d.evelopment s for mankind 's future? In 1850 , the mode l of
a n el ec tnc engme was on di splay in Regent Street in Lo nd o n a nd Marx
was o ne Of. those who c ame to have a look. Th e re was ever~ sig n of a
further rapid gro wth of technology a nd success in va riou s s pheres of
I

92

v. I . Lenin . ColleCfed Works, Vol. 19. p. 23.

knowledge. Darwin'~ Tile Origin of Specie.~ appeared in the hook shop~

nine years later. The idea of development was makLn...&..head~ay in every
branch of science. It had revolutionised chemistry. The ..cientific
atmosphere was somewhat reminiscent of the period in which Copernicus and Galileo had made their great discoveries. In that period. social '\ I
thought was embryonic. But if a scientific world view was to originate )
and successfully develop there was need for a revolution in social
thought, based not only on the achievements of the natural sciences but
also on the comprehension of their importance for the destiny of society.
The lag in social thought exerted a drag on philosophy and the whole of
human ideology. The first requirement was to release ideology from the
distorting influence of the bourgeoisie's class interest, which prevented a
deeper and farther penetration of reality and made it impossible to effect
a correct theoretical generalisation of the advances in natural science.
Nor was it poss ible to generalise the knowledge gained in the individual
social discip li nes like history, economic science, etc. All the leading
minds were aware of the need for a synthesis of the sciences. They
realised that new and vast potentialities had been opened up on social
development. What did these amount to?
Progress ive thinkers were becoming increasingly aware that it was no
longer enough to discourse on spiritual progress. the growth of .scie~ce
and the ultimate triumph of education as the substa nce .Q.[lb.eJlisloncal
process. The mind was being beset by new phenomena. and periodicals
and other publications used new terms like "the social question" and "the
labour question". What was the importance of these probl~ms for. a
theory of social development? The proletariat gave notice of .ltS
emergence in the historical arena by fighting great class ?attles, stag~ng
stri kes and erecting barricades. It was no longer pOSSible to confine
oneself to theories of political progress heraldi ng the replacement of the
fe udal political order by new institutio~s :st~blishing the power of the
bourgeo isie and to theories of mankmd s Intellectual de~elopment.
Progress of mankind's social organisation itself was ~ question ~ow on
the o rder of the day. Was it true that the utopl a~ suggestmg the
elimi nation of exploitation and the establishment of socm,l property were
no more than a vain dream? Was it true that the SOCial structure of
bourgeo is societ y was in accord with the "dicta~es of reason and human
natu re" so that it marked the limits of SOCial development? These
qu est io~s became the most important ones in ideolo~y.
.
Bo urgeois theorists declared that science .had nothing .to do Wlt~ ~~~
elimination of man's exploitation of man. SCience d~a1t with matters ~n
th e rot atio n of the Earth round the S~n, something that nO .?~e wa~
lo nge r den ied, Meanwhile .. the question of whet~erth~ak~klnideolo_
ad vancing towards commUOIsm h,ad become on~ 0
'I s~ience to
gical proble ms and also a most Important one or socia
tac kle,

"

The most important ideological conclusions drawn by philosoph e r.. In

the late 18th and early 19th centuries were of much importance for the
correct answer to this fundamental question.
THE MATERIALIST WORLD OUTLOOK
AND COMMUNISM

The importance of the ideological battles carried on by the bourgeoisie

in the late 18th century were characterised by Lenin in these w o rds:
''Throughout the modern history of Europe. and especially at the e nd of
the eighteenth century in France, where a re solute struggle was
conducted against every kind of medieval rubbish. against serfdom in
institutions and ideas. materialism has proved to be the only philo sophy
~hat is consistent, true to all the teachings of natural scit:nce and hostile
to-superstition, c.ant and so forth."2 In thi s way, the vast revoluti onary
Importance of materialism for the development of sc ience, soc ial
thought and the liberation struggle was brought out for the first tim e in )
history. However. the triumphant bourgeoisie discarded the banne r of
philosophical materialism and in the defence of it s power resorted to
diverse forms of idealism c1osel:i_~on'!.e.cted with religio!, and beli ef in
the supernatural. What is more. even the materialists of tne pa st we re
materialists only when they dealt with natural phenomena but bec ame
idealist s when considering social phen omena. On question s of soc ia l
development idealism had shown itself to be totally untenable. It had
grown into a barrier in the way of any advance in soc ial thought.
The fundamental question of the relation between the sp iritu al a nd th e
material aspects of social life had been totally confused by idea li sm.
However. without a correct answer it was impo ss ible to take any furth er
st:ps in analysing social phenomena reflecting human activit y . conSC Iousness and will. Before the discovery of the material basi s of soc ial
life .theories of social development inevitably boiled down to more or less
arbitrary con.'"tructions in which human will and consc iousness appea red
as the cruwlI factor.., in the historical process. With this kim.! of
a~pr~ach. it. w;~s virtually impossible to do anything about eliminating
m,m \ explOitation of man and substilliting socialism for the exploit ative
'iYstem. II all amounted to an expression of good intention s.
Th.e few idealist thinkers who did try to tackle the question of the
relatIOn between 'iociety and nature and considered the problem of soc ial
lab?ur: thc.k~y problem of social development. were always divert ed by
their Ideahstlr.: dogmas from the right amwer. They admitted th at
prolluctlon con..,i..,ted III
. man , s. exertmg
.
an .mfluence on matter and .It s
~orce..,. hut t~e r~cognition of this fact wa, no more than a prerequi sit e
or the i1pphr.:.ttlon of philosophical materialism to the study of th e
2 v I I.emo, ("lIlIt(lfd Works. Vol. 19 , p. :!4

hi,torical process. so that if one slopped short at that point one did not
actually apply philosophical materialism to consideration of the key
questions of social development.
First. there was need to explain the development of this process of
influence on nature. and here the idealist had the opportunity of
declaring that it was the development of human reason and spirit which
ultimately determined the growing and deepening influence exerted by
man on matter and its force s . Philosophical materialism required a
materialistic explanation of the source of the self-development of this
process.
Second. there was need to show the substance of the social bonds
between men in the proce ss of labour. because there man was neither
alone nor isolated. There again. idealism lay in wait. suggesting to the
thinker that the substance of these bonds should be found in the sphere
of consciousness. in the human mentality, so that ideas and attitudes
were eventually taken as the basis of all social development.
What has been said makes it clear that the application of philosophical
materialism for an understanding of social phenomena is possible only if
it is dialectical materialism. which explains the succession of social
states in society's history as their self-development. indicating the inner
source of social movement in the light of materialism.
Nevertheless. the materialism of the past. limited and metaphysical.
was of much importance for the development of social thought. LeI. us
recall what Marx said about one line of French materialism which "leads
directly to socialism and commllllism") Summing up what Marx said.
Lenin wrote in his outline of Tile Holy Family that it was the easiest thing
to deduce soc iali sm from materialist propositions. 4 These propositions
urged the need above all to restructure the "sensual world". Thus. the
right an swer to the principal question of philosophy contained within
ihelf the premise of socialism and its requirement to restructure the
reality surrounding man. Marx said this about the logical conclusion to
be drawn from materialiM premises: "If man is shaped by his
surroundings . his surroundings must be made human.'" He drew the
conclusion that the communists. like Dezamy and Owen. had developed
"the teaching of materialism as the teaching of relll/llllllll llism and the
logical basis of commwli.HI!". Consequently. the development of
humani sm inevitably led to materiali:'>m. because materialism alone was
capable of creating real humanism. Marx believed that "Fourier
proceeds immediately from the teaching of the French materialist ... '.
Commun ism and socialism inevitably started from materialist premise,
because they required a change in the conditions of hu~a~ life for. the
s
emancipation and development of the individual. Socralist doctnne
.1 K. Marx and F. Engd s, Tilt Hoi), Family. Mosco".
4 V. I. Lenin. Colie(led W{)fks, Vol. ~8. p . .t.t.
~ K. Marx and F. Engels. Tile Holy Famil}'. p. 176

Iq~(\. p. 17.~.

could not have developed without the materialist tradition in philosophi_

cal thinking. Marx stre ssed: "The Babolll'ists were . coarse . unc ivilised
materialists, but mature communism too come s dire ctly from French
materiaJism."6
In the sa me context. Marx wrote to Feuerbac h , concerning th e latter's
writings: "In these works you_consciously or ot herw ise. 1 ca nnot
say _ have given soc iali sm a philo so phical foundation and th at is
precisely how the com muni st s have understood them. Unity of man with
man based on the real distinctions between men , the concept of the
human ra ce, tran sferred from the heaven s of ab st raction to rea l
earth _ what can this be but the concept of society!"7
In all these instances, it is materialist premises that were being dealt
with, but alone these provided the basis for dedu c ing nothing more than
utopian social ism and co mmuni s m. If sc ientific commun is m was to
emerge. there was need for material is m it se lf to develop , so as to
embrace soc ial phenomena and to give them a profound and fu11
materialist interpretatic n. The connec tions emerging between
philosophical materialism and social doc trines in the hi story of social
thought had to be de veloped and enriched.
When dealing with materialism as the doc trin e of real hum anis m and
the logical basis of co mmunis m , Marx pointed to th e connection between
philosophical and socia l thought over the ce nturies. There was a logical
and historical connection between the materialist traditio n in philo soph y
and humanism. which for it s part. wa s logically and histori cally one of
the
ises for the
of utopi a n sociali s m. Human ist idea s
for
order fit for man. This
was a further
m-anlsm and
recognition of the truth of materialist premi ses. Humani st ideas logically
led to a denial of the system of opp re ss ion and gross private*property
sel f- seeking . which distorted the hum a n perso nality .
However. the premises of the old materialism were not adequate for
solving the problem of the soc ial c ondition s required for man 's
harmonious development. There wa s need for materiali s m in it s most
developed form. There was need to co mprehend man 's soc ial nature,
and the material substance and ba sis Qr social relation s, which
determined men's de stinies and o perated as the objective force of social
progress. There was need to indicate the real po ss ibiliti es a nd prospects
for restructuring these social relation s. Nothing of thi s could be provided
b~ metaphysical materiali sm. Starting from materialist premi ses. variou s
thmkers logically arrived at sociali st and comm unist idea s as real
hu.m~nism. but they were unable to answer th e question of hoW t o attain
thiS Ideal. and could not describe the real ways of advancing towards it.

10 ... ay

nothing what this real ideal should consist of. Here they found
themselves captive to idealism
~cientific. communism became a genuine science of man as a social
bemg. a ~clence of the. conditions necessary for his full development
Real '!lan became a subject of social thought only with the emergence of
MarXism.
Marx and En~eh relea sed materialism from its limitat ions of the 18th
and 19th. ce~tufles: The very concept of "matter" was raised to a new
and qualitatively higher level. The concept of "material" came to include
not. only the natural but also the social. like the relations of production,
whlc.h cannot, ~s such: be placed under the microscope, but which
tangibly and with the lOexorable operation of a natural law always
determine the vital activity of its soc ial organism. Man became a
~ull-fledged object of philosophical thought. It was no longer a dim
Image of Ihe real man, reduced to the status of a spiritual substance.
or a passive apparatus receiv ing signals from the o uter world, but man
acting and changing the world and himself that philosophers now had to
consider. Lenin wrote: "Marx did not stop at eighteenth-century
materialism: he developed philosophy to a higher level. He enriched it
with the achievements of German classical philosophy, especially of
Hegel's system, which in its turn had led to the materialism of
Feuerbach ,"8 Lenin stressed that the main achievement was dialectics.
the doct rine of development in its fullest and most profound form that
"\vas free of any one-S idedness.
-DIALECTICS AND SCIENTIFIC COMMUNISM

'/

For the theory of social development. onc~ a colleC::~9n pf more or less

adequate guesses, to b_ecome a genuine science there was need
"conslt1e!Jlbly- to:-ent:"ialt"ne co.ncept of develop..o:ent and to give it ~rue
depth and full ness, Of much importance for thiS were the conclUSiOns
drawn by bourgeois social thinkers in the early 19th century. notably
Hegel. who gave a profound critique of the false notions of de~el.opment
as some kind of stra ightforward process which were character.l stlc of the
18th ce ntury. Fo urier had tried to abandon these i~eas but havm~ take~ a
<.,tep forward he found him self ca~tive to a cychcal sc ~eme. Dlalec~lcs
alo ne provided a notion of socml develop.ment, with retre ats and
re petition s of what had been travelled at a htgher le~el.
.
Saint-Simon' s metaphysical contrast of dest~uCllve and creat ~ve
epochs was a naive attempt to gain an understandlOg of the connectl~n
between the evolutionary and the revolut ionary ways of SOCial
development. Hegel' s dialectiCS indicated the way to a corre~~
formulation of the problem. Development was a cea"e less process I
8 V, I. Lenin. Col/eC'fed Works. Vol. 19. p. :!:4.
1-59~

which the new emerged and the old wa s de stroyed, a process of a')cent
from the lower to the higher . Hegel' s idea th.at ,contradictions 1everywhere generated movement. while gradual quantitative changes led ,"""
to leaps resulting in a change of quality. wa s of trem endous import ance.
He summed up and developed many idea s expressed by promi nent
minds in the past . and Herzen was right when he sa id that dialectics Was
"the algebra of revolution".
However . Hegel's dialectics could not be applied ready-made to the
problem s posed by the theory of social development , for this would not
result in a discovery of the main thing , of the source of society's
self-movement. Science had not advanced materially from the fact that )1'
the absolute spirit had appeared in place of
human
' .nsc.
The absolute spirit provided no
COnCrete
expressions of capitalism, which Fourier , for instance , observ ed.
Saint-Simon's consideration of the role and prospect s for man 's
conquest of nature was not to be 'wived either through an application of
the dialectics of ideas.
Before Marx's lifetime , many futile attempts had b ee n made to
combine utopian socialism and communism with Hegel's idealistic
philosophy in the hope of producing a new world outlook. Thus, the '\
German journalist Hess, seeking to combine Left-wing Hegeli anism and )
utopian communism, came to Pari s at the end of 1842 in an effort to
contact the League of the Just. Hess extolled in every way the ide a of
action and the "philosophy of action" , but hi s political conception did
not go beyond individual anarchis m .!1 The Left-wing Hegel ian A. Ruge
also came to Paris to s pread German ideali st philo so phy a nd to "unite" it
with some French Left-wing trends. He held that German philosophy
"would not become a force until it acted in Paris, merging with the \
French spirit" .10 Actually, the whole boiled down to obscure idealistic
discourses about humanism. It was quite futile to bring about a
mechanical merger of Left -wing Hegeliani s m and utopian socialism and
communism. In their early works, Marx and Engels gave a devastating
critique of these attempts.
In order to produce a coherent and consistent revo lution a ry world
outlook , with dialectical materialism providing the only phil osophical
basis, there was need for a fundamental creative reformulatio n of the
traditions of French socialism and the basis of German cla ssical
philosophy , so as to release dialectics from the fetter s of ideali sm, and to
carry th~ critique of the bourgeoi~_.~_s_tem to its very found?tions, to its
economlc~I'I(:LSQcial relation~ instead of a mere moral co ndemnation of
the system.
- -, --- - -

)1

In his Pl!ilo.wpl~y of History, ':Iegel himself tried to apply the idea of

dev~lopment .to history. He depicted world history as a kind of ladder
leadmg '!lankm~ to ever. g~eat~r spiritual perfection, That was an attempt
to explam the past by flttmg It mto the Procrustean bed pC an jdeajjSJjc
scheme. Hegel.suffered a severe setback when dealing with mankind'~
future and seeking .to ~t<?p th~ tide of hi~tory by pr~tiJli theJealities of
contemporary Germany as Its consummation.
But Hegel also made some brilliant guesses about the historical
process and came clos~ to un~erstanding the fundamental importance of
the p~ocess of .la.bour In. socI.al develo~m.ent. That is where his theory
contains the Oflgms of hlstoncal matenahsm . These were discerned by
Marx and Engels who developed and enriched them and produced a
c?herent th~ory. Summing up Hegel' s lectures on the philosophy of
history, Lenm underscored the following important idea: "Man with his
requirements behaves in a practical way in relation to external nature: in
making it ser.ve for hi~ satisfaction , he wears it away, thereby setting to
work as an mtermedlary. For natural objects are powerful and offer
resistance in many different ways. In order to subdue them man
introduces other natural objects. thus turning nature against itself. and
he invents tool s for thi s purpose."ll That was undoubtedly the origin of
the right approach to analysing the process of labour, the basis on which
soc iet y develops. Hegel elaborated the idea in the following words: "IN
HIS TOOLS MAN POSSESSES POWER OVER EXTERNAL NA
TURE. ALT HOUGH AS REGARDS HIS ENDS. HE FREQUENTLY
IS SUBJECTED TO IT.''I ~ Having quoted Hegel. Lenin added: "In
actual fact, men's ends are engendered by the objective world and
presuppose it.-they find it as something given. present,"" These ideas
of Hegel's suggested the possibility of applying materialism to an
understanding of the key soc ial (!henomena. of taking the materialist
apr!)ach to analysing the basts of man's whole activity. Having studied
tlegel's ideas, Lenin cnaracterised "HISTORICAL MATER IALISM
AS ONE OFTHE APPLICATIONS AND DEVELOPMENTS OFTHE
IDEA S OF GENIUS-SEEDS EXISTING IN EMBRYO IN
HEGEL" .14 Thu s, di alect ics, the fullest doctrine of development, even
when fett ered by the idealist system, tended to make its way through the
system and led to the origination of some correct conclusions concerning
the key aspects of social life.
Hegel also took an idealistic approach to the question of the necessity
in the hi stori cal process, and of the epochs of world history as necessary
stages in developm e nt . He opposed the theories which presented the
11 V I. Lenin, Co/leC'ud Works. Vol. 38. p. 311.
I~ Ibid., p . 189 .
Il Ibid .
14 Ibid .. p. 190.

See Auguste Cornu, Karl Marx und Friedrich Engels. Leben ulld Werk . Erster Band.
18\tl844, Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin. 1954. S. 455 .
Ibid_

"

"

historical process as an ~gglomeration o,r accidents. as a. sphere of

arbitrary development. This was of much Importance ',n the Ideological
struggle of thai period. He raised the question of the ah~nation of man \
activity under the domination of private-properly .r~latlOns. even if he
did so idealistically. thereby paving the way for a critique of the ideology
and social relations of bourgeois society.
The dialectical method combined organically with materiali sm was
vital to the theory of social development because, id.ea l~ sm was pro ving
incapable of tackling the fundamental problems In Its mterpretation of
social phenomena. It turned out that the substance of social relation s
could not be determined in the light of idealism. Hegel. Marx Wrote ,
"puts self-consciousness in the place of man". so that "the most varied
human reality appears only as a definite form: as. a determination of
self.consciousness".15 There was need for a titaniC mental effort to

produce in place of the guesswork about reality a scientific theory of

social development explaining actual processes, showing their objective
laws and indicating how these processes were reflected in the minds of
men.
But for scientific communism, based on a genuinelx scientific theoLY
of ~(!ial developme_numd.!ht: fullest and mo~t profound compr.e.hension
orman's social activity, to emerge there was need for great advances not
only in philosophy but also in the study of production. a special sphere of
men's social activity. It was impossible to understand man as a social
being without analysing material production , as otherwise thought was )(
doomed to confine itself to Feuerbach's abstract man. Social th ought as
expressed in the writings of the utopian socialists, notably Saint-Simon.
had arrived at the question of the role this sphere had to play in
mankind's future. Hegel tried to obtain a philosophical understanding of
the meaning of labour in the historical process, but he was prevented
from doing so by idealism.

THE KEY SPHERE OF MAN'S ACTIVITY

Mea~whi le,

many other scientists and thinkers were steadily working

on van?~s questions in economic science, preparing the necessary
prerequIsites for identifying and studying production , the principal
sphe~e. of human activity. English scientists studying the material
conditions of man's life expressed some correct ideas, proclaiming that
labour was the SOurce of all social wealth, and formulating the labour
theory of value. under which value was determined by the quantity of
la~our measured in time, with the exchange of commodities ultimat elY
bemg an exchange of labour activity.

" K. Marx and

100

F. Engels, The Holy Family, p. 252.

In 1662. William Petty declared that the valu f

..
determined by the value of the I. b
' . eo. commodltle\ wa ..
value re .. ulted from human lab:uro~a~~!fg I~to thel~produClion. That
Ad
S' h .
.
a ~o accepte oy John Locke
am mit re.garded profIt as a product of the unpaid labou of
.
worker\. In thIS context Marx wrote' "1m 0 t t.,'
r wage
I'allle to labour it wa'
'I .
.
p r an as It was to reduce
' . '.
. \ equa Jy Important [to present) surplus-Iallle.
which
manIfests Itself 10 surplus-product. as surpllls-/(lbolir. This was in
f act already \tated by Adam Smith."16
Thus. the questio~ Of. man's exploitation of man and of the social
substance of pro~uctlOn 10 class society, the most important question in
the theory of so.clal development. was about to be answered. But Smith
and other claSS ICS of bourgeois political economy failed 10 show the
substan?e. Of..capitalist. relat~on~ or to bring out the deep-going
contrad~ctlO.ns mhe~enl In capItalism. They failed to show the role of
production 10 the hIstorical process and 10 go on to a theory of social
development.
Still. the que~tion of social ~Iructure had been considerably advanced.
as .compa~ed WIth ~he old notions of a solid "third estate" or the totally
nal~e notIons of "nch" and 'poor". Smith saw three classes in capitalist
soc iety - workers. capitalists and landowners - with wages. profit and
rent. the form in which each derived its income.
Thus, science was still about to tackle the most important sphere of
human activ it y. production. English economists concentrated on a study
of men's material activity and did much in this line. making important
advances in ana lysing capitalism and_ in consequence, also creating the
prerequisites for its scientific critique and for identifying its basic
contradictions. The critique of capitalism did away with the unscientific
view of that soc ial system as setting the limits to all development.
Indeed, social production and private appropriation did not in any sense
mark the final point of the historical process.
But th e English economists only took the first few steps. for they did
not have any intention of destroying capitalism and substituting another
social system for it. On the contrary, they regarded capita li sm as a
"natural order" which best accorded with "human nature". For
philosophical materialism to be applied to the cognition of soc ial tife it
was necessary to reveal it s material basis. for which it was necessary to
formulate a Marxist political economy as the economic basis for
scientific communism. From then on, social thought could no longer
develop without relying on dialectics and materialism. on Marxist
political economy.
A scientific analysis of the economy of bourgeois society became an
in strument of vast importance in the struggle between united labour and
I

16 K. Mar ....

Theorits of Surplus' Vallie. Part Ill.

Mosco"', 1971.

p-

:!~9_
101

s read of the basic p~ol?_osi'.ion~ of I~I " .the'-'r~ hc~amc ,tn

~apltaL he . p -- "- hng the workers and estilbhshl1lg i\ worklng-l'!;t\<.
Important means f or um
I .
art to struggle (or the defeat of ~he exp .o lt ~ r:~. .
.
'.
.
On
s
p Y
'd
d
I','co economic quesll
III .1 bro,\d phllosoptllcal
Marx consl ere po t I .
.
f 8
Ii hL [n his Economic and Pllifosophical A-!(I~WSCn"ls () I 44 h~ h~ld
g
I
, b . g,'ng out the charactenstlc features of capltahst
come c ese 0 nn
. I
.
.'
exploitatian. stressing that labour and capita were, IrreconCilably
antithetical and discovering that the ~ou~se of economic devel?p ment
itself led to revolution and the emanc~patJon of the workers. which also
. I' d 'h
manc,'pation of all mankind. By then. Engels had come to
Imp Ie
ee
. h'
d'
f
.
live in Britain and was of great help to Marx 10 IS s tu I~S 0 political
els had made a thorough study of the C ha rti st mov e ment
Eng
econom Y.
bl' h d
" I
.

. t

we's utopian socialism, and had pu I S e an ar IC e , entitled

O
d
..
h' h
bl' h
an
n
"Outlines of a Critique of Political Economy : "! IC was pu IS ed in
the Deutsch.Fran:os;sche JahrbiicIJer, contalOlOg so me conclusion s
from his studies of economic theory.
Marx and Engels integrated philosophical materiali s m and economic
theory to show that man's domination and hi s. complete renascence
involved the overthrow of the world of private property. Marx
subsequently summed up his idea s in these words: "My investigati on led
to the result that legal relations as well as form s of state a re t o be grasped
neither from themselves nor from the socalled general development of
the human mind. but rather have their root s in the material conditions of
life , the sum total of which Hegel , following the example of the
Englishmen and Frenchmen of the eighteenth century, combines Under )
the name of 'c ivil society'. th.a t, however , the anatomy of civil society is \
to be sought in political economy." 17
The profound analysis of the economic bas is of soc ie t y helped to
elaborate the view of world history and it s motive for ces. Hegel had
paved the way for a correct
of the sources of society's
I
history
Of man' s
consciousness, of his thought, of his spirit.
studie s helped to
understand the social structure of society, but Engli sh thinkers did not
consider the prob lem of the development of that stru c ture and its
contradictions, which worked changes in the structure it se lf. Although
by the
19th century, historical
had accumulated many
about social
it had not produced
any
co nfined itself to a
description of it.

I d Works , .
" K. Marx and F. EngeIs, Se ectt

In

102

TilE SOURCE OF CI.ASS SOCIETY'S

DEVEI.!)J'MENT

Bourgeois hi'itorian'i during the Re<;toration in France showed very

w~11 that. the clas~ struggle (the :'<;truggle of the estates". as they called it)
eXlst~d I,n the history .of soc u~ty , That had been an important step
forward a\ ~ompared with the view taken of the historical process by the
Fren~h Enhghten.ers of the 18th century, who believed that history
consisted of nothing but the advance of reason overcoming ignorance.
That ~as also a step for~ard as ~ompared with Hegel, who, while saying
th~t. hi story ~as d~a.le~!.Is:aJ l._ul.tlma~.~lY ..re.d.llced it tQ_Jh~. activity of the
SPirit. Fran<;OIs GUlzot s assertion that history was made by the "struggle
of the estates" was also an advance over the views of Saint-Simon and
Fourier. The great class battles of the French bourgeois revolution had
not been fought in vain, and bourgeois scientists began to speak of the
struggle of classes. The works of the French historians Guizot. Thierry
and Mignet are based on the notion of the "struggle of the estates".
But they believed that the class struggle came to an end with the
establishment of the bourgeois system. They saw the struggle of the
"third estate" and stopped at that point. With the victory of the
bourgeoisie, the living thread of history appeared to break off. Summing
up their views, Marx wrote: "Thus. there has been history, but there is
no longer any. There has been history, since there were the institutions
of feudali sm, and in these institutions of feudalism we find quite
different re lations of production from those of bourgeois society, which
the economists try to pass off as natural and, as such, eternal." II For the
t heory of socia l development to become a science there was need to
overcome the barrier whjch the class interests of the bourgeoisie had
e rected. An analysis' oTthe: economic baSIS of capitalist sOCiety- in 'file
~ light of materia list dialectics produced a deep-going scientific view of the
basis of the class struggle .
The ideologist s of the bourgeoisie strove hard to present the capitalist
system as an everlasting one, which accorded with the "requirements of
eternal reason", "h uman nature", the dictates of ~he "absolute. sp irit",
etc. Philo so phy , re ligion, law and economic doctnnes were deSigned to
justify these dogmas. The bourgeoisie used every medium of its
influence on the working people in order to hold the proletariat captive to
the se dogmas.
... '
,"Marx's philo so phical materiali sm alone." Lenin wrote, "has shown
the proletariat the way out of the spiritual slavery in. which all oppressed
c la sses have hitherto languished. Marx's econom ic theory alone has
explained the true po sition of the proletariat in the general system of
capitalism ." I~
I' K. Marx. The Poverty 0/ Philosophy, Moscow , 1973. p. 135.
I~ v. I. Lenin. Collected Worts. Vol. 19, p. 28.

three volumes, Vol. 1, p. 50 3.

103

Marx believed that histo ry was not gcner:Hcd by idea s hut hy the

masses and that "theory , .. becQme~ a l!l_a.I.~_rla! force a~ soon as it has

srillPed t~~JD-as.s~_~".:!O Even i~ hi s ea~IY wn lln~s Marx deafly expressed
the idea that "in order to abolish the Idea of private property, the ideClo(
com munis m is quite suffic ient. It takes aCflIal communist action 10
abol ish actual privat e property."'21 He was proiollndly convmced that
history would lead 10 it. and that the future belonged to the communi\{
movement. :2

politic~1 organ~'iation ~f
o~l.y W<ly t,o bnng ~ut In

The most important distinction of the "new trend" lay in the fa ct that it
proclaimed: "A s philo sop hy find s it s material, wea~on in th e proletariat,
\
so the proletariat find s its sp iritual weapon m philosophy," n
Marx indicated the only means of changing th e world. which , Lenin
sa id . was "10 find, in the very soc iety which surrounds us, the forces \
which can - a nd, owing to their social position, IUlIsr-constit,ute the
power capab le of sweeping away the o ld and crea ting the new" .24 That I
was the most important re sult of the c ritiqu e of the old world. Man's
domination and his complete renascence impli ed the ove rt hrow of the
world of private property: that is the proletariat's mission. for it
ema ncipat es the whole of soc iety in emancipating itself.
That was the proclamation of the need to enlighten a nd organi se the
proletariat for the great struggle of emancipation. The importance of th e
revolutionary world o utlo ok for the proletariat was poin ted out. and it s
I
with it s emanc ipa tory mi ssion and its
.
world outl ook cou ld not exisl "
basis and could not be reduced to a collection of J
maxims
the principles on which a future soc iety was to be
struc tured: it had t o be based on a sound philosophical found ation and
contai n a critique of the political, economic a nd ideo logica l prin ciples of
the old society. Without such a revolution ary world o ut look it was
imposs ible to unite the proletariat into a political o rganisation and to
establish a party of the working class. which ha s a lready engaged in
intense political battles. The emergence of sc ientific commun ism and the
emergence of a party correctly expressing the proletariat 's interest s are
closely co nnected with each other .
THE POLITICAL ORGAN ISATION
OF THE WORKING CLASS

Marx and Engels were the first in the hi story of soc ia l t hought 10
formulate the key proposition about the role in soc ial development of the

the working class and of its parly. That was the

full the g~e.at social energy of the working class.
Historr. had not known any political organisation of working peo Ie
c~mp.n')mg Ih~ w~r~d oppressed class, instead of separate detachme~s
S oWing a sClentlflc~lly based prospect of struggle and setting th~
concrete tasks and ulhma!e. goals in this struggle. which it guided. Before
the emergence of t~e political party of the working class. the latter had
been fragmented .Inlo various socialist and semisocialist sects. The
f~ndamental turOln~ point in world history. heralding the ultimate
victory of the explOited over their exploiters.
when
class set up its political organisation
i~eo.lo~y, The proletariat - began -to
I o~ganised
~Isclphned ranks !or a sustained struggle against capital. Lenin wrote:
There was nothing even approximately resembling this among the
peasant serfs. not to speak of the slaves."2s
Wh~t ~hen was the ~undamental distinction between the political
orgamsat l~n of the working class and all other organisations of the past.
and why did the emergence of the political party of the proletariat mark a
fundamental turning point in world history and in the development of
revolutionary theory?
.
Considering the period of antiquity. Lenin wrote: "The slaves. as we
know. revolted, rioted. started civil wars. but they could never create a
class.conscious majority and parties to lead the struggle. they could not
clearly realise what their aims were. and even in the most revolutionary
moments of history they were always pawns in the hands of the ruling
classes.":!6 The oprisillg of the slaves led by Spartacas Illerely creareOa
military organisation which broke up once the insurgent armies were put
down. Whenever the slaves succeeded in taking over for a longer period.
they set up on a limited territory "states" headed by their own "kings"
and isolated from the rest of the mass of slaves. These states
disappeared when crushed by the superior military force of Ihe
slave-owners. Nor were the serfs capable of setting up a sound political
o rganisat ion. even if the peasant wars were a higher stage of the
re volu tionary struggle than the uprisings of the slaves. Spontaneous
revolutionary action by masses of peasants led to the establishment of
various insurgent organisations restricted to the areas of the uprising. but
never produced any political parties. These were mainly army organisatIOns of (he insurgenCpeasants confined to the time and place of the
uprising. With the pro letariat still weak, the masse~ ?f pe~san~s ever
more frequently followed in the wake of the bourgeOIsie which directed

them for it s own class intere sts.

"Mankind moved towards capitalism." Lenin says. elaborating his

~I K \ Iarl'. and F. E.ngels. On Religion.Moscow. 1972. p. 45 .

21
~)
~.

1114

~_d~arl'..

EconOnllc and PhiiosOl1hic Manuscripts of

I.

K. \'\arl'. and F. Engels. On Religion. p. 51

V. I Lenin. Collected Works. Vol. 19. p. 28.

184~.

Moscow. 1974. p. 108.

2~ V. I. Lenin. COlletfed Works . Vol. ~9. p. ~86.

"

Ibid.
IO~

idea about the historical development of the political organi sation f

exploited classes, "and it was capitalism alone which . th an ks to
culture. enabled the oppressed proletarian class to become conscio an
itself and to create the world working-class movement. the millio Us of
workers organised all over the world in parties - the soc ialist pa~~ of
which are consciously leading the struggle of the mas se s," 27
les,
The origi~s of, t~e great vi.clories scored by the .worki!1g people in th e
present peflod he m the period when the pr?letar~a~ bUilt u p its (orees
became aware of itself as a class and set up tts poiltlcal orga nisation_ a.
party which is capable of giving a con~~ious lead ~n t~e massive slm&gle
Only with the emergence of the political organisation of the work' .
class. carrying on the struggle under the banner of scientific com~n~
nism. did historical progress become a powerful force and was the levUer
discovered to overturn the world of exploitation and oppression. Fro
then on the working class developed into an independent political fore m
capable of radically transforming social relations through its struggle
the head of the working people. In the course of the stru ggle the
working class and the peasantry set up an alliance constituting a fact~r of
tremendous social and political importance. The proletariat attracted to
its side various sections of the working people and the progressive

~r~~e

~~

intelligentsia.
The potentialities and prospects for the working people 's liberation
struggle underwent a fundamental change. The emergence of the
revolutionary theory and the party of the working cla ss marked a new
stage of epoch-making importance in the ideological develo pm ent and
the liberation struggle of mankind as a whole.
The proletariat's class struggle developed from separate fl areups to
such powerful political revolutionary action as the upri sing of the
workers of Paris i1). 1848 and the P_arisCommune of 1871 . Th e o riginat ion
and history of Marxism are at the same time the history and de velopment
of the political organisation of the working class from the Communist
League to the First International and then on to the establishment of
Social-Democratic parties in various countries. The devel opment of
scientific communism is inseparable from the history of the proletariat's
political organisation and its parties.
In the period when scientific communism was emerging the proletariat
was being lured by many a will-o'-the-wisp to stray from the right path .
In the 1820s and the 1830s, the working class was being given all sorts of
advice by spokesmen of various petty-bourgeois trend s seeking to
dissolve the proletariat in the mass of the "people", and also by liberal
bourgeois leaders who wanted to intensify bourgeois influence on the
working class and to convert the proletariat into a pliant tool of
!1 V '- Lenin.

106

Colleued Works, Vol. 29, p. 486.

bourgeois liberalism. In order confidently and boldly to advance. the

proletariat had to discard all this advice and to strike "a deadly blow at all
these vociferou s, motley and ostentatiou s forms of pre-Marxian
socialism". 28 Among the complicated problems faced by the working
class were these : how was it to act in the political arena? What form s and
methods of struggle was it to use'? What were its immediate and ultimate
goals in the struggle it had started? How was it most effectively to
organi se it s forces to win in the ranging battle? There were no
ready-made an swers to the se question s. These were to be provided by
socialist theory .
In the working-class organi sations which had then emerged the
following main lines appeared. showing that the question of the correct
.!"evolutiooary theory had JJ.~S.Qme ~he most vi!<!.UlmlhistJ>rically most
Important question. On the one hand, there were already signs of effort s
to set up mass political organi sation s of the working cla ss . The National
Chartist Association was set up in Britain in 1840. marking an important
stage in the development of the working-cla ss movement.
On the other hand. variou s secret societies alongside diverse
con spiratorial political outfit s involving workers were being set
up _ characteristically - in France. They revived the tradition of
Babeufs "Conspiracy of Equal s" movement during the French
bourgeoi s revolution . These vision s were mo st forcibly expre ssed by the
impassioned revolutionary Augu ste Blanqui , who together with hi s
followers believed that the hour of the second great revolution had
struck and that the immediate task was to set up a revolutionary
dictatorship .
Another propagandist of revolutionary idea s. revolutionary dictatorship and social equality was Theodore Dezamy , and the ideas were being
spread by periodicals hke t 'Egairlalre and L 'Humanitaire. The
Egalitarian Workers' Secret Society wa s set up under the impact of these
idea s . Engels. following the activity of this society from his home in
Brita.in . said that its members were, completely ignorant~. "hi!Qry .~nd
and Engels put forward the great and fruitful principle
of
struggle. the principle of working-class unity, both
within the country and in the international arena. Since then, the
working-class movement has developed under the banner of unity and on
the basis of the prinCiples of proletarian internationalism . In the lifetime
of Marx and Engel s
survivals of the old.
notion s
of
conspirators
instead of the working class as a whole .

v.

Collecled Works , Vol. J8. pp . 58283 .

29 Karl MarxlFriedrich Engels, Werke. Dietz Verlag . Berlin. Bd . \, S. 485.
28

I. Lenin .

101

?(

Engels assessed the activity of this hr.'lOd of rc\olUli onarie .

follows: "Brought up in the school o! CO~lsplraq, anJ held loge-th.\ ,1\
the strict discipline which went with It. they started out fr~l~r hy
viewpoint that a relatively small number of resolute . well -organbcd ~he
would be able. at a given favourable moment. not only to ... eil'c the h cn
of state. but also by a dis~lay of g~eal. ruthless energy, h.l main~:~
power untillhey succeeded In sweeplIl the mas,> of th e pe~)ple im 'In
revolution.":10 But rev,olution cannot be made wit,hout the maSSC'i.O~~e )(
absence of a revolutionary theory
.
had a negallve effect on "II
" t hee
practical activity of the revolutlonanes.
No brand of utopian communist theory could provide an ideo log'
,
f
dr'l
I'
lCal
~asis for the esta.bhshment 0 a. soun p? Itl.ca . revo utlonary organisa.
tlon of the workmg class. fo~ ~t~ orgamsatlOnal and propaganda work
among the masses,. for a deJml~~<?n. 0L .!he.-itrategy and tacti cs of the
proletariat's politicaTStruggle. The faIrly vague idea s and c on vic lio
about the principles on which the future society was to be structured d~~
not. of course. make up any coherent revolutionary outlook and eXist~d
side by side with idealistic bourgeois illusions.
The utopian socialists assumed that their socialism would develop
without any political struggle within the entrails of capitali s m. They had
hopes that the rich would donate their riches for the establi shm ent of a
new social system. and believed that classes could be reconciled through
the spread of socialist ideas. Both Saint-Simon and Fourier had assumed
as much. and their ideas were carried further in theory and practical
activity by their followers. Louis Blanc. the French utopian sociali sl of
the mid-19th century. has gone down in history as an ardent advocate of
a reconciliation between the proletariat and the bourgeoi sie . Attacking
the Mensheviks in Russia years later. Lenin called them advocates of
..."Louis Blanc-ism".
II hus. the proletariat, which had become aware of it self a s a class
about to start a resolute struggle in complicated historical condition s had
need of a coherent revolutionary outlook which utopian communi sm, to
say nothing of utopian socialism, was unable to provide.
The history of the I;~a8ue of the Just shows very well the exi stence of
such a need. This. . . "half -pro'paganda association. half -conspiracy" Y
consisting mainly of Germans, emerged in 1836 and by the early 18405
operated as a ramified international organisation with it s center in
London and branches (lodges) in France. Germany . Switzerland and
other countries. But its social doctrine was highly indefinit e and its
?1emb~rs were, in general. very careless about theory. politica l econ?my
In particular. They were influenced by Weitling's utopian communi sm,
p.

~K.

"K
108

Marx and F. Engels. Selected

Works. in three volumes. Vol. 2. MoscOW. 1913-

which hall hall a progrc ...... ive role 10 play at ils initial .,tage but hy Ihe
mid-1840 ... hall hecome a heavy lIrag on the develo~m~nt of that p~lrl of
the working-cIa.,., movcment which was !'.till umlcr It.., mfluem;c~ F.. n~~I'!i
wrote: "The tracing of communi.,m hack to primitive Chn ... tlamlY
introduced by Weitling--no matter how brillianl certa~n pas~age.., 10 he
found in hi.c; GO!ipei of poor Sitlflen- had resulted m de~l!,e~ tnS the
movement ilJ...5.will.erla nd to it IN~extent into the hands. hr ... t uf foob
like Albrecht and then of CX2loitin.s. fake p-LQ,phet ... like Kuhlmann .... A:s
agaillSt the u~lena6dity of the previous theoret~cal views ..and as again.,t
the practical aberrations resulting therefrom. It was reahsed more and
more in London that Marx and I were right in our new theory." J1 In 1847.
a majorilY of it s members declared their accepta~c~ of the .Iheory
formulated by Marx and Engels and invited them to JOI~ the Union and
to set forth their views as a manifesto. That same year It took the name
of the Communist League and in place of the old motto- "All Men Are
Brothers"-it adopted the new slogan: "Workers of all countries.
unite!" The Manifesto of tlu Communist Party. the s~ien.tific program~e
for struggle by Ihe world's prolelariat for it s emanCipation. appeared m
February 1848.
THE WA Y OF SOCIAL PROGRI.SS

Marx and Engels showed that communism was a natural stage in social
development. Marxism pUI forward the key propositions of the Iheory of
also formulated and gave scientific sUQstantialion to
. .
wny it IS a combat -weapon in the struggle against the
forces of reaction. In their writings. Marx. Engels and Lenin set forth a
coherent scientific theory of progre ssive soc ial development from Ihe
primitive commune across the centuries of exploitation to com"!unism.
"The chaos and arbitrariness that had previously reigned in vIews on
history and politics were replaced by a strikingly integral and
harmonious scientific theory. which shows how. in consequence of the
growth of productive forces. out of one system of social life another and
h igher system develops- how capitalism. for instance. grows out of
feudalism." n
Just as higher mathematics is inconceivable without the Carlesian
coordinates of x and y.
twO lines. so it is
impossible to study
coord inates of social relations: the relation s of production and modes of
production. These coordinates help the student of society to find his
bearings in the chaotic tide of soc ial phenomena and to understand the
31 K. Marx and F. Engels. Sele("(ed Works. in Ihree volume~. YoJ. 3. pp. 180-SI.
11 V. I. Lenin. Col/eelI'd Works. Vol. 19. p. :!5.

Marx and F. Engels. Selected

Works. in Ihree volumes. Vol. 3. p. 174

10'

various forms of social relati<>.ns in the ,vario,us epoc~s. howe ver patchy
these may be, the changes takmg pl~ce In a given :soc l~ty. however "mall )

these may be. and to comprehend ldeolo.gy al~d SOCia,' ps~chology_

Once men gain a knowledge of the umformlty of hl stoncal develo .
ment and have at their disposal the scientific criterion for separating t~
progressive from the reactionary. they cease to blunder about in th~
darkness and refuse . t~. ~_~ __ the dup:.~ .o .~ . fra~~ and se lfdeception in
politics. I fils enabTes them- [Q dedicate tlielf splfIlual and physical forces

"To' working for the great future of man,klnd. The MarxistLeniniSl

doctrine makes it possible to work out a stnct and correct assessment of
the actions of men, classes and parties, and to bring o ut the social
substance and orientation of political ideas and doctrines. Communism is \J
a natural result of social development; compared with it , mankind's /earlier way comes to no more than a prehistory leading up to its true
history. Once free of the fetters of exploitati _(m ~ .~osjet.Y develops at a
more rapid pace and obtains unprecedented pos sibilitie s for advance.
'SCielitiNC'""tommunism t11ro",s a strong light on the future economic ,
social and spiritual progress of mankind. The theory of soc ial
development has become a theory of transforming soc iet y, a guide to
revolutionary action by the mas ses.
The founders of Marxi s m-Leninism showed that soc ial progre,>s is
based on the development of the productive force s a nd the change in
the relations of production which in antagonistic soc iety occurs through
social revolution, Marxism also established a sc ientifi c criterion for
identifying the stages of the historical proces s, which appear as ascent
from lower to higher social forms. Instead of the chaos o f "civilisation"
and "cultures" . instead of the artificial schemes produced by the
idealistic philosophy of history, it gave a scientific picture o f mankind' s
advance, estab li shed the scientific periods in the hi story of soc iety and
showed the succession of socio-economic formations as stages in the
progressive deve lopment of the economic, politica l and cultural life of
society. Having formulated the most important category in the sc ience of
_society.~ tjl,e ,~oncept of socio-e_~OOoIDic formation :"'" M arx ism gave a
scientific definitIon 'orme- sodal whole, a scientific view of socia l life as
the unity and interaction of diverse social phenomena z.nd pro cesses, and
revealed the basis of this unity and interaction.
Marxi s m face s the modern period and make s it po ss ible t o consider
~ny Current social phenomena over the long term. in it s de velopment a nd
In close conneCl~Q!l ,~i.t.~_J.b_~hi:)lQry of socbL (Qrm s. Th e re marka.b~e
writings of Marx . Engels and Lenin shed a s trong light o f scientific
theory on current events and proce sses , but they a re also of vast
met.hodological importance because they reveal the uniform it ie~ of
SOCial development. The Marxist-Leninist doctrine of soc iety combines
a study of the present, an analysis of the past and a sc ientifi c view of the
future.

Y
1\

II.

Every social phenomenon can be understood in sc', ,'f' ,

I
. .
'd
d' ,
I nile ermsony
when. It IS c?nsl er~ I mh"s] c<,;lnnection with other phenomena. and with
the developing socia ~ 0 e. The student of society taking the Marxist
approach
never loses
sight of the social whole_ the mod, of pro d,'
uc lon,
'
. f"
t he SOCIQ -eConomIC ormatIon to which a phenomenon relates-whatever concrete phenom~na ~e may study, Thus, he never loses sight of
the thread of the hl stoTlcal process and the prospect of social
)
development ,
Marxi.s m s~udi es c.oncrete. phenomena in modern life in close
connection with the given socl3l whole, which is a stage in mankind's
overall soci~l develop,m~nt. At the same time. it studies the given
concrete SOC ial W.h ~l,~ .Its movement, and considers all the processes
going forward wlthl~ that whole as being various aspects, component
parts and elements In the development of the given socia-economic
formation,
Lenin observed that the stormy revolutions which accompanied the
collapse of fe udalism in Europe gave a graphic demonstration of the
basis of social development and its motive force, the struggle of classes.
and added : "The genius of Marx lies in his having been the first to
deduce from this the lesson world history teaches and to apply that
lesson consistently. The deduction he made is the doctrine of the class
struggle." )4 Consistently elaborating the doctrine of the proletariat's
class struggle, Marx showed the historical necessity for the proletarian
dictatorship , which puts an end to the domination of the exploiters and
ushers in the epoch of the rule of labour, Marxism has shown that
mankind' s future is conn ected with the revolutionary overthrow of the
exploitative system a nd the estab li shment of the proletarian di~tatorship.
This has resulted in the elaboration of a coherent conceptIon of ~he
wo rl dwide historical process, of the doctrine of mankind's ~rogressl ve
advance. Thi s doc trine is the highest achievement of SOCial thought
prepa red by its development in the course of the class struggle over the
centuries.
"
f
I
This conception of the world historical process IS bemg most lerc:
attacked by bourgeo is ideologists because it is close ly bou.od ~p ~I~
scientific communism. It is because of this that bourgeo,ls. t ewoh"oss!
,
d
f
"0 'sm Eduard Berns em .
attack MarXIsm. The foun er 0 re~lsl m '.
th'" sought to
slogan was "movement is everythl~g. the a~m -I~'o ~~g goal of the
"release" Marxism from th e doctnne of t e u ,~~~ over the fact
working-class struggle . Bourgeois ad~oc;ate~ go Ie has been scientithat the ultim a te goal of th~ proletanat s s ~y~s of social developfically substantiated and denved from an ana
ment.

J(

V. I. Lenin. Colltc rtd Works. Vol. t9, p. 27,

'"

. A. theory of ~oc.ial development assuming that ~lankinJ will hav

hve under capltahsm forever. to hold sacred pnvat c rropcrty . C lu

means of production forever, and to maintain various for Ins the
bourgeois state and bourgeois ideology ceases to he a Ihc:ry of
development and becomes a doctrine of social stagnation. In Our d. Y of
theory of social development which ignores the principles of ..,ci: "f~o \(
communism can be scientific.
nt1 Ie
The need to do away with man's exploitation of man wa I
'f
'
... Ong
conSI'd ere d t he k'ey question
0 revo IutlOnary
struggle and social thou
h
and called for an answer. The scientific theory of social develop;entt.
brought out the uniformity according to which !;;ociety moves fr

\hop~eepers,

II

capitali~m

capitalism to a new social system. which may be generated by

but signifies the abolition of the very basis of the exploitative syste:
The transformation of utopian socialism into a science meant that th~
question of this uniformity had been posed and a scientific anSwer
provided on the basis of an economic. historical and philo sop hical
analysis of the whole course of social development.
The origination and development of Marxism marked a fundamental
change in the view of the role of the masses in history. and signified a
vast increase in the historical activity of the masses. On the basis of its
analysis of capitalism, Marxism has shown the role of the working class
which history assigned to it. a role it has started to fulfil. Marxism has
provided all-round, scientific substantiation of the idea of an alliance
between the working class and the toiling peasantry and other section s of
the working people in the fight to abolish exploitation. These ideas
worked a fundamental change in the notion of social progre ss. It is \;
tremendously important for social progress that the great social energy "
of the masses should be combined with scientific revolutionary theory.
and this was demonstrated by the experience of the Pari s Commune in
Marx's own lifetime.
The Paris Commune announced to the world the spontaneous
awakening of the mighty power of the working class. The greatness of
the Paris Commune consists in the fact that in its hi story , the
"revolutionary instinc! of the working class asserts it self despite
fallacious theories".n The proletarians of Paris were being confused by
n
the theories of the latter-da uto ia
.'
.C_Q!11ffio n .se seyf
the working class
.
t e upper hand and it displayed it s revolution
ne
ary initiative and creative approach. Lenin stressed that "the Corom.u
sprang up spontaneously. No one consciously prepared it in an
nan
way")6 That is one of the characteristic features of the great prolet.a.
uprising in the 19th century. Considering the unfavourable cond itIOns

)l

orgaOl~ed

tl2

n~

working people.
The important conclusion which Marx. Engels and Lenin drew from
the experience of revolutionary struggle. including the activity of the
Paris Commune. bears on the political organisation of society carrying
out a socialist revolution. a politi~al organisation which.lll:USI~.e...1he
revolutionary energy of the masses the utmost effectIveness and ..
purposefulness. Their profound ~heoretical c~nc,lusion ,:",as that the )
socialist revolution should consist 10 the proletanat s breakmg up the old
state machine and running the country by means of a new.state. In his
April Theses. Lenin put forward the demand for the establishment of a
state of which the Paris Commune had been the prototype. He
substantiated this idea in detail on the eve of the Great October
Revolution as he elaborated Marx's ideas. Lenin made a thoroug~ study
of the experience in setting up , Soviets
in Russia,'for
he saw
thelT
great
'
d'
d by the
vere
future as the state form in bUIlding
the
Isco of hl~
. <;tudy
,
I 'new 0society
the strength
masses themselves. He drew thiS cone USlon n
.'
f h
of the revolutionary initiative of the masses and the apphcat.\O~ 0 \~
scientific theory of social development to .concrete ta!\ks whl~ t "~!'~h~
from the historical situation. This conclusIOn has become a paT

17 V. \ I.enin. Col/I'dI'd \\"orkl. Vol. 17. p. IH.

,
H V. J. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 8, p. 207.
v. Ibid., Vol. J7, p. 139.

which .had then. taken '>hape "in France for a victorious ,>ociali~t
revolution, ,LeOl~ ~ald, t~at
F~ench ~apitalism wa!! still poorly
developed. and France was at that time mamly a petty-bourgeois countr
(artisans. peasant!!.
etc.). On the other hand, there was
workers' party: the working class had not gone through a long school of
struggle and W~lS ~nprepared". In consequence, "there was no serious
political organtsatlon of the proletariat. nor were there strong trade
unions"." The mas,,-e\._~~L~ y~~ t<?. "!aster .\'oiutioo3f theory. Thi..,
explains above all the senous mistaKes made by the Commune. and these
were analysed in detail by Marx. Engels and Lenin as they formulated a
scientifically b~sed theor~ ~f social development and its key component
part, the doctnne of soc lah st revolution.
When studying the experience of the Commune. Marx and Lenin
above all put a high va.l!J~ on the historical initiative of the masses. The
experience of the Commune- snowed very- w-errUiat ffieVi'6rant creative
approach of the working people was a necessity in building the new
society. Lenin stressed: "The Ilis/orical initiative of the masses was what
Marx prized above everything else." 18 But this tremendous creative
revolutionary energy of the masses can be most effectively expressed
only when there is a political organisation of the proletariat. its Party. its
vanguard, capable of leading the working class and the bulk of the

)8 Ibid .. V,.\ I~ p. 109.

ILl

treasure house of the ideas of the world communist mov

a whole" ,The historical impo~ance of thi s conclusion ~~~nt as
been venfled by the vast expenence of struggle and viela - S ~ow
then.
nes Since
After the Soviet state had been established. Lenin also

Marx's assessment of the experience of the Commune. In h~: erredrt to

the ':!bird All-Russia Congress of Soviets. Lenin comp:::d at
expenence of the Commune and that of the Soviet power and d
the
conclusion that since 1871 the international working.cla ss move few the
taken a great stride forward and that the Soviet power was in a m.ent ~ad
th t '
I
f
b
situatIOn
a . watSlmdmenl'de. y motre aV?UTha Ie than the c:ommune. The workers
peasan 5 an so leTS. 0 RUSSla ad 'succeeded In setting up a p Owerfu!,
8ppa~a t US- t h ~ S ovd,eht power- which was established throughout the
coun ryan d enJoye t e wholehearted support of the great major't
the people,
I Yof
The Commune hoisted its banners just when mankind's history was
but it served as a symbol of the
daw~
a ,much greater..
,epoch, The epoch of 1789-1871.
w~en bourgeOIs society was gettmg nd of feudali sm, was becoming a
thIDg of the past. In that epoch, the revolutionary energy of the masses
gave bourgeois revolutions power and scope and helped to do away with .'
the rule of the feudals. B~t, at that ti~e t,he working people were not yet
able to set up a sound pohtl~al organiSatIOn of their own, a mighty party
to lead them. a.long the '!ay 1I1umined by scientific revolutionary theory.
The bourgeOIsie sought In every way to limit any expressions of massive
revoluti?~ary energy ~nd to keep down the people, For that purpose, the
bourgeoisie entered IOto an alliance with the feudaJ lords and the
s~rf-holders, After 1871 came the epoch of the decline and rotten'
npe.ness of capitalism, the domination of the most reactionary monopoly
capital and the mustering of its forces by the new class, the proletariat,
w~ose r~vol~~ionary energy was growing. The proletariat was equipped
with a sCientifiC theory of social development which indicated its place in
the historical process and the way of its revolutionary action. The Paris
~ommune showed for the first time that state power can and must pass J
Into the hands of the working class. that the dictatorship of the
prol,eta,riat i,s a real demand of social development . and that the
capltaJists will have to leave the historical scene and clear the way forthe
new ~ocial syste~, The revolutionary energy of the proletariat is a great
creative force, gIVen the necessary conditions for its expression, and a
revolutionary theory to guide it. Scientific communism has prov~d
beyond all doubt that a knowledge of the uniformities of SOCial
development and of its potentialities and prospects is the most important
prerequisite for the historical activity of the masses and a most potent
instrument of progress.

SCIENTIFIC COMMUNISM AND ITS STRUGGLE

AGAINST UTOPIANISM

Marx made a deep study of the key trends in social thought and in 1843
criticised the utopianism of the French socialist and communist trends.
In a letter to Arnold Ruge. he stressed: "For although no doubt exists on
the question of 'Whence', all the greater confusion prevails on the
question of 'Whither'. Not only has a state of general anarchy set in
among the reformers. but everyone will have to admit to himself that he
has no exact idea what the fu.wr~.ought to be." J9 The utopians were aware of their' p-oint 'oraepa rture, meaning thai the advance was to be from
capital ism on into the future, but they did not know how to advance into
the future. instead. they invented speculative schemes of a future social
order.
In contrast to these utopian attempts, Marx presented a "new trend" in
social thought, of which he says the following: "On the other hand. it is
precisely the advantage of the new trend that we do not dogmatically
anticipate the world, but only want to find the new world through
criticism of the old ~me," <10 To discoveranew-~orld through a critIque of
tfie'ol[one means to discover in the old society the real forces which
cou ld remake it and to determine how a new social system could actually
spring from the old soc iety . The unsubstantiated contrast of speculative
pictures of the new world and actual capitalism was. according to Marx,
a dogmatic anticij?ation of the fut.ure. It amounted to a lifeless
. utopianism 'deprived -cifrevolutionary energy. Any dogmatism and its
attendant utopianism are profoundly alien to the dialectics of life,
practical struggle and revolutionary theory, As soon as it emerged.
Marxism declared war on dogmatism. utopianism and the doctrinaire
approach.
The utopian socialists suggested the possibility of a social order under
which each worked in accordance with his capacities and was paid in
accordance with hi s work. but they intended to secure thi s arrangement
under the bourgeois system. without any revolution, The utopian
communists called for revolution and a revolutionary dictatorship that
were to usher in social equality and set up a society where each would
receive in accordance with his needs. But their idea of revolution was
utterly fantast ic: it was to be a kind of miracle that was. in~tan~ly ~o
establish the ideal s of complete equality. social justice and dlstnbutlon In
accordance to need s,
When asked why the new social system had to ~ep~ac~ the old one. ~he
utopian communists had one answer: because of ItS indIsputable mentS.
They had no idea of the real force.s thal .w~e, tQ act in a~,ordanc,e with
the laws of history to establish the new social system.
~9 K. Marx and F. Engel~. Seluttd Works. Vol. 3, p. 141.
010 Ibid.

II ~
g'

114

In their fight against v~ri.ous politi cal tre~ds. Marx and Engels sided
with the revolution and jomed the revolutIOn ary movement from the
outset. As early as 1843. Marx str~ ssed that the task t~en was to carrYOn
"ruthless criticism of all tliat e:osts. ruthl~ss both In the sense of not
being afraid of the results it arrives at and In the sense of being just as
little afraid of conflict with the powe rs that be" ,41 Thu s. Marx insisted )
that this criticism had a political ~~ntent and. said th a~ "the criti~ not only
can but must deal with these political ques tion s (whl.ch accordmg to the
extreme Socialists are altogether unworthy of attention)" ,42 That is why
Marx and Engels resolutely opposed the stand taken by th e utopians
who preached abstinence from political struggle.
'
Furthermore , Marx and Engels just as resolutely sided with commu
nism, for they had no doubt at all that communism was the ultimate goal
of the revolutionary struggle. But they began a profound critique of
utopian communism.
As early as 1843, Marx declared that because the utopian communism
of Cabet, Dezamy and Weitling turned its attention only to some aspects
of the future society it amounte~_1.0 a-dogmatic abS1J:ACtiOIi. This }I
one.sided abstraction inevitably produced another abstraction - utopian ~
soc ialism . i.e."a onesided realisation of the socialist principle".4l Marx
was not satisfied with the prospect of a onesided implementation of the
soc ialist principle , just as he was against the onesided implementation
of the communist principle.
These ideas already suggested the need to overcome the onesidedness
both of utopian socialism and of utopian communism. Scientific
communism alone was capable of doing thi s. The utopian socialists put
forward the idea of a possible social system under which each worked
according to his abilities and received according to his work. They
proclaimed that men would come to dominate nature for the common
good. but they believed that all of this could be achieved without a
revolutionary transformation of bourgeoi s soc iety.
The utopian communists, like the followers of Blanqui, iss ued calls for
revolution and the establishment of a revolutionary dictatorship which
was to implement instant social equality by setting up a society in which
each received according to his needs. But there arose this question: was \
society capable of satisfying all the need s of everyone of its members
the day after the socia list revolution? The utopian com muni sts countered
by declaring that communism could start its way from a holy state of
poverty. They ignored the question of the material in centives for work
and did not consider at all the development of production and the

)1

"

~~

"
116

K. \fan and F
Ibid_. p. 143.
Ibid .. p. 142.

Fngel~.

op.

cit..

p.

241

economy In 1~44. Marx was already say ing that the "urge for le velling"
and the ~s(a,?hshment of an equal minimum for all prevailed in '\:rude
co.~~um')~ ..t.I Indeed , this "c rude communism" which Mar' fir . . (
cnt l ~ l sed m 18431844 amounted to a whittling down of social
reqUlre~~nts to a minimum and totalleveJling in soc iety on the basi~ of
that mlmm~m .. ~arx saw this as a call for "the regre<;<;ion to the
/lllll(lt/lT(l/ SImpliCity of the poor and crude man who has few need .. and
who has not only failed to go beyond private property. but ha s not yet
even reached ie' .~~
This criticism contains the embryo of the idea that communism is
po ssible only on the basis of an abundance of material goods. In the
EcollO~lIic (//I(i Plli/osopllie !'-1allllscripts of 1844 we also find the embryo
of the Idea (hat the new socIety must del'elop and in its development pass
through a Iwmber of stages until it reaches perfection.
The le sse r lights of utopian socialism. whom Marx fought, considered
the tran sition to the new society not as a single dialectical process of
development in which the new and higher stage naturally followed upon
the preceding one. ?ut as a disintegration of soc iety into separate cells.
Whenever they suggested a breakup of soc ial relations it was only in the
sense that many soc ial ties. characteristic of the epoch of capitalism.
were destroyed. with centralisation giving way to total decentralisation,
and selfsufficient commune associations substituting for the intricate
system of capitalist relations between men. peoples and countries.
Bgkunin and Proudhon held that with the abolition of exploitation.
men's joint activity would also be abolished. for they believed that the
emancipation of labour implied independent activity by in<!~vLc!ual ~ or
small 8"f-&up'.
Some utopian soc ialists were quite wrong when they sa id that the
emergence of the new soc iety would start with the organisation of more
or le ss isolated as soc iations. Indeed. Proudhon based his "associations".
in co ntra st to other utopian socia lists. on an equivalent exchange of
goods and serv ices, and not on social property . He suggested that the
future society would break up into separate collectives, so that the
bourgeois state would not give way to a dictatorship of the proletariat but
to anarchy.
In 1847, Marx exposed Proudnon's "poverty of philosophy" and drew )
the following conclusion: "He wants to soar as the man of science abo~e
the bourgeois and the proletarians: he is merely the petty bourgeOIs.
"" Anenlion to Ihi ... idea of M:lr'\ ... \\;\<; dm\\n b) V. S. A1c..:e)c\P\)I'0\ in hi ... \\ork.
"The $oci:ll Circlc' and I", Political :lnd Social Demands" In the col1~cuon: From tl ,
.
."
I I
3'7 '8 0., ,1<0' T I Qizcrman ~ clrcunhlanu:tl
H.story of SO("laPollt/H/ I( ells. PI' - . _ . -eKe ~: .
'l
-'69.19
~ludy. TI.e Fan1wti(m of tilt' Phi/OJllp/ty IIf M l/Hlmr. Mosco\\. 1%-. pp, (in Ru .... ~ian).
4~ K_ Marx. Economic "lid Philosopllic /llalwsaipts

of IS-I-I. P 89.
117

continually tossed back and forth between capital and lab our Pl"
economy and communism." 46 In the 18505. Marx continued hi s' cr~t"U~cal
of Proudhonism and showed the f1i'!lsiness ~f the theory whic h hel~Ct,srn
artisans and peasants were (0 receive credit and land. and engag ,hat
direct exchange of the products of their labour in order allegedly to ~I~ a
about fundamental social changes in society. These were the ut ~ng
aspirations not of the proletariat, but of the petty bourgeoisie . Whic~Plan ...,
as
be,iog hemmed in by big capital thro~gh cr~dit and competition.
I
this amounted to an attempt, Marx said. to Invent something th at w ~f
forcibly
stem the growth of capital and the progressive develo pme nDtU0df
.
society.
In his sociological writings, Proudhon came fairly close to Comte'
positivism and agnosticis~ and ~eld that ontology ?I~~. _~cience o~
_ subs~ances and .causes was lmp~sslble .. and that. all that was accessible 'to
man s observatIOn was the relatIOn between things. Proudhon borrowed
his "law of the three stages" governing the progre ss of society from
Comte, or directly from Saint-Simon; he designated these a s religion
philosophy and science. That was the sum and substance of hi~
inadequate idealistic theory of progress.
M. A. Bakunin also to some extent started his theoretical exercises
from Proudhon. Engels wrote that "Bakunin has a peculiar theory ofhis
own. a medley of Proudhonism and communism. The chief po int
concerning the former is that he does not regard capital, i.e. , the class
antagonism between capitalists and wage workers which ha s arisen \
through social development. but the state as the main evil to be )
abolished":17 Subsequent anarchist theories variously start from Bakunin's ideas , all being characterised by this amalgam of Proudhoni sm and
communism. and all being hostile not only to the bourgeoi s state , but
also to the idea of a dictatorship of the proletariat, without which it is
absolutely impossible to carry out any deep social changes or to prepare
the construction of a new society and to establish it s first pha se . For all
their loud revolutionary talk and the display of Leftism , Bakuninism and
anarchist
-other
BaK"umn
reo
actionary utopianism, declaring Marxism to be a state-communistic pr~
mn
gramme. In contrast to the idea of the proletarian dictatorship, Baku
developed his anarchist theory of a riot by the whole people and the free
organisation of masses of workers. He held that following a riot by the
whole people, upon the overthrow of capitalism, a social system was at
once to emerge under which there would be full satisfaction of all

material requirements through collective labour. compulsory and equal

for all, Here Bakunin reiterated the ideas of utopian communism.
Bakunin imagined the new social system to be some emancipation of
mankind from the operation of the laws of social development.
Following the riot of the whole people the development of the social
forms would cease. and society. broken up into its initial cells- associations- would subsequently not undergo any qualitative changes. so that
its development would amount only to quantitative growth. That was a
definite step back in the history of social thought.
For the first time in the history of social thought, Marx and Engels.
who relied on materialist dialectics and carried on a struggle against
petty-bourgeois views. showed the most harmful role of voluntarism in
revolutionary action. The will was the basis of Bakunin's whole
revolutionary theory. and that is-w-hat"Ma"r-x--e-mphasised in exposing the
Bakuninists. Engels had criticised the Blanquists for their voluntarism.
Marx and Engels laid the basis for all the subsequent criticism of
petty-bourgeois "Leftism" and showed how harmful and untenable this
kind of theory and practice were.

AI7

Let us note that in 1844 Marx already criticised "crude communism"

for its urge forcihl~ to abstract itself from talent. etc. 4S The idea of the
need to take account of human capacities is contrasted to egalitarian
communism. Marx held that communism was "the gelluine resolution of
the conflict between man and nature and between man and man". The
entire movement of history is the birth act of this communism; on the
other hand, for the thinking consciousness this movement is the
comprehension of its becoming.49 While Marx was quite clear on his
altitude to commu ni sm in that period as a trend of thought, he had yet to
clarify the ':>tagcs in the formation of the new soc iety .
In Tile Poverty of Philosopliy (1847). Marx gave a more profound
analysis of doctrinaire soc iali sm. when he wrote: "So long as the
proletariat is not yet sufficient ly developed to co nstitute itself as a class.
and consequently so long as the struggle itself of the proletariat with the
bourgeoisie has not yet assumed a political character , and the productive
forces are not yet suffi ciently developed in the bosom of the bourgeoisie
it self to enable us to catch a glimpse of the material conditions necessary
for the emancipation of the proletariat and for the formation of a new
society. the se theoreticians are merely utopians who. to meet the wants
of the oppressed classes. improvise systems and go in search of a
K. M~rJ(. E('(lIlomi(' IIm1 Pili/osop/trwi M(IIwsai"r.\ (If 18+1. p. ~ .
49 Ihid .. r. 90.
4!1

4~ K. Man.. Tht PO\trfy of Philosophy.

p. 141.

K. Marx and F. Engels. Selected Correspolldell("t, Moscow. 1965. pp. 334-35.

1t8

THE PROBLEM OF THE FUTURE SOCIETY

regenerating science." <,(J Marx sought to discover the material elln r .

necessary for emancipating the proletariat and building the new s~ I,t.lon~
and also to analyse the possibilities of the political struggle' oC/Cly,
working class. The answers to these questions were given On the e Vethe
the revolutionary storm of 1848 in the Manifesto of the COl1lm ?f
Part}'. which contained a profound analysis of the real ways in Whic~';~'
new society was to take shape. the need of the proletariat to make u' e
its political domination so as to wrest from the bourgeoisie the who~e of
its capital. to centralise all the instruments of labour in the hands Ofet~f
state, that is. to organise itself as the ruling class and to boost the
productive forces.
e
Returning to the criticism of "doctrinaire socialism" in 1850 Ma
observed that "the struggle of the different socialist leader s 'amo~~
themselves sets forth each of the so-called systems as a pretentious
adherence to one of the transit points of the social revolution as against
another")1 Scientific communism alone was capable of overcoming all
these one-sided approaches because it had studied as a whole the
problem of society'S transition from capitalism to socialism. What were
the stages of this transition that Marx and Engels set out?
In the Principles of Communism (1847), Engels replied to a question
about whether it was possible to abolish private property at Ollce, as
follows: "No, such a thing would be just as impossible as at olle blow to
multiply the existing productive forces to the degree necessary for the
creation of the community. Hence, the proletarian revolution , which in )
all likelihood is approaching, will only be able gradually to transform
existing society. and will abolish private ownership only when the
necessary quantity of means of production has been created." 52 Engels
further explained his idea as follows: "Once the first radical onslaught
upon private ownership has been made, the proletariat will be compelled
to go further. and more and more to concentrate in the hands of the State
all capital, all agriculture, all industry, all transport, and all mean s of
exchange." 53 Thus, the development of the new society would be
characterised by ever greater socialisation of the means of production:
"All these measures work towards such results; and they will become
realisable and their centralising consequences will develop in the s~me
proportion in which the productive forces of the country will multiply
through the labour of the proletariat." 54 The development of the ne~
society would be based on a growth of the productive force s, a.od thl~
would carry society to full communism. "Finally, when all capital, al
.
K. Marx:, The Poverty of PhIlosophy,
p. 140.
SI K. Marx and F. Engels. Selected Works, in three volumes, Vol. 1. p. 282.
~

"'3 Ibid ., pp. 89-90.

S4 Ibid., p. 9t.
Ibid.
120

production, and all exchange are concentrated in the hands of the nation.
private ownership will automatically have ceased to ex:ist. money will
have become ~uperfluous, and production will have so increased and
men will have so changed that the last forms of the old social relations
will also be able to fall away." ~~
We find here the first outline of the ideas which Marx was so
brilliantly later to elaborate in the Critique of the Gorha Programme, with
special emphasiS on the development of production in the new society to
the point at which it would be possible to go over to distribution
according to need. With the development of the productive forces, wrote
Engels, "society will produce sufficient products to arrange a distribution that will satisfy the requirements of all its members".~ Thus, as )
early as 1847, Engels clearly indicated the basic condition under which
society would be able to go over to the communist principle of
distribution. He stressed that "a communistically organised society will
be able to provide its members with the opportunity to utilise their
comprehensively developed abilities in a comprehensive way" .51 That is
when the contradiction between mental and manual labour and between
town and countryside would disappear.
Consequently, Marx: and Engels clearly saw the ta~k facing the
proletariat once it had taken over. Lenin attached much .Importance to
the following idea put forward by Engels: "Our task r~I~t1ve to ~he ~mall
peasant consists, in the first
in effecting.a transItion of hls.pnvate
enterprise and private posseSSion to co-operative ones. not forCibly b~t
by dint of example and the proffer of social assistance for thiS
purpose." 58 It was Marx and Engels who provided the answer.~? t~e
most important question of what was to happen to the pea~antr~ ..On y
the fall of capital can raise the peasant: only. an .antJ-cap~tahst,. a
government can break his economiC misery, ~IS SOCial
,,59 This was the way for solving the problem whlC~ SOCial
pondered without result over many decades: Thus. III pl~ce
of the conjectures of the utopian socialists and the utopian communists
about the future society there appeared a coherent the.or~ of the
emergence and development of the new social system, spnngmg from
capitalism and passing through these necessary and f~nda~ental st~ges:
socialist revolution, est.ablishment ?f the proletanan dlct~torshIP~h:
transition period, sociahsm as the fust phase and communism as
higher phase of development.
.
h h th
The clear demarcation of the stages of the single process \0 w IC
e

pl~ce,

~~

Jf

K. Marx and F. Engels, Selecfed Works. in three volume ... Vol. I. P 91.

S6 Ibid .. p. 92.
57 Ibid., p . 93.
...
H
"8 V. I. Lenin, Collt{"ttd Works, Vol. -I. p.,.
. I
. Vol I, p. :!7'
~9 K. Marx and F. Engels. Selected Works. In three \oume:..
.
1::! 1

developed was a ~rcaf \.'nnl r.

,
I nUho L
rey oJutionary th oug ht 'lIllt I"l'\ u/ . n.,y
UII~)nat}

... proletariat"s takeover. it ..

would not yet

l'lll'mi l'\ 1

disa~pellr. whk:h

i .. '

~'h"t~ olij

MUures of lorc~. that .IS, governn"

. . . .' ,,1 mea,} Ihc
class and the economic condltll1n .. ,'n "h"' Ute,:
,
.. KO h
have not yeol di .. app ~'lr 'd I e
eliminated or transformed. and the pn)cc~,
Ihcy
. . . be forcibly accelerated,6tl Such i .. Ih cl ,l I~eir

l\f'

r,ln"1110n

diltinction between sociaJist societ), "as if i\ wh .

11
after prolonaed birth pangs from capitalist soc iet:.~ 6 has
lOCiety, which develops on its own basis. Consequ e II' ,I and
. t Y IDC
. Iudes: I)'Its emergence aftn ) i Ihe )
of the new SOCIC
.... " .... from tbe entrails of capitalist society. 1) the c re a~io~r fo~g
_ buil, and 3) its further development on this ba:sis .
0 lis

t.iD pve a remarkably profound insight into the :,: ubst

~t ~ ~ the questions of the future social system in c~:t~~est of

",.n 1OC,.bsm, He wrote: "'~ere is no trace of utopiani s m in M to

.ill tile sense thIt he mad~ up or mvented a 'new' society , No. he stu~r:ct
... bittIt of the new SOClOly oul o/tbe old. and Ihe form s of Ira '..

flow the latter to the former. as a natural-historical proces~~1 ~~

iiiii

. . _~oye m ent and

society M
Iso
"
,
question of communist
d
loan a
st~ed from matenahst dialectics. from the doc trine
eve pm~Dt. LeDIn wrote: "1be great significance o f Marx's
15 that here, too.
ap.plie s )llaterialisl
.communism as
inveated

.. ,
.
of sch olastica ll y )(
11l7L- . '
C~:I~ted defmltlons and fruitless dispute s Over words
,WIW. II SOC
1m'
What is com
. ?) M
'
what miaht be 'aU
mumsm..
arx gives an an alysis of
commllnism"e c, ~d the staaes of the economic maturity of
economic .
.1bls Idea of ~eve~opment, the idea of s tages in the
work on .~bleof commurusm IS the basis of the whole o f Marx's
tic

of a

Of

..... pro m of the future society

Mant clearl
. ted
'"
'
,
wouJd run ~:em
,:,ut the duechon In which social de ve lopm en t
m.hliity of com ~ialist order was established and how the eco nomic
commllDiot societ mUDtam would ~ realised. "In a higher phase of

Y. after the enslaving subordination of the indi vidual to

.1 Kd MaralFrhJsicll P... d.

Werb
a k. Marx ... P. 17
Bd. 1,8, Berlin, 1969. s. 630.
6J Y., J. Lu' i, CO'l'll':d oW, S~&tlv Wo'*" In three volume\, Vol. 3, p . 19.
Ibid., p. 471.
OFq", 01. 2.5, p. 425.

ph'

122

the division of labour, and therewith also the antithesis between mental
and physical labour, has .vani hed; afler lahouT has. hecome not only a
means of life but life's pnme wllnt: after the prod~CII~~ forces have al a
increased with the allround development of the ,"dlv.dual, and all the
springs of co-operative we<t~th ~low more ahun~an.tly - ~nly then canthe
narrow horizon of hourgeol" right N: nu\sed In Its entirety and sOCiety
inscribe on its banners: From ea(;h according to hh anility. to eUl.:h
according to his needs! ....
Marx subjected to withering critici",m the reactionary idea that the
essence of the new so(.;ial system would be a legali",ed sharing out of the
whole aggregate social prodU(.:t. which so(;iety would entirely consume.
Marx strongly attacked the demand for "Iabour'~ um::urtailcd income".
Exposing this proposition as being utopian and umcientifi(;. he wrllle
that from the aggregate so(.;ial product it would be necessary to deduct
the outlays for compensating the means of production consumed hy
society. Without this production itself was impossible. Furthermore
there would be need to deduct that part that was necessary for extended
production. Without this, the economy and society could not develop .
There would also be the need to put aside a reserve fund as insurance
against accidents and natural calamities. The costs of administration and
other social needs would also be deducted. Without all this thl!'
progressive economic development of the new society was impos"ible.
Only after all these deductions were made would there come the turn of
individual distribution for the personal use of every member of society
of the aggregate social product that remained.
When dealing with the satisfaction of personal requirements. Man.
said that the share of the aggregate social income earmarked for the
satisfaction of common social requirements would increase instead of
decreasing. Thus, everything that was deducted from the producer a.., a
private person would directly or indirectly be returned to him as a
member of society. Marx clearly saw that as society advanced towards
communism the importance of social funds and institutions of which all
members of society had joint enjoyment would increase.
Thus, what Marx so brilliantly expressed was the idea that the
development of socialist society implied an improvement of social
organisation on the basis of a development of the productive forces and a
growing importance of the aggregate, collective wealth and development
of social property, This would also ensure the economic maturity of
communism that would ultimately enable society to satisfy all the
reasonable requirements of everyone of its members.
In the fight against the "vulgar socialists". as Marx called the epigone,
of utopian socialism. he criticised all these harmful and un,cientific

K. Marx and F . Engels, S~Itt"ttd U/ori5, in three volumes, Vol. .', p. 19.
I~J

.
He backed up the idea of sociali'il slxicty ... im.li\'l " il1k fund.
. " I '
h
showing that the first phase _ socialism - wa'i a pem>u In W 1l:h the
aggregate. collective wealth of society was ~1('~umlilatl!.(J. !he, "vulgar
socialists" reduced the whole theory of soczahs,m to d,str.. ttutlon. anc.l
distribution to a sharing out. presenting the social revolullon :I ... a di .. ~
y
integration and fragmentation of the, "?Iional.cl'onnm .
.
In elaborating the theory of socmhst SOCIety. Man sWitc hed the
emphasis to an analysis of production. the basis on whic h the co ll ec tive
wealth was created and multiplied. This dealt a cru shing blow a t the
theories of "vulgar socialism", In the Critiqlle of the Got/Ill Programme
Marx wrote: "Vuigar socialism (and from it in turn a sec tio n of the
democracy) has taken over from the bourgeoi s economi sts the
consideration and treatment of distribution as independent of th e mode
of production and hence the presentation of sociali sm a s turning
principally on distribution." 65 In order to disprove these harm fu 1views ,
Marx had to put in a vast amount of effort in studying production and th e
laws of its development, and analysing social labour.
VieWS.

THE IDEA OF A WORLD REVOLUTIONARY

PROCESS

One .of the great~st. achievements of Marxism-Leninism in the history

of soc'~1 thought I~ Its formulation and solution of the question of a
w~rldwlde revol~tJonary process. Generations of forward-lookin g
Ihl.nkers had conSidered revolution in the context of individual countries
It IS true ~hat many of them assumed that the revolution would s pread t ~
~~~~r ~ahons as .well. What .were the grounds forthis assumption? In the
e~tury, It was beheved that the revolution amounted to a
~~-est~b~hment of "man's natural rights", which the tyrants had robbed
li~: ~i thi~~:~s ~I~O lt~e view taken by t~e French revolutionaries . Thi s
wh.ch
. a .e to the formulation of a "right to revolution "
I
progressive thmkers in the
. d
.
period the feudal 10 ds
. perlO recogmsed. In the medieval
some occasions whrle t~a~~he nght to refuse allegiance to the king on
from their oath ~f loyaltye
~.Ch was empowered to release the people
t
18th century had establishe~ ~h~ng who ,ha~ run afoul. o.f the Church. The
and had declared the peo Ie t people s fight ~o uprlsmg and revolution
power. The revolution wa~ s 0 be the sover~lgn SOurce and vehicle of
~eoples had to recognise t~~~ as a ~r~gresslve ~nd beneficial act. Th e
Impassioned speeches in this . ~nd JOm r~volutlonary France. Many
thiS had been an idea of a wO:l~lfIt were. dehvered in the Convent. But if
revolutionary process, it was altogeth er
embryonic.

M K.

124

Marx and F. Engels. &ftC'td Wo

.
rks. m three volumes , Vol. 3, p. 20.

W hen the idea of ... tldah .. t r.evolution fir"t appeared it wa ... initially Ju . . t
a ... vague ami ah"lral.:l, Workmg on the que ... tion of a ... ccond reVlllulion
t~ a t woul,d he the .la ... t one. and would e.,tahli.,h a revoIUli~lO<1Ty
~I c t a t .nr ... hl ~ and ~oc l ..d equality. the follower" of Gracl:hu .. llahcuf
hkcw l"c .,'lI d nothmg about a world revolutionary procc"".
In th e pre-Marxi"t period. the Russian revolutionary democrat'> had
gone farthe"l !n work ing out t~e idea of a world revolutionary prol.:e""
and h.td con" ldered the q~e\t l on of Ru\sia's role in the revolutionary
c ha nge .. they wer.e ~xpectmg to take place in Europe a\ well, They
see med to be thmkmg along two lines of revolutionary movement
to wards th e ideal .. of soc ia li sm, one Western and the othe r RU"is ian, But
it was quite obviou s th at Herzen and Chernysh ev~ky merely st rove to
atta in to a n under'ita nd ing of the world revolut ionary process, bu t in
effec t stopped just short of formu lating the concept. It was the
rem a rk able ca ll iss ued by Marx and Engels - "Workers of all countries,
unite!" _ that announced to the world the birth of a theo ry of the world
revolutio na ry process, the end of the era of a working-c lass movement
clo sed within natio na l boundaries and the start of the era of prole taria n
inte rnatio nali sm.
Ma rx formulated the sociological law on the ine ... itable decline of all
the formatio ns prec ed ing communism.
Co mmuni sm is the result of all earlier historical development , and the
most pe rfec t organi satio n of society, ushering in mankind's true history
Marx indicated th e rea l way and direction of historical developme nt.
putting the qu estio n of revolution within the world conte:-;.t in his
coherent theo ry of th e world revolutionary process.
But Marx also clea rl y saw and warned against the danger facing a
triumph ant soc ia li st revolu tio n which st emmed from the fact that on a
vast territory of the globe in th at pe riod bourgeois society was st ill o n the
upgrade . Marx co nsidered the external threat to an emergent socia li st
soc iety and gave an a nswe r in accordance with the contempo rary
hi storical conditio ns. Th ere could have bee n no theory of the world
revolutiona ry process w ithout such an a nswer. In the period when Marx
wa s working o n th e prob lem the world would have looked as follows
once soc iali sm won out: o n th e o ne hand. there we re the advanced
capitali st countrie s in which the socialist revolut ion won. ou~ alm?st
simultaneou sly, and o n the other . the less developed count Tl es \0 wh ich
the bourgeo is system was still o n th e ascendant.
.
'
Repl ying to th e q uestion in his Prille iples of Commll~lIsm ( 1847), Enels
said that the soc ia li st revolu tion could not take place \0 anyone country.
He added : " Large-sca le industry. already by c reating t~e world ~a.r~et,
ha s so link ed up a ll the peoples of the earth, and especIa ll y the CIVIlised
people s. that eac h peo ple is dependent on what. hap pe ns to a notherFurther large-sca le in dustry has levelled the socml
.of all
. ..'.
h . II h
count ries the bourgeOI\'C and
c lvlh sed countn es so muc h t at \0 a t ese

de\'elopme~t

. h
become the decisive twO cla sses of soc iety. and the
pro Ieranal ave
.
I f th d
Th
struggle between them has become. the main strugg e ?
e a~.' . e
. I volul,on Iherefore WIll be not onl y a nat ional one. It will
communis re
.
.
.
.
I
.
lake place in all civilised countries. tha.~ IS. at .Ieast Slffi U t~neously m
England, America. France and. German~. Engeb. we nt on to say that the
revolution "will also exerci se considerable m.flue nce ~p~n other
countries of the world. completely changing the hith ert o eXist ing mode
of their development and accelerating it greatly ". 66
In the 18505, Marx and Engels did not apparent! y ~ ave a ny d?ubts that
the revolutionary process in the advanced ca pltah st coun tri es would
start in Western Europe and only later spread to th e USA. where
capitalism was still on the upgrade. In an intern atio na l su rvey in the
mid 19th century , Marx and Engel s considered pros pect s for the
development of the relations between bourgeoi s We st ern Euro pe and the
USA as follows:
"Haly was the focu s of world relation s in th e Middle Ages. Bri tain in
the modern period , and the southern half of th e North American
subcontinent is now becoming a similar center. Old E uro pe's industry
and commerce need to make tremendou s effort s unl ess they want to
reac h a state of decline like the one in whic h Ita ly's indu stry and
commerce have been since the sixteenth century , unless they want
Britain and France to become like present-day Venice, Ge noa and
Holland .. ..The Atlantic Ocean will be reduced to the ro le of a n internal
sea . like that of the Mediterra nean today ."" Ma rx a nd Engels d rew their
conclu sion s against a broad historical bac kground : Euro pe could lose itS ) (
importance as the old center of capitali sm. and that center could move to
the USA . The e~ergent ,:onflict between the o ld bourgeois E urope and
the . ne~ bourgeOI s ~menca was a natural stage in the deve lo p ment of
capltahsm. whose history had its beginnings in the medieva l c ities of
Italy , ~hen in. wealthy . Holland and Britain , with it s bourgeois
revolu~lon , a~d m revolutIOnary France , whic h threw o ff th e fe tt ers of
~e~?ah sm . Fmally , capitali sm had spread to North Am e rica, wh e re it
iOltJ~lIy brought about a rapid growth of the productive forc es, for there
~he iOflu~nce?f ~eudal and absolutist impediment s wa s lea st , wh ile t he
E~nds with Bntaln were s?on ?roken. In the mid-19th century , Mar x a nd
be.gel s ~~~e already consldenng the po ssibility of Europ e subseque nt ly
ing po ItJcally and economically dependent on America
' s about Euro pe's
'.
. l
1" ey
. drew the most p rofoun d Cone I
u Slon
h lst onca
d Th
wer~:~~e\~: the strengt~. of the experience of the 1848 revolut io n . Th ey
l
will n ~t be p~; Y ~o~dlhon on whic~ the civili sed Europea n countri es
nge mto the same kind of indu stria l, comm e rc ia l and

.
"7

116

K. \farx and F Engels 5 I

d
Karl Man/Friedrich E '
eele Worl.:s, in three volumes, Vol. 1. p . 92.
nge s. Werl.:e. Bd . 7, Berlin , 1969, S. 22 1.

PO~i.tical depe~dence ~~ tha~ of pre ... ent-day Italy. Spain and Portugal i" a
~ocml rcvo.lUl!on, whll.:h Will tran')form, before it is too late, the mode
of prod~ctl?n and e.xchange in accordance with the requirements of

production Itself which are being generated by the modern productive

forces, thereby ~ak.ing it possible to create new productive forces to
e?sure the supenonty of European industry and so to equalise the
disadvantages of geographical 10cation."68
"B~fore it i~ too la~e." Indeed, the hour of revolution first struck in
RUSSia, and th!s a~ a time wh~n the threat of its conversion into a colony
of the US capitalists was qUIte real. The revolution did not occur in the
center ?f Europe, ~ut in its eastern part, and it generated great
productive forces which have not only been successfully competing with
the economy of the New World, but have also surpassed it in a number
of modern technical indicators. That was the birth of a socialist world
which has no fear at all of US capitalism. The contradiction between
b?urgeois Europe and bourgeois America has been developing in new
htstorical conditions. Together with its overseas rivals, America has now
entered a period of deep crisis and capitalist stagnation. The Soviet
Union and a growing world socialist system now exist in the world, while
the colonial system of capitalism is on the way out.
However, the way of development and prosperity for Europe
indicated by Marx still remains its only alternative.
The shift of the center of the capitalist world to the USA is not in any
sense an indication of strength, but of weakness. Western Europe has
become its vulnerable spot. The world revolutionary process cannot
skirt this old center of capitalism, for after all there is the other Europe,
the Eu rope of which Marx and Engels were the two great citizens, the
Europe which cherishes the memory of Lenin's genius. This living and
fighting Europe does not regard the coUapse of colonial regimes and the
growing might of the socialist world as a threat to its future. but as the
daw n of its democratic renovation.
Marx held that a socialist revolution in the West European countries
could face a threat from the countries lagging behind in their
de velo pm ent. Marx wrote: "As for social revolution, what does it
a mount to except the struggle of classes? This struggle between the
workers and the capita lists would perhaps be less fierce and sanguinary
than it had been between the feudal lords and the capitalists in Britain
and Fra nce. One should hope so. But at any rate. while such ~ social
c ri sis could invigorate the Western nations. it co~Jd, like any tnternal
conflic t cause an attack from outside."69 At the lime, Marx fear~d the
po ssibilit y of intervention by tsarist Russia against the revolutionary
68 Karl Marx/Friedrich Engel". \Velie, 8d. 7, S. 221.
$ Ibid .. Bd. 16. Berlin. 1968. S. 204.

"

e' Russia would once again play the part

mov.eme~t In Western ~r~p ri'ng the anti-Jacobin war and ~im:e the

"which II already pll'YAell' llce _ the role of a divinely ordained !'.aviour

emergence of the Ho y
Ian

d "10
of law and or ~r.
lied Ihis idea of Marx's when he wrote: "If the
In 1916 " "lenin
.
d ammated
"
" Tecah'ch confronted Marx when tsansm
concrete
I.
" Ih e f orm 0 f a
"
"situation
I 1"1" sW
we,e to repeat
Itself. for"Instance. In
mlernattona
po
I Ie
.
b
" d
"
"
I rt"ng socialist revolution (as a ourgeOls- emocratlc
few nallons
s a I I I d ,on Euwpe In
. 1848). and otller nation
. s serving
.
. as
"
revo IullOO
" fbiwas sksaTofe bourgeois reaclion- then we too WOll Id h ave to be
tee
I
"f
f"
h""
h h Ie u war

in favour of a revolutionary war against th,e atter,

h

In

avour 0

crus mg

favour of destroying all their outposts, no matter what

~~~I:n~~ion movements arose in them." 71 L~nin also recalled that at t~e
time tsarism had used some small national movements for It s
anti.democratic purposes.
,
. " .
.,
Marx held that social revolution - "mternal confhct 10 capltahst
society-could cause an external attack, an important question in th e
theory of historical process which he formulated on the strength of a vast
array of historical facts. The threat of ~xtern~l attack ~lways, bec,ame
real whenever a new social system was Just bemg established m this or
that country. while the old system was still a force to be reckoned with in
the international arena, Internal conflicts spilled over into the interna
tional arena. where a struggle broke out for the victory of the new over
the old.
Marx formulated this idea in more general terms in a letter to Engels
on October 8. 1858: "The difficult question for us is this : on the
Continent the revolution is imminent and will immediately assume a
socialist character. Is it not bound to be crushed in this little corner.
considering that in a far greater territory the movement of bourgeois
society is still in the ascendant?" n
In a letter to Kautsky in 1882. Engels appeared to answer thi s question
when he stressed that socialist revolution in the advanced capitalist
countries "will furnish such colossal power and such an example that the
semicivilised countries will of themselves follow in their wake;
economic needs. if anything. will see to that"Y But Engels did not rule
out. the possi~ili.ty that other countries would rise against the states in
whlc~ t~e SOCialist revolution had won out. Lenin subsequently summed
up thl~ Idea a~ follows: "An economic revolution will be a stimulus to

7~ V. I. Lenin. Colltcftd Worlu, Vol. 22. p. 353.

lOO-tll
n K, Marx and F. Enge15, Selecud Wor/.;s. in Ihree volumes, Vol. I. pp.
76 K. Marx and F Engels, Stlt('/td Correspondence. p. 14
. ~
77 K Marx and F. Engeh. Stltcftd Works. in thret volume\. \01.., p. 409.

~ ~rl Marx/Friedrich Engels. op. cit" S. 204.

72 \I. I LenIR, Col/u/td Worlcs. Vol. 22. p. 341
'J ~. Mau and F. Engels. Se/ecttd Co"upo~tdt"Kt. p. 135.
I. Lemn. Col/tfud Worlcs. Vol. 22, p. 352.

'"

~oplcs

10 strirl;' for socialism; but at the same lime revolutions

agamst the SOCialist slalc-and wars are possible.""
On the strength of new data on the development of the revolutionary
struggle i.n the laggi~g countries, Russia in particular. and Ihe writings of
the RUSSian revolutionary democrats. Marx and Engels were convim:ed
that once the socialist revolution won out in the West the other countries
could follow a noncapitalist way of development. because there. too.
social conflicts and revolutionary forces were in the making. The
important thing to stress is Marx's role in sludying the Russian
revolutionary process in his formulation of the theory of Ihe world
revolution. This was a new contribution to the theory of the world
revolutionary process.
Marx and Engels criticised and corrected the mistakes of the Russian
revolutionary democrats and gave a correct understanding of the role of
the Russian revolution in the world process. In a preface to the Russian
trdnslation of the MCllli/esto 0/ tile Communist Party in 1882. they wrote:
"If the Russian Revolution becomes the signal for a proletarian
revolution in the West. so that both complement each other. the present
Russian common ownership of land may serve as the starting point for a
communist development." 7S
But the revolution in Russia could start in various ways. Back in 1853.
Engels believed that "a noblebourgeois revolution in Petersburg with an
ensuing civil war inside the country. is quite within the realm of
possibility".76
The Marxist classics subsequently stressed that the development of
capitalism in Russia had gone so far that. as Engels wrote in 1894, there
was "accelerated transformation of Russia into an industrial capitalist
state. the proletarisation of a large part of her peasantry. and Ihe
destruction of .the old commun~s~ cQlDmunity",'7"l'his took Russia onto
the path of prole'tarian -re"volution.
However. their study of the potentialities of Russia's historical
development in the second half of the 19th century gave Marx and
Engel s ground to draw the general conclusion that after a prol.etarian
victory in Western Europe the countries just taking ~he capitahst way
with survival s of the tribal order could use these rehcts of communal
ownership and the corresponding popular usages as a pow:rf,ul
instrument for taking a shortcut in their development towards socml.lst
society. Thus. the cou ntries lagging in their ~evelopment .m~rged ~Ith
the general revolutionary tide and reduced theIr way to SOCialist soc iety,
,,/I

9-594

"

"Sut an inevitable condition of this is the ex am~le ,a nd acti ve support of

the hitherto c apitalist West. Only when, the ca~ltah s.t economy has been
ov ercome at home and in the countnes of It s prim e. ,o nly whe n the
retarded countries have seen from their example ' how It 's done', how
the productive force s of modern indu stry 3!e made to wo rk as ~ocial
property fo r society as a whole - only then will the ret ard ed c ountnes h,e
able to start on this abbreviated process of developm e nt . But then thelT
success wilJ be assured. "7S This is, in effec t , a cle a r-cut formula tion
of the importance of the socialist system, w~ic~ has b~com e a
world system, for the development of the ~re~apltahst ~ou~tn es . Th is
idea was subsequently elaborated by Lemn In ne w hi storical condi tion s.
Lenin al so later worked out Engels' s remark on th e pow e r of example ,
of "how it 's done" not only in respect of t he pre capitali st countries, but
also of the bourgeois world surrounding the country of vic toriou s
socialist revolution.
Lenin attac hed much importance to the fact that Ma rx a nd E ngels
drew attention to the foreign-policy condition s fo r th e furth er dev elopment of the revolutionary process and that they pointed to a n external
danger in the event of a sociali st revolution in Europe . Lenin st ressed
this idea as follows: " Engels was perfectly right when , in hi s lett e r to
Kautsky of September 12, 1882, he clea rly stated that it was possible for
already victorious soc iali sm to wage 'defensive wa rs'. Wh at he had in
mind was defen ce of the victoriou s proletariat again st th e bourgeo isie of
other countries ." 7'9 That letter of Engels's contained the fo llow ing lines:
"O ne thing alone is certain: the victorious proletaria t ca n force tlO
blessings of an y kind upon any foreig n natio n with out underm ini'lg its
own victory by so doing . Whic h of c ourse by no mea ns excludes
defen sive wars of various kinds ."80
Thus, the writings of Marx and Engels contained indic ati o ns about a
possible stage in the revolutionary process when thes ociali st revolution
having won ~ut in .the advanced countrie s, was still forced to carry on ~
struggle for It s eXi stence and for its right unconditiona ll y to determ ine
the .su,bsequ ent ~ourse ~f world history, In formulating a new theo ry of
socialist revolution Lenin gave the clo sest attention to the fa c t th at Ma rx
and ~~gel s h,ad allowed for such a possibility, In the new hi sto rica l
c~ndltl o n s, with capitali sm in its final stage and with the c onditi o ns for a
VICt,Ory of the ~orking clas s substantiall; different , Marx's theory of
soclahst revo ~uh o n called for further development ,
It was Lemn who fulfilled this vast undertaking .
n K. Marx and F, Engels S I d ' '' " .
~ V 1 L .
' t telt " O'"l, m three volu mes , Vol. 2, pp , 403-04,
.,
I]()

.. - enm, ColltCltd Worts, Vol. 23, p, 79,

Ibld_ , Vol. 22, p, 352,

MARX AND OUR DAY

, It i') ve,ry r,ight to say that great men do not have two dates to their
hfe-span In history - birth and death - but only one - birth . Marx was
about to leave the provincial German tow n of Trier, where he had spent
many rears, when t~e weavers of Lyons, in France. raised their ban ner
on, ~h lc h th.ey inscribed this oath: "Live working or die fighting," Marx /
bnlhantly discerned the emergent tendencies of the historical process,
Tod~y, more than 150 yea rs after his birth, we clearly see that Marx
c~:m tll'.u es to live in history, for in a sense he has merged with the
hl st o~lCa l . proces~ ~o wh ich he made such a great contribution, a
contribution that IS Inseparab le from the leading tendency and the chief
forces of world develo pment today, Marx produced a doc tri ne on
the deve lopment of social li fe, its foundat ions and basic ele ments
and showed that cap itali sm was a transient soc ial form in the life of
mankind .
From th en o n it was impossible to tackle any new problems without
re lying on Marx's doctrine of social development and the answers he had
given to the questions arising about the dest inies of human soc iety, the
nature of the futu re world a nd the real ways leading into that futu re.
Lenin 's g reat achievement is that, starting with Marx's doctrine, he
produc ed so lutions fo r the new problems and showed that Marxism
cou ld and had to develop on its own basis, brushing aside di verse
attempt s to supple ment it with bourgeois views a nd theories on the ple a
th at the " new time s" allegedly required "new songs" ,

Marxism emerged at th at turning point in history when the idea of

development began it s triumphant advance, leaving a visible mark in the
sc iences of nature a nd when new prospects were opened up in the field
of technology . Meanwhile, social thought was lagging behind . In that
period , especially muc h was being written and said about man's
conquest of nature , there was much talk about the age of steam and
predict io ns of an age of e lectric it y. But most theo rists believed that
capitalism wa s some kind of everlasting social form whi~h would
steadily and cea seless ly be filled with new content as sCience ~nd )
technology advanced . Consequently , capitalism was set up as a la sting
and as the mo st con venient fo rm fo r a unity of society and natu re, O,f
course, people still had visions of a just soc iety , but no one knew how It
was to be reac hed ,
'
Ma rx not on ly showed that man 's knowledge of nature was socl3l1y
conditioned but also proved that the social structure and social relations
in clas s soc iety were not at all of such infinite sco~e th,at they co~~d
enco mpas s the scientific ac hievements transform ed Into ItS productl e
1.11

,.

was thai there was a limit to the

forces. Marx 's grea~esl. dlsco~~ry lat ions which al a definite stage
development of capitali st SocIa re
'
and

. power
the uman mind .
on .
I
l.
h" b illianl conclusion of Marx .S"IS out d
aIel
many claim t~at tiS. ! g the "harmonious development" of
Since the war, theon~s pralSI~ in bourgeois Europe and in the USA.

capitalism have bee~ wld~s~rea ave attacked Marx's theory in every

The ideologists of Imperlahsm hd I s about the "salutary " role of the

"bl
k'ng exaggerate calm
POSSI e.way, rna I " h they claim can resolve the contradictions of
bou.rge~'s state , w.h I~ ' . Is have foilowed in the wake of the bourgeoi s
capitalism. The reV ISloms
. .
. II .
h . t Th e has been a hitch in this chorus Ju st now.' espec )a y In
t eon s t~'
e.rth the grave monetary crisis. It is beco mmg ever more
connec Ion WI
.
d
obvious that the so-called state regulation of ~he econo~ y un er
capitali sm aClUally means no mo~e ~han a~ expresslO~ and ultlmately an
aggravation of the basic contradIctIOn whlc~ Marx dl sc~vered, nan:ely.
the ever sharper antagonism _betwee n SOCIal o,roductlO.n and, p n vate
appropriation. The monopoly-capitalist .s~ate, w~lch acts 10 the mtere sts
of the whole capital ist class, is in a posItIOn to Sl~ho.n of! and use a part
of the profits for social manoeuvring . But thi s lOevltably tend s to
aggravate the struggle between the monop.o~ies fO.r power, ~enerating
fresh contradictions between them and pohllcal Crises, creallOg opportunities for more vigorous action by the democratic force s and more
inten se working-class struggle. Those are the facts.
Of course, even today so me insist on trying to "correct" Marx. They
are ecstatic over the new machines being developed in the USA, and
shout themselves hoarse about th e scientific and technical revolut ion going on in that country. These people pretend not to notice the terrible destructive effec t of imperialism equipped w ith modern technical
facilities. There does not appear to be a single achievement whic h man
has wrested from nature that the monopoli es have not sought to u se to
destroy man. War is a continuation of politics in time s of peace and.
consequently. those who gear their polic y to war poison the wh ole of
political and social life with the s pirit of destruction and hatred o f man.
Can this social system , whose incurable iU s Marx sh owed with
irresistible conviction , give full scope for creative social energy, when it
seeks ruthlessly to destroy the working people , the chief productive
lorce!
..
Another characterist ic feature of pre se nt-day development is that
monopoly capital is no longer able to shel ve new inventions as it did at
the turn of the century, because it is aware that these invention s are soon
bo~nd ~o be u~ed to build up the indu strial might of sociali sm, the Soviet
UOlon,.n the flr'i~ place. A highly inten se struggle is a lso being carried o n
today 10 p~oductlon, the main sphere of human activity. Socialism is on
the offenSive. Monopoly capi tal is restive : it no longer has a worldwide
132

'J

monopoly and is daily faced with the steadily growing potentialities of

socialism, its adversary. This works a change in the picture of world
development, but does nothing to alter the nature of capitalism,
whatever the revisionists, who have betrayed Marxism-Leninism. may
say. In stubborn struggle, socialism has been demonstrating by its
victories and achievements that it is the social form that presents
boundless potentialities for the boosting of society's productive forces
for the sake of the working man.
Emphasising the characteristic Marxist approach to the question of
socialist society, Lenin wrote: ''There is no trace of utopianism in Marx,
in the sense that he
No. he studied
the birth of the new
of transition
from the latter to the former, as a natural-historical process. He
examined the actual experience of a mass proletarian movement and
tried to draw practical lessons from it:' 81 Therein lies the great power of
Marxist-Leninist theory. which today rests on factual experience gained
in decades of building the new society. the experience of millions upon
millions of working people. without which the modern._worldcannoLb.e
..:onceived. The basic propositions put forward by Marx and creatively
daborated by Lenin have stood the test of time and have become
lOdefeasible laws of social progress.
Furthermore Lenin said that "Marx gives an analysis of what might be
ca lled the stages of th'e economic maturity of communi sm" .82 Thi s
proble m of the stages of the economic maturity ~f .comm~ni sm- from
t he earli er transitional form to full-scale SOCIalist soc!ety and t~e
construction of communism - has become a problem In the SOCial
practice of millions of men.
.
In formulating the theory of socialist society, Marx SWltc~ed the
e mphasis to an analysis of production, the problems o~ t~e c.~eatlon and
multiplication of collective wealth. The "vulgar soclah~ts . as. ~arx
called hi s opponents from among the epigo~es of utopIan soclal.. ~m,
concentrated on distribution and produced dIverse moral and pol.lt~cal
tractates but ignored production, the basic sphere of h.uman aC~lVltYi
They had no idea about the stages of the economic maturity 0
communism and did not even consider the problem?f the development
f th
1_
In effect. the
and
0
e
system is a doctrine of the
new relationship between nature and s?ciety. of the h~ew ~har~yC~~\~!
man's use of the forces of nature. whIch can be ac leve on
social system itself

~as change~.

0 der to harness its mighty forces has

ne~e~n~~~t~~~I~r~aa~naS~dn~!~~ep~~s:ects before it, and never before has

81 V. I. Lellin. Collected Works. Vol. 25. p. 425.

82 Ibid .. p. 471.

, 1
rted such a terrible and distorting influence a~
the old socia structure
h socIa
' I'1St
. r
.exe
do'ng Today many people outSt"d etc

~~~~~t~a~a~~p~~~~~~Sreg~rd' the on~e sacred words " knowledge:' a~d

"science" with superstitious fear. Such is the result of c~pltahst

, 1"
Today the use of the forces of nature by socIety has

mampu a I o n s . '
.
[
I'
b'
th
become a most urgent and concrete question 0 po ICy . carmg on e

interests of million s of people.

11

Having mapped out the ways for s~lving t~e ke~ pr~~lem s .o f social
development Marxism also first prOV ided a fIrm sCientific baSIS for the
science of m~n. Marx proved that man does not exist outside hi s social )
tie s. Man 's social nature is the definitive starting-point for a study of
him. The Marxist requirement s for the development of the individual a re
changing social conditions, abolition of every type of social op pre ss ion
and creation of new social ties based on creative labour free from
exploitation. Without healthy social ties , the human mind is inevit ably
dulled and man' s spiritual life impoverished. All of this has become an
axiom which is aUacked only by pharisees and liars in the old world.
Nevertheless, the opponents of Marxism have recently developed the
habit of claiming , without rhyme or reason , that Marx and his followers
had "forgotten about man". Indeed , some theori sts dec lare th at Marxi sm
need s to be "supplemented" with anthropology (the science of man) so
as to be "humanised".
These are new versions of old songs. For a long time , the bourgeo is
theori sts tried hard to present society as a chaotic conglomerate of
individuals. Marxism-Leninism established that after society emerged
from the entrails of the primitive system it was divided into classes,
which constitute the basis of its social structure. In our day , there are nO
isolated, "classless" individuals. Social development, the struggle of
antagonistic classes leads to the revolutionary abolition of exploitation
and oppre ssion , the abolition of antagonistic classes. With thi s
par~~ount social change, society does not in any se nse disi ntegrat e into
IOdlvlduals, as the anarchist Bakunin declared in Marx' s lifetime ' on the
contrary , social ties, purged of exploitation, become eve; more
necessary for the development of every individual . The demand for
"fr~edom" fo: the individual from soc ial ties and, consequently, from
soc:,al duty IS profoundly reactionary. In a state of such "socia l
weightlessness" man tends to lose the sense of his own personality. This
can resu.lt only in grave degeneration of individual consciousness and a
dhe\tructlo~ ?f the whole mechani sm of the social motivation behind
uman activ ity.
13'

/n~eed .. Marxi\~ - Leninism

re atlons

In t~c

Itg~t

considers and scientifically assesses social

of man,<; development and his interests For

that purpose It has mtroduced the categories of human capacitic's and

requ~rements. a great .a~hievement in the science of man. Without
~eq~lrements an? capacltl~s there can be no expression of individuality.
o ~Ies. b~twe~n It and s~clety, or of the internal structure of personality
or m~lvld~ahty. The history of the individual, just as the history of
mankl~d. IS the ~evelopment of human requirements and capacities. An
analysIs of the. history of the human concept of "knowledge" bears out
the t~ut~ ?f th~~. Purged of bourgeois lies. the demand for "freedom of
the. mdl~ldual has no other real content but the demand for the
satls.fac~lOn of -:nan 's h~~lthy requirements and the development and
application of. his c~pacltles. The individual, which bourgeois theorists
keep cont rasting with the social, in fact turns out to be indissolubly
connected with the social.
Scientific communism has substantiated the need for a social structure
that wou.ld give .sco~e fO.r the boundless development of man's capac ities
and .thelT apphcatlon In labour. and the fullest satisfaction of his
reqUirements.
Exploitative society-capitalism in particular-ruthlessly distorts
these ve.ry capa~ities and. requirements ..For the_purpo~~_Q.t camo uf1 a:se ,
bourgeOIs theoTi sts have invented the mocking theory that capitalism is a
society of "equal opportunities for all". Capitalism, they claim, provides
opportunities for everyone to become a millionaire. and gives everyone
the right to "eat off gold plate". ActuaJ1y. only those who have the power / '
can rea li se thi s right.
It is an incontrovertible fact that socialism is a society in which man's
soc ial prestige does not depend on capital but on capacity and work. As
hi story develops, ma n's growing requ irements can no longer be sat isfied
on a private-p roperty basis; private-property relation s also constitute a
barrier to the development of human capacities. It is sociali sm that
require s man's and mankind's development.

111
Marx, Engels and Lenin produced the only scientific theory which
says that man is capable of exerting an effect on social c?nditions. a
theory of soc ial action and social change. How ?o dee~-go,~g changes
tak e place in the life of soc iet y? That is a ~uest lon SOCIal thlOkers had
pondered fo r long. Many believed that SOCIal changes were created ~y
will, idea and spirit. Frequently. thi s spirit was decl~red to be embodIed
in the "great personalities" and members of the ehte. .
Marxism-Lenini sm showed for the first time the true lmpor~anc: of
men's consc ioll s act ivity. which can exert an influence on the hl stoncal
O~

. '. based on an awarenc')') of the mature requirements of

pro~ess \~hcn It I') Th" cti\,ity become~ truly effective when it looks
,oclat de"71.opment. _hl.soa'lt involves masses of working people. the true
to the wor"mg man. v.
architects of"history.
.
L cOIn re f ute d the
d elaborating Marx's doctrine.
In de fen d 109 an
.
db""
II
~arodisl
theories. which claimed that hIstorY was rna e y. c~ltlca yo d dOdo d I" In a society which has reached the capitalist stage
mm e 10 IV\ ua 5 .
I'..
Id
of development no amount of "outstanding persona Itles cou. turn t~ e
tide of history until the working class, the greatest force ~ehmd ~o~lal
development. joined in the struggle. Even today 500.1C theon st ~, clalmmg
to be progressive. refuse to recognise this truth wh~ch Marx discovered,
Among them we find Herber! ~arcuse, who demc<.; the ~<I:{ that the
. telrgent<.;ia becomes a revolutionary force only when II <ldopts the
onl
1
hb
~tandpoint of the working class in its strugg c a,gamst t e ollrgeOl~le
and .... hen it dedicates its knowledge to the vIctory of th e workrng
0

00

class.
In any circumstances, the forces of social progress can wi,n out only if
they accept the idea. formulated hy Marx and Engels hack rn 1846. that
the bourgeoi .. ie and the proletariat become the two decisive classes of
\ociety. and that the struggle between them is the main struggle of our
day.".1 This struggle. which began over a century ago. is being continued
in nev. conditions. The struggle between 'iocialism and capitali sm is the
main struggle of our day. Those who reject this idea inevitably lose their
oearings in the revolutionary struggle.
Other theorists insist that the national liberation movement is now the
chief and even the only revolutionary force in the world. They extol
mainly the intelligentsia and in part the pea sa ntry -"t he world
village"-taking part in it, but they say nothing of the fact that the
present-day national liberation movement has been developing and
tackling the tasks of national liberation and social emanCipation by
borrowing much of the experience gained in the socialist countries, the
Soviet Union in the first place. They forget that the national liberation
movcm~nt enjoys these countries' assistance and that the might y
revolutIOnary tide, which is expressed in the successful construction of
~he n.cv: society, has been ceaselessly on the offensive against
lmpeTlalr~m. thereby helping the advance of all the other anti-imperialist
forces of Our day.
~h~ ~nti-communists among the bourgeois ideologi st s and some
revr ... ronrsts .have attacked the Marxist-Leninist doctrine of the ways of
the revolutronary struggle. claiming that Marx regarded the world
revolutronary process as a one-dimensional phenomenon confined to the
workrng-cla ... s .. truggle in Western Europe. On the strength of this. they

I\.rl \i.'Pl.iI-lIc,jri<.;h Fngeh. Werb. Bd. -I. Dietl Verh.g. Berlin. 1%9. S
I.V,

::!-I

~ugge~t that M~rx '\ ."model" of the revolution has not worked. Actually.
~hen. form~latrng hiS theory of the world revolutionary proces5. Marx

rn~anably

hnked up the possibility of a revolutionary victory in Europe

With support for the E~ropean proletariat's struggle by the revolutionary
forces of other countrres. Marx said this was a "hard question" and for
many years worked together with Engels to give a theoretical answer.
They made a study of the mass movements in the countries of the East.
in India. and especially of the revolutionary struggle in Russia. Let u~
recall Marx's brilliant idea about the need to supplement the struggle of
the European working class with something like a second edition of the
peasant war in the countries where the peasantry constitutes the bulk of
the population. Lenin subsequently gave a creative elaboration of this
idea in his coherent doctrine of the alliance between the working class
and the toiling peasantry.
By about roughly the 1870s. Marx had worked out a scientifically
substantiated notion of the two streams of the world revolutionary
process: the proletarian movement in the West and the peasant
revolution maturing in Russia. and the fruitful interaction between the
two streams. Marx devoted much attention to Russia and spoke of its
revolutionary forces with affection and respect. At the same time. he
and Engels kept a close watch on economic and social changes in Russia.
attaching ever greater importance to the emergent and rapidl) growing
proletariat in that country,
The question of revolution in the countries of the East was a difficult
one for that stage of development in the world revolutionary process.
These problems were brilliantly solved by Lenin at the following stage.
but Marx and Engels already formulated this important sociological law'
if the countries lagging in technical and eCimomic terms were to shorten
the process of their development along the way to socialist <;ociety. they
had to 'ice the example of how it's done".
In the past, bourgeois revolutionaries and utopians saw the revolutio.n
only as a means of destroying the old social system. Marx declart:d thiS
to be absurd. According to Marx and Engels. the world r~volutronary
process necessarily includes th e construction of a ne~ society. and the
successful construction of this society helps to sllrnulate the world
revolutionary struggle.
.
.
The national liberation movement i\ closely alhed Wlt~ the d~velOPment of the socialist countries, with the Soviet Unron, wrt~ t~e
international working-class movement. with the new and maJestrc
phenomena in the life of mankind generated by the struggle and the
victories of the working class. These phenomena have c~anged th.e
whole situation in the world. and the whole course of wOT.ld hr\tory. It I~
the unity of the three streams of the present-day revoluliOnary proce\~
thai gives it the strength to destroy the old. moribun~ s~'''tem of
exploitation and oppression. and to create new forms of SOCial hfe. Here .
I ~7

'
t
d the ma,"n trend of the revolutionary proces~ i\
as Lemn s resse .
.
f' h
'
objectively expressed by the working cI.ass. a ,consi stent IS ler agam st
the power of capital in all its ugly mamfestatlon s. .
..
E gels and Lenin also discovered the most Important condItion
.
t
t and win ",
t b
Marx, n
for social progress: if the working cla ss IS to s rugg e ,
1 mus
e
, d I the past neither the slaves nor the -serfs were able to create
organise . n
.
.
political parties to lead their strugg~e. In the past. ,the conscl?us eleme~t
did not have a great part to play In the ~estructlOn of SOCl o-economlC
formations. In its highest form, this orgamsatlon shoul~ tak e the form of
a political party capable of giving a lead to ~he ~orkJn~ cla ss and the
social forces following it: the peasantry , the Intelhgentsla and the other
non proletarian sections of the wor~ing people, ~~gels wr?te : "For the
proletariat to be strong enough to Win on the decIS ive day It mu st - and
this Marx and' have been arguing ever since l847 - form ~ separat e "
party distinct from all others and opposed to them , a cons~lOus cla ss
party,"" In the neW condition of struggle, Marx '~ do~tnne of the
working-class party was creatively elaborated by Lemn , W~thout suc~ a
political organisation it is imp~ssible for the ma ss,es t~ di sp lay a hl~h
level of consciousness, and their influence on the hl stoncal process will
party is central to the MarxistLeninist conception of social action and soc ial change. In our day , with
the October Socialist Revolution ushering the world into a period of
great social change. with the general trend being tra nsition from
capitalism to socialism, the leading role of the Marxist Leninist pa rty,
the prinCiples of its structure and the structure of its activity co nstitute
the mo st burning question. The greatest emphasis is being laid on it by
bourgeois theorists, who seek to influence all those who hesit at e and
vacillate between the two camps, socialism and capitalism. These
anti-communist attacks on the Marxi st Lenini st doctrine of the part y
also show that the working-class parties , loyal to the banner of
Marx an~ Lenin, have become a great historical forc e, and th at
~he w?rkmg people, who have set up such partie s , who are organi sed
m their ranks and who are inspired by their idea s, have built up a
great force,
, In the vast, process of social emancipation across the world . soc ialist
Ideals are bemg accepted by hundred s and hundred s of millions of men
affec~i!,g the,ir evc:rY,day activity and their whole struggle , In the neV:
condItions, Impenahsm has to make a fierce effort to di st o rt and
den,igr~te socialist ideas, For this purpose, it is prepared to label
ca~lt~hsm as "socialism", while blackening all the truly important
prmclples of socialism, For the same purpose bourgeoi s propaganda has

" K. M ant an d F. Engels, Selected CorresPolldence, p, 492.

138

b~en

'prc,uJi ~g fal .. e a~d distorted notions about socialist society,

?Iverse thcones accordmg to which the economic basis of socialIS?1-soclal property in the means of production-can be combined
with the political organisation of bourgeois society to obtain a
"harmonious" ~ybrid society, as if this were a matter of putting a few
cubes together Instead of the organic laws of development of social and
political structure,
, The r~actionaries attach much importance to the spread of individualIsm, which breaks up the working people's social ties and which rests on
private-property illusions and habits, The idea of collectivism is being
attacked, although this idea has always accompanied mankind in its
soc ial emancipation,
The present stage of historical development is characterised by the
growing role of mass consciousness and the people's ability to take a
correct view of the contending tendencies, to see the objective
potentialities for advancing the revolutionary struggle and making use of
these possibilities, In the world revolutionary process. spontaneous
movements become ever more irrelevant. and there is a growing
understandi ng of the truth that defeat. is in store for tnQse who grope
Jheir way forward,
ideology is a historical necessi~ Implacab le st ruggle against bo,,,
the path of progress clear of
ty , and an important condition for
,wepti" >n and from deliberate
,

'

;;;r; ,

When considering the present strategic line of capitalism in the

ideological struggle against Marxism. we find that bourgeois ideologists.
terrified by the sp read of Marxist ideas. have been attacking Marxism
mainly as a system. They can no longer do anything about the
penetration of various Marxist ideas into the minds of men, and they fear
that these ideas may add up to a system, which is why all their efforts ar,e
aimed to break up Marxism-Leninism into fragments and to do th~lr
utmost to prove that tod ay Marxism can exist only as a patch~ork, With
so lid inc ru station s of bourgeois ideological conceptio,ns. ~ha~ IS wh,y.the )(
struggle for Marxi smLeninism as a coherent system IS bemg l~tens,lfle~, / ...
Bourgeois ideologists ever more frequently resort to a p~cuh~r tn~.k In
presenting some bourgeois conceptions as th~ "last w?r? In SC ience, In
thi s connectio n, Marxists seek to have Marxlsm-Lemms m say theyuly
last word in science in the course of its tempestu?US development. m the
course of th e rapidly cha nging social scene which produces more and
more new problem s,
. r
h
k' g
The whole of mankind, the peoples buil~ing SOC ia, Ism, t, ,e wo~ :~ t
class and all the other working peopl~ mvol.ved I.n antJ-lmpen~ ISII
stru Ie the countries swept by the national liberation move~en a
gg . h
I of the Great October Socialist Revolution , the
I
Id
10 ment in a vast
I00 k to t e examp e
half-century of rapid economic, social and cu tura eve p
119

Id have been inconcei vable without the

country. development that WO~. the socia l energy of the ma sses, the
great force inspiring and or~an~s~ntnion. All the peoples witnes s the
Communist Party of thC OVIC'aiist community. That is the most
powerful advance of t h e SOCI
d
.
.
r
tore of progress to ay.
r
characten~tJc ea
unity of the. vital interet.~ a!.1~ tasks 0 the
Marx discovered the
j' na' i ~ca1e a<; expressed In the slogan:
I .
cia, ..... on an .
lolerna

. '
\Hlr"mg
'10 I" That was
his starting
pomt w h en he
"Workers of all c.ountn~ s. umt'~ing and enlightening the working class.
tac.lde~ the 'l.ue~tlOns fO ~:~~~slm _Leninism _ pro letarian int.erna~io~al
!hlS key _principle tl
ttacked in countless ways. But thi S prin c iple
l~m- was subSeq~en r~n~ from life it self and expr~sses its ten~en ~ ie~.
live!; on, because l~.SP lass has many tasks which It has to fu lfIl wlthm
gc
Of cou~~e Ihl e wor m
The number of these tasks ha s been growing
k
the natlona rramewor. .
.
Th C

have
been
gaining
in
complexity.
e ommum
sts
O
I
and they t h ernse ves
d vance d tra d IOt Ion s 0 r
the
best
and
most
a
ress
th a t they exp
have s ho
ownd
k to keep them alive The old attempts b y b ourgeols
t he nation., an wor
, ' ,
.
d
,Ianderer~ to prove that the Communist parties ~ava.b~en Importe from
abroad and that they are not a product of national life, are no long.er
~eriou,ly comidered by anyone, The process whereby the Communist
parties are becoming a key factor of. national develop~ent h~s gone
f{ln~ard and has gained in depth. Tha~ IS undouhtedly an Important step
4
forward in social progress. But that IS only one aspect of present day
world development.
,
The other is that there is a steady approximation of the natl ~nal ~nd
the international tasks of the working class. Today there are no hl stoncal
proces!'les which arc bounded from the rest of the world by the na.tional
framework. Any historical event taking place in on~ country vanous~y
affects the interests of other countries. The event It self takes plac e 10
this or that lOternational situation, and to some extent depend s on it . Thi s
ohjective tendency of the world process is now also being reali sed by \
momy leaders of the national liberation movement, who st arted out by
advocating only nationalistic ideas, Today many of them already reali se
the importance of the international solidarity of the progressive forces
fur the succes~ of their cause. Many are already becoming aware of th e
fact that the solidarity of the progressive forces on the scale of a given
region or even a continent cannot be a substitute for broad internation al
!ooolidarity of these forces, and that this is of vital importance for the
vktory of the cause of social progress.
The Communis!') are the most consistent advocates of this tendency of
world development. They are aware of their responsibility to the world 's
progressive forces for their solution of national tasks at home, This
aw~rene!i';, ~f international responsibility has been growing despite
~ar~o~'i baTTler~ and obstacles, There is also growing concern among the
indIVIdual national contingents of the Communists in international
0

140

affairs, as otherwise it is hard and. in fact, impossible for them to fulfil

their tasks within the national framework.
Bourgeois propagandists are__ known 10 bate materialist dialecti~'i, and
claim that the national and international tasks facing the progressive
forces do not blend. They seek to induce them to look to their national
framework and to forget about international solidarity. which they claim
to be a relict. They deliberately confuse the question of leadership of the
world communist movement from one center and the question of
international solidarity, of the unity of this movement on the principles
of Marxism-Leninism. It is quite obvious that today it is no longer
possible to run the world commun ist movement from a single cente r.
That is a past stage. But the international solidarity of the Communist
parties , their unity and cohesion on the basis of Marxism 4Leninism is a
demand of the times. The future belongs to this unity _
The assertion of the principle of proletarian internationalism, which
Marx put forward and scientifically substantiated, is taking place in the
cond itions of a fierce political and ideological struggle against the
enemies of Marxism. That is why it requires that all Marxist 4Lenini<;t
partIes should constantly and persistently carryon organisational and
educational work.
Speculating on the various difficulties, the ene~ies o.f sC,ien.tific
communism have long a nd repeatedly tried to und~rmlO e thiS pn~clp_le.
They have refused to accept it as the e.xpress,I,on .at,an obJect!ve
historical tendency making it s way in 'struggle against national ~arro~4
neSS":' and have cla imed that this principle is a n artificial one which Will
neve'r be realised. But the historical tendencies of social develo~ment
cannot be destroyed by any trick or dodge, because these tende nCIes are
backed up by c la sses and parties, the real as~irat,ion~ of the masses of
the working people and their struggle for th~lr Vital mt:re sts.
,.
In his young years, at the start of his prachcal revolutIOnary activity ,
Marx stressed that communist ideas a lone would no~ help ~o destroy t.he
private 4property system, "It takes actual communist, actIOn to"a~ol.. s~
actual private property," he sa id. He was deeply convlOce~ th~t h,sto~y
will lead to it" ,85 This communist action has been develop 109 10 our d y
and embracing the whole globe. Millions of people have taken up the
banner rai sed by Marx_

85 K . Marx , cOIwmic arid Philosophic Malluscripts of 1844. p. 108.

141

Section Two
MARXISM-LENINISM:
THE THEORY OF SOCIAL PROGRESS
IN THE MODERN EPOCH

\1""i,.., di"a, Imm (III "lit...."" ",/i,'

lI'f"flu In Iht fr..,,,,I;(lbl, wuy illmuhintl
t","pltl~ "itnli/ic .lohritlY in Iht (I"II/~',i\
"I "" "hit(li~t llOIt oJ "//(li,, u"J Iht
ubjtl"/i"t C,,"flt "I em/Jilion "-;Ih 1/" m",'
tmpho/i. 'rraRniliun ,,/Iht impurt(l"u ,,/
Ilrt ''''''"I"li"",,'' "t(lli"t st"i"" .",d ff'
"/III;"n(1T\" iniliuliH' <>J Ihr mlll\,' -anti
"/,,,. ", '-"11"'. oJ ;ndi,;d""I<, Io:mlll'~ ,
"'7l/lniIOli"n" und partiu Ihal Of' ohlt w
di!cIJ\-u and "(flint conlo"

"','h

.nt Uf

an,,/lItr daH.
ev, 1. Lenin. Col/teUd WIJ'*I. Vol. D.
p_ '6.)

. A character~stic f~ature of the spiritual development of mankind today

IS that people In various parts of the world are coming ever more closely
to un~erstand that the Soviet Union ha<; !:teen tackling high\) ;mp0rlanl
tas~s In pr~duction. the use of the forces of nature. the development of
socml relat ions and the education of man. The greater the awareness of
these tasks by the masses, the clearer are their prospects of historical
development and of their own activity and struggle for the future. When
deal ing with the ideological struggle in our day, we must say that our
adversaries of every stripe seek first of all to minimise in every possible
way the historical importance of the Soviet people's labour effort in
tackling their grand tasks.
At the dawn of modern history. as society was shedding the fetters of
serfdom, it was faced with some complicated problems that no one was
capab le of solving at the time. The answers suggested merely revealed a
vague anticipation of man's vast potentialities that were to be expre'ised
centuries later.
In the course of man's long struggle with nature. towards the end of
the Middle Ages, there arose the question of whether it was po!>sible to
c hange the properties of substances and to invest them with new and
requ ired propert ies. Men were aware of the great power of fire. they had
developed casting, and they suspected that the mixture of different
substances resulted in qualitative changes. The alchemists spent days
and nights with their test tubes and furnaces in the hope of obtaining gold
by artificial meanS. They were hopeful of a miracle. and this was a far
cry from science and its laws. They believed that all one had.to do ~as to
find the miraculous "philosopher's stone" that would make It pos\lble to
prod uce gold. At the time. gold enabled one to buy and sell.anythlOg. for
th e cash nexus had already started il'> triumphal and terrible advance.
Greed glowed and flared in the souls of men like the coals in the furnaces
1

of th e alchem ists.
145
10-594

 d h
f t h ~ 16th-ccnltlry Engli s h hum.mist Th~\m <l'"
But one b~ld min t' ~ ~b~u t [II:: distant and happy i'd a ml ~\ ithout prival t'

More, conceived a soy

'on He in<:i,ICd with fi e rce I fo n y th aI nvcr

property. poverty or oppr~ssl 'ghtPol~ 'This <.,uggc,\ cd a world in \\ hkh

there men used gold loTmhareC anr~se the idea of relea sing soc iety from the
money had
.
e
h
h
f
d nO power
t d by private property But at t e tim e. ( e V I 'i I On 0 a
ugly gree glenehra e . the social syste~ wa s as vague as the hope of
fundamenla c ange 10

changing the
properties
of matter .
.
ther bold vision was Sugge sted by the Czech educator
At t h at time. ano
..
es Jan AmoS Komensky . wh oe Ia lme d t h at .It was
.
d .
of the 16t h - 17t h cen t un
ossible to change the qualities of man ~Imself . He ha g ive n thor?ugh
fhOUghl to the possibility of a general Impro vement of men to d l ve~t
them of any trace of corruption. ThaI. too , w~ s no -:n 0re tha n a vague bit
k about the future. BourgeoI s thmkers sub sequently
a f guesswor
.
. .
. I
h
.
. g the question found themselves m a VICIOUS c lrc e. 10 C ange
h '"
.. b
dIscussm
human nature . they reasoned. one had to c hange t e en v iro n men t . ut
.
to change the enviro nment one neede~ t? change man.
Modern hi story tell s us about mankmd s abandonment o f th e. Idea of
finding the "philosopher' s stone". and going on to creat~ the sC ience of
nature and then a true science of the development of so c iet y a nd of man
as a soc ial being . The three visions were blending into ,a single one : t~e
remoulding of nature in man's interest s, the remouldmg of the soc ial
system al so in the interests of the working man , ~nd. the re m o~ldi ng of
man himself as the old moral and mental wounds mfhcted on hi m by the
exploitative society are healed . There appeared a phi lo soph y whic h
brought together these three tasks , providing a theoretical su bst antiation
and indicating the practical way of fulfilling them . Marxi sm has proved
that man c annot truly harness the forces of nature so long as he is
fettered by the chains of wage slavery . He can become its mast er when
he sets up a system for which exploitation will be just as barbarous a
practice as cannibalism is for civili sed nations. That is whe n ma n h im self
will change , opening up a new era in the history of society , th e hi story of
science and technology and man 's own development. That was th e orig in
of the scientific theory of progre ss . compri sing economi c. social.
political. intellec tual and moral progress in soc iety.
The working class and the other working people al so learne d how
mankind was to solve the problem s posed by hi story .
Lenin formulated the answer in the se few lines: " For man y centuries
and even for thousands of years , mankind has dreamt of doing away 'at
once ' with all and every kind of exploitation . These dreams re m a ined
m~re dreams until million s of the exploited all over the world b egan to
umt.e f~:)f a c~nsi~tent , s~aunch and comprehen sive struggle to c hange
cap!tah st s~cl~ty m the dlTection the evolution of that society is natura ll y
takmg. Soc lah st ,drea.ms ~~m ed into the soc iali st struggle of the milli o ns
on ly when Marx s SCientific socialism had linked up the urge for c hange
146

:-vith thl! ~truggle of a definite cia".". Out ... idc the cia ....... truggle ....oc ialhm
IS eith er ,I hollow phra ... c or a naIve dream." I
Thu .....with the emergence of Marxism socialio,m became a ...cicnce
hccau ... c It hnked up the aspiration ... for change with the struggle of the
wor.klng cia ...... 10 change capitali.,t society in the direction in which that
"oclcty was itself developing. Marxi .. m showed that any ... olution of the
probl.em ... In ... ocietys progres ... ive development inevitahly implied a
solut.lon of the problem of the relationship between economics and
poilllCS. that is. a clear-cut definition of the behaviour and action of the
ma .. se .. that were to transform the world_
A funda~ental res.lructurin~ of society requires that the working class
.. h~lI.ld be In p~sse.sslOn of pohtlcal power . fundamentally modifying the
political orgam~atlon of the society that caters for the power of capital.
Consequently, In order to have a clear view of the path of progress and
confidentl y to advance along it , there is need for a most preci ..e analysis
not o nl y of the developing conflict between the productive forces and
the relations of production in the new historical condition .. but also of
the who le .. phere of politic .. , induding the arrangement of social. class
force .. at every stage of social development. There wa ... need to decide
on the relationship between revolution and war. to decide when the
..ocialis! revolution inevitably a .. sumed the form of armed uprising and
when it could assume peaceful forms. These were all questions of
mankind 's progressive development. and Ihe answers were provided by
Lenin ism.
In the course of profound political conflicts countries and peoples
among whom capitalism has reached a high stage of development
move on to soc ialist revolution. That was demonstrated by MaT'( and
Engels. But which is the way to take for the peoples still variously
fettered with the chains of feudalism and capita1i .. m~
The answer to this question bears on the destiny of the bulk of
mank ind. and it has also been provided by Leninism. The answer was
fo u nd through a study of historical experience in a country with a highly
developed, class-conscious and organised working class. capable of
leading the working people to socialist revolutio~, ~ut on .the whole
encumbered with numerou s feudal fetters, and With Industnal centres
still no more th an islands in a vast sea of small and scattered peasant
fa rms. Th at cou ntry was Ru ssia . and the working class there ~as led by
Lenin a nd th e Bolshevik Party . It is Ru ssia's histori~al exp~r~enc~ that
has he lped to fi nd the answers to the basic questions an smg In the
p~ogressive development of the whole of ~ankind. the advanced
ca pita li st cou nt ries with their developed working class. and the peasant
countries retarded in their technical and econom iC development.

I V. I. Lenin . Col/erled Works, Vol. 9, p. 443.

10'

,"

The theory of progress, the theory of the historical procc,ss an~ the
theory of the world revolutionary process were blended In a smgle
theory.

e t

. I

Its key question. which had a beanng on every asp C 0 SOCia

development. was that of the course an~ stage s of the world
revolutionary process involving the population ?f the globe. Pcttybourgeois revolutionaries saw the world rev?l~tiOnary process as a
series of separate acts by isolated armed ~pnstngs . Ma~x and Enge,ls
showed these ideas to be unscientific. and said that revolution was to Win
out in several advanced capitalist countries. That was an approach
determined by the epoch of premonopoly capita li s~. ,In the period of
imperialism. when the uneven development of ~a.p.ltahsm was tre~e.n.
dou<;ly intensified. there appeared a real POSSibility for the socialist
revolution to win out initially in one country, while the possibility of its
winning out simultaneously in all the advanced capitalist countries
disappeared. At the same tim.e .. there also app~ared a n~w ar~ange.ment
of the forces fighting for soc lahsm. The workmg class hnds It easier to
win out in a country where the bourgeoisie has fewer po ssibilities to
corrupt the top section of its working class. Russia in the early decades
of the twentieth century was just such a country, and the hi storic
possibilities it offered were discovered and used to the utm ost by
Lenin and the Bolsheviks, who showed the path of progre ss to all
mankind.
An equally important question of progress was how mankind was to
advance after a contingent of the world's working cla ss had broken
through the chain of imperialism. Leninism had to answer thi s question
in the course of historical development. The uncontestable conclusion
was that the destinies of mankind and of the world revolutionary process
were inextricably bound u
.
e d in
development and
e system of social property which ha<l arisen on a part
consolidation 0
of the globe. How was socialism to be transformed into a world system?
Which way was the world socialist system to develop from there on and
what was its influence on the world revolutionary process? Without an
answer to these questions there could be no modern theory of progre ss
~o illumine mankind's advance. Bourgeois and petty -bourgeois ideologIsts have tried in every way to minimise the importance of the world
soc ialist system for the historical process as a whole. Practice show s that
the world socialist system, including highly industriali se d countries, can
exert a decisive influence on the whole course of world development s.
So~e .would also like to destroy the prospects for the development of the
s?clahst system. On the. plea that it is now impossible for all countries '{
slmu.lta neously to move mto the 'iecond phase of the new society -commuO!sm-th~y have prop~l.,ed that this transition shou ld be delayed
eve,n where It has matured . They have contras ted the development in
breadth to the advance forward. failing to understand that today

J'

148

progress appli.es to both directions, so that unless soc;ali'im advances its

development In breadth it is bound to be slowed down. Such is one of the
key formulas of modern progress.
The advance to co~munism is a solution of the key problems of
progress. There are, first, the problems of using the mighty forces of
nature for t~e ~enefit of all society and for every individual. the
problems WhICh, In other words, involve the construction of the material
and technical basis of communi sm. This provides the solution for the key
problem of economic progress. while laying down the direction of the
scientific and technical revolution through which mankind is now going.
There are, second, the problems of developing communist social
relations, doing away with the distinctions between town and country.
and between mental and manual labour. in a society without classes.
This also paves the way for a system of communist social selfgovernment which substitutes for state power. This helps to solve the
problem of social and political progress. There are. third. problems in
educating the new man. that is. fundamental problems of intellectual and
moral progress. The construction of communism is a key stage in
society's progressive development. helping simultaneously to put the
finishing touches to the scientific theory of progress. Without this
mank ind can no longer advance, because the period of blind groping
is over. having given way to a period in which masses of people. led
by the wo rking class, are involved in highly conscious historical
activity.
. .In the next few chapters, I shall try to deal briefly with all these
problems, whic h have bee n posed and solved by modern social thought.

Cllaprer Olle
SOC IAL THINKING IN THE NEW EPOCH
In order to advance the development of social thought and to effect a
fundamental change in its direction. Marx and Engels h~d.toconce.ntrate
on materialism a nd dialectics. to produce the matenahst doctnn~ of
social development. and this called for a thorough study o.f product!O~.
the key sphere of human activity. In order to d~velop soc~al thought !O
the new epoch-the eve of the socialist revolutlon- Lem~ also ha~ t~
concentrate on all three component parts of the ~1arxlst doctnne.
philosophy. political economy and scientific commudms~'d'cating that
Within capitalism itself there were ~e~ vtr~ni; t~~ ~resence of
re
production was becoming eve~ mho .SOCI~ I~ ~orth loudly about the
private appropriation. BourgeOis t eonsts e

overcoming of "the shadier aspects of industrial~sm" . the ~dvent of an

"epoch of organised capitalism". about the solutIon of socIal p~oblem s,
the fading away of the class struggle. etc. Actual1~, the se wer~ SIgn s that
capitalism was dying and that the sociali.st revolutIon was on Its way. ~f
course, progressive mankind. the workl~g class an~ the ot her work~ng
people were equipped to find an explanatIon and obtain an understandmg
of the new epoch and of the ways of historical ~e~elopment and
revolutionary activity by the oppressed classes. TheIr In strument was
the doctrine of Marx and Engels. But in view of the task s of the epoch it
was necessary to develop Marxism, including its political economy . This
historical task was fulfilled by Lenin, who as a social thinker rank s with
Marx and Engels.
Lenin continued the work of the founders of Marxism in studying
capitalist development and showed the need for the working-c lass
struggle to change capitalist society in the direction in which it was itse lf
developing. By analysing the new stage in the developm ent of
capitalism _ imperialism - Lenin showed that the era of socialist
revolutions was at hand and that the hour had struck for re solute
revolutionary action by the working class in the van of all the working
people. This revolutionary action is based on the objective law s of the
historical process and runs in the direction in which capitalism has itse lf
been developing.
Characterising imperialism, Lenin wrote: "The result is imm ense
progress in the socialisation of production, In particular, the proces s of
technical invention and improvement becomes socialised." 2
The merger of bank and industrial capital, the formation of financ e
capital, promotes the socialisation of production and the development of
economic ties between separate enterprises and branches of production .
The Marxist analysis of capitalist production contained revolutionary
c,onclusions: Lenin carried this analysis to its logical end, by studying the
fmal stage m the development of capitalist society,
!Ie wrote: "Production becomes social. but appropriation remain s
pnvate. The social means of production remain the private property of a
few .. The general framework of formally recognised free competition
remainS, and the yoke of a few monopolists on the rest of the population
becomes a hundred times heavier, more burdensome and intolerable," l
The wO,rld communist movement starts from this conclusion of Lenin 's,
advancl!1g .the anti-~o~opoly struggle, uniting the majority of the
populalJon m the capItalist countries in a single tide, and tackling the key
problems of OUT day,
Lenin showed that the bourgeOisie was losing its place in the process

" V. I Lenin. Collrctrd Works Vol. II p lOl

Ibid .
'"
,

'50

of
' ever more parasitic, that it
wasocialI development
__ ' th a, I" was becommg
( .. n~, onger ne.cessary for the development of production, and that. in
act, Its ve? ,existence was harmful for social progress.
. So~e t~const'> of the Second ~nternational did nol notice the changes
~n c~p l~ ahsm and the concentratIOn of capital, and cont inued ( 0 say that
~Pltahsm had undergon~ no changes since the 1860s. Others claimed
t ~t a to~al\y ~cw stage 10 the history of bourgeois soc iety had been
~s ere~ In,: wIth capitalism having changed its characte r, becoming
org~",sed and "almost socialism", Lenin had to put in a great effort in
~ I ea n~ g, the way for social thought to show the historical place of
lmpena,hsm as the last stage of capitalism, and the eve of socialist
r~ vo lul!?n. Le,nin s. writings have helped the working-class parties to
_flO~ th eir beanngs m~he new.hi.sloric.aI _~ itu at ioJl and to realise that the
Soc Iali st revolution haa matured.
Furthermore. ,it was necessary to analyse the changes that had taken
pla~e ~ot only m the economy, but also in the superst ructure of the
capItalist soc iety, In that period, some Social Democrat s took the
harmful view that i,n, the 20th century the bourgeois state al1egedly
opened up ,oppo rtu~ll!eS for fundamental soc ial change, and suggested
th at the dIctatorship of the proletariat slogan shou ld , therefore, be
shelved , On the other hand , there was a revival of anarch ist tendencies
in assessing the state: some said that the bourgeois state machine had to
be broken up in the course of the socialist revolution. but they (orgot to
say that a new state, the dictatorship of the proletariat. had to be sel up
in it s place, Lenin analysed the political superstructure of imperiali sm
and indicated the growing danger of militarism, the drive against the
working people 's democratic rights and growing react ion all along the
line, He reasserted Marx 's doctrine of the state and further developed it .
providing a deep substantiation of the need for the proletarian
dictatorship in bringing about fundamental social change and promoting
mankind' s progress,
There were also considerable changes in other areas of the
superstructure , the ideology of im perialism in part icular, and so me
socialist theori sts were inclined to regard these as being progressive and
as allegedly promoting the advance of social thought. So~e reject:d the
new trend s in bourgeoi s social thought out of hand, w~thou,t t.rY IT~g to
understand their objective sources, Lenin showed the Ideal~stlc views
current in the period of imperiali sm to be profoundlr r:actlOnar~ ~nd
bared the direct co nnection between these view s and fld:IS~. ~yst.lclsm
and religion , At the same time, Lenin poi~ted out the dlfflc~ltle~ In .the
objective development of science on which many bourgeOIs SCle~tl,sts
had stumbled under the impact of idealistic views, subsequently shd,l~g
into the bog of fideism, where the class interests of the bourgeOISie
encouraged them to stay .
. J'
h M nisi
Lenin put forward the idea that dialectical matena Ism, t e a
15'

1
d 'I 55 'ble fo r sc ience to emerge from the cri~is and
outlhook a 0dne ma e enpo"n 's' geniu S enriched Marxist philosophy, further
furt er to eve lop
. L d'alectic s in an epoch when war k'mg man k'10 d was
' I'st
I
.
"
develope d rna t ena I
most in need of thi s "algebra of rev olutio n .
.
Thus, Lenin laid a scientific foundatio.n,fo r th e st rategy ~nd tactIcs ~f
the working-c la ss party in the new co.ndltlon~. and det ermmed the m~m
lines for the economico-political and Ideological strugg le of the workmg

class.
h' f II
Lenin 's greatness lies in the fact th at he and IS o. Qwers

'th'

WI

In

t e

ra nk s of the working-cla ss movement took a correc t ~Iew o f th e need to

set up Marxi st parties capabl: of lea?ing the .pr?letan at a nd a lllhe other
working people in the offen sive a~am st c apita li sm , ?ec ~u se the h ou r of
soc iali st revolution and destrUCtion o~ the explo lt~tlve sy st~m h?d
struck. The doctrine of the party wa s an Important ac hieveme nt iO social
tho ught and the theory of soc ial developm~nt. s u~st a~tiat~ng revolutio.nary action by th e masses . At that turnmg po mt In hi stor y. special
importance attached to the c on sciou sness, will and o rgani satio n of t he
working class a nd of all the masses, whose role in the hi storical process
greatly increased. E stablishment of the new type of pa rty acc orded with
the objecti ve requirements of hi story.
The formulation of the organisational princ iples of Bo ls hev is m a nd t he
e la boration of the ideas of how the part y was to be stru c ture d s ign ified a
further development of revolutionary theory a nd the c reatio n of a key
prerequisite for its most effective application in prac tice . A key principle
of party acti vity from the out set wa s the principle of the unity of its
educational a nd organi sational work, the unity of high ideo logical
awareness and maximum efficiency , ruling out a ny substitution of
revolutionary talk for revolutionary action . The party 's ideo logical work
opens up new opportunities for mass ive historic al a c tio n which mu st be
used to the utmo st effect in the interest s of the re voluti onary cau se . T he
party's organisational effort is designed to tran sla te these possibilit ies
into reality. There is no other way to fulfil the task s which hi st ory has
put befo~e the working class, without organi sing it s va ngu a rd , ra ll ying
to~ether It s advanced force s working in the midst of the mass es, that is,
wlth ~ut setting up a new type of party , the Marxist-Lenini st Pa rty of th e
workiOg class.
Th e s~ientifi.c an swer to the que stion of shaping the vangua rd o f the
prolctan at , of It s party , capable of o rgani sing the whole class a nd giving
~ lead to the other .sections of the working peopl e helped to solve an
Importa nt pr.oblem In the progre ssive deve lopment of soc iet y in thi s
epoch . and Its fundamental recon structi o n . Th e tas k th at Mar xism
procla lm ed-th ~t of .uniting sociali sm a nd the working-c la ss movem~~t - w as f,!lfilled In the establi shment of the new type of pa rty,
~ Ic h , summmg up the experienc e in the struggle of the masses .
eco mes the theoretical , revolutionary headquarte rs de veloping a nd
l.n

~nriching revol.u~ionary th~or~. At the same time, the new type of party
I'" the most efflc~ent orgamsatlOnal form for stimulating the initiative of

the ma~"e.., . helping ~he,!, to master advanced experience, accumulating.

spreading and multiplYing the power of example in the revolutionary
struggle of.the wO~klOg people and in their construction of new society.
~t ~as Len~n an~ hiS followers who substantiated the idea and translated
It 1OtO reahty. Since then. the solution of key social problems and the
development of social thought has been bound up with the theoretical
and practical activity of the Marxist-Leninist parties.

I.ENIN'S WORK ON THE PROBLEMS

OF SCIENTIFIC COMMUNISM

Marxism-Leninism is a great science because it has explained how

men make their history in the epoch of great revolutionary change in the
transition from capitalism to communism. What is more, MarxistLeninist theory teaches men to make history in this remarkable epoch, to
apply most efficiently the laws of social development and make use of
their united strength. A key condition for stimulating massive creative
activ ity is a profound understanding of Marxism-Leninism and the
parly's policy. The 20th century is one in which mankind has mastered
the fabu lous power of the atom. But an even more remarkable
development in this age is the discovery and expression of the
tre mendous social energy of the working people transforming the world.
T he awakening of the revolutionary energy of millions cannot be
compared with any other development in its importance for the destiny
of mankind. The discovery of fire. steam. electricity and nuclear energy
are all great stages in man's conquest of nature, but without an
expression of the great forces latent in the working. people t~em.selves
and t heir capacity consciously to change the socml or~aOlsat lon. ~f
societ y in accordance with the develop ment of the productive fo rc~s It IS
imposs ible to make the forces of nature work for the benefit and
happin ess of mankind, in stead of helping man ~o ~ppr~ss ma~ ..
It is of vita l import ance for the working people s h lst onc~l acti vity th~t
they should co me t o reali se the substance of soc ial relations and their
nature This tas k is being fu lfilled through the selfless effort of the
Marxi~t-Leninist pa rties. creatively developing the ~octrine of !v1arx and
Le nin and standing up fo r it in struggle again st. the Rlght- and
" Leff'- wi ng op portunists a nd fostering the commuOist world outlook
a mo ng th e masses.
Le nin 's immort al achievement is the discov~ry .of the uniform~ties
of the great historical epoch of t ran.siti~~ from capltahs~ to commUOlsm,
an essent ial contribution to the SCientifiC theory of soc ial development.
L~-'

He proved that in the period of imperialism th.c caritilli.'it ct)l~ntrie!i

developed very unevenly. producing, ~. weak Ito"'- .(or hn~ s) .In . ~hc
imperialist chain and creating the pOSSlblhty of ruptunng the
cham. The
1acc
revolutionary situation. the national crisi .. cannol lake r
... Imulla neously in all or most countries.
. '.
In August 1915. Lenin wrote: "U~ev~n economiC and . pohllcai
development is an absolute law of cap'tahsn~. Hence , ~he . victory of
socialism is possible first in several or even 10 one capitalist country
alone." 4 That was the key proposition of Lenin 's theory of soc ialist
revolution.
According to this theory. the course of social development necessarily
leads to the victory of the socialist revolution in one or several countries,
while the rest of the world remains bourgeois or prebourgeoi s for a
certain period. This opens up a new and most important period of world
history , with the world split up into two systems. This is a period in
which socialist and bourgeois and also prebourgeoi s countries coexist.
In this period, the contradictions between labour and capital are intensi~
fied in the capitalist countries, while the struggle for a funda~
mental revolutionary transformation of society on socialist lines is in vigorated.
Concerning the precapitalist countries , with the emergence of
imperialism there appeared an important factor in the revolution ary
process called the anti~imperialist national liberation struggle of the
peoples of these countries. Lenin wrote: "World capitalism and the 1905
movement in Russia have finally aroused Asia. Hundreds of millions of
t~e downtrodden and benighted have awakened from medieval stagna~
tlOn to a new life and are rising to fight for elementary human right s and
democracy.
"The workers of the advanced countries follow with interest and
inspiration this powerful growth of the liberation movement in all it s
various forms, in every part of the world. The bourgeoisie o'f Europe,
scare? by .t~e .might o~ t~e working-class movement , is embracing
reaction , mlhtansm, cl~ncahsm and obscurantism. But the proletariat of
the .European. countnes and the young democracy of Asia, fully
conflde.nt of Its strength and with abiding faith in the masses, are
ad,;ancm g to ta~e the pl~ce of this decadent and moribund bourgeoisie.
The awakemng of ASia and the beginning of the struggle for power by
the adv~nced proletariat of Europe are a symbol of the new phase in
world. history that began early this century." ~ This was a brilliant
analysIs o.f the changes that had taken place in the world revolutionary
process since Marx.

y
The vi!.:tory of the hociali ... t revolution'
furthcr I.:hanRcs in the world revolution'ry In one counhtr introdul.:cd
..
a process, In t e "truggle for
h h
powe.r y t e pro.lelanat In the advanced capitali..,t countries and in the
Inl:lplcnl awaken~ng In the colonial and dependent co t'
. Once the
cla\s take'i over in the country
revolution
h,l\ won ~ut . .'t ~UI~e'J, all the ~ther working people in building it new
econ~m: and ~rrangl.ng new 'J,oclal relation 'i. doing a great deal to fo.,ter
men 10 a spmt of high awarenes'l. At fir~t !iocialism doe!i not prevail
am~ng the other sector't of the economy and the social structure of this
society. Bu.t because t~e working class wields the power and shows the
other wor~lflg pe.o~le 10 town and country the way to advance. because
the Marxlst-Lemmst Party is gui.ded by the advanced revolutionary
theory and has strong bonds With the masses, the socialist sector
gradually becomes the dominant one as the economic political and
ideological class struggle advances and then comes to b~ one thai has
~ndivid ed domin.ati.on in the country. External conditions are highly
Important for bUildlOg the new society, with peace prov iding the most
favourable atmosphere.
At the Seventh Party Congress in 1918. Lenin said: "Today we have
reached only the first stage of transition from capitalism to socialism
here in Russia. History has not provided us with that peaceful situation
that was theoretically assumed for a certain time. and which is desirable
for us. and which would enable us to pass through these stages of
transition speedily. We see immediatel) that the civil war has made
many things difficult in Russia. and that the civil war is interwoven with
a whole series of warS. Marxists have never forgotten that violence must
inevitably accompany the collapse of capitalism in its entirety and the
birth of sociali st society . That violence will constitute a period of world
hi story , a whole era of variou s kinds of wars. imperialist wars, civil wars
in side countries, the intermingling of the two. national wars liberating
the nationalitie s o ppressed by the imperialists and by various combinations of imperialist powers that will inevitably enter into variou S
alliance s in the epoch of tre mendous state -capitalist and military trusts
and syndicates. This epoch, an epoch of gigantic cataclysms. of mass
decisions forcibly imposed by war. of crises. has begun-that we can
see clearly-and it is only the beginning,"6
.'
Hi story showed that Lenin was right in assessing the peno~ which had
then begun. But he did not say that this p~rio~ of the .most diverse. wars
would never give way to a peaceful Situation which was deslra?le
for communist construction. Nor did he say that tht; peace period
would arrive only with the final victory of the revolution on a world

wo.rkm~

scale .
6 V. l. Lenin, Co/ltcled Works, Vol. 21. p. 130.

: v . I. Lenin , Collteted Works. Vol. 21. p . 342.

V. L Lenin. Collected Works. Vol. 19. p. 86.

'54

wh~~e ~I~;

In thi s context . Lenin raised a highly important methodologi~al

question about the in ev itable growth of sociali st influence on the world
revolution ary process. Defending the new theory of socialist revolution
against those who tried to intimidate the working people by pOinting to
the strength of capitalism and expressed lac k of faith in the strength of
the working cla ss. Lenin emphasised in 1918 that " not a single hi storical
change of any importance take s place without th ere being several
in stances of a disproportion of forces. Forces grow in the process of the
struggle. as the revolution grow s."1 Thi s remark has profound sociological mean ing and gives a trul y philosophical co mprehensio n of the
hi storical process . From thi s Lenin drew far-reaching theoretical
conclusions about the growth of the forces of sociali s m within the
country and in the world arena. and it s growing influence on eve ry
aspect of world history.
Lenin 's remarkable characteristic of the pro spect s for the develo pment of the world revolutionary process is given in hi s " Prelimin ary
Draft Theses on the National and the Colonial Que stion s" (1920). Lenin
emphasises the importance of the period when ever more urgent
importance attaches to "the task of converting the dictatorship of th e
proletari at from a national dictatorship (i.e ., existing in a single country
and incapable of determining world politics) into an international one
(i.e .. a dictatorship of the
in volv ing al le ast several advanced
countries_ and
a decisive influence upon world
politics as a
s analysis clearly brings o ut
world revolution ary process aft er
country and points out their
qualitative distinctions.
At the first stage , the sociali st state find s itse lf within a hostile
capitalist encirclement. At this stage , the dictatorship of the proletariat
ca nnot yet determine world politic s. The main task here is to build
soc iali st society in one country with support from the revolutionary
forces abroad, above all from the working clas s in the capitalist
~ountries. In this period, it is necessary to use a ll foreign-policy
~n strument s to prolong the breathing space and all the domestic*policy
~nstru~e~ts to consolidate and develop the soc iali st system , to
mdu stna~l se the country, to sec ure the victory of socialism in the
countryside and to carry out a cultural revolution.
. The emergence of the fir st sociali st society had a most impo rtant
Impact . on the world revolutionary mo vement . The ri se of the
revoluho~ary spirit in the ranks of the working class was expressed in
the e~t~bhshment of Communist parties. There appeared the possibility
of umtmg these emergent partie s within the Third International. Lenin

fa.~e

the rollowin~ assessment of the situation: "The First International

al . t.he foundation of the proletarian. international struggle for
socialism.
"The Second International marked a period in which the soil was
prepar~d for the broad, mass spread of the movement in a number of
countnes.
"The Third Int~rnation~1 has gathered the fruits of the work of the
Second. InternatIOnal. discarded its opportunist, social-chauvinist,
b?urgeOis .and petty-bourgeois dross. and has begun to implement the
dictatorship of the proletariat." 9
Under Lenin'~ leader.shi~, the Com intern worked out the general line
of the CommuOist parties m the new historical conditions taking shape
aft~r the ~reat October Socialist Revolution, helping to clarify the ways
?f IOvolvmg the masses of peasants and the oppressed colonial peoples
m the struggle against imperialism.
Under the impact of the October Revolution, the national liberation
movement in the colonies and dependent countries was given a fresh
impetu s. The historical experience of national liberation and social
emancipation of the peoples in the Soviet Union gave that movement
ideological and political force: Marxist-Leninist groups and parties were
set up in some countries of the East. The Comintern gave them
substantial assistance in their activity.
Earlier on, Engels had written this about the First International: "For
ten years the International dominated one side of European history-the side on which the future lies-and can look back upon its
work with pride." 10 The same can be said about the activity of the Third
International. with the difference that the aspect of the European history
to which the future belonged had become considerably richer. Socialism
began to exert its influence not only on European but also on world
history.
At the second stage, the nature of this influence also underwent a
fundamental change. Socialism, now a world syste~, was ca.p~ble of
exerting a decisive influence on world affair~, as ~enm ha~ a~ttclpated.
when he expressed his idea of a proletarian dictatorship to sev~ral
leading countries, at least, an international dictatorsh.ip. In that peno.d,
the USSR had become a leading country not only ~n .terms of SOCial
system, but also in technico-economic terms. The soclahst syste.m .could
not have exerted a decisive influence on world ?e~elopment I~ ~t ~ad
ne lected the tasks of economic construction ThiS Idea o.f ~ent!l.s .IS a
co~tinuation of his earlier idea about the possi?ility of soclahsm.I~ltlall~
winning out in one country or in a few countnes. These propOsitiOns 0

9 Ibid,. V111, ~9. r '07.

10 K. Marx and F. Engels. St/tertd Corrtspondtnu. p, 351.

148.

".

Lenin's constitute the most important foundation s for the theory of the
world revolutionary process.
The analysis of this new stage in the world revolution ary process is a
major achievement of Marxism-Leninism. The Marxi st view of modern
history has been markedly enriched and deepened after the CPSU and its
Central Committee showed the importance for world development of
socialism emerging beyond the boundaries of one country and of the
formation of the world socialist system. The strengthening of th e world
socialist system produces a situation in which it is po ssible to h ave the
struggle between capitalism and socialism in the world arena assume
forms other than military clashes and world wars.
At the second stage, the Communist parties which had gained in
stature and matured in struggle, required other ties with each other, than
those they had under the Comintern , for leadership of the div erse and
vast world communist movement from a single centre had become
impossible. New forms of contact and cooperation between the fr at ern al
Marxist-Leninist parties began to develop , notably in the form of various
meetings between representatives of the parties. The international
communist movement has the greatest support from the world socialist
system , which is the most important re sult of the working-class struggle
over the whole preceding period in the development of the revolutionary; "

process.
The national liberation movement also has a solid main stay in the
socialist system. The socialist countries are in a po sition to u se th e
instruments of state policy to support in the international arena the
people' s struggle for their political and economic independence . The
colonial sy stem of imperialism is collapsing.
At the seco nd stage of the world revolutionary process it is of the
utmo st importance for the internal development of the world soc ialist
system , for the struggle between labour and capital in the capitalist
countries and for the national liberation movement that the Soviet Union
has entered a period of full-scale construction of communism. In thi s
period , the competition between sociali s m and capitalism enters it s
deci sive phase. The advantages of the soc iali st system are expressed
above all in the successes in the economic construction. It is the
realisation of the vast advantages of soc iali sm that exerts a revolutioni sing .inf~uence on the hearts and minds of the working people in the ) (
c.apltahst countries. It is not ultra revolutionary catchwords, but the
tlre.le ss labour of millions of men and women in material production ,
:-vhlch helps t.o strengthen t~e common front of sociali s m and to mUltiply
Its strength In the revolutIOnary struggle of people s of all countries
t~at help s ~o lay a sou nd foundation for the complete victory over capitaiI')m. L~Oln str.essed: " We are now exercising our main influence
on the I~tern.atl~nal revolution through our economic polic y .... The
')truggle In thiS field has now become global. Once we solve this prob-

Icm. we \hal1 have certainly and finally won on an international

scalc." 11
. Soon after his return to Russia in 1917, Lenin wrote the following in
his work "The Tasks of the Proletariat in Our Revolution (Draft Platform
for the Proletarian Party)": "From capitalism mankind can pass directly
only to socialism, i.e . to the social ownership of the means of
production and the distribution of products according to the amount of
work performed by each individual. Our Party looks farther ahead:
socialism must inevitably evolve graduallY into communism, upon the
banner of which is inscribed the motto, 'From each according to his
ability, to each according to his needs'." 12 In this context, he drew the
following conclusion: "We must call ourselves the Communist
Party- just as Marx and Engels called themselves." 1)
When considering the question of changing the Party's name in 1918,
Lenin stressed that "as we begin socialist reforms we must have a clear
conception of the goal towards which these reforms are in the final
analysis directed, that is, the creation of a communist society that does
not limit itself to the expropriation of factories. the land and the means
of production, does not confine itself to strict accountmg for, and
control of. production and distribution of products, but goes farther
towards implementing the principle 'From each according to his ability.
t9 each according to his needs'." 14
'ConsequentlS\ Lenin taught the Communists to re~ard. socialist
tranSrormati011'S as the ultimate goal and to keep that goal 10 mlOd, even
when only launching upon them but never to identify the ult~mate. ~oal
and the immediate changes to be carried out. In many of hiS wntmgs
after the October Revolution, Lenin emphasised the difference betw~en
the first phase of communism and the second, and the mistake of tTY.I";g
to leap over to the second phase. It is hard to overrat~ Lemn s
contribution to the theory of building socialism and co~mums~. Ma~)(
had formulated the basic and guiding idea on the qu.esho:" w~lle. Lenm
went on to solve the hundreds of theoretical questions I~ b~lldmg t~e
new society, its economic developme.nt, its political organ~satlOn and ItS )
culture in close connection with practice. It IS no exaggeration to say
Lenin 's writings after the 1917 Revolution add up to an encyclopaedia 0

.tha~

sociali st construction.
f'
h
of
Lenin raised the question of the distinctio~ between the d~r.st p f~sethe
communist society and the second, and
in
transition from one to the other e~en be~or~ he stressed that socialist
hi s work Tile State and Rel'o j UlIO'. , w er

consldte~:~t:t~~~~ ~~~~ISuti~n

11

v. I. Lenin . ColltCfed Works. Vol.

12 l oi<.l. Vol. 24. pp. 84-8.~.

13 Ibid .. p. 84.
14 Ib id .. Vol. 27. p. 121.

3~.

p. 437

society is a society "which is compel~ed to a.bol.is~ at fir ... t olll~' th.e

'injustice' of the meanS of production se.lz~d ~y IOdlvl~uals, a".d w~lch IS
ullahle at once to eliminate the other IOJUStl ce , which consIsts 10 the
distribution of consumer goods 'according to t~e amount .of labour
performed' (and not according to needs)" Y .That IS ~hY. Lenm brou~ht
out as a key distinctive feature of the social orgamsatlon o~ the h~st
phase the fact that "there still remains the need for a state, w~lch, while
safeguarding the common owner~hip of ~he.me~ns of productl~~~ would
safeguard equality in labour and 10 the dlstnbutlon of product s . But as
socialist relations were strengthened and advanced the nature of the
state itself tended to change: "All citizens become employee s and
workers of a single country-wide state 'syndicate'." 11 From thi s it
followS that the development of this syndicate and its tran sformation
into a state of the whole people is a necessary process. The state will
wither away only under full communism.
At the same time, Lenin kept stressing that both phase s developed on
a single basis. Socialism is incomplete communism, but in its
development socialism inevitably leads to communism. Lenin taught the
Communists to discern and painstakingly to foster every element of
communism that appeared in socialist society, with special emphasis on
the working people's growing consciousness and their high sense of
di sc ipline . As "the fragmentation of labour, no confidence in the social
economy and the old habits of the petty proprietor" 18 di sappeared
society advanced faster towards its communist future. Evidence of this
also came from the emergence of phenomena in social life , like the
communist subbotniks, when the working people freely give of their
labour to society.
Socialist change, the development of socialist relations, help t o
achieve the final goal_communism-"for when all have learned to
administer and actually do independently administer social production ,
independently keep accounts and exercise control over the parasites, the
sons of the wealthy, the swindlers and other 'guardians of capitalist
traditions', the escape from this popular accounting and control will
inevitably become so incredibly difficult , such a rare exception, and will
probably be accompanied by such swift and severe puni shment (for the
armed workers are practical men and not sentimental intellectuals, and
they will scarcely allow anyone to trifle with them) , that the l1ecessity o f
observing the simple. fundamental rules of community will very soon
become a habit.
"Then the door will be thrown wide open for the tran sition from the
first pha se of communist society to its higher phase , and with it to the
:: v, I 1.enin. Col/ultd Works, Vol. 25. p . 4611 .
17 Ib~d .. p. 467_
ltHd. p.47:1.
nI 10 . p. 2!W,
"Ih,d , ."

~l)I~lPlcte wither~ng

away of the .. tate." .... The<;e remarkable word ... aho

mdl~ate a most Important. distinction between the first and the second
phase and one of the mo')t Important conditions for society',) moving into
the second phase.
How is the inevitable development of the first phase into the second
ensure~? The ~ommon basis of both phases of the one communist
forI?atlon consists in the fact that "the proletariat represents and creates
a hlgh.er type o.f ".ocial organisation of labour compared with capitalism.
That IS what IS Important, this is the source of the strength and the
guarantee that the final triumph of communism is inevitable." 20 Social
progress mea~s above ~11 development of the great productive power of
labour; that IS the maIO angle from which to consider the historical
p'focess. Without this there would have been nO quantitative accumulation or qualitative development either in the materiar sphere or in the
sphere of ~ankind's spir~tual culture; consequently, society would not
be advancmg. The growmg productive and creative power of human
labour calls for a system of organisation in line with the level reached in
the development of the productive forces and giving room for their
further progress. Socialism creates just such a social organisation of
labour which helps to reach the higher phase of communist society and
ultimately to defeat capitalism.
Lenin reso lutely and consistently fought all expressions of pettybourgeois and anarchist spontaneousness. The petty-bourgeois revolutionary gave least thought to creation, to production, to economic
construction. A different approach is taken by the consistent proletarian
revolutionary, who will never look down on economic activity. on its
successes. on the development of the creative and productive power of
human labour.
This idea is at the basis of Lenin's numerOUS articles and speeches. In
April 1918. Pravda carried his article entitled "The Immediate Tasks of
th e Soviet Government", which outlined the programme for a great
creative effort by the masses. At the time, large-scale tasks of
-co nstruction faced the new system born in revolutionary struggle. There
was need to determ ine the main line of social development and of t~e
Party 's activity in leading the work ing people. !he theory of ~oclal
development was becoming a theory of the practical transformatl~n of
society . The great revolutionary energy of the masses wa~ becommg a
vast creative force that history had never known. Ev.erythlOg depen~ed
on the correct view of the prospects for the social process, whl~h
determined the mainstream of the mighty tide. of the awakened
energy. Lenin's remarkable writings contam the answer to t e

soc~1

19 Ibid. Vol. 25. p. 474

~) Ihid. VI1I. 29. p_ 419_

11-594

If"

Ihi

labou~" .!4

fundamental question posed by life concerning the transition from

capitali sm to sociali sm.
.
..
As the task of expropriating the expropriators and sup pressing theIr
re sistance was being solved in the main . Lenin wrot e. " there necessarily
comes to the forefront the fundamental task of creating a soc ia l system
superior to capitalism. namely, rai sing the pro.ductivit y of labo~r ..and in
this connection (and for this purpose) securing better organi satIon of
labour" }1 That was the first occasion on which the Party and Soviet
society as a whole were set the task of organising labour in suc h a way
that it would produce a higher productivity of labour than that under
capitali sm. How was this fundamental ta sk to be tackled ?
"The raising of the productivity of labour fir st of all require s that the
material basis of large-scale industry shall be assured , namely , the
development of the production of fuel, iron , the engineering and
chemical industries ." n Lenin pointed out that the Soviet Union had vast
deposits of iron ore , fuel, water resources, raw material s for th e
chemical industry, in areas like the Urals , Western Siberia, the Caucasus
and Turkmenia. He ended with these word s: "The development of these
natural resources by methods of modern technology will provide the
basis for the unprecedented progre ss of the productive forces ." 23 In this
way Lenin formulated the key task of building the new society. The
Soviet people have advanced along this path , building sociali sm , a nd
fulfilling one five-year national-economic plan after another. That is the
wa y they are still going, fulfilling Lenin 's precept s about electrifying the
country , putting forward a great plan for introducing the use of
chemical s into industry and agriculture , building the material and
tec hnical basis of communism . working it s vast re sources with new
technology and re solutely eliminating all shortcomings.
The requirement that there should be a material basis for higher labour
productivity applies to the construction both of the fir st and the second
phase of the new society, That is the only basis on which it is possible to
effect the corre sponding changes in the social structure and the whole
system of social relations , to eliminate the contradic tion s and subsequently the essential distinction s between town and countryside ,
between mental and manual labour , and to bring about the triumph fir st
of sociali st and then of communist re lation s of production, But the
creatio~ of the material basis was not the only requirement put forward
by Le~m f~r the construction of the new society .
Lemn saId that the basis for the diverse social ties consisted of the
" mutual relation s of people ari sing out of the part they play in soc ial

Work s. Vo l. 27. p, 257,

" V. I . L com
. . Coleeud
I
n Ibid .
lJ Ibid .
162

No society can exist without sound ties between men in the

~rocess of labour, and the extent to which labour and the nature of the ..e
ties ar~ developed determines the stage of human history
.
Lenin wr~te that af,ter the revolution the working class would build a
new .and hl~h~r s.oc!81 con~ection. and stressed the importance of
~as~lv.e actiVIty 10 produclOg "a new social bond, a new labour
d l sclp~lOe. ,a new organisation of labour. which will combine the last
word m sCIence and capitalist technology with the mass association of
class-conscious workers creating large-scale socialist industry" ,n Lenin
s~res~.e,~ the "creativ~ asp~~t of socialist economic and living condi
tlons _ and the creatIVe spmt of the "new economic relations in the new
soci~ty" ,21 This creative effort developed in the period of soc ialism and
attamed vast scope during the full-scale construction of communist
society" Throughout the construction of the new society. the work ing
people Increase and improve this united force.
~n~ of the fu~da~ental changes in social relations produced by the
s~clahst rev,olutiOn IS that the political superstructure becomes totally
diffe rent, With a fundamentally new role in organising social labour. The
proletarian dictatorship and then the state of the whole people are of
tremendous importance in uniting the creative efforts of the working
people. In the recently published chapters of the original version of the
article "The Immediate Tasks of the Soviet Government". Lenin wrote:
"Th e task of administering the state, which now confronts the Soviet
government, has this special feature. that. probably for the first time in
the modern hi story of civilised nations. it deals pre-eminently with
economics rather than with politics. Usually the word 'administration' is
associated c hiefl y. if not solely, with political activity, However. the
very basis and essence of Soviet power, like that of the transition itself
from capitalist to soc ialist society. lie in the fact that political tasks
occupy a subordinate position to economic tasks," 28 The subsequent
change in the political organisation of society for the purpose of tac kling
economic tasks in the fi rst place is a characterist ic feature of Sov iet
developm ent ,
In the course of communist construction , the Party boldly tackles
important problems in the management of industry. construction and
agriculture , Th e Marxist theory of social developme nt has demo nstrated , contrary to the "th eories" produced ,by confuse? ,men. th,at the
tra nsition to commu nism would not at aU IOvolve a dlsmt egratl,on of
soc iety into separate and unconnected cells, On the contra ry. 10 the

24 Ibid ..
25 Ib id ..
~6 Ibid,.
21 Ib id ..
2' Ibid ,

Vol. ii, p_ 11l~

Vol. 29. p, 423.
p, 424.
p, 4 19,
Vol 42, p. 71

163

course of this transition social ties and al,1 the combined productio n
.
activity of men are further developed and Impro ved,
The progress of the productive power o~ h~man labour r~qulfes an
ever higher level of consciousness and aSSociation ,of. the workl.ng people
equipped with the most advanced technology. This IS a mos.t I mporta~t
uniformity underlying the development of the, ~ew soclet~ .. Lenm
constantly underlined this fact: "Anoth~r, condition for r~lslOg the
productivity of labour is. firstly. the ra!smg o~ t~e educatl?nal and
cultural level of the mass of the populatIOn. This IS now takmg place
extremely rapidly. a fact which those who are blinded by bo urgeoi s
routine are unable to see; they are unable to unders~and what an
urge towards enlightenment and initiative is now developmg among the
'lower ranks' of the people thank .. to the Soviet form of organi sation.,29
,
Lenin used to say that the initiatives which have their beginnmg at the
grass roots are an important condition for higher labour produ cti vit y.
The Soviet system and the Communist Party have generated a
remarkable creative quest among masses of people. The growth of th ese
initiatives in which everyone takes a hand is a law governing th e
development of socialist society, This is expressed in the ri se of
scientific theoretical thinking and in the day-to-day performance by th e
millions of people , above all the leading workers in indu stry and
agriculture, The Soviet people. led by the Communist Party , tackle and
solve the most important state problems in every sector of communist
con struction.
Lenin also put forward another requirement for the final victory of the
new system over capitalism. He stressed: "Secondly, a condition for
economic revival is the raising of the working people's discipline , their
skill, the effectiveness , the intensity of labour and its better organi sation." JO When Lenin wrote his article "The Immediate Tasks of the
Soviet Government" , the great struggle for the triumph "of proletarian
conscious discipline over spontaneous petty-bourgeois anarchy" had just
begun , the struggle to apply "a number of the greatest scientific
achievements in the field of analysing mechanical motions during work ,
the elimination of superfluous and awkward motions , the elaboration of
correct method s of work, the introduction of the best system of
accounting and control, etc.")] Lenin initiated the struggle for a high
level of organisation and harmoniou s operations in all kinds of work ,
above all in production, and insisted that the whole of social labour
should be organised on strict scientific principles , with an effectiv e
system of control involving the greatest possible number of people. The
29
)(I

"
164

V, I.

Lenin. Col/eeli'd Work s. Vol. 27. pp. 25758.

Ibid.
Ibid., p.

2~8.

~cvelop~ent of the scientific organisation of the whole of social labour

IS an lI~nportant feature of the advance by socialist society to

commumsm.
Lenin c.o~stant\y stressed the importance of accounting and control
under soclahsm and the vast potentialities of this control when it relied
o~ the w.or~ing people's initiative. No human society can live or develop
without Its IOherent form of social control required for the observance of
laws and rules in this society. Let us note that bourgeois sociologists
have written a great deal about social control, but they have always
forgotten to say that at every stage in the history of antagonistic
formations control has always been exercised over masses of people.
The socialist system alone has carried out a most important change by
tran sferring control over the fulfilment of the laws and rules in society
into the hands of the people themselves. That is what makes the socialist
system so powerful as it develops on its way to communism. Its
realisation means a further enhancement of the role of consciousness in
social development.
Lenin held that the Communist Party. embodying the highly conscious
proletarian discipline, must be the leading force in the struggle for the
new society. Its establishment was the first clear expression of the
organisational effort of which the working class is capable. For its part.
the Com muni st Party started large-scale organisational activity in the
midst of masses of the working people, rallying them to the banner of
Lenini sm, showi ng them the prospects for social development and
indicating the way to transform these prospects into historic reality.
Lenin said that a centralised and disciplined political party of the
prolet ariat is required so that "the organisat~o1lQ1 role of the proletariat
(and that is its principal role) may be exercised correctly. successfully
and victoriously".32
.
L enin stre ssed that in Soviet society the power of example IS able to
influence the people for th e first time.31 Today. the Party'~ whole.effort
is pivoted on the spread not only of the most advanced view o.f life but
also of the most advanced practical experie~ce. Bec.ause of this effo rt .
the individual initiatives displayed by Soviet workm~ people b.ecome
available to the masses. generating fresh initiatives, ,,:,hICh, f~r ~hel.r part,
become massive, etc. This process of the creative assimilat ion of
advanced experience and its multiplication has a tremendous role to pla~
in the advance towards commun ism, and could n?t have develope
but for the trem endous organisational and educatIOnal effort of the

Pa~~~
32
13

high ideological leve l fostered by the Commu nists among the

Ibid ..
Ibid..

Vol. 31. p_ 4-l

Vo l. 27. p. 261

people is not only a quality of the human mind . but it also helps to forge
the human character and produces a special kind of mental and moral
makeup in the individual. Lenin stressed the importance of the fight
against features. still to be found among so me Soviet people. like
"relapses into petty-bourgeois spinelessness. disunit y. individuali sm.
and alternating moods of exaltation and dejection".l~ The high level of
communist consciousness, which is displayed in the day-to-day activity
of the Soviet people. prevents the re-emergence of these traits. Lenin
put a high value on qualities of character and mentality like "perseverance, persistence, willingness. determination and ability to test things a
hundred times. to correct them a hundred times. but to ac hieve one'S
goal". 1$ He stressed the great importance of the communist attitud e to
work. These remarkable qualities, which the builder of com muni sm
needs. are being fostered by the Party as it tests and tempers men in
labour for a common good.
The success of the communist cause depend s on a clear understanding
by everyone , by every collective and the whole people of the tasks put
forward by historical reality , on the consideration and utmo st use of the
opportunities opened up by the socialist system for the working people's
activity. on the knowledge of the way s leading to a solution of these
problem s, and on the correct organisation of the masses. That is one of
Lenin 's mo st important ideas about building the new society. It is the
Communist Party that gives the mas ses a clear historical pro spect and
organises them for their historical activity to bring about th e victory of
communism.
TWO STAGES IN THE DEVELOPMENT
OF THE NEW SOC IAL FORMATION

What was Lenin 's idea of the main feature s of the world revolutionary
proces.s once soc ialism had been initially established in one country?
Lenin expressed a remarkable idea about the pro spects for the
development of the world revolutionary process in hi s "Pre liminary
Draft Theses on the National and the Colonial Question s" (1920), where
he brought out the importance of the period in which ever greater
urgency attaches to the "task of converting the dictatorship of the
prol~tariat from a nation~1 dictatorship (i.e .. existing in a single country
a.nd mcapable of determming world politic s) into an international one
(I.e .. a.dlctatorship of the prolet ari at in vo lving at lea st sev eral advanced
co~n.tne s, and capable of exercising a dec isive influence upon world
politics as a whole)".,l(, With thi s tran sformation Lenin also connected
~ v. I. Lenin. Colltcled Worh. Vol. 31. p. 44.

Ibid" Vol. 30. p. 5 18.

"" Ihid. Vol. 31 p. 148.

166

~lrgcn~y of the ... truggle

p~tty-b?urgeol"'. natlOnali.,m. which in

the growing

against various expre ...... ions of

these conditions become~ e'>pe~1~lIy .dangero~s, because the tran.,formation of the proletarian dictatorshIp mt~ ~~ mter~atio~al. dictator~hip cannot be realised without a
struggle agamst O<lhonah ...tlc narrownes!>, which tends to slow dow th
process.
n e
Consequently. Lenin quite clearly outlined two stages in the
develo~ment of the world revolutionary process once the socialist
revo.lutl~n h.ad. w~n out initially in one country. and indicated the
quahtatlve dIstinctIOns of these stages, with the attendant changes in the
world situation.
T~e .first s~age is the existence of the socialist state in a hostile
capltahst encIrclement. At this stage. the socialist state is unable to
determine world politics. The main task of this stage is the construction
of a soc iali st society in one country with the support of the revolutionary
forces abroad, the working class in the capitalist countries in the first
place. In thi s period. there is need to use all the foreign-policy
mstruments to prolong the breathing space and to use all the
domestic-policy instruments to consolidate and develop the socialist
system, to indu striali se the country. and to build up the solid property of
the whole people _ sociali st industry - to secure the victory of socialist
property in the countryside on the basis of collectivisation and to carry
out a cultural revolution.
After the Great October Socialist Revolution it became possible for
the revolution to win out in several countries of Eastern and Central
Europe. which would have created a world socialist system. But
cap it alism was still very strong. the Soviet Union was still weak. and
th ere were no mature Communist parties anywhere. except the Soviet
Union, capable of leading a victorious socialist revolution. The Soviet
Republic in Hungary and the revolution in Germany were put down by
imperi al ist reaction.
It took a long period for the transition from the first stage of the world
re volution ary process _ the victory of soc ialism in one count ry - to the
estab li shment of a world socialist system. In that period. the forces of
socialism became much stronger. while the Comm unist parties in th e
capitalist countries grew into a key fac tor in political lif.e.
The Great October Socialist Revolution gave a fresh Impetus to the
national liberation movement in the colonies and t~e depende.nt
countri es. The historical experience of the national. liberatIOn. and sO~JaI
emancipation of the people s of the Sovie~ Um~n gave Ideological
and political strength to the national hberatlon movement.esand
.
. .
.
set up in some countn of
MarXi st-Leninist groupS and partieS were
the East
Id h
. I
At th esecond stage. the influence of socialism .on the ,":,or
IstOflCa
process underwent a fundamental change. Socialism. whIch has become

16~

a world system. has been exerting the decisiv e influ e nce on and
determining the whole world process .
Bourgeois and petty-bourgeoi s conceptions of the contemporary
hi storical process ignore the se characteri stics. In our day. the struggle
between bourgeoi s and petty-bourgeois conception s. on the one hand ,
and the Marxist-Lenini st theory of the historical process, on the ot her. is
mo"t acute. The question of determining the character of the contemporary epoch and bringing out its qualitative pec uliaritie s is o n the order of
the day. Bourgeois theorist s regard our epoc h as one in which cap ital ism
is being "'transformed"'. Petty-bourgeoi s theori st s. who have ado pted
Marxi st terminology , keep saying that in our day it is impe riali sm that
determines world development.
The CPSU and its Leninist Central Committee have shown the
harmfulness of the bourgeois and petty-bourgeoi s conception s of the
contemporary epoch. for both in essence in sist that capitali s m c ontinu es
to determine the course of the historical process . The metaphy sicia ns
accept only two stage s of world hi story : bourgeoi s dominati on a nd
capitali sm. and the complete triumph of sociali st social relation s all o ver
the globe. They do not understand the dialectic s of the di splacement of
capitalism by sociali sm.
The fact is. however. that in world hi story formation s have never
instantly succeeded each other on a world scale. Formation s whic h had
outli ved their day had never given way to a new social system at a
stro ke. The struggle for the new mode of production went on prim a ri ly in
the indi vidual countries but was inevitably carried ov er into the worl d
arena . Th at was how the slave-holding society emerged in the form o f
iso lated seats while the rest of the inh abited globe continued to be at th e
fir st stage of hi storical development. That was how the shoots of
feudali sm grew up on the ruins of the collap sed slave-holding empires.
Th e struggle between advancing capitali sm and outgoing feudali sm was
carried on in the variou s countries and in the international arena for a
long time .
Indeed . a look at the early Midd le Ages reveal s a period in which the
feudal mode of production did not yet win out finally , when sla very had
not yet left the hi storical scene and when , con sequently , feudali sm did
not exert a deci sive influence on the course of hi story . It took centuries
for the advantages of the feudal system to materiali se and the process of
its form ation to be completed. In Europe , the development of the feudal
mode of production went at a slow pace for about 400 years. Centuries
passed before the feudal estates, with all their advantages and
drawbac ks, arose . Engels stre ssed that "the social cla sses of the ninth
centu ry had taken shape not in the bog of a declining civili sation but in
the travail of a new" . n
'

. Thi" idea .of Engels's is of great methodological importance Of

course. t~e, ~Irs.t. elements of the new mode of production did appe~r as
th: old. clvlh.,atlo~ was being destroyed. but the course of hi'aory was
s~11I bemg determmed by the old society and its uniformities and ~ome
time had t? pass before those of the full-fledged new social system began
to determme the whole historical process.
. That i~ some~hing bourgeois theorists could not understand for a long
h~e. ThiS a~phes ,to Edward Gibbon. one of the founders of bourgeois
~Istoflcal SC ience 10 t.he 18th century, who believed that feudal ism was
". th~ state of the city of Rome, during the darkness and confusion of
the Mld~le Ages". \8 Gibbon felt that this whole period was one of
destructJ~n an? collapse of the old. and he did not see the emergence of a
new sO~le t y In general. But Guizot, a bourgeois historian of the
Res t o ~ atlon epoch. modified this conception and concentrated his
at~entlO~ on the emergence of the new. In a preface to an 1828 ed ition of
Gibbon s wo rk, he wrote that the downfall of the Roman Emp ire showed
"the dilap idation of the ancient world, the spectacle of its expiring glory
?nd its degenerate morals. the infancy of the modern world, a picture of
li s early progress, and the new direction imprinted on minds and
c ha racters". '9 Guizot quotes a very meaningful line from the French
poet Pierre Corneille. who said: "A great destiny begins. a great destiny
e nd s. ..
T hus. bourgeois historical science was only gradually edging up to the
idea that the e mergence and development of the new. feudal mode of
productio n had been a long process abounding in struggle between the
old and the new in the world arena. The first bourgeo is philosophical
conception of the eme rgence of feudal ism merely allowed a period of
destruction a nd disintegration of the old world. Of course. even today.
whe n study ing the history of "individual societies" in isolation. as
prese nt -day bouigeois sociology requires. one tends to lose the idea of
the wo rld scale. and it is exceedingly difficult to understand the
eme rgence of fe udali sm, which calls for a n analysis of the interaction of
societies differing in system in the world arena. the struggle between the
old a nd th e new not only within the given society. but also in the
inte rn ational are na. that is, an analysis of world development. From the
standpoint of bourgeois socio logy it is also impossible to answer th,e
qu estion when the decisive influence on the. \~! hole, h.i~tor~cal process IS
exert ed not by the uniformities of the dechnmg CIVilisatIOn but of the
e mergent new society.

)8

Edward Gibbon. The HiS/Qr)' of the Dtc/lnt and Fall of tht Ramon Empirt. N Y

1905. p . 41.

168

K Marx and F. Engels. Stltctt d Work s. in three volumes. Vol. 3. p, 31 4.

P .

J9 Edouard Gibbon. His/Qirt dt la dlcod(lnct tt de 10 chute de /'Empirt RamaH!. ans.

1828. p . 2.
Ji

,"

Still. the length of the transition fromthe ancient world to the Middle
Ages produced in bourgeois historic~1 ~cie~ce many term s a nd concept<;
whose content should bring out the dlstmctlon between one stage and the
other. There was the concept of the "early Middle Age s". which was
introduced into scientific usage precisely to separate th e early stage.
when the struggle between the new and the old did not .yet res ult in a
flourishing of the new, when the old. disintegra~ing .socml syste m still
continued to exert much influence on the hlstoTlcal process. For
instance. the so-ca lled Romanisation of the society of the O strogoth s in
that period amounted to the integration of the Ostrogoth ari stoc racy wit h
the Roman slave-holders. The conquest of Italy by the Langobard s dealt
a heavier blow at the domination of slave-holdi ng relation s and at th e
large landed estates existing on their basis. Let us recall Engels' s
well-known remark Ihal "between the Roman CO/Oil 115 and the new serf
there had been the free Frankish peasant".4C1 The rural communiti es
which arose throughout Europe , the growing proprietary inequality , the
class differentiation and the development of form s of dependence were
important aspects of emergent feudalism. but it took centuries for a ll
these processes and phenomena to develop.
Bourgeois historiography in the 19th century was unable to a na lyse
thi s process with its bluntly evolutionary approach. Fu ste! de Coula nges
believed there was nothing but a mere continuity between the in stitutions
of the Roman Empire and the barbarian kingdom s . In a modified vers ion
this theory was later elaborated by the well-known Au strian histori an
Alfons Dopsch who sought to "purify" the ancient Germanic tribes of
any traces of barbarism and primitiveness. and to approximate in every
way the social system of the Roman Empire and tQe barbaric tribes. Thi s
straightforward evolutionism was designed to obliterate the qualitati ve
distinctions between the slave-ho lding system and feudali sm , and to
eliminate the Question of transition from the old formation to the ne w .
Another school of bourgeois historians, emphasising it s "understanding"
of the break in the continuity of historical development , redu ced
everything to violence and conquest. and depicted the Ge rm an ic tribes
as some kind of Messiah carrying feudal ism to Europe. All of thi s is the
fruit of false conceptions in social thinking.
Bourgeoi s social thought met a stumbling block in the problem of
period s in history when the emergent regularitie s of the new socia l
system were yet to determine the course of the historical process and
when. by contrast, the regularities of the outgoing society stiJl continued
to be of importance. Of course, even in the early period it is not right to
assume that the outgoing system fully retained it s erstwhile domination .
That is something it had already lost. But the new element making

., K
170

Marx and F . Engels. Stltcttd Works , if! Ihree volume s. Vol. 3,

p. 314 .

?eadway did not yet have the

T
'
..
Ideo logical force in the h.t . I preval lOg econom IC, pohtlcal and
Of
I'> oTlca proces'>.
course. from the out set the d t"
f
on the nature a nd directi~n of th~S ~~~ o. thle new exerts an influence
time this new element does not yet ~~:~IC: d~r?~ess: bout for a long
CISlve 10 uence on all
events.
th: s~~~:a~~~~i.st iC feat ure of the world process in high antiquity was that
wh i
109 states emerged as is.lands in a sea of barbaric tribes.
stat~~ fhsome ~: tent se rved as a nut.nent medium for the slave-hold ing
. . ese tn es became a reservOIr of man power. In the epoc h of the
:art y Middle Ages .. the bala.nce of forces in the world arena changed, so
~ at . the s l ave- ~ oldmg emplTes themselves, already on the decline feB
v lctl ~ to the ratds .and conquests of the barbaric tribes. Of course, ;hese
empires we re subjected to su~ h raids even in the heyday of the slave
syst ~m, but then the slave-hold109 mode of production in a given society
despI~~ the upheava1. continued to develop, fo r the conditions fo;
tra nsItion to fe uda li sm had yet to take shape. Students of the ancient
world tell us of )rocess~s of fe uda lisation" in Egypt , aft er it had been
co~ q uered by Libyan tnbes, or in Babylon in the pe riod when it was
b.emg co.nquered by the Kassites. But even bourgeois historians do not
Tl sk say 109 that th ese processes developed and were completed in the
anc ie nt wo rld.
In the ea rl y Middle Ages, the situat ion was a different one. The
slave-holdi ng em pires were al ready too weak to conquer the neighbouring tribes, to se ize slav es a nd develop slave-holding relations, as will be
seen fro m Ju stinia n's wa rs again st the barbaric Goth kingdoms and his
"pragmatic sa nctions". Indeed, because of it s socio-economic nature the
slave-holding empire was no lo nger interested in a steady infl ux of fresh
masses of slav es. Byzantium was switching to the colo n system, as
feu dal processes develo ped in it. In thi s way , wars and seizures ceased
to serve the development of the slave-holding system, for they were
already se rving emergent feuda li sm. Is it right on thi s ground to treat the
role of war a nd a rmed c lashes as an absolute, even if only fo r that epoch
of ma n's hi story? Of course , it is not right to do so . unless one breaks
with Marxism-Lenini sm and th e truth of history .
These acute confli cts in the sphere of policy. in the bala nce of forces
in the world a rena refl ected the processes taking place chiefly in the
economy. In this dec isive sphere of hu ma n activity the old sy st e~ had
already been weakened , while the new system had yet to gatn the
.
strength a nd the stature to secure a complet e victory.
In place of slave labou r. feuda li sm made use of a ~ roduc~r who was 10
possession of the mea ns of pro duction and engag~d In farm mg. Th at wa~
the ultimate reaso n for the triu mph of feudali sm. Under th~ sla"eowning system the influx of slav es depended on wars of aggrandlsement
and plunderous ra id s. But when debtors were impre ssed into slavery for
PI

.
.
d to erode the whole of society and led to ib
their debt s. this te~de
hese social relation s and took society
destruction. Feudadh'Tmh ch,ange.d,etobviollS but mankind did not take this
out of the dead en.
at IS qUI
'

path at on~de'h

"se rfdom in the early Middle Ages" still contained

Marx sal
a
.
I
y " 41 But the way to new
within itself "many feature s of anCient s aV,er .
'
"ve labour was bemg opened up . Th ere was
forms 0 f more prod U c'l
df
. fd
'th
h d "a lack of freedom which may be reduce rom ~er om WI
esta bl IS e
. relation
' s h'"
42 S uc h I ' ,he f r a mere
tnbutary
Ip .
,
enforced Ia b our 0bla me
. . h d
I
f
dynamics and tendencies In t e eve apmcot 0
work 0 f the POSS I e
<
the feudal mode of production.
.
But it will be centuries before the features of a ~cl e nt 51.av e ry
.
'h om une (mark) develops and se rfdom I S establi sh ed.
disappear. e c
m
'
II
Lenin said that "the allotment-holding pea sa nt must .be persolill y
dependent upon the landlord , because he will not , possessmg land , ~o rk
for the landlord except under coercion. Thi s .sy~t~m of economy gives
'non-economic coercion'. to serfdom. Jundlcal dependence , lack
rI se
. '
f l , ,.
of full rights, etc."43 In the feudal period , the mstrument 0 exp 01 a lO.n
is the attachment of the working man to the land:. To d e~elop: thI s
process took a considerable period and required con.dlhons whIch ?Id ~ ot
arise all at once. Until then , there could be no questio n of the dommatton
of feudalism and it s decisive prevalence over the fo rces of the old

. '0

system .
.
The period required for the maturing of feudali sm and for the creat ion
of a prevalence of its force s in the economic and political sp heres is not
at all a purely "European" or " Western " phenomenon .
.
In India . the period of transition of feudali sm was also charactefl sed
by the downfall of the big slave-holding power and the emergence in the
historical arena of various tribes which had already reached the st age of
disintegration of their primitive order and, joining in milita ry alliances,
invaded the ancient slave-holding states and set up feudal principaliti es.
However peculiar the development of these processe s, the ove ra ll
regularity is clear. The deep crisis into which the s lave-holding syst em
was plunged heralded the birth of a new system, but it took a
considerable period of struggle between the old and th e new, the
maturing and development of the new before it came to exert the
decisive influence on the direction of the historical proce ss a nd t o be
transformed into the dominant social system finally determining the
direction of the historical process.
The development of feudal relations in China , the profound soc ial

:!

Karl Mar", /Friedrich Engels. Werke. Bd. 19. Berlin. 1962, S. 326.
.; K. \tar",. Copilot. Vol. 111. Moscow. 1971. p. 771.
V. I Lenin. Collecled Works, Vol. 15, pp . 84-85.

upheavals and t~e downfall of the great Han power. all these are
processes occurrmg over a long period of time. The fact that historians
~re. at ?ddS over the period .of China's transition to feudalism is highly
mdl.c~hve. In the .early period of feudal relations it is hard to find a
defmlte. demarcation line between the old and the new. What is
unquestionable is that there is a later line- the post-Han period _ which
everyon.e accepts as the period of domination by the feudal mode of
production. How the relationships between the tribal world that had
~ome into motion and the ancient society were shaping out. and what
~mpact t~ese rela~ionships had on the development of the feudal system
IS a. spe~ l al que~tlon. For our purposes here, let us emphasise that there
agam tribes which had remained in the darkness of prehistory came on
the scene and that the early period of feudalism in China includes
interaction and struggle between ancient seats of civilisation and
barbaric tribes and that only in the subsequent period does the new social
system become dominant.
In transition from one formation to another it is inevitable that the
question of change of state power became most acute. Transition to the
slave-holdi ng mode of production could not have. of course, occurred
but for the emergence of the machinery of force, the state, which was in
the hands of the slave-holders. Various aspects of political organisat ion
in society from the slave-holding despotisms of the Ancient East to the
democracies of antiquity corresponded to the stages of development of
slave-holding ralations. Republican forms of government developed in
society which already rested entirely on slavery: wherever the rural
com mune still had a considerable role to play. we find a grosser and
more primitive form of political organisation of society. the slaveholding despotism. The democracy of antiquity gave way to slaveholding empires, which expressed and consolidated the further development of slave-holding.
The establishment of a new po litical organisation of society also had a
great part to play in the transition to feudalism. The old slave-hol~ing
empires we re doomed to destruction. Neither in Rome nor in ByzantIUm
could they hav e become a political form of feuda l soc iety. With the
advance of feudalism the old empires collapse d . The establi shment of a
new state power of the exploiting classes took a. considerable p~ri~d,
ranging from the barbaric kingdoms (5th-6th centuries) to the ~a rollnglan
st ate (7th century), and this corresponded t~. the perlo.d ~f the
de velopme nt of feudal property. Th~s, th~ pohtlcal orgamsat.lOn of
soc iet y e merging in the world arena m the mterests of .the sO:I~1 an,d
eco nom ic system which produced it was itself dev.elopm g . gammg m
st re ngth or being weakened depending on the de~tlf!Y of th~t syste m.
The epoc h of transition from feudalism to capltall ~m . which. Marx.
E nge ls and Lenin studied in depth, shoWS that for a fairly ~ong time t~~
new a nd the o ld social systems existed simultaneou sly to the wor
17J

s characterised by the cxistcm:c of

Le m'0 said
thai f eud a Ism
w a 'commUnI!IC"
-. . aou. 1 pc.".ln!
,.f',Iml-'
aft:na.
<
rs village

"
"farms ~f the dlffe.rent m~~.o.-..
re not dependent on other farms.
lies" which "were self-su I~n:. w~hem Oul of their age-long stagnanod no power on earthdco~.
rag, ales technical stagnation and the
.
.. #
lion
. The feudal or er perpe
.. 4'o.
producer's con,dition o! ?ondalge ~ that saw the main line of historical
mbeh'nd
It was Marxlsm-LeniOlS
a on the complex pate h war k 0 f po ,','
d .
I lea ,
develop~ent an Its ~tag~s tran'sition from feudali sm to capitalism.
events ',n the epoe. h'storians had produced many fal se theM~anwhlle. b<!u~g~O-\s d
to an attempt to obscure the qualitative
ones, all of whlc
01 e '1 " m and feudalism so as to eliminate the
distinction between
a IS sphere of SOclo-economlc
. .
. re
,atlons.
'
Th e
I capl
. the
~~~J~i~ner:o~~Yhe~!Pw~re made by the Dopsch sch?ol. Maki~g us~ ~f
d ta and some very old metaphYSical and Ideahstlc
~~~~ep~i~~s the historical process, this school strove t~ show that
capitalism had existed in Western Europe even at t~e time. of the
"
. th form of "estate capitalism" There bemg nothmg new
,
aro IOglans 10 e
'd"
'Ih 8,h d 91h
C
under the sun. capitalism was being "discovere even In e
an
.
centuries. Actually. capitalism emerged very much later. but even th en It
was not capable of determining the course of ~orl~ development.
Subsequent history shoWS hoW and when capltahsm came to exert ~
decisive influence on the whole course of world development and how It
became master of the world. This process is based on the developm~nt
of the capitalist mode of production. The capitalist mode of productIOn
took a relatively long time to defeat outgoing feudali sm. Marx ~rote:
';Although we come acrOSS the first beginnings of capitalist production as
early as the 14th or 15th century, sporadically, in certain town s of the
Mediterranean. the capitalistic era dates from the 16th century."46 But
even the 16th century was only the initial stage in the development of the
capitalist mode of production. At the time. the feudal-absoluti st order
was established in Europe and this initially gave some leeway for the
development of the capitalist mode of production, but it subsequently
became necessary to destroy that order so as to consolidate and e stabli sh
the domination of capitalism. The following stage in the development of
capitalism is one of stubborn struggle against the feudal-absoluti st

down

0:

forces.
The struggle for the victory of capitalism was carried on in the
individual countries and in the world arena. The French bourgeois
revolution could not have been an isolated phenomenon, but emerged
and developed in a definite international situation. The fact that the

v,.'

~~
Lenin, Collecred Works, Vol. 3, p. 213 .
. l1:"IId . p. 21~.
~ K \iarx, Copirol. Vol. I. Moscow, 1972. p. 115.

174

revolution in France defeated feudali<:.m al<;o enabled it to attack the

hostile forces threatening it in the European arena. The struggle again<;t
the feudal-ah'ioluti\l force\ in the individual countries and in the world
arena continued in the 19th century, until the power of the bourgeoisie
was finally c'itabli'ihed, until it gained a full victory and ushered in the
period of it .. domination on a world scale. Thus. world development is
the only angle from which the changeover from feudali<;.m to capitali<;.m
can be under<;tood.
The political struggle in that period was of tremendous importance. In
the first place, this was a <;.truggle for state power, which the bourgeoisie
sought to wrest from the landowners. Being unable to do this without the
help of the people. it sought to rise to power on the shoulders of the
peasantry and the plebeian elements of the cities. Because capitalism
originates in the entrails of the feudal system. the transformation of the
political superstructure is an important requirement at a definite stage.
without which it is impossible for the new system further to develop.
Feudalism in Europe was dealt one blow after another: the Reformation
and the peasant war in Germany. the revolution in the Netherlands. the
English revolution and, finaJly, the bourgeois revolution in France.
These are characteristic stages in the process of world development. in
the course of which the bourgeoisie and the landowners are locked
in conflict and also compromise with each other in face of the growing activity of the working people. whose revolutionary scope terrifies
the exploiters.
What then is the maiO historical hne of capitalist development. what
stages has its history gone through? In the history of capitalism. Lenin
identified the foJlowing main epochs: "'The first epoch from
the Great French Revolution to the Franco-Prussian war is one of the
rise of the bourgeoisie, of its triumph. of the bourgeoisie on the upgrade,
an epoch of bourgeois-democratic movements in general and ~f
bourgeois-national movements in particular, an epoch of the rapid
breakdown of the obsolete feudal-absolutist institutions. T.h~ second
epoch is that of the full domination and decline of the bo~rgeolsle. one of
transition from its progressive. charac~er .towards reac~lonar~ and eve;
ultra-reactionary finance capital. ThiS IS an epoch 10 which ~ n n~
class _ pre se nt-day democracy - is . prepari~g and slowly musten. ? I~S
force s. The third epoch. which has Just set 10, places the bourgeOISie 10
the same position as that in which the feudal lords found t~ems~I~~s
during the first epoch. This is the epoch of im.perialism and Impena IS~
upheaval s. as well as of
stemmlOg
..
imperialism."47 Characterising the thlr? ~poch. Lemn sa.ys. I J"b ~t"on
of the struggle of a rising capital. stnvlOg towards nallona I er, I

upheaval~

47

V. l. Lenin. Colleelfd Works. Vo1. 21. p. \46.

f~om th~ ~~:re'a~e

,
h been taken by the struggle waged agaimt the new
I
from 1eu d a Ism, as
. I h ,
I
1 1
forces b the most reactionary finance c~plta , t, e s rugg e 0 a oree
that has ~xhausted and outlived itself and IS headmg down ward toward s
decay," 4
.
.
I h
" ' 'h
The main objective content of the hlsto~lca P eno~o;;n a In ~ COurse
of the first and partially of the second period" accordmg t? Lenm. were
"01 bourgeois society as It shed variou s types of
,
the "convU Isions
.
h'
"The bourgeoisie was then the chief clas s, W Ich wa s on the
,
. In
. t hase warS; "I a Ionecou Id come
1ell d a IIsm.
ult of its participatIOn
d e as a res
upgra
"
out with overwhelming force against the feu da I-3 b soIU"IS, 'In,S,',,'
I U IOns.
hat determined the character of the epoch. LeOin st ressed:
Th a was w
'b'l'
1
II' d
d
"At ' that time there could have been no pOSSI 1 lty a f:a y m .e~en ent
action by present-day democracy , action of the .k~nd. beflttmg the
epoch of the over-maturity and decay of the bourgeoI sie , In a number of

leading countries."~9
.
Thus, at the dawn of the capitalist era, in th~ 16th-18~h. centune~, th e
new mode of production did not secure a dommant pOSition and did not
exert a decisive influence on the course of world develop~ent. In the
subsequent epoch, which opened after the F~ench Revolutio n of 178?,
capitalism prevailed, but even then there wa s mten se struggle for a rapid
breakup and destruction of the feudal-absoluti st ~yst~m a nd. for the
development. as Lenin put it, of nationally emancipating capital on a
world, or rather, on an all-European scale. In that epoch, Lenin sa id,
"the mainspring was the movement of the bourgeoisie again st the feu dal
and absolutist forces". 50
These feudal-absolutist forces were a drag on the capitalist mode of
production and hampered its development. The struggle was carried on
within the individual countries and in the world arena, where coalition s
and military-and-political alliances of the feudal-ab so luti st forces
continued to operate.
Without an analysis of the economic basis of the great changes in the
life of the peoples, it is, of course, impossible to understand the political
and ideological battles expressing the advent of these c hanges a nd
showing the intensity of the struggle between the old and the new w ithin
the individual countries and in the world arena, that is , reflecting the
development of the world process and becoming it s manifestation .
That is a problem bourgeois social thinkers could not solve. For them ,
the question of the relation between economic s , politics and ideology in
the period of tran sition from feudali s m to capitalism remained a c losed
book. With their defective idealistic methodology , bourgeoi s theorists
streS'ied the importance of the ideological conflicts, wars and a rm ed
:
!II

'"

V I. Len;n, Co/lecud Works, Vo\. 21, p. 149 .

Ibid ., p. 147
Ihid .. p. 143.

clash~'),

w.hich they ')aid were due to ideological conflicts. The stages of

the histOrical process disappeared, its economic basis remained in the
background and only the idealistically interpreted facts of armed struggle
were in evidence.
Although capitalism grew up within the entrails of feudalism, it ... till
took a long time to overcome the old system by developing Its own
advantages and realising them in the sphere of world politics. The
struggle for the victory of capitalism in the world arena is simultaneously
a struggle for the primacy of the strongest plunderers. Spain, Portugal
and the Netherlands were the strongest and richest countries in the 16th
century, while France and Britain joined in the fight for world
supremacy in the 17th century. After the bourgeois revolution, the
balance was tilted in favour of Britain. That is how things stood in the
early period of capit alist development, when the feudal-absolut ist orde r
was still dominant in the world. But the struggle against the feudalabsolutist order also frequently took the form of armed confli cts. Those
are the facts bourgeois theorists usually stress, without trying to get
through to their meaning. They also start from the fact that whereas under capitalism peaceful relations between nations became much more
extensive and profound, as compared with those in the slave-holding and
se rf period, the fight between the capitalist plunderer~ constant ly
produced wars of aggrandis.ement. so that war c~mtinued to ?e a
permanent instrum ent of pohcy, a ~eans of ~nslavmg ? ther nat ions.
taking over their wealth and convertmg them mto colomal slaves .

,
SOC IAL REVOLUT ION IN THE 20TH CENTURY
AND SC IE NTIFIC
AND TEC HNICAL PROGRESS

I should like to start by quoting a few lines from Wilhelm Liebknecht>

rem ini sce nces o f Karl Marx which ~ate .to 1850 and well show Ma~\~
attitude to the revolutionary changes III sCience and technology. He s Yh'
"Soon we were talking about natural sciences and Marx sctf~11 aJ ~h:
victorious reaction in Europe, who imagined that they ~ a stl e
e
revolutio n a nd had no idea th at natural sc ience was prepanngba ~ew o;ad
King Steam who had revolutionized the world the cen tury e or~, .
lost hi s thr~ne and was being superseded by a still greater revO ullona ry-t he elect ri c spark.""
h
a~ an any c: the proletariat in
Let us recall that Marx saw s~ch c ange~ t
and a symptom of the
the revolutionary transfor~atlon of s~cl~r~~sformatiOns. For many
growing hi storical necessity for slue.
~repared a new scientifiC
decades. the development of natura sC ience

51

Rtm;,lisct,H'tS of

\111'.\ 1111

dE' tIs MosCOW. 1957. p. 98

Ig'

1'"
12-594

" I rev olu,,"on . First , the power of electricit y. wa s to develop to

an d lee h mea
"
wh,'le other branches of natural sC ie nce were al so to
,
vast proper Ions.
..
' ,
prepare for a fresh leap by' a senes of ,dlscovenes:
, . ._
On the eve of the scientifiC and technical revolution . wh e n c,\pltalism
"ghly intricate technological problem s and ma ny remarkable
h ad so Ive d h I
'
''0
II "d
discoveries were made in natural science, L~nm wrot.e : . n asI es . at
every step one comes acros~ p~obl~m~ which ma~ ~!S qUite ca pable of
solving immediately. but capltaitsm IS m. ~he ~ay. -.
Years later, Lenin's plan for the electrification of the,USSR wou ld be
drawn up for the purpose of putting the great :evolutl~mary power of
electricity and various other scientific an.d tech meal achlevemen.ts at the
service of the victorious socialist revolution. Under the leader ship of t he
CPSU the Soviet people fulfilled and overfulfilled this plan , a nd a
mighty industrial power, confidently challenging capitalism in th e field
of science and technology, appeared on the map of the world. Th e ot her
socialist countries , working to enhance the efficiency of production and
secure the ever fuller realisation of the advantages of socialism , also
became a scientific and technical force to be reckoned with. The soc ia li st
countries have set themselves the task of harnessing the scientific and
technical revolution and advancing it on the basis of social propert y.
Facts drawn from contemporary history suggest the conclu sio n t hat
the scientific and technical revolution, as a social phenomen o n , is
connected with the fundamental contradiction of the modern world , t he
struggle between the two systems: socialism and capitalism . Thi s
struggle is not only a condition of the historical situation in w hich th e
scientific and technical revolution has been going forward as an
immanent process in the development of science and technology . Thi s
hi storical situation also exerts a definitive influence on the advan ce of
the scientific and technical revolution and the application of it s
achievements in practice, in the first place. It is hard to say how th e
scientific and technical revolution would have run if only on e
system - capitalism in its final stage, that is, imperialism ,- continued to
dominate the globe. The bourgeois press has made no secret of the fact
that the mainspring of scientific and technical progress under capitalism
today is its fight against the socialist system, when it comes to
manife stations of the scientific and technical revolution like space
exploration or the latest types of weapons.
Thi s question ari ses: is it right to limit the impact of the struggle
between the two systems to the field of technology? Should not th e
approach be a much broader one?
We feel that if the struggle of the two systems is ignored , it is
altogether impossible to analyse the scientific and technical revolutio n
correctly as a hi storical phenomenon. Indeed, there is no justification fo r
~2 v
178

artificially separating the scientific and technical revolution from the

can..linal i'i'iue of present-day world history. It is impos'iible either to
comider or ... olve the problem in some artificial vacuum. Of Course. the
scientific and technical revolution has been prepared by the
development of a number of sciences, which enable man to use new
instruments in harnessing the mighty forces of nature. In its knowledge
of natural phenomena. mankind has reached a culminating point at which
the possibilities for exerting a conscious influence on the forces of
nature are unprecedented in scope. That is undoubtedly so. But th i'i
process is a social phenomenon, a fact in the social life of the nations.
and that is how it should be considered. If we are truly intent on making a
correct study of present-day world history, we shall have to learn above
all to see its phases and phenomena in the light of the struggle between
the two systems.
I t hink that Sov iet writers have not yet dealt adequately with. amo ng
ot her th ings, the influence of the struggle between the two systems on
the internal development of capitalism. Of course, capital ism develops .in
accordance with its own laws, but the struggle between the two SOCial
worlds exerts a powerful influence on its development. The ca~i t~l i~t
system, deeply involved in this struggle, c~nnot be u~derstood If It IS
conside red as an isolated system not subject to the mfiuence of ~he
strident req uirements of t he st ruggle against a powerful and growing
world socialist system.
. '
In th is connection we could ask the following. qu~~t1on: how ha~ It
ha ppe ned that the poss ibilit ies for applying SCle~tlf.lc and. tech~l~al
ac hieve ments in production have been extended ':"'Ithln the .I ~per~ah~~
" sy s' em . whose whole economic and pohtlcal
system a d ecay mg
.. hfe. tIS
o p p res~ed by th e monopolies? The Soc ial Democrats and ~ he rev lslon~s s
kee p shouting that capitali sm has changed its spot~. that ~t ~as ~ease N~o

~o~:;~I~y~:~i~~~~%y h~~dn~~sc~~~~:d~ ~t ~:Otg;;~~r~dS~~tl~at~~~ ~~a't ha~

Ch~~~~~., in th e prese nce of socia list societ y, t~edcaSP'riy, a\~~tos~~~~I~enSd

bl to take over any In u

.
.
how ever strong, are una e
I
o n a world scale etc. Lemn
barrel, to share it o~t amo ng t.he~~et~;Se ffect that at the 'tu rn of the
quoted o ne bourgeOI s econom.l st I '
rs'" and that th ere were
c entury th ere w: re "twO ele:tn~a t~~e:to~~w:ompieteIY indepe nd~nt of
" no oth er e lec tri ca l compa mes '"
th t th e situ ati on today is rad ically
them" .5l It is now clea r .t o everyo~~ a" lectrical powe r" which is not
different. Th ere is now m the w~r an e oli es but which has in fact
only independent of the capitahst monolP, de' cided to shelve all the
If the mo nopo IS S
.'
I
II
iss ued the ~ a c ~ a enge.
Id sti ll be real ised in the ... octah ... t \\or u
impo rtant mve ntlo ns. th ese WO ll .
_~1 Ibid_. Vol 22. r 247 .

I. Lenin . Collected Work s , Vol. 19, p. 389.

'"

,""

" I"
d
lops production on the ba~i !'> of social property
Socia Ism eve
'
,'
"ce and technology and carrymg on c\.temlve research in
"
ad vanClOg selcn
.
d ""
" Id L bour which for centunes nete ,\S no mOre th an
these IIe s. a .;tal J'oined 10
. the strugg Ie I or power with
" the
cap
lor r
wage- Ia bo u
..
I" "
establishment of the highest for~ of the proletariat s p? IIIC ;;\1 organi ,;}.
"th
type 01 party. Havmg won slate powe r, It now stand s On
lIOn. e new
.
. I I
"t I "
"
sizable territories of the world as .a mighty nva 0 capl a In organi sing
and developing production. This does n?t c.han~e th~ n ~ture of
capitalism. but it does ~hange the world s.ltua~lOn 10 w~lch It has t,o
operate. Lenin wrote: . H would be a nllstake t~ ~eheve that this
tendency to decay precludes the r~pid growth of :apltahsm. It d?cs not.
In the epoch of imperialism, certam branches of tndustry, certam strata
of the bourgeoisie and certain countries betray, to a greater or les se r
degree. now one and now another of these tendencies," 54 With th e fierce
struggle between the two systems ranging not only over politic s and
ideology, but also over production, the key sphere of human acti vity, the
monopolies can no longer afford to stem the scientific and technical
revolution and block scientific discoveries and technological in vention s .
The main conclusion this suggests is that the scientific and t echnical
revolution does not damp down or eliminate the struggle between the
two systems, as some advocates of the convergence theory claim .
allegedly leading to a common-type structural development in the two
systems until they "meet". Actually, the struggle between capitali sm and
socialism has been gaining in acerbity and depth , because in this sp here
capitalism has no intention of surrendering without a fight.
Capitalism has certainly been casting about for new mean s in it s fight
against socialism by making use of scientific and technical achievements. But what are the long-term prospects for capitali sm in reali sing
these achievements in production?
Let us, first of all, note briefly an idea that has been expressed in
Marxist writings. It is the influence of the scientific and technical
revolution on the basic contradictions of capitalism, The main thing
here. I feel, is that mass production based on the latest sc ientific and
technical. aC,hievements calls for a high level of organisation , efficiency
a~d conhnUl~y. Sooner or later, this requirement runs into contrad iction
with the blind forces of a convulsive market. The strict logic of
technology in production cannot be reconciled with any break s in its
~ mooth rhy~hmic flow. The uncontrolled market forces produce
Impulses which tend to disrupt the smooth rhythm and high organisation .
~onsequently, the scientific and technical revolution is bound increasIOgly t.o demand the introduction of socialist relations of production, the
establ~'ih~ent of social property, scientific planning and scientific
coordlOalion and coope ra t"Ion 10
""10 d ustry, That "
"Important
'
IS an
aspect 0 I

"'0

V. I. Lenin. Collected Works, Vol. 22. p . 300.

~he scientific a.nd ~e.chn ical revo~ution which bourgeois theoriSh try to

Ignore The sCientifIC an? techmcal revolution, far from abol i'ihing, in
e~rect bears ?ut the Marxl,:>t-Leninist thesis that pre"ent-day capitali .. m i..
flpe for social change, and that imperialism is the eve of the "ociali"t
revolution .
Of COurse, the conflict will not be spasmodic, but will take a long time
to develop. There will be a great many frauds and illusions about ""tate
democratic planning" under state-monopoly capitalism. It will take a
long time for the working class in the capitalist countries to realise that
capitali<;t society needs to be eliminated and not cured.
But the important thing to see is that the tendency is there and that it
wi ll make it se lf known in various forms. The point is that as the conflict
develops the working class is ever more acti vely involved in it. This
produces a relatively new arena of the class struggle : this is a struggle
against all the burdens of the scientific and technical revolution being
thrown on the working class.
Some bourgeois theorists regard the scientific and technical revolut ion
as a mean s of expelling the wo rki ng class from the sphere of production.
so as to deprive it of its role in society and its political importance. They
have visions of returning to the ancient period with a lumpenproletariat
living at th e expense of the society. Of course, the attempt to push the
mod ern proletari at. with its high skills and high labour standard.,., into the
statu s of the ancient lumpenproletariat which r uir_eQ no more !ban
"b read and cifCuses"-and t IS means a corresponding level of
consciousness - mu st inevitably explode the social system which dares
to undertake such an experiment. Concerning idleness as a social ideal of
pre sent-day capitalism. one must say that a close look at spi ritualli,fe in
the capitali st West clearly show s a growing protest ag~inst t~e ".lelsure
society", as a soc ial ideal. It is true that protests agamst thl~ piece of
social uglin ess also frequently assume ugly forms. ,but the Important
thing is that these protest s are there and keep ?ro~mg.
Thi s question also has another aspect which IS perhaps equall'y
imp ortant. At whose expense wiJI capitalist soc iety then li ve? Bourgeo! s
theori sts suggest that the technical intelligentsia will become the maIO
productive force.
. ..
.
.
Capitali sm. carrying on the SC ientifiC and technt~al re.volullon. te~d s
to sharp e n it s socia l conflicts. above all the conflict \~Ith the workmg
class , which is inherent in capitalism at every stage ,of ItS de v 7!Opmen\
The threat of unemployment facing the whole work 109 class. In s~ea~ 0
so me of it s sections. general unemployment may ~ecome a law o~ Its hf~li
1
Is it not clear that this approach to the work .. ng-cla ~s quesho~
generate a most acute social conflict which WI\l shake th~ c.aplt~ 1st
system to it s foundations and give the working class a cledar IOskl~hdt I~~.oe
" I' t s stem') Can man an man In I
the great advantage 0 I t h e soc Ia IS Y
.
.
.
. f
without working. without applying and developtng their capacity or

t8t

ould undermine th e vcry ha~.i ... of the hum an

th
work? In" ourS"
age I" IS W tore' the spiritual
. .

f tl'
' I. '
(.:ontcnt
I,)
11.: \\ollr",c r s
commumty. oCla I~m res
~
-.
. C "" I" .
.1 ~ ." ,
"h
"tal"sm has depnvcd It . apltd Ism uCpIIVC:-' th e
labour 0 f Wh Ie capl I
<.
.'
1" 1 . .
~.
"ht to work which sacwh ... rn re.l . '>C'" .lnu gUdf.lntcc s.
worker 0"f t h e" n
g

. . ... ts'h",Ive h"

"
have
admitted
that the cnplwh
cell S"I owmg
<

d
BourgeOI s wnters
down the extensive introduction of automation an re~ote con,lrol
because they fear that this would build up a p~werfu l ..,oc lal explosIon
There is also another conflict in the making . that between state monopoly capital and the intellige~t s ia. The recent student p.rotests ,have
made one look closer at the maturing an~ dev e lo pm e nt of thiS confhct a s
well. Even the bourgeois press has said .that the substance of t~e se
movements is that the intelligent sia. eSP~clally t.he younger gen~ralJon,
has refu sed to lie in the procrustean bed mto which the monopolie s seek
to drive it. The inflated hierarchy established by the monopo~ies at the
enterprises and in research institutes doe ~ not hO.ld a ny p~~ml se fo: t~e
young generation in extensively applymg their ca pacIties: ThiS IS
especially true today. under the scientific a~d technica l r.evolutl on, w~en
the monopolies seek to convert the generation of young mtellectual s mto
the sa me kind of "cogs" in the laboratories a nd the s hop s as the workers.
Thi s has aroused protests by young intellectual s who are as yet unable to
realise and formulate their demand s. But I think that this is essentially a
struggle for the right to work in accordance with one's capacit ies, the
right to express and develop these capacities in labour . Monopoly
capitalism stand s in the way. Its levelling bulldozer has not spared those
who come from the middle classes either. In thi s re spect, monopoly
ca pitali s m once again appears as the eve of the soc iali st revolution.
Petty-bourgeoi s radicalism is an unstable phenomenon . Fasci sm is
known to have succeeded in confusing many petty-bourgeois radicals,
befogging their minds with diverse types of demagogy and turning them
again st the working class.
Once again attempts are being made to direct pe tty -bou rgeois
radicalism against the working class. Let us recall, as an example , the
theory of Professor Herbert Marcu se. Consequently, the su b jective
aspect of the matter , the battle of idea s, the struggle for the unit y of
action by the working class and the non proleta rian sec ti ons acquire
tremendou s importance.
In the past few years, the integration of the capita li st system.
especially in Western Europe , is a question that ha s been ever more
frequently considered within the context of the sc ientific and technical
revolution. The bourgeoi s pre ss has suggested that the scie ntific and
~echnical .revolution promote s thi s integration, lead s to ever c loser
IOte:weavmg of the national economies, etc . Thi s tende ncy can not be
dented, .but the form in which it is expre ssed is typically capita li st. Here
everyt~lOg re~ts on domination and subjugation , on hegem o ny , on th e
allocation of mfluence by strength , by capital, as Lenin u sed to say.
O

182

. H()wc~cr .t~j.., !-.trcnglh now take ... on a different form, heing covered
with a ",clc.nllflc and technical ... hell. There is no doubt that the ...cientific
and. ~echntcal re~olution tends to become a component part of world
politic!'. and aC~~lre ~o1itical importance. US monopoly capital seek" to
restore Its. pO"'llIon!'. I~ the capitalist world by harnessing the ~cientific
and techmcal revolution. The bourgeois press ha ... carried reports that
~here i ... mo~nting alarm in Western Europe over the growing US
IOvestments 10 the West European countries, especially over the nature
and areas of these investments. Those who invest seek to gain control or
dominant positions for US monopoly capital in the new technology
areas. A new term - technological colonialism - has even been coined
to describe the US attitude to Western Europe. This purpose is also
served by the so-called "brain drain'".
Inc identally , even within the capitalist countries the scientific and
technical revolution causes a sharpening of the struggle between the
monopolies. The "young" monopolies frequently carryon a fight against
the ';old" ones. Under state-monopoly capitalism this develops into a
struggle for the instruments of state power and assumes the form of
acute political conflicts and crises.
In world politics. monopoly capital has pinned other hopes on the
scientific and technical revolution. notably, hopes of re-equipping
colonialism. On the one hand, the monopolies assume that the scientific
and technical revolution. with its new technology. will markedly ease
their dependence on some types of raw materials extracted in countries
with a low technical and economic level. On the other hand. they expect
the scientific and technical revolution tocreate new and powerf~1 mea.ns
for an offensive against the colonies they have lost. so as to intenSify
their technical and economic dependence and. consequently. to preserve
the political master-and-servant relati~ns.
.'
.
Such are some of the lines along which capitalism has tned to use the
sc ientific and technical revolution. These attempts to b~ls~er the
positions of cap it al ultimately tend to aggravate the contradictions of
cap itali sm quite apart from the use of science and technology for Ih~
arm S race' for fabricating mass destruction weapons. Such use 0
scie nce and technology by capitalism. of course. presents the greatest
danger t o mankind.
. .
I . the
What I have sa id suggests that the anti.-impenahst strugg e 10 'e
period of the scientific and technical
down but th at it will develop and that there IS an.o J~c IV
'ty It ,"s
.
.
I'
f J"f and its objective necessl .
development. S uch ~s theb'~~~~v~ fa~:or. Consequently. the ideol~gical
now la rge ly up to t e ~u j
d the Communist parties IS of
struggle of the work 109 class an
treme ndo u s importan~e. .
attaches to the struggle for the
Ever greater hist~T1cal I mpo~an~e th Soviet Union and the other
sc ientific and techmcal revolution 10 e

revolutl~n can~~t ~~den~~~~sn~r~~s

socialist countries. Scientific and technical progress. in the s~cial~ . . t

countries. the extensive applicati~n of neW technology In production , 11\
.
ff e cy the sc ,entiflcally grounded management of the
growmg e lei n .
. .
. .
.
t effective reahsatlon of th e vast potenhal of
economy. an d the mos
.
' "f
. I
.
II dd up to an earnest of fre sh vlctone:\ Of socm l':im to the
. I.
socia Ism-a a
.
.'
I

economic. political and ideological s~here In Its st,rugg e again st

capitalism. That is one of the key question s of world hi story.

THE ROLE OF THE MASSES IN HISTORY

On November 8, 1917. the day after the October Revolution won out.
Lenin spoke about the new political force w~ich had emerged for th e
first time in hi story: "Our idea is that a state IS strong when the people
are politically conscious. It is str?ng when the peopl~ know ev~rythi~~ .
can form an opinion of everythmg and do everythmg conscIOu sly. 5~
These words of Lenin' s express the great turning point in the political ,
state activity of the people. The Soviet people's sUCCeSS in building a
new soc iety help s everyone to gain a greater understanding of the
tremendous power and potentialities of the people and th e pro s pect s for
their development.
The transition of vast masses of men from s pontaneou s participation
in the hi storical process to conscious activity. and their con version into
active creators of this process is a characteristic feature of our ti me. In
May 1918. Lenin spoke of the movement in the USSR of hundreds of
thousands of men "who have hitherto lived according to tradition and
habit, into the camp of the builders of Soviet organisations". S6 At that
time, the process was just beginning and only in one country. Today, the
transition from the old order according to tradition and habit , handed
down from ages of domination by the exploiters, to conscious historical
action has swept not only the countries of the world soc iali st syst em, but
also many peoples which had but recently been in co lonial depe nde nce.
The present epoch is a turning point in world hi story in the activity of th e
masses, in their organisation, the effectiveness of their action and the
pace of soc ial development.
For thousands of years the masses took no more than a spontaneouS
~art in the hi storical proce ss. Only with the emergence of the prolet ariat
10 the ~rena o~ th~ class struggle did the participation of the toiling
masses In th~ hlstoTical process undergo a radical change. Lenin sa id that
the ~rolet~T1~t .had alone succeeded in uniting, rallying together, and
for'!llng dISCIplined ranks for carrying on a systematic struggle against
capital. The nature of the participation by the working clas s in the

., v,. I
~

I'"

Lenm. Co/luud Works. Vol. 26. p. :!56.

IbId . Vol, :!7, p, 411

his~orical

process is directly connected with their political organisation.

Nelth~r the slaves nor the serfs had been able to set up partie .. as a
conscIOus vanguard of the whole class. Both the slaves and the serfs had
set up temporary insurgent organisations which in structure and function
were a far cry from political parties operating constantly and daily,
instead of sporadically, rallying the whole class to struggle for the
immediate tasks and the ultimate goals. and formulating these goals on
the basis of an analysis of reality with the help of a revolutionary
doctrine.
Another expression of the spontaneous nature of the working people's
movements in the slave-holding and the feudal periods was that these
movements frequently rallied to religious ideas, their participants having
no more than a vague and fantastic idea of the end of their struggle,
which had no political programme clearly reflecting the class interests
and the mature requirements of social development. The lack of the
necessary consciousness and developed political organisation was also
expressed in the relations taking shape between the mass and the leaders
of the movement at the most revolutionary moments of history: the
leaders of slave or serf movements were surrounded by an aura of
sanctity and infallibility. because they were thought to be the
in struments of Divine Providence, of Divine fate. There was as yet no
clear understanding of the fact that the strength of the leaders of a
movement lies in the consciousness and organisation of the masses and
in their abilit y to express the collective will a~d i?~a. It was the
Marxist-Leninist parties that introduced new and sClentlfl~ally grounded
forms of mass organ isation and principles of lea~ershl~. Thanks to
or
their activity the working class became the raIlYI~~ pomt
o~her
sec tions of the working people. while the concept of masses. acqulTed
clarity, giving rise to a political organisation of the .mass:s which o~ened
up real po ssibilities for their taking historical action With great e fect.

..r

The ideologists of the capit ali st s and the petty bourgeoiS h~.ve always
.
f h
t .. eople" and "mass.
taken an incorrect view 0 t e concep P
I
d even praised it in
The Narodniks s~oke. muc~ ~~ou~st~~rP~~~~ ~~ing scientific. Their
every way, but their ~~ew o. I W u because they did not see the
concept of the "people remamed vag ~ According to such theories,
existence of c lasses and the c1as~ strugg ~h of the people it takes some
whic h ignore the internal dynamiC streng
f eople in motion. Most
kind of external impetus to set masses dO s ~ band of "heroes" ruling
frequently this external force is representeTha . d'vidual was contrasted
"crowd" an inert and faceless force.
em I
d above them .
th e '
with the people and set up over an

"

Petty-bourgeoi s theorie s , denying the e'.i"tcncc of das"cs and th('

class struggle. could not conceal the antlop?pula.r "uhslan~c of the
exploiters' policy or correctly understand thei r ~I htu dc to the people
Ma ny theori st s of this stripe blanketed ' ,h e e\plolters Clnd th~ e'plolted
under the name of the "people", thu s relteratlllg the bourgeoIs views of
the Fre nch bourgeois revolutionary period : when th,e bourgeoi<;ie
identified ibelf with the people. claiming th at It was unthinkable for the
working people to hav e their own legi!imat e.i nterest s di::.tinct from those
of the bourgeoisie. In effect. Narodmk soc iol ogy was unab le clearly to
.
distinguish the conce pt of "people" from that o~ " nation",
Pre se nt-day bourgeois philosophy and soc iology have v irtually
abandoned the use of the term "the people". Gone are th e day s when
bourgeoi s theorist s used to write the word with a capital P . They now
prefer to use the word "masses" with a hint of contempt. a lthoug h they
make use of term s like "mass society" and "mass c ivili sation " to identify
the present stage of social development. Philosophic al and soc iological
theories of "mass soc iety" are bound up with the pOlitical u se and
political organisation of bourgeois soc iety in th e imperia li st period. Thi s
connection is inevitable. becau se nothing at all can be said about the role
and pote ntialities of the masses unless we draw attention to their political
o rgani sation and the soc ial structure of soc iety which p rod uces thi s
organi satio n . However hard present-day bourgeo is theorist s may try to
exorcise thi s fact . all of their reasonings merely serve t o confir m it.
Which political views of the bourgeoi sie does thi s impl y?
Soon after the French Revolution of the 18th cent u ry , bourgeoi s
theo rist s proclaimed that society did not consist of classes, soc ia l groups
or organisation s. but of individuals, That was a n a pology for bourgeois
indi viduali sm, for a soc ial and political system based o n private-property
relations, It was, in effect. an apology for the very real and absolute ly
unlimited rights of c apital, with formal right s only held o ut to masse s of
people , The people came to be characterised a s an asse mblage of
individuals deprived of any internal organisation, Encyclopaedi c
dic tionarie s said that "the people" were a ma ss of men and women
inhabiting a country and living under the same law s, Thi s ma ss, or
"as~emb lage", was united only by the state power operating on the given
territo ry , The bourgeoi s contempt for the ma sse s is simult a neou sly
contemp,t fo r the individual and a trampling of hi s rights,
What IS the individual and what is his role in bourgeoi s soc iet y if he is
de~rived of private property . capital, which alone determine his
weight? The bourgeois view of the masses justifie s the right s of the
property ow ner and the deprivation of the poor , who were told that th ey
we re themselves to blame for having failed to become "someone",
The bourgeoisie. with it s state power , was not at a ll inclined to accept
t~e fact Iha,t th e wo~~ing man became strong only when he united with
hiS mates 10 a pohtlcal organisation, In theory and in practice, th e
,!It;

bourgeoisie prererred to deal with personified moneybag!> and a

scalle,red. group of "individuals", deprived of any strength and
orgam"atiOn, lo!>t like grains of "and in the vast dunes known as
"soc,iety,". But agai~st the will of the bourgeoisie and under its
domlOatlOn the workmg class began to organise itself, its consciousness
was enhanced, it began a struggle for its rights and for that purpose made
use of bourgeois-democratic freedoms,
As society entered the period of imperialism, monopoly capital
launched an offensive against the democratic rights of the people in an
effort to establish its complete domination on the political scene.
Hundreds of books and articles were written to prove that classes and
the class struggle had disappeared, tbat the process of "integration" was
going forward everywhere, and that society was becoming ever more
"homogeneous", These were apologetic writings extolling present,day
capitalist society, which allegedly has the "Iegitimate right" to ban as
useless and obsolete political parties of the working class and
its democratic organisations, To this very day, writers in the USA who
have sold out to the capitalists claim that the trade unions
"hamper the individuals", while strike-b reakers champion "indiv idual
freedom" ,
Theories denigrating the people in every way ha,(e become widesp read, their authors insisting that "homogeneity" tended to dissolve the
individual in the "mass" and that the "masses" in history were the
greatest evil. and nothing but a "degradation of the human ~ondition"
NumeroUS socio.psychologi sts of the Freudian school have tfled toprove
that by their very nature the "masses" could engag~ only in the lower
forms of sp iritual activity, exaggerating in ever~ pOSSible wa~ the role of
the unconscious and subconsc iou s elements \0 the behaViour of the
masses. Even the British historian Arnold Toynbee, who does not accept
Freudian-type soc io-psychological att!tudes, in hi~ ~~st ,work on the
philosophy of history at one stroke d lssect.ed all c~vlhsahons .~hat ~ad
ever ex isted in the world into two SOC ial sectIOns: t~e creattve
minorities" and th e "uncreative majority". ~oynb~~ holds ~Istory ~o ~e?,
largely c hanging relat ionship bet ween the mert. uncreah.ve ~,aJo~lty .
and th e "creative minor ities". These reactiona~y and uns:.le~tl!~c :I~~~
were subsequently spun out in various the~f1es of the ehte., f II
st and does take charge of mankind's history. The purpose ~ .~.
mU
'
1.
I t try to keep the m,ISSt:S
th ese bou rgeois.. theorie~ .. S Ut~I;:~ey\efping to preserve capitalist
away from pohtlcal actiV ity,
r
relat io ns,
, 1 t' 't of the Marxist-Leninist parties
The practical and th~or~tlca ac IV I Y
ainst such views and
has been developing \0 ~~placMable. stTULggnleln"lasgm has given a strictly
"
f h b
geolsle
arxlsm- e
'
.' '
practices 0 t e ,our
'
t of .. eople", for otherWise It I ...
sc ientific explanation to the condcerf ct"v/revo!utionaryactivity Only
impossible to carryo n correct an e e l

I"

by separating the concept , of " people" int o classes h.as Marxi\m

produced a truly scientific vIew of ~he people,. of the mas~e\. as a r~al
force in hi storical progress . In the first place , It was nece!:i,sary to .bnng
out the working class , which these theori sts had wa nt ed t? d issolve 10 the
general concept of "people", an extrem ely vague noti on as u sed by
bourgeoi s and petty-bourgeois theori sts, Th~t was do ne by Marx and
Engels. who al so pointed out that the proletanat was the leader of all the
working people in the revolutionary process .
Lenin developed the doctrine of the alliance between the working
cla ss and the pea santry , of a merger of pea sant moveme nt and the
struggle of the working class, and of the p.roletari~t' s leadership of t.he
revolutionary struggle of the nonproletanan sectIOn s of th e workmg
people . He elaborated the proposition concerning the fundam e nt al vital
intere sts of the working cla ss and the toiling pea sa ntry, wh ose alliance
alone could and did attract the best men from the intelligent s ia a nd all the
healthy element s of the nation. The furth er dev elo pm ent o f th is alliance
and it s growing strength and organisation determined th e futu re of the
hi storical process.
Th e main thing is that the core of the alliance and it s leader , the
working class, should be highly org ani sed and capab le of giving a lead to
all the other , non proletarian section s of th e working people. Such an
all iance en sures the victory of the sociali st revoluti on and th en the
success of sociali st construction , in the course of w hic h the other
sections of the people draw ever clo ser to the working class ; in thi s way,
the people is increa singly con solidated , acquiring unity and cohes ion in
the fight against the exploiters and in building the new soc iet y.
Lenin 's ideas were te sted in the flame s of revolutio nary battles.
Modern history has shown that it is Lenin 's theory th at en su res success
in practice and makes it po ssible to pursue a viable and re ali stic policy
capa ble of fulfilling mature historical tasks. Lenin' s predict ion s have
been borne out by the emergence in modern history of mass ive po litical
fo rces like the popular front. Thu s, Marxi sm-Lenini s m h as alone
produced sc ientifi c concepts of the " people" and the "masses" in place
of th e old ones which pre sented the masses as so mething qu ite
amorph ous and deprived of inner social and political o rga ni satio n. Th e
peo ple, th at is, the working cla ss, rallying the peasant masses a nd the
non proletarian section s of the working people ro und it , is a great social
~o rce capa ble of changing the whole social sy stem . Such is the
,"contestable conclu sion of history , What is more it is the most
characte risti~ fea~u re of the whole content of th e p res~ nt -day hi storical
proc.e~s, .wh lch IS determined by th e growing active and consciou s
pa rt lc lpa~l o n of masses of people. The higher form s of s uch partic ipation
exert an mfluence o n. the other elem ent s of the hi storica l process. Th at is
why the tr a n s f~ r ma tlO~ of the CPSU into a part y of th e wh o le people.
and of the SovIet state IOta a state of the whole peo ple . together w it h the
188

real successes scored by the Soviet people, which show how effective
the participation of the masses is in fulfilling the tasks of social
development , are of great importance that transcends the boundaries of
the USSR.

It

The organisation of the people as a conscious social force is a most

important historical task today. This task is being fulfilled by the
working-class Party, which is structured on the organisational principles
of Leninism and which is guided by revolutionary theory. Its most
im portant principle is that the Marxist-Leninist Party carries on its work
in the masses, involving "all the best forces without any exception, at
every step verifying carefully and objectively whether contact with the
masses is being maintained and whether it is a live contact. In this way,
and ollly in this way, does the advanced contingent train and enlighten
the masses, expressing their interests, teaching them organisation and
directing all the activities of the masses along the path of conscious class
politics." S7
The Party teaches the masses to organise, for that is the o.nly way to
express their conscious strength. The Party educat.es and.enh~htens the
masses, carrying on its organisational work m. thelT mIdst, and
expressing in its activity the interests of the workm~ p~ople and the
urgent requirements of social development. Therem hes the great
strength of the Party. whose emergence and developme~t. wo.rks a
change in the whole course of world history and in the partlclpallon of
the masses in the historical process.
Once the power of the exploiters has been destroyed, the people,
united by the working class, displays its mig~ty creative forces ~o the
full. T he working-class Party organises and directs. the construchon
the new society and its constant and living bonds With the ~ass:s are 0
tremendous im~ortance. In this context, Lenin said: "Our. vlctones were
due to the direct appeal ma.de by our
to the working masses, With every new .1 I
wh it was
out as it arose: to our abili~y t~ e;i~a~~:ot~~~ t~aas~~:her Ispect of
necessary to devote. all energles/I~~ our abi'lity to arouse the energy.
Soviet work at a ~Iven o;en, s and to concentrate every ounce of
heroism and enthUSIasm 0 t e ma~se t nt task of the hour." \8
revolutionar~ eff?rt on the. ~~st ~~~~~ t~e strength of the Soviet state,
T here LenlO relter~ted hIS I ea b 8 1917. In effect, he formulated a
something he had said on Novem er '

0:

partY/f~~c~it;h:n~O;;~~feo;e;~~~;~

51 V. I. Lenin, Colltcltd Worh. Vol. 19. p. 409_

~I Ibid .. Vol. 30, p. 139.

key principle underlying the activity of the whole political organi sation
of Soviet society. both the Party and the State. To tell the ma sse s th e
truth about the existing difficulties and to show the ways of overcomi ng
them was not only a moral principle of Party activity but an imperative of
real politics and of the whole materiali st world .0utl?Ok, FU,lfilment of
this requirement multiplied the strength of hlsto~lc al achon by the
masses, That is why the Party attaches such Importance to thi s
requirement. and condemns boa sting . idle talk a nd administration by
fiat.
It is quite obvious that without a profound sci entifi c analysis of the
urgent tasks of soc ial development the Party cannot explain to the
masses why and how this task can be so lved , and cannot o rgan ise or
direct the revolutionary efforts of the masse s, The Party 's whole policy
is ba sed on a study of the objective course of developm ent.
It is al so necessary to have a profound knowledge of the mood s
prevailing among the masses , to be able to approach th e mass and to win
its absolute confidence for the Party . which expre sses it s interests and
aims, in tackling any important ta sks,
Summing up the experience of guiding the masses in Sov iet society,
Lenin put forward the following principle s:

" Bonds with the mass,

Living in it s midst,
Knowing its mood.
Know ing el'erythiTlg,
Understanding the mass,
The right approach,
,
Winning its absolute confidence.
The leaders not losing touch with the masses they lead, the
va nguard - with the whole army of labour ,
the mass," ~9
of
co'nfi dence
"e , But tha~ is not to say,
c ourse, that
princ iple s are
now
,
Then constant implementation and th e further
stre~gthemng and extension .of ~i~s with the ma sses help the Pa rt y to
attaIn to a more profound sClenliflc analy sis of the mature tas ks and to
formulate the method s for fulfilling them.
xln ,ma intaining close ties wi,th the people , the Party absorbs the
e pene,nce of the masses, studies and generalises it, and enriches its
revo lutionary
theory
C
'"'
.
' In h'IS "S peec h at t h e F'Irst Congress of Economic
o un~ ll s
~em~ ~ave a clear characteristic of the role of mass
e~p~nl~nce Ill, bUlldlllg the new soc iety . He sa id that scie ntific analysis of
cdp lta 1st soc iety helped to bring out the tendency of its development and

.
.!9

''''

V I Lenin. Co/lt(ud Work.! , Vo' ' 44 , P. 49798"

10 Russlan).
.

th~ ~i storical

inevitability of the swing away from the domination of

pnvate, pro~erty ~o the domination of social property. In this way,
th.eo~;hc al ~nalysls ,had helped to determine the main line of social
t~ans ormatIOn , Lenin added: "We knew this when we took power for
t e purpose of proceeding with socialist reorganisation' but we could not
know the form s ,of ~ransformation. or the rate of de~elopment of the
concrete reorganisation," f,O
What is t~e source of the Party's knowledge of the concrete forms of
transformatIOn ~nd ,the realistic rates of this process as it directs the
greate~t ,reorga01 satlon of society?
Le~l~ s an swer is qU,ite clear: ~'Collective experience, the experience
of millions can alone gIve u s deCisive guidance in this respect. precisely
because, for our task, for the task of building socialism, the experience
of ~he hundreds an.d hundreds of thousands of those upper sections
whl~h h,av,e ma~e. history up to now in feudal society and in capitalist
~oclety IS tnsufflclent." 61 The task of building a new society requires the
tn~olvement of the whole mass of working people in cone;truction, for
thiS alone will produce effective results and enrich experience.
In those conditions . the role of the creative principle inevitably grows
and the role of the Marxist-Leninist Party is enhanced and complexified.
It has to make a scientific generalisation of the experience to select from
it what is most important for historical progress. everything that most
deeply expresses the requirements of social development and its
fundamental line. The Party's task is to awaken the creative energy of
the mase;es and to channel it into the solution of urgent problems. That ie;
why the Party so resolutely condemns any neglect of mass experience
and any hasty recommendations which fly in the face of practical
experience.
The Party's great organisational effort among the Soviet people is
complex because the solution of the tasks of building a new e;ociety
requires that the masses should be so organised as to provide that every
person fits into his proper place,62
History operates with great numbers and calls for masses running to
many millions. But that does not mean that the mass is faceless and that
it does not consist of individuals. On the contrary. every individual who
is a part of the mass must be an acti ve conscious builder, f?r t.his
multiplies the creative energy of the masses in every sphere of ,socml life.
g
The Party insists that the legitimate interest o,r every .wo,rk ln person
should be constant ly reckoned with , so that hiS matenal incentives to
work should not be reduced but increased.
AI the e;ame time. a key aspect of the Party's act ivity in rallying the
flO

V, I Lenin, Col/null W(lrh , Vol. ~7,

M Ihi~,
hl 'h'lu
" I" 411

('>,

,\10.

,91

working people is to foster a sense of the common cause, which. creates

bonds between all members of society, a s~nse of the .common mterest ,
without whose satisfaction it is impossible to sallsfy the personal
interests of every working person. The Part~ expresses t~e. social
interest, the common cause of the whole worklOg people. bu~ldlng the
new society. The same purpose is served ~y the ~tate orgamsatlO~ of the
new society. The Soviets are a form of lO~olvlOg the m~sses m state
construction. having sprung from revolutionary expeflence of the
masses and helping to accumulate and enri~h it. The tra~e unions. the
young people's organisations and the fa.rmm g cooperative .movement
have much experience in mass creative effort. But without the
organising and leading role of the Party in the very mid~t of .the masses
their experience would not have developed on that histone scale. A
specific fealUre of the activity of a political organisa~i~n lik~ the Pa rty is
that it exerts an influence on the masses not by administrative measures
but carries its ideas and its advanced theory into the mind of every
working person by involving him in active conscious work .
"In revolutionary activity the changing of onese lf coincides with th e
changing of circumstances",6J which means that in the course of man 's
revolutionary activity he ceases to regard social conditions as being
immutable. as being predetermined by blind fate. This also means that
man comes to realise that his social activity and the real pos sibilit ies
for changing the exi sting situation are objectively determined , instead of
engaging in illusions and fantasies . The CPSU fosters among the working
people a correct notion of man' s social activity, of the role of the subjective factor and objective reality .
Accordingly, its policy includes two key element s: scientific analysis
of the regularities and tendencies of social development , and generalisation of the conclusions which natural science makes it possible to apply
to production and the development of social labour . The knowledge of
nature and of society is blended in a scientific ba sis for the hi storical
activity of the masses, promoting progressive social developm e nt.
The Party's main requirement is that every task in the activity of the
masses should be scientifically substantiated, and it resolutely condem ns
any departure from this principle and all empty and meaningle ss
statements. That is the only way to make the whole effort in building the
new society practical and efficient.

centuri~s d.o~inated by private property suggests that it is the bu ... iness

~f the mdlvl~ual to secure his food and clothing. At first, there was
~lmo!!t n~, dlff~rence between "my" business and intere!>t, and the

. cO.m.mon

bus mess and interest. The contradiction between the

m?lv.l~ual an~ the !>ocial intere!>t emerged with the disintegration of
pr~mlhve ~o~lety a~d the appearance of classes and private property.
WI~h the dlsmtegratlon of the commune in slave-holding society the new
attitudes a!ready made themselves felt and continued to develop in the
feudal ~enod, .reaching their peak under capitalism. In spontaneously
developmg society, man's own activity appears to him as an alien and
countervailing force which Oppresses him. Attitude to work, to the
labour process and production is a key aspect in the development of
soc ial consciousness and individual consciousness. Only with the
eme rge nce of the new society. as socialist consciousness combats the
bourgeois-anarchist approach, does man's distorted attitude to production begin to disappear, together with the habit of regarding the effort
to secure food and clothing as a "private" matter.
In place of the social connection in production which expressed the
employer's se lf-seeking interest. men structured their social relations on
new lines. The accursed past, personal interest, Marx said. reduced
man's requirements to possession, although appropriation is not in any
sense a universal expression of human interest. He wrote: "Private
property has made us so stupid and one-sided that an object is only ours
when we have it.. .. In the place of all these physical and mental senses
there has therefore come the sheer estrangement of all these senses, the
sense of II Qvillg." 64 This, says Marx, leads to an "absolute impoverishment" of the individual. Even the need of other men, beginning from the
slave-hold ing period. is converted into an urge to take possession of the
other man.
Imperialism has almost enti re ly deprived production, labour, the key
sphere of human activity. of its sp iritual content , and h~s red uced th e
work ing man to the statu s of an appendage of the machme.
Specialists in indu strial soc iology have said a great deal. ab~ut the
"desp irituali sation of labour", an in soluble proble~ under capltahs?", and
it s crime before mankind . By depriving the workmg man of the JOY of
c reative work , capitalism seeks to convert him into a soulle ss automaton
producing surplu s value.
In soc ialist society , labour has been released from the fetters ~f
exploitation and private-property greed a nd has become a great fO.rce III
the development of the people them selves . That is why .'he solUh~n of
the problem s arising in the correct organisat ion of SOCial labou r IS of
primary importance in the USSR. That is why the CPSU devotes so

'"

~e h.ist~ric~1 change in the nature of the activity of the masses and in

their thtn~lOg IS expressed above all in their attitude to production.

The attitude to production fostered in the minds of men over the

1

K \f an: and F. Engels. The German Ideology, Moscow. 1964. p.

64 K. Mar.'(. ECOllomic alld Philosopllic\fanuscriprs of l~. p. '14.

:no.
0-59-1

much atte ntio n to these matt er s. The m,<lin requirem,ent ,in organi"ing
social labou r in the period of communi st con "'l~uctLo~ IS, that every
worki ng person should display initiati ve and ne~ Id eas In h i'S work, for
thi s resu lt s in profound c hanges in man's me ntality and helps to develop
his capac it ies a nd require ment s.
. .
Th e best mind s have always wa nt ed work (0 be a n end eavour gIVing
scope to th e deve lop me nt and ap plication of human ca pac itie~ and
satisfy ing their grow ing req ui re ments. Over t hou sand s o f Y,ears In the
course of wo rld histo ry wo rk di d not meet the necessary reqUi re ments of
social justice. Follow ing a fundame nta l revol ution in the soc ia l system.
with the triumph of the soc ia li st revolutio n , labou r. free from th e fe tt ers
of ex plo itation, e nables ma n to a pply a nd imp rove, hi s c~pa:: it ies. T.h at is
what ma kes th e new soc iety so strong. Th e Pa rt y s pohcy IS to bu dd up
and multipl y thi s stre ngth .
Th e constru ctio n o f th e new society sig nifi es a fundame nta l c hange
above all in pro duction , th e mo st im port ant sph e re o f t he activ it y o f the
masses. a nd in their attitude to work . Fo r th e first ti me me n beg in to
work consc iously and free ly o n b uild ing th e econom ic basis of soc iet y,
whose c reative tasks are acce pt ed as the c hie f o ne s in the activity of all
the members o f society. Th e C PSU helps to real ise th e g reatest historical
mission, by setti ng up big and s mall wellk nit co ll ecti ves withi n soc iet y
and tran sfo rming a ll work ing peop le, the w hole of soc iety into o ne vast.
con sc ious and creative collective, a solidly united people b uilding a new
life and perfo rm ing a tita nic pat riotic ac hi eveme nt.

IV

It took ages fo r the th ree spheres of h u ma n act ivity-prod uc tion , the

soc io-pol itical sph ere a nd the ideolog ica l sp here - to be differentiat ed
a nd develo ped. Mo re centuri es passed befo re the wo rki ng people
eli minated by the ir strugg le man 's ex plo itatio n o f ma n , the ma in barri er
in the develo pment of these three spheres o f mass ive ac tivit y.
Sociali st soc iet y open s up th e va st soc ia l potenti a ls lat e nt in me n and
shows the rea l poss ibiliti es fo r pooling th eir e fforts in tra nsforming
natu re a nd perfecting soc ia l re la tion s and me n th e mse lves. It fill s labour
with a high spiritua l c onte nt and b ridges the gap between pro du c tion and
the socio-politica l sph ere. Pro duc ti o n tas ks beco me the polit ical tasks o f
th e masses and th e who le o f soc ia l acti vit y is a im ed above all at en suring
the dev: lo p me nt ~f production. In the USS R th e worki ng ma n is a good
wor~er In . productIo n a nd is at th e sa me ti me a p ub lic figu re , w ho ha s a
say In soc l e t ~ a.nd w hose pro ductio n ac tivity consist s in doing his public
duty , and . th.ls IS d~ ly ap preciated by the w ho le people.
As soc lall.st soc iet y develops. participatio n in socio-pol it ical life
become s a TIght and a dut y of ev ery c itize n . Th e soc ialist stat e of the
194

whole, people expres\es. th is in its legislatio n, and the Communi'>t Party

works to develop ConSistent democracy so as to allow every working
perso~ to be active, to d is.play initiative and work consciously fo r the
heneflt of .socle~~. That 1<, what marks the <,Iart of a new stage in
man S soclo-polltlcal activ ity. whic h transforms his own nature a<i
well
W.i th the developmen t of soc ial ist society, \1arx ist ideology ber.:omes
th: .,deolog~ .of the masses. so working a radical change in man'<i
splTltual activity. Never before in history has progress ive thought been
adopted by such broad masses of people. That is a most important
characteristic of our day. Th e task now is to make scientific Marxist
ideology adopted as the world outlook by every member of soc iety.
We live in a great period because it marks the end of the ageold
isolati on betwee n man's mental activity and his man ual wo rk . All the
spheres of hu ma n activity are being harmoniously blended, and
production is no longer separated by a Great Wall from the mental
sphere. On the contrary, it requ ires of man a high level of intellectual
activity, knowledge. a wealth of spirit ual power. includ ing a high moral
standard . NOr is soc io-po litical activity separated from product ion or
fa rmed o ut to a privileged minority: it belongs to the whole peo ple, to the
state of the whole people . and to the Commu nist Party. Socia-political
acti vit y is closely bound up with every aspect of sp iritual activity.
because in socialist soc iety all its forms amount to se rving the people and
do ing o ne's social and c ivic duty. Th e Party works to raise the level o f
mass ive activ it y. in a titanic endeavour in the midst of the masses. in
every coll ecti ve. see king to involve every working pe rs.o n.
..
.
What is the slate of these three spheres of massive acti vit y In
prese nt -d ay cap it ali st society? I have already sa id that bourge? is
theorists themselves adm it th at product ion and labour a re be 109
" des pi rit uali sed". Whenever impe ri ali sm manages to add "depoliti satio n" o f soc ial life to the " des pirituali sation of labour" it does so. to the
utm ost extent. and that is a vivid expression of th e ::,tagnatlon of
c ap ita li sm.
Bo urgeois soc iolog ists have written a gre at many ~ook ~ about the
"depoliti satio n" o f present .day capitali st society. es peCially 10 the U~A .
They give figu re s to show that citizens stay away. from t.he polh~g
booths, while th e public o pinion po ll ~ show a. d~c hne of IOterest 10
political a ff airs. Wh at they fail t.o sa~ .I S why thIS IS so. ~~t the cau s~s
and those to blame are easily Identified . Wh en the P? htlcal. ~re.na IS
ent ire ly occ upied by two powerful c oncern ~. by two pa rhe.s. as It I ~ In the
lime to tl m.errto
US A . a nd whe n the working people arebIn' Vited from
am mes do not dl e r
c hoo se between these c once rn s. whose aS lc pro ~ r 'l
.
'h
the
fro m eac h othe r. how can the masses be. ~Ctl\'~, .E very" ere d to
mo no po li es seek to convert the country s. ~o htlcal hfe tnto a bog an
oust all the d e moc ratic fo rc es o n the political are na.

>, > S 'he sphere of the spi ritu a l activity of the ffia ... <ies
Int h esec on d liOn
.
1 way Unless man IS
awa re o f h'o"-'I>
IS s01.:1<.l tiCS and th e
contrac ts In an ug y .
.
.
, 1 war Id 1\ pOOr and
>
al
development
hi
s
splfltua
urgent tas k s of soc,
. '.
Id f 'II -'
b
inadequate . It rema ins for him to hve In a war. 0 I u~l~n e:a~se t he
>

>

incentives coming from social life or ,m,a n ~ mb en a actiVity are

the sphere of spiritual ac ti vit y It ecomes ever mOre
wea k eoe d . I n
.
h> h
r
>
>d "hat the framework of reality In W Ie man I ves I S extrem ely
CH en
.
h> h
'I> d
limited by his pe rsonal and everyday mt e re st s W Ie ~re ~o rea Ise as
being a part of an inten se ~nd f~lI-blooded soc ml life. ,In the se

condition s. the impulses to con sideration of the gre at problems In huma n

.'
.'
.
life inevitably tend to weaken.
The Communi st and Workers ' partie s m the capitali st countne,s have a
great hi storical mi ssion to perfo rm, They, expre ss a nd mu~tlply th e
strength of the tendencies ahd the force s actmg fO,r a n a wakem ng of the
ma sses for great creative activity, The re volutlonary en e rgy of th e
masses a nd their activity in the socio-political sphere in ex plo itative
soc iet}! are aimed to destro y it s foundati o ns a nd t o create th e
prerequisites for a grand creative effort in !he s ubse,q~ e nt pe ri od , Tha~ is
the aim of the organi sational and educational a ctiVit y of the MarxlstLenini st parties in capitali st soc iety . a nd th at is the subst ance of the
socio-political acti vity of the masse s und e r c apitali s m ,
Under the leadership of the Marxi st-Lenini st pa rtie s th e wor king class
has been fighting again st a\1the barriers set up by the ex plo itative system
in the way of the c reative initiati ve of the masses a nd s ee ks to awaken
them to politic al activity, The Communi st s in the c apita li st countries rely
on the successe s scored by the CPS U , directing th e vast c reat ive activity
of the masses. a nd by the other fr aternal pa rties in the soc ialist states ,
Mo re and mOre democratic fo rces and intellec tua ls, inclu ding those who
a re not yet aware of the fact that it is the c ommuni st mov em e nt that has
awakened them and has impelled them t o start their fir st a nd d ifficult
search for the truth. have been following the C ommuni st s in the
ca pitali st countrie s , The democratic element s c annot de velo p and
beco me a n impressive force in the social life of the develop ed capit al ist
countrie s without a strong Communi st party, Suc h is the logic o f hi story,
The political o rgani sation of the working cla ss, a nd the rall ying ro und it
of all the working people , together with the exten sion a nd de e pe ning of
the Communi st partie s' activity and th e s pread of their influ e nce on all
the de mocratic force s make up a n import a nt element of prese nt-day
wo rld hi story ,
T~e worl~ c ommunist movement direct s the c la ss economic, pol itical
and Ideological struggle of the masse s for the ac hiev e ment of the same
goal - soc ia li sm and communi sm - so tac kling an urgent t ask in social
d e~ el o pmenl. The truly scientific revolutionary theo ry sta nd s fo r the
umty of the ~c o nomi c, political and ideologic al struggle of the wo rking
class, a reqUirement which ha s a profound philo sophic al backing and
,%

whos~ fulfilme~t int,r~duces

consciousness into every sphere of the

workmg people') activity _ In their struggle, the Marxist-Lenini.,t partie.,
arc, g~lI.1ed hy thi!> rcquirem,ent. combining organi'iational and ideological
activity 10 the masses. leadmg them to struggle to attain their immediate
goals dictated by the historical situation, and for the achievement of the
ul~imate aims of the working class, Marxist-Leninist theory equally
rejects the contemplative and passive approach, admiration of spontaneous movements and every kind of voluntarism and subjectivism, which
inevitably lead to adventurism. Lenin wrote: "There can be no
dogmatism where the supreme and sole criterion of a doctrine is its
conformity to the actual process of social and economic developmenl."M
This is a key principle of the scientifically grounded philosophical theory
of mass revolutionary activity.
Leninism, the outlook of the Communist Party, for whose victory
among the masses it carries on its struggle. asserts that man's moral duty
and his sense of responsibility to society can develop only if the
requirements of social development and the urgent requirements of
society have been correctly understood, Only then can man determine
what he has to do and how he has to act. This understanding grows as a
resu lt of the Party's activity as it studies the requirements of social
development, and formulates the tasks for the masses to fulfil. without
which it is impossible even to determine the meaning of individual life in
concrete historical conditions,
The c reation of the political organisation of the working class - its
Co mmunist party-marks not only an important stage in the activity of
the masses and in their social reality, but also in its cognition, The
pooli ng of the efforts of the working class an? of all the working, people
is sim ultaneously a summing up of the expenence of struggle gamed by
ma ny contingents of the army of labo.ur, E,x.perience in I,he struggle
includes t he effective use of known umformltles and the discove ry of
new ob jective prereq uisites for the historical acti~ity of the ~ass~s,
whic h make it possible to gain a deep understandmg of the ob jec ti ve
condit io ns of social being, Lenin's ideas are great an~ the co.n~resses ,of
th e C PSU a nd th e doc uments of the meetings of Mar>:.st-Lemmst part!es
are of abi di ng importance because they are based, on a compre henSive
knowledge of social reality and the historica~ pr~~tlce?f ~he masses and
,
f
direc t the masses' conscious activity on sClenliflc pnnclples,
Th e spiritual horizon of Soviet people goes beyond the boundane\~
o ne count ry, for whatever they do they are awar.e of t~e need t,o ta,'nl<e
g the world liberatIon mm em ."
int ernatio nal tasks III suppo r 10
.

CPSU Soviet
Th ank s to the organisational and educ~l1onal ,:"ork off ~~
e' bers of
people have a sense of be ing in step wll h the tI mes. 0 emg m m .
>

..

M V I. Lenin, Col/feud Worts, Vol. 1. p. 298.

. wheh ,neludes all the fighting national contingenh. l)f hein"

,
a co II ec lye
I
.
'
.. ,
.
'
t'>
fighters in the great army of labour which on, vnTlou ", sectOT'" carne, On
it s struggle against exploitation. and {or the tnumr h on th e ~lohe of new
soc ial relations. which open up boundle ss scope fo r e~prc~,)lIlg the sOcia!
energy of the ma sses. That is the substanc e ?f th e hl \ lo n ca1 endea vour
of the Communist Party and the whole Soviet people .

Chapter Two
SOCIAL THOUGHT AND REVOLUTIONARY
PRACTICE

1 \.
I

If the historical tendency of development that was mo st important for

mankind was to be realised. if vigorous action by the working class and
all the working people was to be intensified, and if their consistent.
staunch and all-round struggle for changing capitalist societ y in the direction of its own development was to be carried on . there was need for
inten se ideological battles to release the working class moveme nt from
the influence of bourgeois ideology and the habitual cli c hes of bourgeois thinking. It was the bourgeois view that recognition of the objective course of soc ial development inevitably implied a reduc ti on in the
importance of men's conscious activity. That was an important defect of
the bourgeois mechanistic, metaphysical materialism, as Marx observed
in his Theses on Feuerbach. On the other hand. recognition of the role of
men's conscious, creative activity in the historical process implied, for
bourgeois ideologist s, a denial of objective uniformitie s, volunta ri sm and
diverse forms of subjectivism.
.
Both these cliches were especially l-rarmful at a time when soc iety was
moving towards socialist revolution, as the vast soc ial energy of the
working people was being awakened for the de struction of the old and
the c~eation of a new system. The awakening , organisation and direction
of thiS great energy of the masses became the key que stion s in socia l
thought. One of the most vital tasks was to overcome the bourgeois
cliches and the id
~. .
nee of th
is ie on the working
cla ss, an t IS called for historical reVOlutionary action by the masses.

THEORY OF STRUGGLE INSTEAD

OF ADMIRATION
OF SPO NTANEOUS MOVEMENTS

Meanwhile, the relati~e.ly peaceful period for the working-class

~ov~ment fro~ the upnsmg of the Pari s proletariat in 1871 to the
uSSlan revoluhon of 1905 was marked by growing bourgeoi s influ ence
198

on the" working
cl',,
th e a d 'lanced capitalist
. . countries . Thi'l was
d .
a" ,m
:xpr~!'."~ In the growing danger of opportunism. which used Marxist
er"':lml~' o~y ..to c~ver. uP.. its ,attempts to smuggle in the idea ~f
capita Ism S growing mto socialism .
The Ger~an bourgeois Professor Werner Sombart characterised the
state o.r social thought and social movement by the turn of the century
followmg the death of Frederick Engels, as follows: "The sociai
n;'0v.e?lent-and I find this point to be the most important and
s l gnlf l 7an~ aspect of this whole change- has become above all
evo h~honlst, to ,,!-se once again_.a well-known expression for the sake of
bre~lty: the revolutionism, which had ruled undivided up to then, that is.
the Idea that revolution could be made, was in principle abandoned. Now
that the dependence of the social movement on economic development.
and consequently, the econom ic dependence of all revolution has been
understood, the masses had to be seized to be su re with a sense of
confidence that their 'emancipation' h~d to arriv'e as a ' natural
necessity' . .put then. on the other hana. -every urge ' to'secure
emancipation by means of uprisings and street fighting was su ppressed." I
Sombart said that the revolutionary attitude remained only among the
anarchists and "putschists", whose outlook was closely connected with
ideali sm. Actually, however, with the domination of opportunism, the
anarchists a nd Leftist phrase-mongers claimed a monopoly of revolutionary activity and sought to present adventurism and voluntarism as
revolutionis m . But Sombart , true to his bourgeois conception. declared
that the old revolutionary tendencies in the social movement were dying
out , just as they had allegedly been "overcome" in social thought, in "t~e
theoretical understanding of social processes". He claimed that even m
the outlook of Marx and Engels revolutionary elements remained no
more than relicts of mid-century revolutionary storms. Unfortunately ,
many theori st s of the Second International agreed with the bourgeois

professor.
.
.
Sombart believed that "Marx.ism (actually. opportunism), havl~g
abandoned idealism and revolutioni sm, and introduc.<:d an "ec onomiC
view of history", had , in effect,.lu.lfm~d. it s mission in the rhl~tory. of
sOCial thought and social movement. Sombart wrote: "The Ideological
content of Marxi sm seems to be exhausted for further dev~~pme~t.
There is need for new men with fresh ideas. But are they there . Urging
the need for " new ideas" in Marxism, S~m?art stre ssed:. "On t~e
thres hold of the peasantry it will have to deCide I! S future destm~ . W~II~
the solution may not be as simpl~ a.s s?~e ag.ra~la~ professors Imagm:ci
indu stry is socialistic. agriculture IS IOdlvlduahsl1C (10 Italy, Hungary a
I Werner SOOlbart . Frledricll EnFeis (18JO.l895).
sclrif/lt/' (Ies SO: ill/islll/ls. Berlin . 1895. S. 26-27.
199

elsewhere we find a very strong collectivist agrarian movement), "till it

seems that the old Marxist wisdom needs to be vigorou sly rejuvenated if
the old stock of ideas is not to lose its importance ,": In a way, Sombart
was right. for opportunism had in effect fulfill~d it s "mission" and it s
distinction from bourgeois theories was becoming ever morc tenuou s
Among the many other problems which the opportunists ,ignore. Sombart
was correct in groping his way to the peasant questIOn thut was of
tremendous importance for a number of countries in Europe. to say
nothing of the colonies. On the whole. this bourgeoi s th eorist had a fairly
clear <;ense of the weakness of social opportunism. his closest ally.
The effort to deny all credit to this opportuni st trend in socia l thinki ng,
and to show that at root it contradicted Marxi sm and it s effective
revolutionary substance, that opportunism signified co mplete degradation of social thought itself_became an important ta sk in mankind 's
ideological life_ This called for new men capable of making a resolute
break with centrism and conciliation with opportunism, th e attitudes
which di stinguished the leaders of the Second Internati o nal , men capable
of characterising the new his[Orical situation and new revolutionary
prospects for the activity of the working class and all the other working
people.
In an article, written in 1899 and entitled "Our Progra mme", Lenin
stre ssed that the c reative development of Marxi sm wa s a hi storical
necessity : "We do not regard Marx's theory as so mething co mpleted and
inviolable ; on the contrary. we are convinced that it has o nl y la id the
foundation stone of the science which socialists must develop in all
directions if they wish to keep pace with life. ") But it was re vision ism
and opportunism that presented a barrier in the way of creative
development of Marxist thought. Revisioni sm did not issue a call to
advance but to retreat. "Back to Kant!" the revi sioni sts declared , for
instance , seeking to reverse the development of soc ial thought and t o
revive various doctrines that had already become things o f the past.
Soc ial thought breaking with revolutionary social action was depri ved
?f ~ny .possibility of deve lopment. Social thought could develo
b
-ind~lUlg t~e way for mass _acti<?n_ and y !u_mml~!dp t e hi storical
eXj)eneoce IUthe st~ggle of t'f1e working crass. There wa s no oth er" way
-Torw,a~d. All other ways led into the p1rSt, [0 a revival of th e somewhat
modified and refurbi shed theories of the social process which had
already outlived them selves.
Th~ .gro und for the development of social thought c ha nged when social
~ondlhon~ ha~ developed to a point at which the working class appeared
10 the, hl ~toncal arena to carryon a consistent struggle for its
emancipatIOn and for the emancipation of all mankind from exploitation ,
2 W. Sombart. op. cit .. S. 34.
V, J. Lenin, Collec fed Works, Vol. 4. p. 211 -12 .

'00

)\

from the b?urgeoi~. mode of production, the last possible form of

oppres\lon I~ the history of society. The strengthening of the bond\
between ~oc!al thought a~~ ,t~e revolutionary struggle of the working
~Iass meant broa?er POSSibilities for the development of social thought
~tself. Retrogressl~n towards different forms of petty-bourgeois socialIsm was also ~o~slble, because there remained in capitalist society the
petty. bourgeO IsIe and the peasantry. while sizable sections of the
wo~klng class were infected with petty-bourgeois anitudes. But then
soctal .thought would have ceased to express the progressive tendencies
of SOCIal development. The development of social thought along that line
~ould not have helped to separate the petty-bourgeois sections from the
~nf1u ence of powerful cap ital. but would have strengthened the latter's
Influence on these sections. The separation of social thought from the
tasks of the revolutionary struggle of the working class would inevitably
have meant only a strengthening of the reactionary influence of
bo~rgeois ideology, a spread of the dogmas of bourgeois social
phll?soP.hy, a dead end for the development of social thought itself and
Its ineVItable degradation. For the working class, stagnating social
thought would have meant the gravest trials. much blundering about and
a loss of orientat ion in the struggle. That is why Lenin vigorously
opposed any attempts, as he wrote in 1899, to "conduct the workers'
struggle ... and not atlempt to combine it with socialism: ... not strive to
turn the working-c lass movement into the essential. advanced cause of
all mankind".~ The conjunct ion of the working-class cause with
sociali sm was the guarantee for the development of social thought and
soc ial movement.
"Tailism" presented a growing danger to the working-class movement
as the importance of action by the masses and th eir high level of
consciousness and organ isatio n increased. In the history of th e
Social-Democratic movement in Russia, as Lenin pointed out. thi s
danger a ppea re d as early as 1901 and 1902. In that period, "tailism"
assumed the form of "Eco nomi sm" , involving a denial of the importance
of politic al struggle. Th e "Econom ists", and also the Men~heviks a n~ .the
Liquidators, who subsequently succeeded the former 10 the pohtl~al
are na , were moving towards a theory of spontaneous mo~em~nt. mak10g
irrele yant refere nces to the objective lloiformjty of tbe bl sloIlcal prOce~s
and ignoring the fact that the activity of th~ masses w~~ a ~;~ fac~or 10y
the proceSS of social development. In thi S way "talhsm .1Oev ltabl
became revi sioni sm , a " re vision" of the key tenets of .Map.:Jsm.
The rev isioni sts spec ulated on the fact that the revoluttonary st orm ~ of
1848 had subsided, and that new historical conditions had take~ shape.
whic h meant that Mar xism had to be su pplemented \\ .. t~ ~e\~
propo sition s in accordance with the new period. The reV ISIOniSts
4

' .' ..
Ihlu

,,,,
~ ....

'01

refere nces to the changing historic;l! "tenc ,hllwcd Ihal rcvi,ioni '>m
could be defeat ed o nly by c reative M;lni ..,m . \\ ~h it ... (lnlfound \r.:icnlifir.:
emerging in the life of \odt'ly. with an
imporlance o rih-c~e ph C n(l~ICI~;1 for the .u:ti\ity of the
masses. for th eir st ruggle again ~t the C'\.pIOit il ll \'C .. y . . tcm. and for IIle
prospects for social development fro m ca pitali ~ m to .. oc~:lIi ... m.
Co ncerning the revi sioni sts themselv es, Lel,lI n wro~c: And we now
ask : Has anything new bee n introduced Into Ilu s t heory by it<.

t~c~)ry Thcori~s horrowing ~~atches from \1arxi\m were designed to

loud-voiced 'renovators' who arc rai <; ing "0 mllc h nOise In ollr day and

have grouped them sel ves around th e German socia li st Bernstei n':'
Absollltely lIothiltg. Not by a single step have th ey adva nced the science
whic h Marx and Engels enjoin ed us to develop : th ey ha ve not taught the
pro letari at any new m~thod s of struggle: th ey ha ve o nly re t reated.
borrowing fr agments of backward th eories and preac hing to the
prol et ariat. not the theory of struggle. but th e theory of concession - concess ion to the most viciou s e ne mi es of th e pro letariat, the
gov ernm ent s and bourgeoi s pa rties who never ti re o f seeking new mean s
of baiting the sociali sts ."5
truly
Here Lenin shows very well
. and
It mea ns. first of a ll .
;0;;, the
is a guide to
action . can develop . The re vis io ni sts i i
that the struggle
should be folded up , and wo rked t o e limin at e the revolutionary historical
acti vity of the masses . For social thought t o develo p it was necessary
relentlessly to combat bourgeoi s obj ecti vism. th e reactio nar y and
unsc ientific idea that the objective la ws o f social development
themselves would lead society to soc iali s m thro ugh gradual c hange and
re form . without vigorou s re volutionary action by th e wo rking class. Let
me e mphas ise that had the idea won the day . soc ial th ought would have
gone into re verse.
By then . the Marxist propo sition s showin~LJhe uniform ities.w
historical de veloJ2ment were ~reading ev~_r wider a mo ng th e bourgeois
intelligentsia as well. Mar xism was reflected in bourgeo is lit eratu re. a
largely new phenomenon as c ompa red with develo pme nt s du ring the
lifetime of Marx and Engels , The " legal Marxist s" did not mind
borrowing some propo sition s from Ma rx 's soc ial theory , b ut fl at ly
refu sed to accept sociali st revolution and the dic tators hip of the
pro letariat. Lenin' s struggle again st " legal Marxi s m" was of fun dame ntal
in't ernational importance, Marxi st ideas were al so reflec ted (and still are
refl ected ) in bourgeois writings in the capitalist countries. Leni n taught
the Communi sts to di stingui sh the se "reflection s" fro m tru e Marx ism
a nd showed the danger of killing the revolutionar y co nte nt of Marx's
~ V t Lenin. CQllecttd Works. Vol. 4. pp. 21 112,
202

p:lr:llyse the wlil of the worklng,people for struggle. Opportuni\ts of

various \tnpe\ were al\1) closely allied with bourgeoi'i theori~h
'ipreadlOg suc h Idca'i , The former made use of ~ome Marxi ..t teneH hut V
refu\ed to recogni'ie the revolutionary activity of the mas'..es as heing A
nece\~ary and law-governed
Some of them aha dahbled in "economic materiali~m", and referred to
the ~elf-movement of the productive forces. while di~carding the
workmg class, the masse'i of the working people and their active
revolutionary "'truggle. in their analysis of the historical process. That
wa'i <l return from Marx to the traditions of mechanistic materiali~m
The ~i s tory of social thought ~hows that the attempts to apply
mechanl~tic materiali~m to an analysi'.. of '..ocial phenomena fail to
produce any profound explanation of these phenomena or to show the
3elf-~~~ment of the social whole, and ultimately result in surrender to
Idealism. I hat IS what happelled to the opportunists, who held
metaphysical view~, took the mechanistic attitude and adopted the
"economic view of history". These men flung wide open the gate'.. to
ideali sm in explaining historical phenomena.
The claim was that Marx and Engels had not produced a philosophy
and that their political doctrine could be combined with whatever
bourgeois philosophical system happened to be in vogue, The opportun
ists. who were sliding down to idealism. rejected the fundamental
..materialist tenet that in ordeLto cbange man there_....:as neeil..lQ.chan~l!is
condlfio("!s, They beld that it was quite enough to restructure men's
consciousness. The advocates of ethical socialism insisted that morality
should be changed first of all. The opportunists. who were infected with
neo-Kantianism. held that the ideals of socialism were unattainable and
were no more than tantalising visions which would never be realised.
Bourgeois theorists used the favourable situation to intensify their
propaganda of idealism which did not meet with sufficiently strong and
st aunch adversaries on its way. The revival of idealistic trends among
the int ellectuals and the urge to carry idealism into the masses of the
working people were most pronounced no! only in the West but also in
Russ ia, Everywhere social phenomena were given an idealistic i~terpre
tali on . The journal. Sel'em.\' Vestnik (Northern Herald): wh.'ch was
started in the 1890s and engaged in tbe spread of Ideahs",l and
mystic ism. on one occasion declared: "We believe th~t .the m~chantsm of
human life is wound up inside. from the human SplTlt. A~lion throu~h
external legislative measures amounts to no more than movmg back With
your fi nger the hand of a clock tbat is late."6

V
k

6 Russian Liltra/ar( aI /lit XX Ctnlur}" (/890/9/0), ed. by Professor S. A. \'engero\.

Vol. I, Mosco"', Mir Pl.lbli~hcr~, p, 246 (in Russlanl.

e point was not to advance the hand s of a latc cloc k by

th
H owever.
..
," 0 f eVery
was
it
to
start
t he .. se If'

,mprov
...
men
nor. . .
f ms
f reor
meanso
.
cog in the clockwork. The pomt was to Install a nc\\.'c I
oc k
work'In place )

of the old

had

down.

I
metaphysics and mechanicism entered a
ase a struggle that was closely connected with scientific COmh
newp..
.'
h'h
d
'
munism. its creative development and Its tnump m t eoryan practice.

APPROACH TO REVOLUTION:
PROl.ETARIAN AND PETrY_BOURGEOIS

The struggle for dialectics and materialism an~ for th,eir creat ive
development was also required for the. battle .whlch Lenm was then
waging against the Leftist tre!lds which claimed to represe~t the
revolutionary wing of the workmg-class movement. the revoluti onary
mainstream of social thought. Lenin said these trend s were "vulgar
revolution ism" and showed that petty-bourgeois reformi sm and pett ybourgeois revolutionism were internally akin to each other, and that thi s
was mo<;t clear in the working-class movement at the turning points of
history, Lenin wrote: "Every specific turn in history causes some change
in the form of petty-bourgeois wavering, which always occurs alongside
the proletariat. and which. in one degree or another. always penetrates
its midst.
"This wavering flows in two 'streams': petty-bourgeois reformism .
i.e .. servility to the bourgeoisie covered by a cloak of sentimental
democratic and 'Social'-Democratic phrases and fatuous wishes; and
petty-bourgeois revolutionism - menacing, blustering and boastful in
words. put a mere bubble of disunltJ. disr.uption and brainlessn~.s in
deeds, 'I his wavering will inevitably occuruntil the taproot or capitali sm
.
...
IS cut.
Analysing the epistemological roots of "vulgar revolution ism" . Lenin
showed that subjective idealism was its methodological Q.asi~. He
stressed that the swing towards subjective idealism was mo st cha racteristic of bourgeois ideology in the epoch of imperialism, Philo sophy
was faced with the great task of giving a scientific explanation of the
active role of human consciousness and men's conscious practical activity on the hasis of the objective laws of nature and society. Diverse
...dool ... of bourgeoi<; philosophy, the subjective idealists most prominently, did a motley round-dance about these questions. As the old metaphysical notion .. were collapsing. they claimed to he warring against all
dogmas, l1ut actu~llly sou.&hLt()_ ~~~y_ sci~,ntifi<;,. kno\'{le~every obi.e c..!lye reference-pomt. extolled randomness. and encouraged the arbitra-

..

-V

I I.en;n, Collecfed Worts. Vol. 33. p. 21.

riness of bourgeois thinking which was unable to get at the Iruth. Under
the cover of t~e ~ame struggle against ossified dogmas in literature and
art, the.se men mMstcd on a complete expulsion of all ideas and enshrined
a~~urdlty ,as "fr,eedom of art". These were the products of the
diSintegration ~hlc~ ern.anated fro
in social system. In face of
~ew advances In sClence-aria efending itself agams
esc a I
the
line .
and

i
i
subjective notions
the scienti<,ts concerned.
Imperialism, the final stage in the development of capitalism. i~
marked by an aggravation of its most profound contradictions the
germination of socialist revolution, and convulsive attempts by rea~tion
the'
One such -atterr;pt wa~ the
I
. in
and science. By then.
the vast productive fo~ces awakened
'
were stimulating the
development of techmcal and scientific thought. Improved technology
and machinery. in particular, meant fresh demands upon research, new
instruments for the researcher and fresh opportunities for experiment
The advance of science. physics in particular. had reached a point at
which the old, mechanistic views. which no longer agreed with the new
scientific data. were l1eing I1roken up. This was evidence of the
boundless potcntialitie<; of the human mind in gaining a knowledge of
objective reality. The reactionaries. for their part. claimed thai thi ..
merely showed the ability of the human mind to create a "picture of the
world". without ever gelling at the objective truth.
The bourgeois sermon of sul1jective idealism, backed up with faJ<..e
references to scientific achievements. necessarily had an effect on the
vacillating petty-bourgeois elements. who had joined the working-clas . .
movement and were inclined to "vulgar revolutionism". They held that if
the time came to act, everything depended on the subjective factor. !hey )
'aefuse(,l .t!LSonsid~!JJ1e ol1j~.s;:ti~uniformities. b~~ving that eventliTng
e'pende~.....C!n the.. Dotion~?f men. T~ey, den.'ed .there we~e ~n.y
uniformitIes at all. The revival of subjective Idealism 10 SCIentIfiC
theories
"vu lgar revolutionism"
like a methodological
n and his
1
views were )
inclined to take an "extreme Leftist" stand in politics. and. for e,ample,
demanded the recal1 of workers' deputies from the State Duma and
opposed the use of parliamentary forms of struggle..
. ' ,~
Lenin gave a profound critique of th,e, urge to reViVe ""u~Jectlvc
'd r
He exposed the reactionary pohlical substance of thiS trend
~neda ~sh~~ed its epistemological rootS. givi~g a d~ep ana~t'sls ~f ~he
development of scientific thoug~t and the philosophical pro em . . aCing
natural science. physics in particular.

Throughout his life. Lenin carried on a 'itfll~le, again'it eVery

ex.pression of subjectivism in the de~elopmc~t of.... (11:1il1 tlHlught 'tnd
against any departures towards subJe~tlve Ideah ... m, H,e he~:tn. hi ...
struggle with a critique of subjective sociology ;,md Narouml.. "'Ol'lah"'m.
The sociology propounded ~y the " fneml... {If the Pl'oplc"
(N. K . Mikhailovsky and olhers) was ~ased on thc ..,uhjectivc-iuc<llist
outlook and a denial that economic relations had thc cruc ial rolc to play
in social relations. These men were louticst in talking ahout the rcorle on
h:uJ so dcba.. . cd the
possihle occasion ~ut
of \ubjcctive
to I
individual .... " heroes" who
were contrasted with
crowd.
The epigones of Narodnik socialism advocated the id eas of pettybourgeois revolutionism. which is the opposite of the proletarian
revolutionary approach. They tended to isolate the pea sa nts from the
workers. the peasant movement from the working-cla ss mov e me nt, and
regarded the peasant movement as being a truly sociali st movement.
with the peasant commune being the basic unit of sociali st society.
They failed to understand that capitalism. already developing in
Russia. was a natural stage in the evolution of cla ss soc iety. a nd denied
Marx's great discovery. the worldwide historical importance of the
proletarian class struggle.
~-. -_ .. _.-._ .... Lenin and the Bolsheviks carried on a persistent fight agai nst any
attempt to return to the petty-bourgeois theories of soc ial thought , which
tended to minimise the role of the people in the historica l process, or
extolled heroes or spontaneous movements, and rejec ted o rgani sation
and a conscious approach.
The effort to bring a high level of organisation and consciousness to
the masses is the struggle for proletarian leaders hip of the working
people. the peasantry in the first place. for the ideological and political
influence of the working-class party on these ma sses, and again st
petty-bourgeois socialism.
The struggle carried on by Lenin and the Bol s hevik Party against
every form of petty-bourgeois socialism is of tremendou s interna tional
importance. In 1920, Lenin wrote: "Little is known in other countries of
the fact that Bolshevi~m took sbape. deyelop_e~.and became..steeled in
the long y~~s of struggle against_pett.l':l?oqcg.eOLs rel'olutiollisIII , which
smack: oT anarchism. Or borrows something from the latter and , in all
essential
i
explained why
petty-bourgeois
so tenac io us in
~ussia. ~e wrote: "R~ssia's backwardness naturally accounts for the
firm fooling that vanous obsolete socialist doctrines gained in our
II

v I, Lenin.

Ct>/Iefted Worh.

Vol.

31.

p,

32,

)l

f.:otlntry
" revolutionary
"
I, t
., Thc cntin.: hi . . t Dry 0 r RU'i". . lan
thought (juring the
.,t~ qu,tlt~'r of a century 10; the hi . . tory of the ... lruggle wage(j hy \I1ar,i"m
;b,un;l r~"Y-hm~r~eol" "Nanxlnik !.()Ciillj ... m."~ Thi" ;tpplied c . . pechlly
" d~c. ty- ourgc~lI". Narodnik !.ociali .. m'. hecau~e there remained 'the
m. IVldual
farming pea'
.
'an t 'i WI"th t h"
elr h ackward !.ocio-economic rela. I
liOn ",
. ~t the Second Congress of the RSDLP, Lenin urged the Party to work
so as to make the proletariat the leader of the peasantry in the comin"
t>
revolution,
The ,,,truggle: again\t petty-bourgeois. "Narodnik \ocia]j<,m" wa<, not a
shor~-hved eplsod.c: The Bolsheviks carried On a great hi\torical struggle
to W I ~ over the tOlhng pea\antry. and to establish an alliance between the
work ing cl~ss and the peasantry;'So'as'{o prOVide correc t qu'i<fanceTOT
th e re~olutlonary e:ne~gy the ,peasantry had been accumulating ovcr the
centu nes. Otherwise It ~as Imp?ssible to create the revolutionary tide
that could sweep away flTst tsamm, and then. after a regrouping of the
forces. the power of the capitalists as well.
T.hroughout his life, Lenin continued with tireless energy to fight
against every expression of subjectivism. subjective idealism and
voluntarism in the working-class movement. against the attempts of
th ese most harmful trends to camouflage themselves as Marxism, and
against every effort to push the r~volutionary movement into adventu[7
ism and so inevitable defeat.
At various stages of the revolutionary process, Lenin's Party carried
on a re le ntless fight against the "Otzovists". the '"Left Communists", the
Trotskyites and others who loved to use ultra-Leftist catchwords. and
showed these to be essentially capitulationist.
Much importance attaches to the struggle carried on by Lenin and the
Party against Trot skyism. which has always covered up its capitulationist subst ance by means of Leftist and ultra-Leftist catchwords. The
Trot skyites were seeking to wind up the construction of the new soc iety
and contrasted th e building of socia li sm in the USSR and the interests of
the world revolution, They denied the possibility of building socialism in
one ~ountry a nd demanded that the revolution should be e'(ported and
the world revolut ionary process sti mulated by military mea ns. Th~y
claimed th at concentration on the various aspects of economic
construction allegedly tended to narrOW down the field. of vision and
weake n one's revolutionary se nse. Their 'broad" revolut!onar y o.utl~ok
boiled down to ceaseless chatter about the world revolU~lon, a reJ.ec.tlOn
of economic and. consequently, of political efforts to bUIld up socl8hs~,
and capitulat ion to imperialism. Lenin exposed th.e Trotsk~~~
capitulati on ists and stressed the importance of Soviet ecooO
construc tion for th e advance of the world revolutionary proce\s, and the
9 Ibid .. Vol. 9. p. ",W.

007

.
(th e e<onomic mioht
of the Sov
iet Uniun. ,~.Iww i ng Ih "11
strcngthenmg 0
..
_. . .
spects (or the emanClp,ltlOn nHl\c menl.
pro
I
d
these opene up rea
.
f .
l
' .
Lenin fought against petty_bourgeo Is I.e 11 ".m not , Oil Y w it hin ~hl!
Bolshevik Party but also in the world com~u Ol"t ,:"o\ ~ ment , CXP?"mg
.
( Le(t, sm in fareion Communi st partie" like th e denial of
expressions 0
..
.
.
f
..
t
(orms of stnl88le unde rcshmah o n 0 1,: ommu nl,>1 activit,

I
parlamenary
"
f
f
b 1 ..
in the trade unions. neglect of the struggle o r ~e orOl .... a so .utl satlon of
armed forms of class struggle. etc . He sa id th ese Lef~l ... t relap ses
amounted to an "infantile disorder" and taug~t the Commu.m ... ~ s to see it s
.
cure I
pol slide Into empty
ria~nT.;m
masses and the true
revolutionary cause. "The greatest. perhaps the ~nl ~ da~ger .to the
genuine revolutionary is that of exagge~ated re volutlonl sm , Ignon ng :he
limits and conditions in which revolutIOnary meth ods are appro pnat e
and can be successfully employed . True revolut io naries have mostly
come a cropper when they began to write 'r~v?lution ' wi th a ~apilal R , 10
elevate 'revolution' to something almost dlvme,_l oJ oSt!J.b~ !teads, 10
coole st and

' )1

manner. and at
what moment, under what circum stanf$.s.!~d in which sph ere you mu st
tum to reformist action . True revol6tionaries-w..i,lI peri sh (nol that they
will be defeated from outside . btU,.tbat ..1.h!::lLw.2.r;_will suff!!.!: internal
thei~ sober outloo k/and take it into their
world: revolution can a nd mu st solve all
problems in a revolutionary manner under all circ umstances and in all
spheres of action . If they do this, their doo m is cert ain ." 10
Lenin showed up the petty-bourgeoi s nature of Left op portunism , and
proved that Leftism had its soc ial roots in the pett y-bourgeois,
the petty proprietor, who had "gone wild " fro m th e horrors of
capitalism
who
~~
i
ness. Lenin wrote : "Revolutionary phra se-making, morc oft en than not ,
is a disease from which revolutionary parties suffer at ti mes when they
constitute , ~irectly or indirectly , a combination , alliance or inte rmingli ng
of proletanan and petty-bourgeois element s and wh e n the course of
revolutionary events is marked by big , rapid' zigzags."11
The Communist Party , which Lenin founded a nd th e whole world
~ ommum st movement have developed and have bee n tempe red in
Im~l~ca~le stru~le on two front s: again st Right-wing opport unism,
~e v l s lomsm ~nd hquida,tionism, and also against " Left"-wi ng opportu nIsm, dogmatism and sectarianism. Social thought was unable to ad vance

<

J\
'

:~

V .. I. Lenin, Collected Worlcs, Vol. 33, pp . 110- 11,

thld .. Vol. 27, p. 19.

wilhout
Ilvcn.:om
ing thc!-.e oh\I.\I,:lfS in',I \ way
.
f" '
.
Rightwing dnd
{
.c t wmg upporlum\m tcnded to drive \oe ial thought and Ihc
revolutIOn ary (a u\c in to a dead end.
I
Toda,Y , .th e t ;~\k i<; to m.crgc t~c re~ol u tionary force<; in a ~ i ng le tide Ol)t
only Within. th c. houOllane\ of individual count,,,<" bu, on a wor I'uWluC
.. ,
\ta,le , ~ o""ld e n ng the hroad \weep of the nationalliheration movement.
w~ l ch 1\ at root a pea\a~ t movement. The conjunction of th i\ moveme nt
W l t~ the .,truggle camed on. by the ~ociali,t .,y,tcm, the greate\t
achlcveme nt o ~ the wo ~ ld w.orkmg cla<;<; , and with the '>Iruggle carried on
by labour agam'> t cap ital m the capital i'>t countrie., i., an earne\t of
\ ucce,s for the wo rld revolutionary proces,> a~ a whole
Tod ~y, ~i~h. fr esh contingent~, including those i ~ the agra rian
cou.ntn es, JO I ~m g the world revolutionary pr!')cess, the danger of a
revival of va n ous pett ybourgeo is revolutionary ideas in co n tm~t to th e
pro leta rian revol utionary approach and scientific commu nism i~ a vcry
rea l one. The imperial ist bourgeoisie insists on the contra'>t in order to
exert an influence on the national liberation movement in its own
interests. and to se parate it from the struggle of the intcrnational
work ing class and the world socialist system for the construct ion of a
new society .
Such theories may well spread whenever there is a possibility for the
petty-bourgeoi s sec tions to increase their influence. Lenin stressed thilt
"economic relations which are backward. or which lag in their
development , co nstantly lead 10 the appearance of supporters of the
lahour mo ve mcnt ,""ho a""imilate only certain aspects of Manism, onh
certain part " of the new ,""orld outlook. or individual .,Iogan" and
demands. being unable to make a determined break v.ilh all the
tradit ions of the bourgeois world outlook in general." l~
I.enin indi cated the .... ay of "tTUggle for the .... orking c1as,. ,""hie h
marc hes at th e head of all the working people, and explained the
importance for a victory in Ihis struggle of a sol id political o r~ani ~at ion
of the working class and the establishment of a m~ss .p~olet anan .party.
Th e Marxist-Leninist Party, eq ui pped wit h a sC lenliflc:. revolut IOnary
theory, carrying the working class with it ,annaTIy!n'g the p.easant ry ~nd
all th e other sections of the working people round the w~rk.lOgcla ss, ].~ a
key fac tor in the historical process on the ev.e o.r the soc\3l ~st .revolut ]on
and in the period of Ihansition from cap]tahsm to s~C lah sm, when
wo rking-people 'S movements cease to be sp?ntaneou!i. and w~c~ th:
im ortance of th eir organ isation and _conSCiousness !" multlphed
hu~rcdfold. Th ai" IStheomy- wtiy t6 rouse the great SOC ial energy of the
.
.. f'"
d
masses, the a rc hitec ts of history.
I l!ni n's ex o,> urc of the met hodological basl~ of Le ( ..... Ing a~
Right -wing o:portunist (rends is of treme ndous Importance fo r .,oc\31

"I

I~ lhid . \,,,1 10.

]4 --594

1.111

''''

thought. and will continue to be m~aningful so lonG aill~~ c.apilali\l~ and

t _bouroeois sections continue 10 c:\I\1 L~mn .lch lcved Ih." by
I
h
ttaking
e pc aYcreative
'e
. ,'
' d ana," Y\lnlt the )
apDtoa.~h 10. matcna
J ~t d"
IJ CC I lL' S .,In
dialectiq of human cognition and of nalure and soc lcty.
,

I',enin c()m:cnlrated the full power of hi'i mind on the effort to sec the
snewl revuiution a .. a living phenomenon. and relentlessly attacked the
docln~auc5 , lie wrote: "Whoever expect'> a 'pure' ,>ocial revolution will
II('I'U live 10 'iCC it.'oJ Lenin ridiculed the doctrinaire notion of SOCiil1i\l
rcv~l~tio~: "So one army line,> up in one place and says, 'We are for
<;()cl.II~\":". ...nd another, "'omewhere else and says, 'We aTe for

~-

Chapter Three

lmpcrrah.,m'. and that will be a social revolution!"

Mankind'<, political horizon was considerably broadened when Lenin.
having ~tudied the new characteristic feature'; of democratic movements
and specifics o( bourgeOis-democratic revolutions under imperialism.
and the hegemony of the proletariat in the'ie revolutions. formulated the
proposition that society's political organisation could be structured on
new lines when the working class and the peasantry exercised their
revolut ionary dictatorship. and that the bourgeoi<,-democratic revolution
could develop into a socialist one.

THE ORIGIN OF REVOLUTIONS

Lenin's brilliant analysis of the importance of conscious activity by
masses of people and of objective condition~ is be~t .illu strated by his
solution of the key question of how revolution s ongmated . Marx and
Engels showed the deep-going causes of revolution. by pointing to the
conflict between the productive -f.o.rc.e.s and the relatIOns of production.
But how"does revolution originate in the storm of pohilcal events. how
does the revolutionary drive of the masses gather momentum , what are
the conditions in which it originates, whic h political phenomen a lead to
revolution when the conflict between the produ ctive force s and the
relations of production has come to a head? The answer to these
questions was to be found by analysing the new and changing conditions.
The opportunists insisted that revolution s cannot be made, that they
occur of themselves. The voluntarists held that revolution was made by
will and determination. What was the truth ?
From the 1890s, Russia was swiftly advancing towards a bourgeoiswas developing in new hi storical condrown
features: "Objectively , the mass
movement was breaking the back of tsarism and paving the way for
democracy: for this reason the class-conscious workers led it. "1
In 1902, Lenin wrote: "History ha s now confronted us with an
immediate task which is the most rel!o /utiollaryof all the imm ediate tasks
confronting the proletariat of any country. The fulfilment of thi s task.
t~e destruction of the most powerful bulwark , not only of European, but
(It may now be said) of Asiatic reaction, would make the Ru ssian
proletariat the vanguard" of the infernafional revo lutionary proJetariat."2
That. was how Lenin sa w the reasons why the centre of the world
revolutlo~ar~ '!'ovement was shifting to Ru ssia. Hi s approach was based
on the SCJ.enhflc theory of social development. Consequently , th e point
was that 10 the COurse of the historical process the Ru ssian proletariat
had to tackle the most revolutionary task , which was why it moved into
the van of the world revolutionary army.

,
2

210

V. I. Lenm, ColltCltd Worlu . Vol. 22. p. 356

'''Id , Vol. ~. p. 373.
.

DOCTRINE OF THE REVOLUTIONARY

SITUATION

Y
/\

The doctrine of the revolutionary situation is the key element of

Lenin's theory of socialist revolution. In many of his works. Marx )
analysed the process in which revolutionary crises came to a head. Thus,
he brought out in detail how and what had caused ''the eruption of the
_~ne r al ~isconten(' in Eranc~ in.18:8, and w~ich factors at the time h:d
accelerated "the outbreak ofthe revbluhon .~
Lenin continued this work in the new conditions. when capitalism had
ente red the stage of imperialism and when the socialist revolut!~n was
. at the door. Lenin translated into the
of politICS the
about the most acut,,,e__

,
,

which political forces were set

motion v.:hen the conflict arose, and
how the political crisis from which rev?lutlon developed was cr 7ated.
Le nin devoted much attention to analysmg the aw~reness and altltud.es
of the masses the changes. in the sphere ~f Ideo_loH ~nd SO.CI3\
psychology as' the deep-going pOlitical-criSis aevelop~d. !he great
revolutionary assessed the profound ca~ses and.the ?osslble ImmedIate
factors whic h worked to create revolut,?nary SituatIOns.
.
o the eve of the 1905 revolution. Lemn began to analy.se the quest.lon
n
" 0n January,
4 1905 ' he pubhshed an artIcle
of revolutionary
slluahons.
\ Ibid .. Vol 2~. 1"_ 274
Ibid .. Vol. 22. 1"1". ,~~-~(,.

~ K. Mar~ alld F. Engels. Stltcltd Wuri;s. in tll!l:e volumes, Vol. I. p.

~09.

e (tied "The Autocracy and the Proletariat", which said that the
w"o;king class "must rouse and rally to its sid,e the broadest possible
sections of the exploited masses. muster all ~t s. for ces. and start an
uprising at the moment whe~ the ~over~men~, I~ In the most, desperate
.. traits and popular unrest IS at Its highest,', There Lenin already
stressed such important conditions for an upnsmg as the moment when
the "government is in the most desperate stra~ts". and "popul~r unrest is
at its highest." During the revolutionary upswmg In 1913 , Lem.n, returned
to his analysis of this question and formulated l,he key prOposition about
the mounting of revolutionary crises: "Opp~esslon ~Ione.' n~ matter how
great. does not always give rise to a rev~lutlonary situation m a country.
fn most cases it is not enough for revolution that the lower classes should
not want to live in the old way. :
should be unable to rule and govern
way.' .
";hen a pOhlltal 'c rlsis tends to develop on a national scale. "A
nation-wide political crisis is in evidence in Russia , a crisis which affects
the very foundation of the state system and not just part s of it, which
affects the foundation of the edifice and not an outbuilding, not merely
one of its storeys."s Of great methodological import a nce is Lenin's
remark to the effect that the crisis mu st go to the "very foundation of the
state system", and that the cri sis must be so pi Ground Uia no re orm will

help to overcome it. This kind of crisis affects the whole of society 's
political life. ranges over the whole of it s political organisation and
results in great upheavals.
Analysing the growth of the strike movement in Ru ssia a year before
the Lena shootings, and indicating that no other country in th e world had
so many participants involved in political strikes , Lenin emph asised that
thili was an expression of "the special conditions in pre sen t-day Russia,
the existence of a revolutionary situation, the growth of a directly
revolutionary crisis. When the moment of a s imilar growth of revolution
approaches in Europe (there it will be a sociali st and not a bourgeoisdemocratic revolution, as in our country), the proletariat of the most
developed capitalist countries will launch far more vigorous revolutionary strikes. demonstrations, and armed struggle against the defenders
of wage-slavery".9 Thus, the mounting of the revolutio nary c ri sis must
precede both the socialist and the bourgeois-democ rati c revolution, for
m .h.oth ~ases the revolutionary eruption mu st be preceded by a political
c n slS g.omg to the very foundation of the state syste m and incapable of
resolution by mean s of political half-measure s.

I
I

...j

f\.

. Tw? years .Iater, Lenin ~ave a full-scale definition of the revolutionary

"Ituahon, .whlch fully applies to socialist revolution. He also returned to
the ~u.e~tlOn of t.he. role of ~he ~truggle for democratic demands in
prcp.mng the ~o.clah~t revolution In advanced capitali"ot countrie ..
In 1~15,. ~enm ~rote:. "To the Marxist it is indi~putable that a
~e~olutlon '''' lmpo<;~lble without a revolutionary situation: furthermore
It IS not every revolutionary situation that leads to revolution What'
generally ~peaking, are the symptom~ of a revolutionary situati~n? w~
shall certamly not be mistaken if we indicate the following three major
symptoms: I) when it is impossible for the ruling classes to maintain their
rule without any change: when there is a crisis, in one form or another,
amo~g the '~pper classes', a ~risis in they()l!~y _?f_lhe...ru.!.!.!!a. class,
leadmg to a fissu re through which the discontent ana indignation of the
?pp r e~s~d classes burst forth. For a revolution to take place, it il) usually
msufflclent for ' the lower classes not to want" to live in the old way: it is
also necessary that 'the upper classes should be unable' to live in the old
way; 2) when the suffering and want of the oppressed c1assc!; have
grown more acute than usual; 3) when. as a consequence of the above
causes, there is a considerab le increase in the activity of the ma~ses, who
uncomplainingly a llow themselves to be robbed in 'peace time', but. in
turbulent times , are drawn both by all the circumstances of the crisis alld
by tile 'lIpper c/(lSses' tllemseh'es into independent hi"torical action." 10
Only the involvement in the crisis both of the ruling and of the
oppressed classes indicate s that the political crisis is profound and that
the ordinary political machine of the ruling classes is unable to cope with
it.
Lenin also showed that it is "not every revolutionary situation that
gives rise to a revolution: revolution arises only out of a s it~ation in
which the above-mentioned objective changes are accompanied hy a
subjective change, namely, the ability of the revolution~ry class to take ~
revolutionary mass ac tion ,strollLenough to brejlk_(or dlsl.Qcat~) ~h,e o'~ /\
government. which never. not even i.n a perio? of ~risi~, 'falls', If It IS nol
toppled over".11 Thus, the revolutionary Situ ation IS c.reat~d hy ..the

objecti ve course of soc ial development, and no ~evolutlon .I~ po~slble

without such a situat ion, but for the revol ution to ~ngmatc ~he
revQlutiqnary c lass m~.st_bj: caoabl_e of takin!! trong reVo~lLt~OI):\:y aettou
tooverthrow--or unaermine the...lloye{nm_i?I}!.~ AIL,?f thl~ Indl\:[l!.ES th:
matUrit y of-ffi-e" new e!einenC which is capab le of del)troYlng the old. th!.:
obsolete in soc ial life.
e l f th
In this work of Lenin 's which I have quoted -"The. 01 aps~ 0 . e
'"
Lent'n asks whether a revolutionary ~lhJatlon

t
eeon
nterna
IOna

S
d'

---.~

: v. I. Lenin. Ca/ltcttd Wort s. Vol. 8, p. 27.

Ibm .. Vnl. 19. pp. 221-22
~ It>KI .. V(ll. 19, p. 222
" Ihld.

2J2

10 Ibid .. Vol 21. pp. 211-14

II Ibid .. p. 214

had developed at th e outbr.ea.k of th e w~rld ",war amJ,~.cpli~~. in.,the

a ffirmati ve. He a lso g iv es thi s Impo rt a nt fe.l llln: of POllIH':.l1 cn~I". All
on a volca no: all a re tlr emseil'es calhng for th e
government s are
"I~ T his appeal for m';1\ \
i
.. a n important feature of

nomennn, .inqcad .nf it doctrinaire scheme, "To imagine Ihal social

revolution ... ('/IIII'(,II'able without revolts by small nations in Ihe colonie ..
and in L.Uf(~PC~ with(~ut rcv.olu,tionar~ outbursts by a section of the petty
hourge(w.. lc ",,,11 oflll.\' pre}udlceJ. Without a movement of the politically
n.on-l.:onsclOus proletarian and semi-proletarian masses against oppressum by .the landowne~\. the church. and the monarchy, againsl national
o ppre "s lon. eIC.-to Imagme all this is repudiate social rem/lltion" l'
No revolution ~an start without a deep-going political cric,is aHecting
the very foundations of the o;tale system and ruling out any .. olution by
means of partial reform s. This crisis involves not only the proletariat but
also the semi-proletarian sec tions, a part of the petty bourgeoisie, and
small nations in vigorous revolutionary activity. Revolutionary eruptions
are also variously directed against landowner. religious. national and
monarchist oppression. Various section s of the population are involved
in the revolutionary crisis. entering upon a path of struggle for various
reasons and carrying with them into the revolution their own prejudices
and reactionary visions, their weaknesses and mistakes. But objectively
they all join in the fight against capital.
of

th e mounting revolutionary situatio n . But CV~~ in . that period .in the

period o f wartime . Lenin did n ot conncc t th e o ngl~ al l~n of revolutlo.n~ry
situation s e xclu sively with wa r. Among .Ih ~ va ri o us types of pohtlcal

cri ses, he pointed to the Dreyfu s Affalr. in 1894, when France was
di v ided into a reactionary and a progre ss ive camp. Another exampl e
cited by Lenin wa s the 1913 incident in ~ I sac e . when a Prussian officer 's
abu se of the French-speaking populatIOn spa rke d off a n outburst of
indignation again st the oppressio n by the prussia n. n~iJit arists ..
Summing up these facts , Lenin wrote : " The so c lah st re~olut lon may
fl a re up not only through some big strik e. street d e mo n st rat ion or hunger
riot or a military insurrection or c olonial re v olt. but al so as a result of a
political c ri sis such a s th e Dreyfu s c ase o r the Za be rn incident, or in
connection with a referendum on the sece ssio n o f a n o pp ressed nation ,
etc. " I ) Th e tactics of the wc"kin

I\,
,

to extend
to carry it
to direct attac ks on the bQurgeoi sie .
In'deea,it is'Lenin 's elaboratio n o f the questio n o f d eep -going political
c ri sis that led him to draw . before th e O c tober Revoluti o n , the import ant
co nc lusion about the ad vanc e of soc iali st revo lutio n in Europe. He
wrote: "Th e sociali st re volution in Europe carlrlot be a n y th ing other than
a n o utb urst of mass struggle on the -.2,a rt of a ll a nd sundry oppressed and
di sconte nted elements. Inev itably. sec tion s
tfl e p e tt y bourgeoisie and
of th e bac kward workers will p a rti c ipate in it - w ith o ut su c h participatio n , ma ss struggle is impossible, without it n o revo luti o n is possib le - a nd just as inevitably will they bring int o the m ovement their
pr~j ud.ice s . their r:acti9~ry fantasi~s ! !.heir weaknesst,s .? n d e rrors. But
objtctll'ely they Will attack capital, and the 'Crass-con sc io u s vanguard of
the re volutio n , the advanced proletariat , expressing this obj ecti ve truth
o f a variegated and di scordant , motley and outwa rdl y fragmented ,
mass struggle, will be a ble to unite a nd direct it , c apture p owe r , seize the
ba nks, ex propriate the tru st s whic h a ll hat e (tho ug h fo r d ifferent
reasons!). a nd introduce oth er dic tatoria l me a sures w hic h in the ir totality
~ilJ amo~nt to the o verthrow o f the bourg eo isie a n d th e v ictory of sociaIIsm, w hic h . ~owev~~ . will b y no me an s imme dia te ly ' pu rge' itse lf of
pe tt y-bou rgeoIs slag . I~ Su c h is the pic ture o f revol uti o n as a li v ing phe-

victory of socialism.
The picture of advancing socialist revolution completes the characteristic of political crises fraught with revolution. At this point, Lenin
supplemented his earlier analysis of deepgoing political crises by
indicating the social sections and the manner in which (for which
immediate reasons) they enter into the political crisis. He said that the
objective truth of the diverse motives underlying the struggle carried on
by the patchwork mass ultimately amounts to an "attack on capital". and
thi s objective truth is expressed by the working class. It s leadership
h el ps the masses to purge themselves from their "petty-bourgeois slags"
in th e flames of revolution.

THE FUNDAMENTAL LAW OF REVOLUTION

)1
\

Aft er the v ictory of the Great October Socialist Revolution, Lenin

su mmed up his earlier studies and formulated the fund~mental.law of
revolution. He wrote: "The fundamental law of revolution. which ~as
b ee n co n firmed by a\1 revolutions and especially by all three R~sslan
revolu ti ons in the twentieth century, is as follows: for a revolution to

I! V I I

214

to

working class and the

of

- ~en i n, Collected Works. Vol. 21. p. 2 15.

Ibid, Vol. 22. p. 145.
" Ibid., p. 356.

1~ Ibid .. p, J~5 .

1<1 k-e P Iac e

.( . not enough for the exploited and opprc"ed maS se" t

IS

.'

dd

reali se the impossibilityof hvmg In th~ old wa y. an e,mand change s: for

to take place it is essenhallh al the ex plOiters should not h
a revo IU t Ion
.
h '
e )
able to Jive and rule in the old way. It I ~ only wh en t .e lower classes ' do
1Iot want to live in the old way and [h.e upper cI.a sses ("amlOr carry 011 ill
the old way that the revolution ~an trlll.mph . ~hl s truth ca~ be e.xpressed
"0 other word s: revolution is Impo ssible without a nat ion-wIde crisis
~affecting both the exploited and the explo!ters).16 Th at is the political
expression of the acute and matu.re conflict betw ee~ th ~ productive
force s and the relations of productton , a s harp express IOn In t he s ph ere
of politics of the fact that the relation s of production have become
fetter s upon social development and that they can no lo nge r meet its
requirements.
The general sociological law of the conflict betwee n th e productive
force s and the relation s of production need s to b e e x pre ssed in COncrete
term s through the law of the maturing of a natio nwid e c ri sis in a given \
country . The cri sis mu st be expres sed with es pecial fo rce in o litics and
in rhe arrangement of c ass orce s .
e ru 109 c a sse s mu st e in a -state
of governm ent cri sis , which involves the mo st bac kwa rd masses in
political affairs and weaken s the government. On the other h and , Lenin
stresses. the subjective factor , the high level o f c on sc io u sness and
organisation of the masses, is of tremendou s impo rt ance.
In his characteri stic of imperiali s m. Lenin stressed th at ''the
monopolies, which have grown out of free c ompetitio n , do n ot e liminat e
the latter. but exi st above it and alongside it , and thereby give rise t o a
number of very acute . inten se antagoni s ms. fricti o n s and conflict s" . 17
Con sequently , political cri ses are e specially poss ible in th e period of
imperi ali sm. being caused by variou s friction s . for th e d o mi nat ion of the
monopolie s inevitably lead s to such conflict s that al so a ffect th e petty
bourgeoi sie and some section s of the middle bourgeoi s ie . Th e struggle
between the monopolies also undermines the politica l st ru ctu re of
capitali st society. The monopo lies trample on the old b ourgeoi s
de~oc~acy and range them selves against the rest of the population in t he
capitali st countrie s . That is a source of the in stability in th e political
sphere of ~h~ capitali st states in the period of imperia li s m.
It IS the mo st
.
of imperia li s m t aking the
andin

!~~O an atta~k. by the

I , led by the wo rking c lass, against
.bourgeolsl.e . The
stand for reaction , they are essentially
anli.dem oc r~hc and profoundly hostile to the struggle of all the sections
of the workmg peo ple for democratic demands.
16 V I

'.' Lenin. Collecttd Works , Vol. 31. pp . 84-85.

Ibld_. Vol_ 22. p. 266.

T~d~y. in the presenc~. of the world socialist sY'item. and with

caplt.ahs~ w~ake~ed, a political cri!.is may shake the edifice of bourgeoi'>

dommatl?n In thl '> or that country to it s very foundations whenever an

atte~pt IS made to e!itablish fascist rule, whenever an insane policy of
reaction and aggression is pursued, etc.
In ass~ssing the cont~mporary political situation in the capitalist world
there anse.s. th~ questiOn of .whether Lenin identified revolution and
arme~ upnslng. The answer IS no. Back in 1899, Lenin considered the
questiOn of the peaceable and the armed way of a working-class takeover
when he wrote: "The working class would, of course, prefer to take
power peacefully .... It is very probable-even most probable-that the
concessions to the proletariat and at
bou rgeo isie wil l not make
of its
way will be left to
for the
the reason the
ach ievement of its aim but that of revolution. This
programme of 'working<Jass socialism' speaks of the winn ing of
po litical power in general wit/wid defining the method, for the choice
of method depend s on a future which we cannot precisely determine." 18
That is Lenin's view of the peaceable and the armed method s of a
'working-c lass t akeover. a view Lenin maintained all his life. He held that
a peaceab le or armed takeover of power could be carried out only by an
organi sed worki ng class schooled in the class struggle. The armed
takeover was necessary whenever the bourgeoisie resorted to force in
protecting its privileges at the decisive moment. The proletariat would
prefer to take powe r peacefully. The choice of the method of takeover
de pended on th e concrete historical situation. and repudiation of the
armed way in advance would amount to recklessness and an ignominious
concession to the capitalists.
'
Th e hi storica l sit uat ion in the following few decades provided very
few oppo rtu nities for use by the working class of the peaceful method of
taking power. T he bourgeoisie was still very Slron~. and. ~as always
pre pared to resort to ar med fo rce in defence of It s pnvlleges. B~t
whenever there was an opport unity to use the peaceful method: L:.n~ n
pOi nted it out. as he did in his article entitled "On Comp rom ises In
Sept ember 19 17. Considering the possibility of a return to the pre-July
dema nd for a handover of power to the Soviets. Lenin wrote: "Now and
only nOw, perhaps during on!~ 0 J..e~'_Ap:)'s or ~_ w~e}.: or two . such a
governm ent could be s etup and consohdated iO a perfectly peaceful
way. In all probability it could secure th~ peaceful advallce of the whol~
Ru ss ian revolution. and provide exceptiOnally good chances .for gre\
strides in the world movement towards peace and the victory 0

18 Ibid .. Vol. 4. p. 276.

-'I''

"

socialism. "1'1 He added that ''the revolution'~ ~e<1c~f u 1OC\ c!opment " wa ...
"an opportunity that is e,l.:tremely. rare I~ hl"tory .. nd extrem ely
valuable",:!O In an afterword lO this article. written two day, later . Leni n
stressed: "Perhaps the few days in which peaceful d.c \'~lo pment was still
" possible have passed toO."~l This fI.eeti~g OP,portumty ~n revolution wa ...
instantly noted by Lenin. who outhned tn, thl~ connec!lOn the change of
tactics for the working-class party. Consldenng that 10 th ose hi storical
conditions the possibility of peaceful development in re volution was
extremely rare, Lenin put all the more value on such opportunities and
studied them closely and in depth.
What was his idea of the peaceful opportunity in 191 7? He wrote: " If
there is an absolutely undisputed [es~on of the revolutio~, one full y
proved by facts, it is that only an alliance of the Bols heviks with the
Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, only an immediate tran sfer of
all power to the Soviets would make civil war in Russia impossib le, for a
civil war begun by the bourgeoisie against such an alliance, again st th e
Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies, is inconce ivable',
such a 'war' would not last even until the first battle .... "22 Consequently,
the main thing for the peaceful development of the revolutionary process
is the unity of all the democratic elements, from the Communists to the
petty-bourgeoisie, and the isolation of capital. Furthermore . Leni n
stressed that such a government would bring peace to the people and
land to the peasantry. in which case ;'a peaceful development of the
revolution is possible and probable if all power is tran sferred to the
Soviets". !3
~e.Soviets would constitute a kind of parliament with seat s he ld by
Socialist-Revolutionaries, Mensheviks and Bolsheviks. Furth er struggle
for powe~ between t~e parties, for transition to socialist change would go
for~ard 10 the Soviets: "The struggle of parties for power within the
Soviets ~~y proceed peacefully, if the Soviets are made fully
democralJc .2. B~ "fully democratic" Lenin meant that nothing should
be done to curtail. th~ democratic principles. If the struggle for power
bet~een the partl~s I~ the Soviets was to be peaceful, it was quite
obVIOUS. that. Lenm Ima~ined the Soviets consisting of SocialistRevolutlonanes, MensheViks and Communists to be something in the
n~ture of, a parliament, and not yet as organs of the proletarian
dlctators~lp. They could be no more than organs of the dictators hip of
the workmg class and the peasantry. In form as an arena of struggle for
power between the parties, they would constitute a kind of parliame nt.
I'VIL
' Collected Works. Vol. 25 p 306
20
'.' enm,
'I Ibid., pp. 306-07.
,.
.
:, Ibid .. p . 310.
;; Ibid .. Vol. 26, p. 36.
~

lt8

Ibid., p. 37.
Ibid.

. A~ for the bo~rgeoi')ie, during the revolution in Russia it wa~

~ubsequently
of electoral rights . At th e t"Ime L"
I ddepnved
'
entn wrote' ' It
~ou ,be a mI5t~ke. however. to guarantee in advance that' the
Impending prol~ta.nan revoluti~ns in Euro~e will all, or the majority of
them. b~ .~e~~~sanly .accompanted. by restnction of the franchise for the
bourgeOIsie ... But If the franchIse for the bourgeoisie remains there Y
must, c.on')cquently. r~main the. el~ctive o~gans to which the bourgeoisie A
elects Its representatives. ThIs IS a POlOt which should be deeply
pondered by everyone who has been shouting that Lenin denied the
peaceful way of development for the revolution.
Th~ world communist movement and the CPSU. elaborating the
questIOn of a peaceful takeover by the working class. proceeded from
these brilliant precepts of Lenin's.
Th ~ new opportunities opening up for a peaceful takeover by the
wor.km.g class are connected, first of all, with the weakening of
capItalism after the emergence and establishment of the world socialist
system. The capitalists no longer have the same broad opportunities, as
they did in the past, to resort to force in standing up for their privileges.
Second, the new conditions are connected with the successes scored by
the work ing class in the capitalist countries and the raUying of all the
democratic forces round the working class, The Communist parties in
the capitalist countries have been working to set up a united front. to
separate the petty-bourgeois sections from the bourgeoisie and to fortify
the a nti -mo nopoly stream. They have made wide use of parliamentary
forms of struggle wherever this holds promise of success for the cause of
peace a nd soc ialism . That is the way indicated by Lenin. The various
fa lsifiers of Marxism and downright anti-Communists. who have loudly
claimed that Lenin opposed a peaceful takeover by the working class.
should read the immortal works of Lenin, who was capable of drawjng
the
conclusions ~yen on 'the stG,ngth .01

s "

no
that
about revolutionary
situation s are direct ly con nected with his doctrine of the possibility of
soc iali sm initially winning out in one individual country., Let us ~ote ~hat
Lenin simult aneo usly worked on the problem of revolUh~nary .slt~attons
and the problem of the possibility of the socialist revolutIOn wlOm~g out
initially in a few countries o r in one country. Natur.aUy, the revolutionary
situation and a nationwide crisis cannot anse all .at once ~nd
simultaneou sly in all the capitalist countries. Such IS the logical
connection between the two problems.
. .
In January 191 8, Lenin wrote: "The great founders of soctahsm, Marx
and Engels, having watched the developme~t of the labour movement
and the growth of the world socialist revolutIOn for a number of decades
25

Ibid .. Vol. 28, p. 256.

~19

"

saw clearly that the transition from capitalism to soci~ l i'm WOl,lld requi r~
prolonged binh-pangs, a long period of th e du.:tahlr:-.hlp uf the
proletariat, the break-up of a!1 l~at belonsed t ~ I,he pas" ,the ruthless
destruction of all forms of capitalism, the c~pe r.lll.o n of the \vorker, of
all countries , who would have to combme thelT c,fforb to en sure
complete victory . And they said that at the end ~f t ~c. m n.c~ccnlh centu ry J
'the Frenchman will begin it. and the German Will fini s h II -~thc Fren ch_ "
man would begin it because in the course of decades of revolution he
had acquired that intrepid initiative in revolutionar~ action that made
him the vanguard of the socialist revolution ." ~I> Lentn goe:-. on to show
that in the early 20th century the situation underwent a c hange, with th e
forces of international socialism in a different arrange ment. Opposing
the efforts to tum economic backwardness into an abso lut e a nd to set it
up as a necessary condition for the maturing of soc ia li st revolution
Lenin insisted that it was easier to start a revolutio n in count ries which
did not exploit other countries and whose bourgeoi sie did not have broad
opportunities to bribe "its own" working cla ss.
This idea of Lenin 's was distorted by Bukharin. who dec lared in Th e
Economics 0/ the Transitio n Period that the colla pse of ca pita li sm began
with countries that were weakest in technico-econo mi c term s. Criticising
this view. Lenin wrote: "That is wrong: it will begin with the' medillm
weak '. We could have done nothing without some level of capita lism in
this country ." 27 Bukharin asserted that revolution tend ed to begin with
the lower system of the world economy and th at the maturing of
revolution was inversely proportional to the matu rit y of capitalist
relations in this or that country. Lenin al so criticised thi s idea and added :
''That is risky : one should say 'not with the hig hest '-and 'not directly
pro portional'." 21 Thus. Lenin rejected the met aph ysica l asse rtion that
revolutions could start only where the level of de velo pment of capitalist
relations was highest. But he was equally oppo sed to th e sim ilarly
metaphysical assertion that socialist revolution had to sta rt with the
weakest countries. He stressed the difficulties of starting revo lution s in
countries where the imperialists were able to bribe the to p secti on of the
working class.
8ecaus,e individual countries develop unequally political c ri ses do not
mat~r~ slmu~aneo~sly. but vary in force , depth and tim e. T hat wa s
Lenm s. st~rtmg pomt when he formulated hi s theo ry of th e possib ili ty of
~he s~la.h,st revolution winning out in one o r a fe w co untri es a nd the
Jmpossl.bdltY ,of such a victory simultaneously in all th e co untri es. As a
whole , Impen~li sm is the eve of the socialist revolutio n , and it is not right
to say that thiS law does not apply to some capitalist countries. Lenin' s

}I

V. I: Le~in. Collected WOri:s, Vol. 26 . p. 471

u n," MucdllJIIY XI M
L
.
21 Ibid ., p. 398.
,oscow- enlngrad , 1931. p. 397 (in Ru !o~jan).
220

theory of the vkhHY of "uciali~t re,,olution initially in (1nC indiVidual

country doc" not at all mean that other countries "ue in .. ured ag:,in ...t
<,ociali .. t revolution and are immune to it. Otherwi~e it j .. only weak links
of imperiali .. m, and not the <,yMem as a whole. that have adv;lnced to the
very threshold of .. ociali .. t revolution. Even today some of tho .. e who
consider the "weak link" tend altogether to ignore Lenin' .. doctrine llf
revolutionary situation .. . They hold that if the weak link ha') hccn
ident ified. some kind of permanent revolutionary "ituation in a definite
geograph ical zone ha'i heen di ..covered. Once the ex.i')tence of perma
nent revolut ionary-situation .lone,:> is as .. umed, there i'), of cour .. c, fl(l
need to co nsider the que ... tion of how revolutionary 'iituation'i ari .. !!. for
the whole th ing boil.. down to determination and will. The "weak link"
countries are fatally and con .. tantly predestined for socialist revolution
Th at is, of course, quite wrong. Lenin's theory of socialist revolution
follows as a log ical necessity from his doctrine of imperiali .. m. Becau ... e
of th e uneven development of capitalism. the maturing of all the
necessary conditions for socialist revolution proceeds unevenly, .. 0 that
revolutiona ry situations are not created automatically in all the link" of
imperia li sm. nor are all the conditions always present for effective u .. e
by the working class of the opportunities opening up for action.
Let us note that Lenin gave his brilliant formulation of the
fundame ntal law of revolution in a work aimed agai"'t the infantile
disease of "Leftism" in communism. ~1en afflicted with thi .. disease
wa nted to hear nothing about revolutionary situations and the maturing
of the necessary conditions for revolution in this or that countr).
Warni ng them agai nst adventurism. putschism and \-oluntari .. t blindne .......
Lenin taught t hem t he fundamental law of revolution.
Le nin 's fund ame ntal law of revolution hits out at all the opportunist...,
including the Right-wi ng opportunists. who ignore the revolutionary
acti vity of th e masses and the fact that the importance of objective
conditi ons depe nd s on t he opportunities they provide for mass
revolutionary ac tiv it y. Le nin's fo rmu lation of the fundamental law of
revolutio n is a model for applying materialist dialectics in studying the
ph enom ena of ~oc i a l development. ~be djscovery of ~his_ law sh9.~.s..lh.e
method olog ical bas is on w:hich Lenin formuJ~te~~_~~:!!n~tegy and tactics
of th e co mmunist movement.- :
It is a lso one of Lenin's remarkable solutions for the general prohlem
whic h he dealt with throughout his life and which he him'ielf called the
proble m of the re lationship between politics and economics. Lenin
conside red th e major que ... tions of social development alway ... in the light
of th e con nec tion between economics and politiCS, because polities had
an imm edi ate bear ing on millions upon million" of people and their
in volveme nt in vigorou ... historic.ll activity.
It is q uite obvio us. therefore. that Lenin's analysis of the formation of
revo lutio nary sit uat ions i ... logically and indissolubly connected 'With hi ...
221

of the

0I1bo

Ibo wortma-elass
.nd obsc:unnti.m. But
and ~ Y'"'!II! democl1l<Y
A., fIdI1
with abidina faith In the _ _ . .
this decadent and moribund ~

and the belinnina of the IIroBl" for power";'

of Europe are a symbol of the new ph... In

beaan early this century ,"'1 That was a brilliant

in the world revolutionary procell since Mao'.

opposed any effort to contrast Burope and the

Social.Democrals, for instance. were doma. He
thought

Alainst the power of the Bnatish imperiaHd

"belUon in Ireland is 8 hundred times more sianificant

blow of equal force delivered in Asia or in Africa,"
Ihe colonies shows their imporlance as forces ''Whlch
force, the socialist proletariat, to make Itt

thlacene",

the
of the
in the
of

Ide. WI. expressed in September 1916: ''1be social

only in the form of an epoch in which are combinld
proletariat Blainst the bourgeoisie in the advar.cld
a whole " ...., of democratic and revolutionary mov.
the nllionalliberalion movement. in the undeveloped.
nation.... :w It is safe to say that Lenin. fint.
loci.Ult revolution took a whole epoc:h and that It

or instantaneous act of history. Second.

conception of a coherent worldwide revolutionary
the .tNBlle of the worki. . .1......inll the
allO number of democ:ratic and revolutionUY
the national liberation stn'pIe ..... codoe. not h.h the development 01 ........
. tendencies .moni tho ..... of ....

,.,. ...m.

 n On the contrary. it accentuates th,e antagoni sm bet ween their

POd pulatlo. .
'rall'ons and the antidemocrauc tende nc y of the tru\ts" lS
emocratlc
. stresse d t h'
.. '
'. I'
Elabo
f asp.
on this idea. Lenin
,\ . .Im~en a l "irn . seek, to
radIOs
y generally by oligarchy".3' This Indu:atc\ an Important
e
replace
emocra
.' I o~g~n1' sa , Io
' n 0 I caplt~li\t
'
feature of the deformation of the ,pollt".::a
society by the monopolies. Concerm,ng the actiVity of the mo~opohe'i.
Lenin recalled that "they do not conflOe themselvel~,lo leconomlc .m~ans
of eliminating rivals. but constantly r~sort to po I le a . even cnmmal.
methods")7 Those words were written In 1916 about the US monopolies
even more relevant today. neArly 50 years later . Th e mo nopolies
t .
d
'
uI are
.
. I' ,
bhave
deformed political life in the Impena IS c?un. nes, con u: tmg the
anti-democratic tendency everywhere and runmng IOto antago.msm with
the democratic tendencies of the masses. On the ~trength of thi S analysis
of Lenin's the world communist movement sets Itself the ta sk of uniting
in a single 'anti-monopoly stream considerable sections of the popUlation

in the capitalist countries.

Lenin closely studied the question of what happened to bourgeoisdemocratic movements in the period of imperialist domination, and
especially the question of the substance of. bourgeois-democratic
revolutions in that period. Let us recall that Lemn took the ex ample of
the 1905 revolution in Russia to formulate his theory of the developm ent
of bourgeois-democratic revolution into socialist revolution. On this
problem Leninism was opposed by two "schools" of social thought, both
of which ignored dialectics and materialism.
Because the
leaders of the Second International too k the
metaphysical approach
were unable t.Q_~~~ the real connection
sOcialist revOlutiOns 10 the
not go beyond stating the di stinction
between these two phenomena of the same historical process and had
them listed under different "departments" and as belonging to different
epochs. They held that the working class had to play roughly the same
role in bourgeois-democratic revolutions in the 20th century as it did in
the 18th ~nd 19th centuries. Translated into political idiom , this soci al
meta~hyslcs meant that the working class had to tag along in the wake of
the hberal bourgeoisie. With this kind of approach the bourgeo isdemocratic revolution could never develop into a socialist one.
By contrast, Lenin took the consistently materialist dialectical
approac.h and saw the revolutionary process in development. He
emp~asls~d that ''from the democratic revolution we shall at once, and
preCisely In acc~rdance with the measure of our strength, the strength of
the class-consclous and organised proletariat, begin to pass to the
: v. I. Lenin. Co/ltCud Wo",s, Vol. 23. p. 51.
Ihid . p. 44.
17 Ibid.

)",'",1,-'
." . .
' revnlut,'nn
':>top half -way"
111

I'

revo utlon We .. hall nIlt

On the othcr h,mtl , 'pctt y-hourgeoi" revol t" ' . ' .

di~tincti()n <; het wcc n th e hOurgeOi\_democu.ltom\m fall~d to see the
socialist revoluti on. Leni n wrote: "Trohky.~a IC. rev~luhon. and the
ignores the hourgeo i\ character of the revoim~.Jor ~mtake IS that he
conception of th e tran~ition from thi" rev ullo~ and ha .. no c1t:<lr
. " w Th '
d
0 ulion to the ..oeia!" t
revO Iutlon. 1<; ten ed to di<,tort the revol t"
.
1\
obscure its element <;. In <;uch theorie'i the~elo:~: p.roce,,, and to
development of re volution
., In effec t, no
Trotsky's sl ogan -"no tsar,
but a workers' go, ernme n,'" Ignore d the
.
f
peasantry an d comp Ietc Iy dl'itorted the question of the real . "h'I'
th e b.ourg eo's
'
PO<;<;1 l itone.
yo
1 -.dem 0 c ra fIC revo lutlon
developing into a socialist
Leftist
, of . course, help to change the co UTse 0 I t he
'
' Islogans cannot
I
h IstOTlca p~oce ss . n p rac t ]~e, such slogans merely lead to a defeat of
the revolutIOnary class, which has to pay the price for adventurism,
because the se slo ~n1..rnere ly coyu upth.e tru~state of affairs. which i..
a ar cry from th ~ s u.b st a ~ ce of t h ~ slogan. In 1905. the working clas .. was
unable. to estabhsh It s dictatorship right away, so that Trotsky's slosan
could iO effect beco me no mo re than a screen for the act ivity of
petty-bourgeois and bourgeois forces.
All opportunists denied the importance of the alliance between the
working class and th e peasantry. an alliance which generates vast social
energy capable of changing the world. Lenin and the Bolshevik Party
Jormplated three slog2Rs on t he peasantJlllestionJ.expre.ssing the stages
of the revolution ary process. the transition from democratic tasks to
socialist ones and furth er fu lfilm ent of the latter. When one thinks of the
importance of Lenin 's answe r to the question concerning the role of
democratic movements in th e epoch of imperialism, one comes to realise
that this is a gre at ac hieveme nt of social thought.
In our own day, Marx ism-Leninism still has to figh t against
petty.bourgeois view s of the revolutionary proc ess. What then are the
characteristic feature s of the se petty-bourgeois theories which Marxism
defeated?
First, they all emphasised only the political side of the revolution and
saw it mainly as a political re volution. That is understan d~ble. becau ~e
petty-bourgeois theorisl.S..deait in categories of.-the ~r8eols-demOC,[atlc
revolution which confines it self to changing the political superstruc~u re
and is for that reason characterised , as Lenin said. chiefly as destructl~e.
Underestimation of the creative element in socialist revolution an~ I~S
most important di stincti on from bourgeoiS revolutions is a characten stlC

l8 Ibid., Vol. 9. pp _ :D6-37.

)9 Ibid . Vol. 15. p. H I
IS - 594

224

We "',n
. , d lor un'In , errup'ed

",
--

feature of all the attempts to revive the petty -t'lourgcoh, view of ... llciilli\t
revolution
. d" ...... in the
Second. - they all try to obscure t~e rO.le of the worktn~
revolution. Petty-bOUrgeois revoluho nane ... preferred ~o ... peak of the
people as a class consisting of three element.... \~'lth t.he Ru <;sian
Narodniks stressing the role of the peasantry and In sisting that the
revolution must start in the countryside ,md only then :-.pread to thc
cities . The Left-wing advoc~tes of RU;ssian Narodnik sociali ... m. who
denied the role of the proletanat. also saId that the whole West European
working class had lost its revolutionary spirit. had become "philistine".
SO echoing the nationalistic, Slavophile idea s about th e "rotten West".
Third. the revolution was presented only as an act of will, while the
awakening of the will of the people was explained idealistically, becau se
of its various ideals and faith in its right. All subsequ ent attempts to
revive petty-bourgeois conceptions of the revolution were marked by
voluntarism and calls for giving the revolution a "push" from outside.
Fourth.
theories of revolution said not hing about the
a process. They were
an urge
over
notion of
staged historical development being branded by petty-bourgeois theorists as cowardice or attempts to slow down the revolution . In accordance with this conception, Bakunin attacked Marx a nd the Marxists
for believing that the development of capitalism in Germany was progressive and paved the way for revolution.
Petty-bourgeois revolutionaries frequently revived utopian communist
ideas about full-scale communism following in the wake of socialist
revolution. Many petty-bourgeois theorists did not realise that sociali sm
was a special and most important phase in the development of the new
society.
Fifth. petty-bourgeois theorists had a very confused idea of re volution
as a worldwide process. These views were marked by national
limitations, despite the fact that many petty-bourgeois revolutionaries,
including Bakunin, loudly advertised their internationalis m . Bakuoin and
various other petty-bourgeois revolutionaries cla ssified the world
revolutionary process according to the national or racial principle.
Bakunin criticised Marx and the Marxists as follow S: "Being all- \
they
if only
devouring
for Bakunin was the
~'Ie~elling" of the whole of Europe, for instance , to the stand ard of the
mdlgent street peddler . "He wants the European social revolution,
resting on the econ~mic basis of capitalist production, to t ake place on
the level .of the RUSSian or Slav agricultural or pastoral peoples a nd not to
J

Karl Marll/Friedrich Enaels.

go beyund thtt!cvel " Th

e ...... entially le~ellin8 in pu ~ .... the .whorld revolutionary proces<, had to he
lowe ... t .. Iandard of the p;~~~e~ ~~Ol~~~ levelling off being done to the
.
Today , no levelling off to the I
bccau~e world capitali\m would th 07-e~t. standard i .. pos~ible if only
the new .. ocial \Y\tem Succesc,. en In ~t eac,y to dec,lroy the areas of
of defence potential '~nd d . It econom'f developmen~. consolidation
~ocialist countrie!l all add ~~e t~p~ent. 0 the heavy Industry in the
process and a loS') for i
..
gain for the world revolutionary
simple truth have aband~:ee;lt~lsm. Th;se who fail to understand this
Marxist theory of social de 1 e most un damental propositions of the
ve opment.
Th us. and
the question
of. .
the Itwo e I.ements of the world revolutionary
process
of th
.e pn.nclpa contlOgent of the revolutionary move
ment th c
Produ~iv: f~untnes ;Ith the appropriate level of development of th~
countt'
rces a n , consequently, of the working class and the
pOPula't~~nw~~~e f~ec~use the productive forces were at a low' level the
. . '. Ie y o. peasa~t stOCk, was in a state of extreme indigence
~~d I~dlg~atton -th l. s questton was first considered in Marx's lifetime.
e usslan revolutIOnary Narodniks pointed to the importance of the
second ~tream of the world revolution but were unable to show the real
connectton between the two streams of the one worldwide revolutionary
proces~. Eng~ls ~tressed that in the presence of a proletarian dictatorship
m the mdu st nah sed countries, nations whose population was mainly of
peasant stock could go over to socialism as well. This problem was
subsequent ly worked out by Lenin.
He pOinted out that the situation had changed since Marx's lifetime
and that a different combination of forces of international soc ialism had
taken sh a~e. ~ut Lenin did not believe that the working-class struggle
was recedmg mto the background. or that the socialist revolution was to
be identified with the national liberation movement.
The national liberation revolution is now at different stages in the
variou s countries, ~t is in_ its initial stages in some count rieJ.. w.here the
struggle for bourgeois:democratic change is in"the forefront.
A correct view of the present-day revolutionary process rests on
Lenin 's doctrine of the combination of the proletariat's democratic and
sociali st tasks. Lenin developed his doctrine of the bourgeoisdemoc ratic revolution in the conditions of imperialism. of the hegemony
of the proletariat in this revolution. of the democratic dictatorship of the
working class and the peasantry, and further developed Marx's idea
about the development of the bourgeois-democratic revolution into a
soc ialist one. Lenin' s profound and thoroughly formulated doctrine of
the development of the alliance between the working class and the
peasantry, which invest s the socialist revolution and the subsequent
Karl Marx/Friedrich Engels, \Verb. Bd. 18. S. 633.

W,.,.,.. Dietz Verlag, Berlin , 1969. Bd. 18. S. 628.

--"1
IS'

226

WH.-\T 11''''1'' ..\CTL',-\U.Y SAID

ABOrT REVOLFTlOl'; ..\:-.I1l WAR

. Here i~ what lenin ~aid about the First World War and ahout its
Impa(t on the con,truction of the new society in the USSR
"For many year~ prior to the war the socialht" of all countt;e ... pointed
out. and solemnly dc(Iared at thcin:ongre'i",e",. that not only would a war
between a\.l\anced countrie, be an enormou, crime. that not only would
,uc~ a war. a war for the partition of the colonie, and the division of the
~p(l~h of the capitali!ih. involve a complete rupture with the latest
~chl~\-"Cmcnts of ci\ili\atioll alld culturc. but that it might. that. in facl. it
lIlevltahly would. undermine the very foundation\ of human !lOri,t~.
Bec;.IU\c it i" the first timc in hi,tory that thc mosT powerful
achleyemenh M technology have been applied on \uch ,I scale. '0
destru(tivcly and with 'lKh cnergy. for the annihilation of million' of
human livc,. Whcn all means of production are being thll' dcvoted to the
ser\:icc of war. wc sec that the mo,t gloomy prophecie, arc heing
fulfilled, and that more and more countric' are fallin!! a prey to
retrogre ....,ioll, \tanation amI a complete decline of all the productive
force"." I
Con ... equcntly, Lenin held that thc Fir,t World War could undermine
thc very e,i ... tencc of human ...ociety. h it right. thereftlrc. to ,ay that
world war is a favourahlc factor for thc creation of a new and much more
progre ...... i\'c ... ocicty throughout the world) Of cour,c. not. l.enin
'trc ....'ed thai It wa ... tile fint time i11 hiHnr), that the mo ... t powcrful
achlevemenh of technology had hecn applied mlwdl a~ralf. w
dl'\lru("til'riy ali(I lI'itll .\u("/1 t'lItrg~ for mili!tlry purpOW\. The dan~cr
pre ... cnted hy ... lIch war tn the I'f'ry fOlmdatio/lS of humall H)(jcty 'pring'
from the fact that (III tllf' produ("til'e me(ua arc turned to df.HrIl<ticHI. The
only rc ... ult could he relrogre.l.liOtI.IIUrI'u/ioll and a (ompletf' dedirle of
al/lhe I'rodu('liIe forces. One mll ... t rea1i ... c that the CPSU and the world
communi\t movement start from Lenin ... idca' in ," ... e ...... ing thc dangcr of

conception of the world

in place of "war". They claim
ICCeptaDCC by the non...communi'>t
al co.auaism as an inevitable phase of
......... f.Jlification . It is based on the
of cmnmuDiam from one center. But
..
It is only a bourgeois
But the DeW social system

. . . . . . . revolution. because revolumatured. That is the

another world war.

If that wa\ Lenin''i U'i'ie ...... ment of the mo ... t powerful achievcmenh of
technology during the Fir ... t World War. wh<lt could one ,ay ahout the
danger pre'ienlcd hy the new thermonud.e,~r wcapon ... ".' Only wh .. t .the
CPSU and the other fraternal Mar)(;"'t-Lellllll ... 1 pathe ... havc hccn ,,,y1Og.
The powerful achievements of tcchnology have heen. ~ultir1icd a
hundredfold. increa\ing accordingly the danger of undcrmlll1 nto: the \CT.y
foundation'i of the exi'itence of human 'iocicty. War i, h\)lJnd. til rc\ult 10
degradation ...tarvation and a complete decline of the productiVe fMCC'
Let u'> now con\ider what the !-"ir\! World War gave KU'S'ila. and'" hat
the experience of revolution in Ru ...... ia wa" in thii rc~pccl."'" dcscnhcd
I V I !.enlJl. C,,/lrcftJ W.. rkJ. Vol. 2". p.

"n.

,,.,

'Of
rs the First World War act:eleratcd the collitp sc of
by Lemn.
cou e.
r
d
I"" I ,,'
,
' "
'Russ,'a and caused a most pro ouo po I IL.t n.1 lon w lde
capita
' III
' 'h'." cont
, e't
" Ism
H In 'how Lenin assessed the ro Ie 0 r W,lf

ens)s.

ere

IS

referring to Engels as be did so:

.' .
.
"I am therefore led to recall how Jusllflc.d Engch, ,one of the great
founders of scientific socialism. was, when In 1887. thIrt y years befo re
the Russian revolution, he wrote that a. European war would not only

he expressed it. in crowns falhng from crowned heads by the

resul~. as
. k h
b 'h
h'
dozen without anybody being there to PIC " em up. ut at, t IS war
would also lead to the..brutalisation. de~radatl~n ~_~d relro&.n;15..IO~_Q{Jh e
whole of Europe; and' that, on the otheryana. war ~ould result elt~:r in
the domination of the working class, or.m the creation Of. the con.dltlon s
which would render its domination mdlspensable. On thi S occaSIOn the
co-founder of Marxism expressed himself with extreme caution, for he
clearly saw that if history took this. course, t~e. result would be the
collapse of capitalism and the e~tenslOn of socialism, and that a ~o.re
painful and severe transition penod, greater wan~ and.a se~~rer cnSI S,
disruptive of all productive forces, could not be Imagmed. +
Thus, the First World War led to the collapse of capitalism in Russia
and resulted in a profound nationwide crisis. But to stop there would be
to distort Lenin's idea. Lenin stressed that even then , in the 1914+191 8
period. it was impossible to imagine a more painful and arduou s
transition 10 socialism. One can imagine the transition to soc iali sm after
a third world war, following the use of even mightier achievements of
technology-thermonuclear weapons.
About the First World War, whose destructive consequences were
only a small fraction of the possible consequences of a third world war ,
Lenin wrote: "We are now facing the most elementary task of human
society-to vanquish famine, or at least to mitigate at once th e direct
famine, the agonising famine which has afflicted both our two prinCipal
cities and numerous districts of agricultural Russia." 3 Consequently, we
began by tackling the most elementary task of human society. That is, in
effect, Lenin's assessment of the impact of the First World War on the
construction of the new society in Russia.
Lenin's key precept is to take the historical approach to the question
of wars, "from the standpoint of Marx's dialectical materiali s m".4 In
fighting ~th ~t-wing and "Left"+wing opportunists, Lenin stre ssed
that the histOrical conditions tend to change so that the question of wars
could be tackled only in the light of the historical situation. H e wrote
indignant, sarcastic articles against the Russian Menshevik s and German

opportuni~t"i hecau\e they kept prattling about war'i, refusing to reali<;.e

that a .new hi<;torical period had o1?,ened.

l.eOln \tre<;sed that the opportunists {ailed to see that in the past there
had. b~en "no modern imperialism, no mature objective conditions for
soclah~m. and no mass socialist parties in any of the belligerent
countr~es .. :".' Those were the factors which Lenin indicates in the first
place 10 hiS study of the distinctions between the historical situation
duri~g th~ First World War and that of the preceding period. Thus. when ,..
dealm~ With w~rs, on.e mus~ start from an analysis of the historical stage J
at which society fmds Itself. But one should also consider the
deve.lop.ment ?f the pro?uctive forces and technology. including the
POSSlblhty of Its application for the destruction of men.
Le~in, the great scientist, who analysed the economy and politics of
!he fmal stage of capitalism, saw the cause of imperialist wars as lying
In the fact that the imperialists had undivided domination of the world
which they had shared out among themselves. and were now in th;
process .of figAting -fOf_ its redj"i&ioo, That is the economic basis. of
wars under imperiali sm.
Lenin wrote about the First World War: "The objective conditions for
socialism have fully matured , and the present war is a war of the
capitalists for privileges and monopolies that might delay the downfall of
capitalism.'" Thus , with the aid of wars . the imperialists would like to
delay the collapse of capitalism and slow down the historical process,
which inevitabl leads to the su lantin f ca italism by a new. socialist
system. enm taught the working class how to fight this strafegy of the
imperialists.
How did Lenin consider the question of peace. the struggle for lasting
peace in the imperialist epoch , before the victory of the socialist
revolution in Russia?
Opposing the deceit of the people by means of pacifist catchwords,
Lenin showed mankind the true path to peace. He taught the working
class that "the benefits they expect from peace cannot be obtained
without a series of revolutions".7 He opposed the illusion that ''the
existing governments, the present+day mast~r class~s, a~e. capa+
ble- without being 'taught' a lesson (or rather Without bemg eltmmated)
by a se ries of revolutions-of granting a peace in any way satisfactory
to democracy and the working class".8
.
.
Why did Lenin write about a series of revolu.tlOn~, which alone could
work a fundamental change in the world situation and. create the
condition s for the benefits of peace the masses were lookmg to? The
~ Ibid .. p. 309.

~ V.
of

230

I. Lenin. Coll~cted Worts, Vol . 27, p. 422-23.

Ibtd., p. 425.
Ibid. , Vol. 21, p. 299.

6 Ibid .. p. 345.
7 Ibid .. p. ~2 .
II

tbid.

revolution won out W{lutd

unduuhh::llly h"...
.
hich the SOCI'aI"sl
I
, .
country an w .
. by the capitalist .. tate!\. 1 0 \u~h interv ention

subjected to tnterve~~~;n over and were r~spon\il:lle fO,T their country \;

the ~eople. who hadond with a just. defensive war . l.enln wro.tc ,that the

destiny. would .~~p . one country does not at t,lIlC .. tTOk e climlOiltc all
"viet,ory of so~!a IThsm ~n.s a thing of the future , the result of a scries of
war m general ,9
a I

revoluti~ns. h lake a hostile altitude to Marxism want to conceal th e

Theonsts WCPSU
0
" S. A
starts from these very proposl'" I'Ion s 0 f L eom

fac~ that the 1 I' s has now taken place, eliminating capitalism

a
senes of reVO U Ion lobe The imperialists
. ' stl"II'In power In
"h
f the
t
e
rest
0
vast expanse 0 f Ih e g
.
.'
E
h
d" h
world have also been learning 10 their own, way. ven ~ e most Ie ard
the b'
time has gone for
f
represen I aI 'Ive s of 'Imperialism seem to reahse that
good when international relations were an a~ena_. or ar Itrary ?~t! 1.?,y the
,
' 1'1 aggressors andlnvaders. 'the Inlghty worias-oeTalls! system,
Impena IS s.
.
d"
'II
Id
as Lenin anticipated. is capable of exertm8. a eClslve!n uence on WOr
politics. and it is working to exert such mfluence m favour of peace
throughout the world.
Over

LENIN'S IDEAS OF STRUGGLE

FOR PEACE

There is need specifically to stress that Lenin totally di sc redited the

theory of spreading revolution thiough conquest.
The proletariat. once it has taken over. must of course by prepared to
safeguard its gains by force of arms against any intervention by
reactionary international forces. That is what Lenin said. Revolutionary
wars, he pointed out. "may be waged to defend tb~ conquests of the
proletariat victorious in its struggle -a-g ainsCthe bourgeoiSie" .10 '
Replying to a question about whantlp-roJetarian-party would do if the
revolution put it in power in that war, Lenin said: ' ... we would pro pose
peace to all the belligerents on the condition that freedom is given to the
colonies and all peoples that are dependent, oppressed and deprived of
rights." II To the threat of the military suppression of the revolution , the
working class, holding power, would respond with a revolutionary war,
rousing to that war colonies, dependent countries and the proletariat of
Europe. In September 1917, Lenin stressed that "it is impossible to
arouse. popular hero~sm without breaking with imperialism , without
proposmg a democratic peace to all nations. and without thu s turning the
war from a criminal war of conquest and plunder into a just.

t:
It

rC."fnlu~io~ .. ry war .of defence" 1 The proletarian !.tate c,m wage only a
w.lr, th.lt '" dcfcn<,lve. JU\t and revolutionary.
(on\cqucnlly, ~h.cn Lenin \poke about revolutionary war, he meant
dcf~nc..'c of thcsoclah"t fatherland. which the working people had won hy
taking power Into their own hands,
The meaning of Lenin's statement\ in 1915 and 1916 ahout the
prol~tarial'\ revolutionary wars Come\ to the following. Lenin had no
IIlu\lon<; about how the capitalist world would respond to a victoriou ..
.. ociali<;t revolution, He believed that only the capitali<;! world could qart
a war, because impe'riali<;m was inclined to "rule" history with the aid of
mach ine-gun<;.
Sociali<;m, which had won out in one or "everal countrie'i, would 'itill
b~ ,w~ak; imperiali'im. with its characteristic policy of unbridled
militarism, would seek to use armed force to put down socialism.
Elaborating his idea, Lenin wrote: "It would be sheer folly to repudiate
'defence of the fatherland' on the part of oppressed nations in their wars
against the imperialist Great Powers, or on the part of a victorious
proletariat in its war against some Galliffet or a bourgeois state." Il After
all, some Galliffet could be found in one or several capitalist countries
with the urge to use arms to impose his rule and to crush victorious
soc iali sm. The working people would respond to such attempts with
revolutionary war, Such is Lenin's view of revolutionary war. for which
the working class and all the working people of a country that has thrown
off the capitalist yoke, should prepare.
Lenin attached much importance to the historical fact that the Soviet
power took over under the slogan of peace. In his article entitled "Can
the Bolsheviks Retain State Power?" he wrote: "Take the question of
peace, the crucial issue of today .... On thi s issue the proletariat truly
represents the whole nation, all live and honest people in all classes. the
vast majority of the petty bourgeoisie: because only the proletariat. on
ac hi eving power. will immediately offer a just peace to all the belligerent
nation s, because only the proletariat will dare take genu in ely rel'oiutiollary meas ures (publication of the secret treaties, and so forth) to a~hiev.e
the speed iest and most just peace possible ." 1~ Lenin also dealt WIth thiS
point a little earl ier, when he wrote: ", .. no power on earth would be able
to overthrow a government of peace, a government of an honest:
sincere, just peace, after all the horrors of more than three years
butchery of the peoples," 1~ Lenin held that the slogan of peace. ~og,ether
with th e slogans on .the agrarian question, was (h~ BolsheViks key
slogan. whTcn roused the masses to socialist revolutIOn.
Ibid .. Vol, 25, p. 363,
n IbiJ .. Vol. 2:\. p. ~O.
I~ Ih id . Vol. 26. p, 99.
1~ Ihid .. r. 41
1:'

v .. I. Lenin,

COlltcf~d

Ihld .. Vol. 21, p. 163.

.hid. , pro 403-04.

Worlu, Vol. 23. p. 79.

."'H

and th Part never took the view that commu.nism needed

at thee vjct;{y of communism had to be u.<;hered In hy mi]j~ary

~.i. or tb. h the Communists for that reason t~y lO~ to mount vanous
din"cr. ~t.
d an This is an idea which I S all en to communism
tin.eeI ~~h ictl,.n.c:ptcd only by those wh o, like Bukharin. had
::nc:~ a principles. Criticising the l~ud- m outhed. "Leftists" in

Leal......

i:

.
k d' "Perhaps the authors beheve that the Interests of the
191.
as .
.
h
d h
Lc
world
revolution require that it should be gwen a puhs han . th at such a
sh cln be liven only by war. ~e~er by pea~e .
I~ . ~Ig ~ ~~ve the
Pu Ie the impression that impenahsm was being legiti mise?'" 16 The I
poop wa, ' "Such a 'theory ' would be completely at variance with
answer
.
d
'
h" ,
Marxism . for Marxism has always ,been oppose to pu') mg revolufons. which develop with the growing acutenes s of th e c lass antagon - I
i~m5 that engender revolutions." n Only tho se w~ o used "Leftist"
catchwords could invent the idea that t~e ~eac e p o h ~y pu rsued by the
lOCialist stites with respect to the capltah st countn es could mean a
"Ieaitimisation" of imperialism . and that pe~ce wa s a lleged ly harmf~1 for
the development of the world revolutionary process. The Left
Communist!" first took the wrong turn hy cla iming th at peace was
tantamount to a "reconciliation" with the c apitali st s. wh ile struggle
..ainst capitalism meant war and armed uprising. In t hi'" way they
aros~ly distorted the meaning of the world revoluti o nary proce'>'" and its
motive forces . The October Revolution ex.erted a t remc ndou,> influence
on the world revolutionary process . hut this ~ann ot he int erpreted in any
KIl5e as meaning a "pushing" of the revolution in o th er t:ountries by
lMans of the arms of the socialist state.
In 1918. criticising the harmful ideas propounded hy "Left Communist~" . Lenin a~ked : "Perhaps the aulhors believ e that th e interests of the
world revolution forbid making any pca~e at all with imperialists?" '
I.e nin rirmly replied to these men who were confu sing th e ISSUC: "A socialist repuhlic !Surrounded by imperialist powers could not . from this point
I l f view . cnnclude any economic treaties, and could not ex ist at all. without flying to the moon ." 19
Sociali ~ m and capitalism ex.ist on one planet. and their coe). istence is
hi, torically inevitable .
Ru.t imperialism is known to have ignored th e ca ll to peaceful
(;ou.u,lence. and good-neiahtx>ur relations in the ho pe of correcting the
(;OUrse of history by brule force. so as to return it to the old pre-October
line.
.
In !he ardu~ years of the Civil War . when the Sov iet people were
carrYing on their hard fight against the whiteguard s a nd fore ig n invaders.

v:

It.

V I I enm. CoUtrud Worts, Vol.:n 7

Ihl.1. pp
'~tbid

fOld

"'1"1

r '1.

' .

in defendi~g th.eir life and the independence of the world's first sociali<,t
state, Lenm saId that they were engaged in fighting a war for peace and
that t~at war was yielding magnificent results.
Lenm told the Seve.nth Cong~~ss of the Party in 1918 that the country
was the~ only at the flTSt. tranSItional stage from capitali sm to e;ocia1ism
I~ Ru:sla. and added: "H.istory has not provided us with that peaceful
e;ltu.atlon that was theoretically assumed for a certain time. and which i<,
dee;lrabl~ for ue;. and which w0ll:ld ena~le us to pass through these stagee;
of trane;lhon <,peedlly. We ~ee Immediately that the civil war has made
many things difficult in Russia, and that the civil war is interwoven with \
a wh,ole series of wars. Marxists have never forgotten that violence must
me..Yltab1y a~c?mpan~ the colla~se of. capitalism in itsentir~ty and the
b.!!!h of socIl.!l151...s0clety. ~llaty~olence.J1!)L~onst~~ute a. reriod of world
~Is~ory, a wh<:>le era of various kmds of wars. imperialist wa rs. civil wars
me;lde countnes. the intermingling. of th~ t.wo. national ~ars liberating
the natlOnalitle .. opprcs .. cd hy the Impenahsts and by vaTious comb ination .. of imperialist power .. that Will inevitably enter into variou" alliance .. In the epoch of tremendou .. '>tate-capitalist and military trusts and
wndicatcs. Thi .. epoch. an epoch of gigantic cataclysm} of mass
decisions fon:ibl;: imposed ~w<!r ot cri.ses. has. be~lIn~ th"af'we can
see clearly-and it is only the beginning.":'O
History ha .. shown that Lenin was right in ase;essing the period that
had then just begun. But did he believe that this period of the most
di,,er .. e war" would never give way to a period of peaceful conditions.
whkh are desirable for socialist cone;truction? No, he did not. Did Lenin
1:'Ielieve that wars and armed conflicte; were dee;irable for socialie;m" No.
he did not
Lenin a.... es\ed the achIevements of Soviet foreign policy during the
Civil War in the light of the e;truggle for peace. \tressing the vast
importance of winning public opinion in the capita1i<,t countriee; over to
the side of peace. Thank .. to the Soviet Government's correct foreign
policy, a number of bourgeois countries took up a neutralist stand.
important changee; took place in the attitudes of the workers and
peasan ts and then of the petty-bourgeois circles in the capitalie;t
co untri es. and this impe lled them to act against intervention in the affairs
of th e Sov iet Republic.
Le ni n the author of the brilliant work, Imperialism, rh~ Highest Stage
of Cap ;t~fjsm, did not regard the imperialist c.amp as. a ~~no1ithic entity
with out any cracks. In his "Report on Foreign Pol.lcy 10 t9~8. Le~m
formula ted the idea that there were twO tendencies m the foreign poh..:);
of imperiali .. m. He observed that the capitalist world was d~minated by
cont rad ictions. conflicts . struggles. and bitter clashes vergmg on wars

\,

10 Ihid .. p.

no.

-'"

'
' I,'sl powers. and added . "O wlIl g 10 Ihc ... c cont rad ic
t he Impena
II '
fth C lmpCfl<~
. I'1St ... of all
o'lween
,t.:
h
e about thai the general a mnc,e 0
lions. t,t as" con,t Ihe basis of the economiC alliance- of capltall"m , an <11countnes. f ormJng
. ' . - d ' f ' d c' 't'lh h
lianee whose natural and ine~'ltahle 31m I: ~l_ c.: h~ .IPI:\ /'" :c re cognises no fatherland. and which h~~s pro\hc In I .1.:: fo;mi: 0 h m.lnfY major

ta t episodes in world history t al capll~ p aCeS I c sa cguard

f~g ~~f~; al~iance of (he capitalists of all countries against the working
ve Ihe interests of the fatherland. of (he people or of what you
bo
peop Ie this
a
. .IS not ,the movmg
. foree ~ f po rIlles.
" 21 8 ,ut Lemn
'
will-that
alhance
warned that this alliance continued 10 .b~ ~he baSIC I~nden.cy. of I,mpe rlal .
's
v.hile the other tendency - the divIsion of the Impen a li sts Into hos~il~l groups and coalitions - was. also expressed. This ~la~e mo~e ~ifficult
and virtually impossible any ~thanc~ be.tween ~he m.3jOr Impenah.st po~
ers against the Soviet Repubhc, whlc.h 10 the flr ~t ~ I X month s of Its eXI stence had won the warmest sympathIes and undlvld~d ,support of all the
class.conscious workers throughout the world. Lenm s gene ral conclu sion was that in world politics "two trends exist: one, which makes an al
liance of all the imperialists inevitable: the other. which places the imperiali sts in opposition to each other-two tren~ s, neither?f w hich has
any firm foundation".22 One of these tendenCies may gam the upper
hand , but that does not mean that the other has disappeared. The
struggle between
the content of intern at ional
relations, whic~ opens
of
a number of

d'

powers'
An active foreign policy aimed
and co nso lidate peace has a
real basis in the development of international relation s, in the growing
strength of the socialist system itself and in the s ymp athi es which it
commands among a vast majority of the population of th e globe.
But in the Civil War period the Que stion was being decided on the
battlefield. The Soviet Republic had to defend it s very exi stence. Either
the one or the other side had to win. In these conditions, Lenin sa id , a
number of the most terrible clashes between the Soviet Republic and the
bourgeois states, taking the path of war, was inevitable . But even at th e
height of the fighting against the Denikin band s in 1919, Lenin was
alr~ady considerin~ the possibility of "attracting into Ru ss ia, during the
peflod of .the coexistence side by side of soc iali st and cap it al ist st ates,
the techmcal help of the countries which are more advanced in thi s
respect':-n Through t~e s~orms of the Civil War Lenin clearly di scerned
the outlines of the historical period that was bound to come .

I.cnin\ lIoc~rine of ~eaceful coexistence is a remarkahle example uf

creatl~c Marxl .. m. I.enm elaborated his doctrine on the .. trength of the
expcncm:e of rcvolutionary struggle and construction of the new
.. ociety. I.ire kept pre.,enting fresh problems and Lenin providell
profound and ~corl!tjca~ well-grounded answers based on the s.olid
.principles o!M~xjsm. LenTn~ ideas have alwaysnelped the P'arty and
t~c . <jtat~ confidently to advance. to overcome their foreign-policy
difficulties. and clearly to sec the basic trends in the development of
world affairS. In our own day. the Central Committee of the CPSU take"
the s~me Leninist, creative approach in developing Marxism. providing
MarX ist answers to the questions posed by life.
Summing up the results of the victorious Civil War, Lenin said: ..... we
are in a position of having won conditions enabling us to exist side by
side with capitalist powers, who are now compelled to enter into trade
rela tion s with US."24 The period of peaceful coexistence was not a
historical windfall, but the result of active and selfless efforts on the part
of the men and women engaged in socialist construction. the Communist
Party, the Soviet state and millions of working people in foreign
countries. Back in November 1917. Lenin had warned: "It is highly na'lve
to think that peace can be easily attained. and that the bourgeoisie will
) , hand it to us on a platter as soon as we mention it." ~ Efforts had to be
made t o secure a period of peace. Once the direct armed attack by
capit alism had been beaten. back. Lenin stressed that "we ~ave
something more than a breathmg-space: we have entered a new penod,
in which we have won the right to our fundamental international
existence in the network of capitalist states".16
At the time. Lenin formulated the basic principle of Soviet foreign
policy aimed to secure peaceful coexiste~ce in a draft ~esolution which
he wrote and which was adopted by the Eighth Ali-Russia Co.nferen~e ~f
the Party and th e Seventh Congress of the Soviets: "Th~ RUSSian Soclahst
Federat ive Soviet Republic wishes to live in peace with all peoples ~nd
devote all its efforts to internal development so as. to put prod~ctlOn,
tran sport and government affairs in order.on the b~sls of the Sov Iet systern: this has so far been prevented by the mterventlon of the Entent~and
,the starvation blockade. m The Confe~ence and th.e Congress ~utho~!sed
(
)
the Soviet Government "to continue thiS peace po.ilcy ~yslematlcally .
But Lenin urged the Soviet people to bear 10 mm~ ~hat they were
surround ed by men, classes and governments openly VOlClOg the greatest
hatred for them.

~4 Ibid . Vol. 31. p. 412.

%v.Ibid.I. , Lenin.
COlltcted Work s. Vol. 27. p. 366
p. 369.
.
n Ibid . Vol. 30. p. 39.

2~ Ibid .. Vol. 26. p. 3-45.

~6 Ibid., Vol. 31. p. -412 .
~, Ibid . Vol. 30. p. 191

he capitalist world were inclin ed to see the new period

Th e mas t er S of t
.
. I
. d d
.
only as a breathing-space and not as a h,srorl,ca peno . esplte the fact
that the way was open for the peaceful coex istence on th e globe of two
. .
different social systems.
Even in Lenin's lifetime. the rulers, of the ~apltahst world were forced
to negotiate with the Soviet state. An .tnternall~nal co nference meeting at
Genoa in 1922 saw a Soviet delegatIOn take It s place at the sam e t able
with representatives of the ,capitalist ~lates of We~t.: rn ~urop~. A,t ~h e
opening ceremony, the Soviet delegatIon ~ecJared. Whll~ mamtammg
the standpoint of the principles of communism. the, delegation, of Russ ia
recognises that in the present historical epoch , which makes It possible
for the old and the emergent new social system to exi st parallel with each
other. economic cooperation between states representing th ese two
systems of property is an im~a~iv~ fos.&E.n~(au..co.no.mjc r~h abilita
tion."28 Let us recall that all the preparation s for the Genoa Conferen_
ce were carried out under Lenin's direct g~idanc~:
..
The question of peaceful coexistence In political , military and also
economic term s was posed by history. In 1921 , Lenin analy sed and
broadly elaborated this question: "But is the existence of a sociali st
republic in a capitalist environment at all conceivable? It seemed
inconceivable from the political and military aspects. That it is possible
both politically and militarily has now been proved; it is a fact. But wh at
about trade? What about economic relation s?" 29 Lenin gave a positive
answer and made this highly important point : "There is a forc e more
powerful than the wishes. the will and the decisions o f any of the
governments or classes that are hostile to u s. That force is world general
economic relations , which compel them to make contact with us." JO It is
hard to overestimate the methodological importance of thi s idea of
Lenin's.
Petty-bourgeois revolutionaries considering the world revolution ary
process and seeking to estimate the opponents' strength very c haracteristically either altogether undere stimate the will and urges among the
~apit~list classes or overestimate them just as gro ssly , in both instances
Ignoring the objective regularities of social development , and di spl aying
Jack of skill in assessing the real strength of the subjective factor . The
petty-bourgeois revolutionary keeps vacillating in his assessment of the
wo~ld, revoluti~nary process , now taking the pa ss ive attitude and
behevmg that It will work of itself , independently of the subj ective
factor, now taking the voluntarist approach.
By .cont rast. Lenin urged his associates to make a di stinction between
the Will. urges and decisions of hostile classes and governments. and the

Histo~

: A
0/ Diplomacy. Vol. III. MOSCOw-Leni ngrad. 1945. p . 170 (in
10 V: I. lenin. Collected Work! Vol, 33 p lSI
IbId., p_ 155.
' . ,

218

Rus~ian).

obj~ctive Cour<ie of hi'Story. He emphasised that the peaceful coexistence

p~ltcy w.as not based on any subjective desires but on objective tendenc,le,s. whIch could overcome the resisting forces with men's vigorous activity and the correct foreign policy of the socialist state,
This policy, aimed at maintaining and consol idating peace cannot run
counter to the interests of any people anywhere on the globe. On the
contrary, it me~ts the vit~l interests of all nations and all the working
people. who reject the pohcy of aggression and war. Lenin said that "o ur
peace policy is approved by the vast majority of people all over the
world" .1 1
A peaceful foreign policy is an instrument to win over for commu nism
the vast majority of the population of the globe. It helps communist ideas
to reach the minds of the masses. without which there can be no
successful world revolutionary process,
This policy, fa r from producing conflicts, is in effect designed to
eliminate the very ground on which conflicts between nations a ri se,
Lenin elaborated this idea in detail in 1922. when he wrote: "Ou r
experience has left us with the firm conviction that only exclusive
attention to the interests of various nations can remove grounds for
conflicts, can re move mutual mistrust. can remove the fear of any
intrigue s, and c reate that confidence. especially on the part of workers
and pea sant s speaking different languages. without which there
absolutely cannot be peaceful re lations between peoples or anything like
a s uccess ful development of everythi ng that is of value in present-day
civilisation." 32 There is no doubt that imperialism seeks to intensify this
mi stru st and to push it to a point where it erupts in armed conflict. This
policy is re sisted by sociali st foreign policy. A new state of affairs is
produced in world politics: the socialist state works to elimi,nat,e mutual
mi stru st between nations, generated an~ fostered by capitalism, and
seeks to elim inate th e ground for conflicts between natLOns. thereby
paving the way for the successfu l development of what is m,os~ valua?le
in modern civilisation. That is one of the key aspects of soc la11st fo reign

policy,
'
k'
I
The peace policy , once a dema nd comlOg only fr?m the war 109 ~ a,ss
and the other working people, became the state policy of a g rea~ s?clahst
power wielding all the instruments of foreign policy , and pro~I~ lRg real
suppo rt in the world arena for the urge for peace among ~!lll~ns a nd
million s of working people all over the world. Therein hes the
importance of the great turning point in the ~istory of the struggle for
peace which came with the October Revolutlon: '
'
.
191 7 the day after the SOCialist revolution. Lemn
O n Novem b e8r . ,
f S'
d set out the
addre ssed the Second All-Russia Congress 0
OV lets an
J I Ibid .. Vol. 30, p. 390.
12 Ibid " Vol. 33. p, 386.

' po I'ICY of the Soviet state . In. concluding

hi s first foreign-p
.'
. o lic'_
J
forelgn
~peech on behalf of (he young S?Vlet state, In whic h he dealt with the
key issue of world politics-the Issue of war and peace- he decla red:
"Everywhere there are differences between the governrn :nts and the
peoples. and we must therefore help the p~o~le s to mtervene in
questions of war and peace. We will, of cours~. inSi st upon the.~hole of
our programme for a peace without ann.exatlons an~ mde mmtles. We
'>hall not retreat from it; but we must not give our enemies an opportunit y
to say that their conditions are .different from ours and (h,at therefore it is
useless to start negotiations with us. No, we mu st d~pnve th em of that
advantageous position and not present our term s In the form of a n
ultimatum." 11
In those words the great strate~,~ .o f .the revolution formulat ~~ the key
principle of revolutionary foreIgn policy p~rsued ~y the .SOvlet. state.
One of the most important tasks of the SovIet state s foreIgn policy, as
Lenin saw it, was to wean away the masses from .the imperiali sts and to
win them over to its side. Its task was to deprive the enemy of any
opportunity of using Soviet foreign policy to dupe the masses and of
keeping them in the wake of the bourgeoisie,
At this point. one cannot help recalling that by the early 1950s the
imperialists had managed, by means of lying propaganda , to persuade
~i73ble masses of the population in the capitalist countries that there wa s
no need to enter into negotiations with the Soviet Union because that
W3\ allegedly hopeless, considering that the wheels of his tory inexorably
rolled along the path to war. The Communist Party a nd the Soviet
Government debunked this false idea of the imperiali st s and worked to
win over for socialism broad sections of the population in th e capitali st
countries. With the signing of the Austrian Treaty (1955). with the
e~tabli'ihment and development of normal good-neighbour rel a ti ons with
<I number of capitalist countries, including the USA, step by step.
including the Moscow Treaty banning nuclear-weapon s tes ts in th e three
environments-air, water and outer space (1963)-they worked to
hring about that swing in public opinion among broad sec ti o n s o f the
population in the capita list countries, destroy.ing the-waJI o f.lies.. 3.{\d
~ Ja~d~r\ which the. .imperialists. ~,ad ! rected alon.s the boundari es of the
.)oc lah~t wor}d. It IS hard to exaggerate the importance of thi s c hange in
the m~ or tne masses in the capita list couotri'es. It paralysed bourgeois
propag.mda efforts of many years and Mprived the imperiali s ts of the
adv<lntageou,s position, which they had ~rtificiall--"SOhght to create.for
them'ielv. es ~n the late 1940s and early 1950s In t eir fight against
com~ ~OI\t Idea'i , accusing the Soviet Union of aggressiveness and
unwllhngne\'i to maintain good-neighbour and peaceful relation s.
II V

--

I I.enin. Cfll/l( trd Work.r . Vol. 26. p. 2.'12.

On variou'i occasions oPPosition-minded d

statements to the effect that the revolutionar ~n h confu'ied people I~sued
policy should consist in the peremptory a ;oc hacter of SOVL~t foreIgn
ence and loud phrase-mongering. ReplYi::t ~~ . Inl co~stant IOtransigtists", Lenin stressed: "We should not and mOt e~e, ou mouthed "Lefan opportunity of taking refuge behind Our u~~o~ ~Ive.t~e gO\l~rnments
of concealing from the peoples the reason why th p oml~n.g attItude and
s hamble s. This is a tiny drop. but we should not a~d a~eu elOg se~t to th.e
drop. which will wear away.t.he stone of bourgeois c~~~~~~~Je~~ t~'I~
tlmatum would make the posItIon of our opponents easier But ~ h II
make all,the terms known to the people. We shall confront ~II the g~vSer~_
ments WIth our term'i. and let the~ give an answer to their people."'"
. By now the drops th~t kept ~eann~ away the stone of bourgeois aggress lve~~ss ha~e ~erged 10 the ml~hty .tlde of Soviet foreign policy based on
!--enlOlst pfl~clples. What L~nlO sal,d adds up to skilful formulation and
ImplementatIon of a rea! forelgn-p.ohcy programme which meets the interests of the peop.les, ral~les an.d ~OI~s Ih.~ __9e:mocratic fo!ces, hampers the
moves by ~eactl?na.ry ImpenarrSI clraes and forces diem to succumb to
the peopl~ s aspl r~t lons, C<.>ns.istent implementation of this kind of program m~ 10 Internat !onal affairs 10 effect means helping the peoples to intervene I~ the qu~st lons ?f war. and peace, and facilitating the democratic
for ces efforts In e xertmg an Influence on the solution of key international
problem s.
In our day. every world issue of any importance is scrutinised by
public opin ion. Even imperialist politicians have been forced bitterly to
admit that the age of secret diplomacy has gone for good. The various
machinations by the imperialist governments are resisted by the foreign
policy of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries. There are
inevitably t wo lines on every world issue; that is why public opinion
must weigh and evaluat e the views of the socialist countries and compare
them with thc line pursued by the imperialists. Lenin's plan was to
confront all th e governments wit h Sov iet proposals. with Sov iet projects
for tack ling international problems, and t his plan is being consistently
fulfilled a nd has yie lded abundant fruit. The Soviet Government has
made wide use of the UN rostrum fo r that purpose.
Lenin began hi s fi gh t again st secret diplomacy. believing that it was
necessary to hel p the peoples to intervene in the solution of key world
issues. At th e same time. addressing the Second Congre~s of SOViets.
Lenin indicated the general line of Soviet diplomacy: "There IS ~tlll
another point. comrade'i. to \o,.hich you must pay the mo~t cardul atten,
tion. The secret treaties must be published, The clauses dealing \qth an

U v. L Lenin. Col/turd WOrk.l. Vol. 211. p. 1~~,

,
d ' d mnities must be annulled . There are various cl auses
nexatlons an In e
k
not only
d
'
comrades _ the predatory governments, YOll no\\ .
rna. e agreelves on plunder. but among them the y also mcluded
'hemse
ments between
' hbour Iy rela.
meots and various other clauses on goo d -nclg
e.con~~~cHagree has,'sed in conclusion: "We reject all clauses on plunder
lions
eemp
....
f
" I
b ,we shall welcome all clauses contalnmg provI sion s or
an d VIO cnee.

'hb UI elations and all economiC

agreem en's'. we c anno , regood -nelg our Y r
h d' ,
,
'eel these" 16 Soviet foreign policy marks a new water,s e In mtern~tlOn_
JI I "
',,'ng all agreements on plunder and violence . carrymg on
a re at Ions.
fCJec
d hid '
'
fit
uggle against such agreements, an 0 109 up In contrast
a purpos e ,u sr
neighbour and economic relations. Th at indi cate s a
good
.
.
agreemen s on. . - .
enuine revolution m mternatlOnal relations.
.
g These propositions of Lenin's bear on .the fundame.nt als of Soviet
foreign policy. On the other hand.. the 'pohc~ of preparing for war and
creating sharp international confhcts. m which armed fo rce coul~ be
r ,hreats could be issued of the use of such force to achieve
O
d
use
'
self-seeking
aims-that is what the "norma I" f orelgn
po rIC Y 0 f t he
. .
imperialist bourgeoisie amounts to.
With the emergence of the Soviet socialist state, t~e bourgeOi s VI~W of
the strength of states and their for~ign-p~lic,y pre stige. ~as undermmed.:
the very foundations of the bourgeOIs pohcy 'fr0f!1 poslt~on s o~ s!rength
were subjected to withering criticism. 'J!lis p~hcy of Imper~al .. sm was
contrasted with the principles of the foreign pohcy of the SOCIalIst state.

I
I

PRESENT-DA Y SOCIAL THOUGHT

AND THE PROBLEM OF WAR AND PEACE

Lenin flatly rejected the suggestion that the Soviet state should carry
on in the well-beated track of bourgeois diplomacy , which relie s on brute
force and is in the habit of issuing ultimatum s and diktat s. Lenin showed
that there were two views of the strength of states an"cflTi.eir policie s, the
bourgeois and the socialist view. He showed that bourgeoi s notion s of
the political strength of states were false and explained where the t rue )
power of states lay. "According to the bourgeoi s conception , th ere is
strengt h when the people go blindly to the slaughter in obedience t o the
imperialist governments. The bourgeoisie admit a state to be strong only
when it can, by the power of the government apparatus, hurl th e peop~e
wherever the bourgeois rulers want them hurled . Our idea of st rength IS
different. Our idea is that a state is strong when the people are po litically

co~s~iou':t . It is str?ng when the people know everything. can form an

OpinIOn of eve~y.thlng and do everything consciously" l '
. Th~ bourgeOIsIe was.in t.he habit of viewing world politics as a sphere
I~ whIch the state apphed Its strength. Two main stages stand out in the
history of b?urgeois doctrines about the principles of world politics
propounded In the 19th and 20t~ c.enturies. The first is the period of
pre~on,?p~deyeIQPment.Q(~apltalism mar~~JlY the almost undivided
domlOatlon of the theory whIch came to be known as tne----''Oalance of
strength". According to this theory. world order as a whole re<;ts on a balance of ~trength, chiefly between the great powers. Anything that tends 10
u~set thIS balance. any advantage accuring to this or that power is latent
WIth grave c<:,ns~quences. World politics and diplomacy must use every
means at theIr dIsposal to prevent the balance from being upset. War is
also a means of redressing the balance. This theory was called a "Concert
of Europe" theory. because Europe was the center of world politics. The
"balance of strength" theory in international affairs was closely connected with the positivist sociological doctrines of the early and mid-19th
century. I have already mentioned the importance of the theory of
"equ ilibrium" in Spencer's sociology. Indeed. he applies this to relations
between societies and to international relations. The change from militarism to industrialism. according to Spencer. depends on the establishment
of equilibrium between nations and races.3I The epoch of imperialism
shows how wrong and artificial this positivist scheme is. "Industrialism"
has done nothing to eliminate militarism. but has. on the contrary. pushed
it to the limit s.
The uneven development of the capitalist countries, which is much
more acute in the period of imperialism. and the fierce fight among the
plunderers in the world arena have undermined the prestige of that
theory and have produced a new stage in the development of the
bourgeoi s doctrines concerning the principles of world politics. It is
expressed in the conception of strength. or in other words. of arbitrary
action in international relations. One of the first versio ns of the
"stre ngth" theory was "geopolitics". \\ hich made use of some aspects of
geographical determinism to present the political map of the ",:,orl? as an
aggregation of "cent ers of force" and "lines of force", that IS. hnes of
expan sion emanating from these "centers". Another theory. was
concocted to show th at law and order did exist in the world on ly If one
power had absol ute preponderance in strength, for t~e~ all the oth~r
states were bound to reckon with that absolute su.peno nty .. Fro~ thIS
angle a review was made of the history of international relations," the
31 V. I. Lenin. Colltcttd \{Iorks. Vol. 26. p. 255.
Lort to $deru:t, Vol. \,
31 H. E. Bflrne~ and H. Becker. Soriol Thought from

' CoUeeled Works. Vol. 26, p, 2",

H V. /. L emn.
:16 Ibid.
242

WashinglOn. 1952. p. 668.

",

d th conclusion suggc'iteu th at after the

nineteent~ century, a~ E e pc rested on the ab~olut e superiority of
Napoleomc wars pea~e m uro ndermined thai superiority the continenl

~rit~in, sot~at.when e e::a~~Yo~the First World War. Th is theory was a

mevltably shd. IOta

heo
hich had currency in the Roman Empire,
rehashed verslo .. ~f a komana' under which the Roma n legions alone
ax d ord
everywhere by putting down all the
and was called
could establish w an e 11 will be easily seen that this th eory was an
~nlransi~ent by arm~ 0of "imperialist policy aimed to sec ure world
IdeO~ogl~al express,!on m Of another it was adopted in a ll the countries
dommatlon In onc or
B
N.
.
.. '"d claim to world supremacy :
ntam ,
aZI
whose bourgeoIsie aI
<
"d , .
".
Germany an d t hen 'he USA , all of which had many I eo og lsts ex to 109
this theory.
.
Id r
d I
The emergence and consolidatlo~ o.f the wo~ sO:la I stl~y~ten~ e~ t a
crushing blow at all these imperialist th~or!, e!" 0 . wor 'd om,.I~ atJhond
However, the advocates of plunder and fistlcu aw In wor po IIICS a
no intention of laying down their arms. On t~e contrary , .they ~e~ lar~d
that the "strength" policy was most convement for t~e .Imperla ll st s 10
their fight against the Soviet Union and the world s oclali ~t sy st em as a
whole. That is precisely what John Foster Dulles kept saying. The myth
of the "communist threat" helped the architect s of the " strength' pO.licy.
For decades bourgeois ideologi sts who were generou sly pa id by
finance capital for their lying theories kept saying that imperialis m was
the keeper of the traditions of bourgeoi s democracy . That was the false
slogan under which preparation s for war against the USSR a nd other
socialist countries were being carried on . Indeed , among the term s
invented for that purpose was the "free world". The intenti o n was to
take a leaf from the pirates' book and to sail along under a borrow ed flag:
they claimed that they were the champions of bourgeoi s-de mocratic
freedom s. They sought to use a screen of ideas borrowed from others
and on every fitting occasion quoted some American ideologi st of the
18th century. That was an attempt to forge the birth certific ates of th e
pre sent-day ideologists of imperialism and to pre sent them a s being th e
de sc endents of progressive political leaders of the pa st. That wa s a fein t,
an attempt to win over some sections of the middle and pett y
bo urgeoisie, and some sections of the working cla ss labouring under
bourgeois political and ideological influence. But it is imposs ible to buy a
"decent" family tree for reactionary ideas, becau se ideas have th eir own
lineage which cannot be forged. Indeed, it can be c hanged only if a ll the
librarie s were burned down and the memory of the people s oblit era ted.
The id eologists of the ri sing bourgeoisie proclaimed ideas which were
antithetica l to those now put forward by the impe riali st s. Th e 18th
ce ntury sa w the proclamation of the right of the people to re volution,
and the leaders of the American revolution sa id a s much in their writ ings.
Th ey stood up fo r that right. They protested again st va riou s a tt e mpt s by

fcudal-absolutist react ion to stamp out the revolut ionary movement in

other countries. Thomas Jefferson, a prominent leade r of the liberat ion
movement in North America and US President from ISOI to 1809, wrote I
that when people :o.uffer from absolute despothm " ... it is their right , it is.
their duty to throw..i>ff s.uch government, and t provide new guard ~ for
_their future sec urity". The-ToiWanI-looki'ng Po ItlcaITeade rs of the 18th
ce ntury recognised the people's inalie nable right ..... to institute new
government, laying its fou ndation on such princ iples, and o rganising its
powers in such form. as to them shall seem most likely to effect their
safety and happiness" .J9 That was what Jefferson wrote, emphasising the
principle of the people's sovereignty and st ressing in every way the right
of every people to arrange its own affairs and to seek happiness and
securit y. Indeed, secu rity was especially underscored, because no
peop le can be sovereign if it is unable to stand up fo r its security. Nor
can th ere be any happiness without security. In those distant days, the
ideologist s of the bourgeoisie were guided by logic and not by sophistry .
T he present-day spokesmen of imperialist reaction, throwing up a
barrage of sophi sms, wou ld like to destroy logic and deprive revolutiona ry peop les of their right to ensure their own security against aggressive
moves. Th eir aim is quite clear: when that happens, the peoples'
sove re ignty will become illusory.
In our day, the feudal lords and the absolutist mo narchs, against whom
the bourgeoisie o nce fought in its efforts to secure state power, ~ ave no~
give n way to the magnates of financial capital, the ce ntra l figures In
inte rnational conflicts. Th is process has now gone deeper and fart her . It
is the tas k of the progressive fo rces in their political and ideological
strugg le to ex pose this process and to show the masses how the murky
tide of reactio n has carried the magnates of financial capital to positions
o nce held by the wild est fe udal lo rds and spokesmen for absolute
mo narc hies. Wh at we re the ideas expressed at the congress of the Holy
Alliance at Tro ppau? Th e men who met there had respect only ~o r t ~ e
" law" of the mailed fi st , the only 'law" which the fe uda ls recogn!sed In
internatio na l relatio ns . Th e leaders of reaction wanted to estabhsh the
" ine vitability" of the use of coe rcive fo r~e. Since then: "haw ks" and
other reactionari es in the USA have not Invented anything new. They
ha ve mere ly borrowed the political views of. th e feu.da l lord s and the
absolute monarc hs, the very regi mes again st which !e~f e~s o~ so
eloquentl y spo ke out. There is a record of a c haracteri stic inCIdent
in volving the Ru ss ian tsa r Nic holas l. Wh en. told of the Feb~,u ary 1848
e vent s in Fran ce. he addressed his G uards o! flcers as foll ows: To horse,
ge ntle me n ! The re is a repu blic in France !' However. th e .horsemen of
Ni c holas I were unable to tram ple the sprea ding democratic moveme nt
in Fra nce .

""'l

J--

J9 Thoma~ Jdfer,on. TIre Life (IUd Se/nuJ Writings. Nev. York. 19-14. p. ~:!,

.'H.

It is dangerously insane to revive the reac lionar~ idea s of long pa\1

periods in the present situation',:~ny ~ltem~1 to revlv~ the doctri~e" of
the Holy Alliance about the nght. to mtervene .111 the affam. of
revolutionary peoples is fraught with worl~ confhcts. Feudal and
absolutist leaders in the past were not. fa~ed. with the danger of cau sing a
world war ana that is an important dlstiOcllon between the present and
the past. ~oreover, the forward-looking social forces of the p~st were
not united" or consolidated in the world arena an~ the reactionaries
succeeded in their attempts to put down revolutionary movement s
which started here and there. and got off scot free when th ey violated the
sovereign rights of nations.
Today the situation is quite different. How~ver mu.ch im~eri a1i st
reactionaries may love the old slogans of trampling the sovereignty of
other nations, they have to desist. Any attempt to act in the world arena
in the spirit of those plunderous slogans, provoking world conflict s,
inevitably sets in motion powerful world force s and awakens world
. .
opinion.
Incidentally, even in those days when the Holy Alliance held sway in
Europe, the statesmen of Britain still decided not to risk open adoption
of the Troppau ideas. The then British Foreign Secretary cautiously
declared that "it is inadmissible that the Holy Alliance should undertake
a priori the obligation to maintain certain political theories again st other
theories in alilhe possible cases and in all the countries".40 Those were
weak reservations but they did give a hint of apprehension in face of
public opinion.
The early predecessors of present-day bourgeois ministers felt
themselves forced apprehensively to consider contemporary public
opinion. Public opinion today means millions of organised workers in the
capitalist countries, the intelligentsia in these countries, many of whose
members heed the voice of reason, the petty-bourgeoi s sec tions where
there is. awareness of the possible consequences of war, th e millions of
people In count.ries that have thrown off the colonial imperi al ists, and the
sta~es o,f [~e mlgh~y world socialist system, whose opinion carries much
weight m mternatlOnal affairs,
Th~ feud~1 lord s and the absoluti.<;t monarchs fanned intern ational
c~nfhcts Without securing victory. These conflicts ultimately undermmed and destroyed feudalism and absolutism in the old se rf-ho lding
Europe: Pr.esent-d~y imperialist reaction cannot hope to gain more by
provokmg mternatlonal conflicts,
f The t~me came when even, a president of the USA, J, F. Kennedy,
ound himself forced to admit that the strength of imperiali sm and the
strength of the world socialist system were roughly equal. While the

,..

.., A. Debidour, H;sto;re diplomatique de I'c!/rope, I I, Pari s, 1891. p. 150 .

mo~opolies working on war contracts and the militaristic circles keep

urgl~g the nee~ to step, u~ th~ arms drive, the "strength" policy in world

aff~ lrs and a diplomatiC I!ne In accord with that policy keeps coming up
agamst obstacles whose Importance has been growing.
C?f course, the reactionary, militaristic imperialist circles are sti ll
trYing to frustrate in every way the socialist countries' peaceable
develo~~ent, b:cause they are not su re that capitalism will win in the
competitIOn against sociali sm.
Howe~er, ~ilitary theorists established back in the 19th century that
the cru~~al thing for a suc,cessful war is correspondence of political aims
and military means available to achieve these aims. This idea was
d~veloped by the German military theorist Clausewitz. Those military
circles have not renounced their plunderous and aggressive de signs and
the l!l0st "hawkish" of the military-industrial circles have not abandoned
the Idea of ~estroying socialism by means of armed force. The present
level of SCie nce , technology and the productive forces has made it
possible to fabri~ate an .e~tremely powerful de structive weapon. But its
use for. a~resslVe polltlc,al purposes by imperialism is fraught with
contradictions, The ImpeTialists no longer haye a monopoly of nuclear
weapon s: In military-technical terms, the Soviet Union, far from lagging
behmd , IS actually ahead of the imperialists. Thus, the use of this
destructive weapon hold s no promise for the imperialist bourgeoisie of
achieving its political aims and is, on the contrary, fraught with threat to
the very existence of the capitalist system.
This idea has occurred to more and more bourgeois theori sts. It was
expressed in a talk with Soviet journalists by the prominent British
idealist philo sopher Bertrand Russell. It is also given in a peculiar
version by Profe sso r Walt Rostow in his book, The Stages of Economic
Growth, which well illu strates the absurd position in which the
imperialists find themselves following the loss of their nuclear-weapons
monopoly,
However , the "m ilitary situation" is only one side of the matter. The
point is that militarism as the historical phenomenon generated by
capitalism and brought to an extreme in the period of imperialism is
plunged in deep c ri sis,
. . '.
In 1878, Engels wrote in his Anti-Diillrillg that "10 thiS ,co~petlt~ve
struggle between armou r-plating and guns, the warship IS be 109
developed to a pitch of perfection which is making it both outrag~o.usly
costly and unusable in war". Engels saw this development of mlil.tary
technology as expressing the "dialectical laws of motIOn on the baSIS .of
which milit arism ... is being brought to its doom in consequence of Its
,,41
own d eve Iopment .
~I F. Engels, Allti.D!illriltg, Moscow, 1969. pp. 207-08 .

's a' hand

The weapons of. dc\truction . have reac ncu "'

Th at marnen , I
. h f
f ,'on" that makes them unfit for ;\ggresslvc. plund erous
"plle 0 per ec I
.
,/
I"
1
purposes. Risk itself turns wa,r. wil~ ~ts plunucrolls po Hlea purposes,
into a reckless adventure for Imperlahsm. .
.
The downfall of militarism. however. IS not an msta~taneou s Or
automatic act. but a relatively lengthy. pr.ocess. It goes ha~~ 10 ,hand with
spasmodic attempts by the imperlahsts to save mdltar~s~ from
destruction and [0 keep weapons 10 the arsenal of world politics at all
costs. AI the same time. there is a growing struggle for the destruction of
militarism.

The so-called cold war was an expression of the contradiction into

which imperialism. with its aggressive policies, has been plunged in a
situation when these policies could boomerang.
The imperialists have not abandoned their policy of militari sm, which
brings great profits to the monopolies working on arms contracts. It is
arms contracts that are a highly convenient form for further concentrating vast power in the hands of the biggest monopolies, the prime
contractors controlling the fulfilment of government orders. Statemonopoly capital has the most solid positions in the arms busines s ,
and this has a great effect on the whole policy of the imperiali st
powers.
The cold war policy was called ;;balancing on the brink of war" for a
very good reason. Dulles presented it as being the summit of bourgeoi s
stalemanship. Actually, it was an expression of the dead end into which
imperialism has run. The aggressive elements of imperialism have been
seeking a way out by trying to start a "hot war". but the most
sober-minded statesmen in the imperialist camp have already come to
realise that this line is reckless and hopeless. However, the latter do not
have a decisive preponderance over the reactionary and aggressive
elements, which are closely bound up with the arm s business.
The way out of the dead end is, above all, to intensify the influ ence
exerted by the people on the policy of the ruling circles in the cap itali st
countries. When massive pressure is intensified, the ruling circles are
forced to reckon with this and the more peaceable tendencies gain the
upper hand. In the present epoch, wars have become a means of
artificially maintaining capitalism. The struggle for peace has become a
means of weakening capitalism.
Duri.ng the First World War, the working class of a number of
co~ntn.es came to realise that capitalism was se.~king artificia..!!y. to
, maintain the wage-slave system by means of armed force , tfirough wars.
A struggle was started for a revolutiOriary withdraw-al from the war, and
the wh~le of mankind was shaken by the Great October Socia list
R~volutlon, Some 25 years later. the truth of Lenin's words was again
dnv,en home to the working people of many countries through the
terrible example of the Second World War. after which a number of
:!4k

pl!()ple~ threw off the imperiali'>t yoke. Today, one-third of mankind ha"

gOne ~ver ~o socialism and ha~ become the master of its destiny,
Social ~hmkers were faced with a highly important question; one-third
of, ~an~lnd had ~aken control of the laws of social development.
ellmmat.mg the blind forces of capitalism, scoring great successes.
harneSSing the f?rce s o~ nature and producing remarkable machinery and
te~hnology, while the Imperialists were still able. as in the old days. to
dnve the peoples to the slaughter whenever they wished. Consequently.
wa~ the. bloody eleme~t to rage over the globe as it did in the old days?
ThiS r~lsed the que.sli?n about the possibility of further limiting the
ope~at l.on of the capitalist system in the sphere of world politics, because
cap italism was no longer the one and only master in the international
arena.
The answer ~o this key question was provided by the 20th Congress of
the CPSU, which put forward the idea that in Our day there was no fatal
inevitability of war and that the possibility to avert war had increased,
The conversion of socialism into a world system. the growing might of
the Soviet Union and all the socialist countries. the growing consciousne ss and organisation of all the forces coming out for peace in the
cap itali st countries. the emergence of "peace zones" and the growth of
the national liberation movement - all of this had brought about a
fundamental change in the world situation, The CPSU announced this
from the rostrum of its 20th Congress, and these ideas were also the
basis for the conclusion drawn by the 21st Congress of the CPSU. which
said that even before socialism fully won out all over the globe. and
while capitalism still remained on a part of it. there would arise a real
possibility to eliminate world war from the life of society,
The proposition that in our day it is possible to prevent war, and to
maintain peace. was adopted by the Meetings of the fraternal parties in
Moscow in 1957 and 1960.
The Programme of the CPSU, adopted by the 22nd Congress of the
Party. contain s a detailed statement about the p~ssibility of ~vert"ng
world war in our day. It starts from the fact th at 10 th.e new hlst,oncal
epoch masses of people tend ever more actively to mtervene to the
solution of internat ional issues and tackle the solution of the problems of
war and peace. ;'/t is possible to QI'ert a world war?y the comb.in~d
efforts of the mighty socia li st camp, the peace-lovtog non-so~la~lst
countries the international working class and all the forces champlomng
peace. The growing superiorit y of the social ist forces over th~ forces o.f
imperialism, of the forces of peace over th~se of w~r. Will make It
actually possible to banish world war from the life of society e\'~n .bef?re
the complete victory of socialism on earth. with capitalism :)urvl"mg iO a
part of the world." H
4~ TIle Road 10 Commrwism. Moscow, 1961. p. 50:1.

n socialist country in a capit ali st encirclem ent hu,

It IS no longer 0 e
.'
h
f h
a
I" , sys'em thaI noW stand s tn t c w,ly 0 t e aggre%iv
world socia "IS
.
u mon
" , WI"'h I0,S V,IS
0", econ Om "ic "ande
"alOsm The SOVlct
schemes 0 f Impen I .
. d' -,
.
I has grown stronger and ga me In st.Hure. Impcnali'l
mlhtary poten 13 "n'erland
.
f l OI
T
"
m
in
the
form
0 a co o Oi a '1ystem. he first half
no longer has a hI
f
I " I' - '
.
of the twentieth century saw the collapse 0 co o ma Ism I.n A Sia: a nd in
colonial system began to cru mble In Africa the
half
'he
d
the seeon
.
'
I
. '
liberation movement in Latm Amenca. hl?S a so sW
c~rhe~ chon Slderable
while Cuba has taken the socia 1St way. It 10 t e capitalist
succes se s.
. '
d ""
" h
countries there is growing orgam satlon an n s m ~ aw~re n ess In t e ranks
of the working class that it is capable of ra llYlIlg sl ~able peace-lOving
force s , The number of states which stand for peac e In th e In ternational
arena has been growing,
,
.
The struggle for peace has hit the most aggre ss ive c irc les of monopoly
capital, whose policy of p.reparin~ for ,war has al~a~ s bee n co~nected
with the wildest domestic reaction In the c aplt ah st countnes and
attempt s at the implantation of fa sci st regim~s. espe.c ! all ~ on the
periphery of the capitalist world. Today the ,pOhc y of m l.htansati~n is '../
accompanied by the brazen attempt s to e stabh sh a n o pe n dictatorshIp by '\
the most aggressive and reactionary imperiali st s, att e mpts to drive the
Communi st s into the underground , to break up the po lit ica l organisation
of the proletariat . and to narrOW down a ll the possibiliti es for political
struggle which the proletariat has gained in heavy fig hti ng against
capital. This policy is connected with interfe re nc e in the d o mestic affairs
of countries that have thrown off the foreign yoke. w ith armed
intervention and the export of counterrev olution , w ith attempts to
change the political organi sation of society in these cou ntri es.
The polic y of war preparation provides the reac tio nary imperialist
circle s with broad opportunities to resort to viole nce. re lying on armed
fo rce. and creates a con venient prete xt for elimin ating the relicts of
bourgeoi s democracy and narrowing down to the utmo st the field in
which the democratic forces can operate.
Barring the way of the policy of war preparati o n mea ns creating
greater opportunities for the activity of th e progre ss ive forces in
capitali st society. This purpo se is served by the principl e of settling
out standing issues through negotiation , which help s t o ex pose the true
~u~stance ?f the variou s pretext s the impe riali st s u se to create te nsions
10 lOternatlOnal relations and to fan armed c onflic ts. Broad ci rcles all
over the world have witnessed the c ollapse of b a rriers w hic h the
imperi a li sts
J
'
I
coexistence between states with
- to
put, the most reac.tionary circle s of monopoly capita l still c linging to the
po licy of aggr~ sslOn , into ideological and po litic al iso latio n .
The ,key POlOt at which the bulk of the popula tio n in th e capitalist
countnes could now break with the po lic y of th e mono po li es is the
o

0"

2,.

,"

que..,tion of maintaining peace. for on this question the interests of the

agg~c"'~ive monopolies and tho"e of the majority of the population in the
capltah\t countrie\ can and do run into the 'iharpest contradiction,
In pre\entday condition\ . therefore, the struggle for peace affords the
opportunity to i\olate the mo ..t aggre ... sive elements of monopoly capital
not only within the capitalist countrie .... but also in the world arena. This
idea of uniting all the democratic elements round the working class for
anti-imperialist struggle was clearly expressed in the documents of the
world communist movement adopted in 1957 and 1960, In complete
accord with these documents. the CPSU Programme fOrmulates this key
feature of the present-day struggle between labour and capital in these
words: "The working class directs its main blow against the capitalist
monopolies. All the main sections of a nation have a vital interest in
abolishing the unlimited power of the monopolies . This makes it possible
to unite all the democratic movements opposing the oppression of the
finance oligarchy in a mighty anti-monopoly torrent ,".)
In the current struggle against labour and capital. foreign policy and
the questions of war and peace are an important sector. The task is to use
the policy of peace to promote the breakaway of sizable sections of the
population in the capitalist countries from the aggressive policy of the
monopo li es and to help rally the democratic forces in a single. mighty
ant i-monopoly tide.
Militarism is a means used by imperialist reaction to suppress the
revolutionary process. Militarism. especially occupation or semioccupatio n of countries which are weak links in the imperialist chain. a form of
mi litarism that has taken shape since the Second World War. tends to
slow down the advance of the liberation movement in these territories,
In deed, it was the stationing of the Anglo-American troops in a number
of European countries after the Second World War that helped to slow
dow n and considerably to complicate the democratic development of
Western Europe. Let us recall that in the early postwar years ~here were
Co mm unists in the governments of France and Italy. Relymg. on, th~
Anglo-A merican troopS and then putting through the "Marshalhsallon
9Y'nt~e
1\ of the W est Eu ropean countries, imperialist
'
.
together
)
;
a ~'
change.
.
now set by
is for the newly rising tide .of de~~crallc
moveme nt to put an end to militarism and to force the Impeflahst~dt,o
di sarm Today that is one of the key problems before th~ w~r s
liberati~n mov~ment. Militarism means reaction all alo ng ,~he hne m the
"
d .
f "emergency laws attempts to
capit ali st countries. the IOtro uctlOn 0
..
.
d the
dri ve th e prog ressive forces from the legal pohtlcal.arena; an ts to
Comm unist s into the underground. It means unceaslOg at emp .

43 The Roud '0 Communism. p. 483.

-''I

,
'h
Iy I,'berated countries . With soph isticated milit ary
mtervene 10 t e new
.
. ' \..' 11
"-'
techniques . the militari st s find it ea~ler to u~ea rm s 10 1 ,,:or mg. people
'd' the e,,'od of massive armi es. wh ose soldiers ultImat ely
than, t hdey hd 1 t Inth a Pd adopted Ideas
.
'
of reVO IutlDna
ry strugg Ie. ThI"s IS
reahse

t e TU

..'

d'"

the importance of disarmament I~ Inc reas mg an IS I~evltably

y
d 'th the t,',umph of progressive fo rces over reachon, with
connecte WI
.
'
"th '
.
democratic renovation of the capitahst countri es. ~ I vlcto~les for the
national liberation movements. T~e br~ad and might y anli-mOnopoly
tide has real pos sibilities of reachlOg this goal. .
.
.
The battles against fascism showed ~he vast hI storical Importanc~ of
wh

the struggle to influence the middle sectIons . Let u s recal~ that at the tIme
the t!lOlIopOly-capital elite had managed , by mea ~ s o r demagogy, to
confu se these sections and to isolate the~ tempora nly from t he working
class , In that period, the world communist movement had a lready, come
to reali se the importance for the development of th e revolutionary
process of clear-cut slogans and, a clearly for~ulated pr~gram~e
for working-class struggle to Win over th e middle sections, Its

reserves,
'
The socialist countries' foreign polic y , e s pec ially now th at socialism
has become a world system , can help to avert extern a l att ac k at a time of
social crisis in this or that country,
Today . the question of creating favourable c onditio n s for the
development of the world liberation process is a bov e a ll a question of
preventing the export of counterrevolutio n , the struggle against
imperialist intervention , support for the pe opl es fighting for t h eir social
emancipation and national liberation , and for th eir right to d ecide their
own future , That is what determines th e key lin e o f Soviet foreign
policy,
The hi story of Soviet foreign policy in the rec ent period is a h ist ory of
struggle against the right , arrogated by the imperiali st s, to att ac k p eoples
fighting for their freedom. It was Soviet foreign p o licy whic h su cceeded
in frustrating the plan s of the aggres sors, thereby pro m o ti ng the
development of the liberation process , Con side ring the s tages of t h e \
Soviet Union ' s struggle against imperiali st intervention , one mu st realise
that with the growing strength of the Soviet Union and all th e forces of ~
socialis m and peace, the aggres sive imperialist circ le s find it e v e r h arder
to meddle in the domestic affairs of nation s for the purpose of
s uppressing the revolutionary movement.
The pre sent period marks a turning point in the hi st o r y of world
pol i,tics. The power of the foreign-poli c y influenc e e x ert e d b y th e Soviet
Unio n ~nd the whole world sociali st sy stem , suppo rt ed by t he
progressIVe , democratic elements all o ver th e glo b e, h as b ecom e very
muc h greater , and this is evidence o f a rea l turning po int in t he
develo pment o f wo rld politics .
252

Of cour .. e, the imperialists still continue to meddle in the domestic

affair .. of some countries for the purpose of suppressing the progressive
forces. ~eir intervention in the affairs of these countries began long
ago, and I:". now a ~urvival of the earlier period in the development of
world politiCS, Consequently, the struggle is aimed to cut short the
imperiali'it intervention in the domestic affairs of other countries and to
prevent it. That is precisely the purpose of the Soviet Union's foreign
po licy.
In foreign-policy term s, the question may be formulated as follows:
can the socialist states prevent foreign armed intervention in the
domestic affairs of countries where social conflicts have reached a state
of great intensity? That is exactly how history has posed the question .
U nde r extreme militari sation, the imperialists, of course. have superior
armed force as compared with some countries engaged in national
li beration struggle and are able to build up a considerable preponderance
of strength in some areas and in some local wars. That is why they keep
try ing to produce ..R!"ete:s.ts fQr their armeci inteJ,ventjao in order to
suppressfhe nallonal liberation struggle. The task is to safeguard the
victorious revolution from external armed intervention. and it is an
ext re mely important task. One must realise that the colonialists have
been t rying to push the differences between tribes. parties and
organisations in some newly liberated countries into a state of civil war.
so as to use their mercenaries for the purpose of putting an end to the
su ccessful process of liberation.
In fact . tactics of this kind were also used by the imperialists after the
October Socialist Revolution in Russia. where the overthrown exploiting
classes would have been unable to carryon an exhausting civil war
w ithout open support of the capitalists of the world. In September 1917.
L en in wrote about the advance of the Soviet revolution: "The peaceful
develop ment of any revolution is. generally speaking, e.xtremely rare and
diffic u It. because revolution is the max imum exacerbation of the sh~rpest
cl ass co ntradictions: but in a peasant country. at a lime when a umon of
t he pro letariat with the peasantry can giY.e~ea.ce to p,eople wo(n~t bY~
most unju st and criminal war... when..that umon can give the ~eas,antry a
-the land -in th at" country. at that exceptional moment In hlstor.y. a
peaceful 'development of the revolution is possible and probable If ~Il
power is t ransferred to the Soviets,".j..I Let us recall that after t e
October Revolution the Soviet power advanced triumphantly acros~ t~e
cou nt ry, and that the Civil War was sparked ~ff by the alha.n~e 0 t e

overth rown exploiting classes ~nd t~e ~nterna~I~~~e~oou::a~~~s~~~tem in

Whe n considering the formation h t I~ p;:: ~n mind Jhat its greatest
Eastern and Central Europe. one s ou
r
401 V I. Lenin, Colltrttd \Yorks. Vol. 26, pp. 3631 .

advantage lay in the fact that it had bee n safe~u arded from foreign
intervention and civil war, and had the opportumt y to con<iolidate the
new democratic people's system.
.
.
.
The ceaselessly developing worldwide liberati on process has now
placed on the order of the day the need to ~truggl~ fo r complete political
and economic independence of the countfles which have escaped from
colonial oppression. Analysing the national liberation movement and ils
prospects , Lenin wrote in August 192~ . that ...... the Communist
International should advance the proposlhon , With the appropriate
theoretical grounding. that with the aid of the proletaria t of the advanced
countries backward countries can go over to the Sov ie t system and
through c~rtain stages of development, to communi sm . without haVing
to pass through the capitalist stage" .45 He stressed: " If th e victoriou s
revolutionary prP5Jariat cOQdU.c.ts nr-stematic ru:.a.pa.g.anda a mo ng them.
and the Soviet governments come to their aid with all the means at their
di sposal- in that event it will be mistaken to as sume that th e backward
peoples must inevitably go through the capitali st stage of develop_
ment." ~ ,
When the dictatorship of the proletariat becomes int ernat ional, the
influence of the working class on the liberation movement in the peasant
countries is intensified. With the ass istance of the inte rn ational
proletarian dictatorship, the pea sant countries can also advance along
the socialist way of development. It is not only a matter of the
ideological influence of the international working-c la ss dic tatorship ,
although such influence has now become an important facto r in the
revolutionary process , but of the material potentialities and pre requ isites
for the peasant countries' developing along the socia li st way. The
foreign policy of the Soviet state is aimed to help these countries to take
the path of independent development. This way help s to strength en the
working class and its influence, to consolidate the po sitio ns of all the
democratic forces , and inevitably carries the people clo ser to t ackl ing
the question of going over to socialist development.
In i~ternational economic ties, the Soviet Union 's foreign poli cy is
also aimed to strengthen the national-economic base of th e state
sovereignty of the developing countries and their pOlitical ind e pendence.
COMMUNISM IS PEACE
AND FRIENDSHIP AMONG

The. C~mmuni st s.have n? need to advocate war a s a fact or of progress.

A soclaildeal may mduce Its advocates to impo se it by armed force o nl y

"46 V. I. Lenin . Cofltcted Works , Vol. 31 , p. 244 .

.

Ibid .

when that ideal does not rest on a scientific theory of progress and runs
counter to the. law governed course of the historical process, That i ...
whe~ volun~an ... m become ... the basis of policy. adventurism gives way to
confl,dence I,n the law-governed course of the historical process. while
the Ideo logical struggle becomes no more than a concomitant of
interference in ~he ~ourse. of history "from positions of strength'".
~he communtst Ideals Include the idea of peace and friendship of
nations. Of course, peaceful coexistence includes the struggle of ideas.
but that does not at all mean that the struggle of ideas contains within
itse lf the seeds of war. The sc ientific conception of progress implies the
confide nce that the triumph of the new social system will ultimately be
dec id ed in the key sphere of human activity, in productive labour, and
not on the fi eld of battle. Man's complete emancipation from every type
of o ppression, the development of all his capabil it ies in creative and
productive labour-these are the key features of our social ideal. of
com mu nist soc iety.
Why build and create if all the fruits of one's labour were going to be
destr?.xed. in. the.. furna~e _Qf warJ This idea must have occurred to the
mind s of all hone-sT people as' they observed the construction of
commu nism. But the socialist system emerges and develops on the basis
of creat ive effort and the development of the productive forces.
Devast ating wars would hamper the process instead of facilitating it.
Th e Co mmunists have been working to realise their social ideal. but
this requi res peace, not war. They reject the assertion that progress is
ad vanced by means of wars: on the contrary, in our day wars and armed
intervent ion are used by some in an effort to slow down progress. Of
course, it is impossible to do so, but history shows that armed conflicts
can mu ltiply what may be called progress costs. What ",!e "':a.nt is to ease
mankind 's adva nce along the path of progress. The sCientifIC theory of
prog ress in our day includes the demand for pea~e. the demand f~r
politica l a nd ideological st ruggle, and not struggle With the use of atom ic
bombs.
. d 1 . .
A key point at issue between Comm unists and. bourgeO Is I eo oglsts ~ s
the question of peace, Bourgeo is views of SOC ial ph enom~~a result ~n
accepta nce of war as a n inevitabl~ evil or. e.ven as a benefiCial fo rc~ 10
relations between nations. Marx lsm-Le mnt sm alone show~ the Tlg~t
approac h to th e question of war and teac hes the wor~ lO.g p.eop e
con sistently to wo rk to e li minate the cause of the war. The ehmt'-na.ho~. of
the exploitative syste m on the globe will mean the co!"plete e I mln~ ~~n
of these causes. The elimi nation of this system on sl~ab le ~~~~ss~ste;
globe and the e mergence and dev.elopment of th~ w~ r soc iaq~i sites for
have re sult ed in a situation in whic h there are ?bJectlve predre
nst the
f
en again st war an agm
successful struggle by mas~es 0 m
Id sociali st system opposes
imperi ali st pla ns of aggressIOn. k:'he wor for this purpose of its vast
pre pa ratio ns fo r a new war. rna 109 use

economic resources, its pol.itic.al potentialities in the world arena , ind the
mighty power of commumst Ideology .
"
,,
I the "Inaugural Address of the Workmg Men s Internatio ' 1
As;ociation" (1864). Marx pOi!'ted
the
of
class
master themselves the mysten~s of mternatlOn a l pohtlcs: to watch the
diplomatic acts of their respectl~e Government s: to counteract them. if
necessary. by all means in thel.r ~ower: when. u~able to p.reVent , to
combine in simultaneous denunciation s. and to v mdlcate the simple law s
of morals and justice. which ought to govern the relat ions of private
individuals , as the rules paramount of the intercourse of nations.
"The fight for such a foreign policy form s part of th e general struggle
for the emancipation of the working c1a sse ~." 47
Thus, when the working-class InternatIOn a l wa s fo und ed, Marx
I
inscribed on its banner that it is the duty of the working class t o struggle
for the simple laws of morals and justice in the sp here of international
relations. This has now become a plank in the programme of the Leninist
Party. The CPSU Programme, adopted by the nnd Congress of the
Party, says: "Communism makes the elementary sta nd a rd s of morality
and justice. which were distorted or shamelessly flouted um;ier the rule
of the exploiters. inviolable rules for relations both between individuals
and between peoples.".iS
The Soviet Union and the socialist sy stem now h ave all they need to
work successfully to implement these principles. The rein lie s the historic
importance of the foreign policy pursued by the Soviet Union. In their
relations with the socialist countries and the countries newly liberated
from the colonial yoke , the imperialist countries will have t o abide by the
simple law s of morality and justice by which individuals are guided in
their relations with each other. This the people s will not owe to the good
will of the imperialists but to the persi stent efforts of th e Soviet Union
and the world socialist system, which have an ever greater role to play in
world affairs, the active struggle for peace of the working class and all
the working people of the capitali st countries and the de velopi ng nat ional
liberation movement.
The theory of peaceful coexistence has nothing in common with the
notorious metaphysical conception of the balance of strength, which
starts from the concept of re st as the definitive moment , denying the
prim~cy of motion and development. Need one - say- that peaceful
coexistence cannot be a formula for social stagn ation ? It is a fo rmu la for
soc iety 's rapid advance, a formula expressing man kind 's progressive
development in our epoch.
The metaphysical, mechanistic conception of e quilibrium is funda
mentally antithetical to the principle s of peaceful coex istence alsO

t~

"

du~y

the.~orking

48 K, Marx and F Engels. Stluud Work s. in three volumes. Vol. 2. p. \8.

Thl' Road to Commtlnism. p. 566.

~~

/
7

bCl;illise it rcdul;es all the relation.,hips between the two syslem~ to the
I;on('cpt of an. cxternal cla.,h. like the clash of two '>pherc .... Thi ... ('onl;epl
... uggest.. the Idea of war heing fatally inevitable. That is why the Wesl
Ger~an idealist philosopher. Karl Jaspers. say., that coexi.,tencc is
pOSSIble only a.., stril;t isolation of the two wstem.." for any interaction
between them 1-; fraught with '>anguinary war~.~~
An equilibrium, up.,et and re-;tored. as a scheme for relations between
the two world sy..,tcm., can re.,ult in harmful political conc\u .. ions and
help to justi.fy. the arm .. race and. consequently, preparation .. for war.
Actually. thiS IS a process of struggle and competition between the two
systems, in which socialism will win out.
Starti ng from the concept of rest as the definitive moment, some
bourgeois philosophers and sociologists seek to prOve that peaceful
coex istence is the complete cessation of any struggle between the two
syste ms. In other words. they want the two opposed system., to be
converted into two similar-type systems. whereupon all struggle would
cease. That is. in effect. the idea advocated by Raymond Aron. who
holds that one of the key conditions for establishing peace on the globe i.,
an end to the antagonism between the two prevailing ideologic'>, and
recognition of the kinship which allegedly connects the different .,ocial
systems.
.
To back up this thesis. Aron had to invent the concept of "indu.,tnal
civilisation". which includes capitalism and socialism .. obsc;J.!.r!ng.lh~u
radical distinctions. The Communists allegedly ~upport a "war of
principles", thereby destroying the unity of "industrial civilisation"
Because this "war of principles" cannot be stopped. we ha\'e n~",
entered a period not of peaceful coexistence. but of ceaseless conflict
and limited war~.
.
. .. .
f \I
Thi s kind of "theory" can be seen as ideologIcal JUStification 0 . a
manner of barriers in the way to establishing lasting peace, as theore~Ical
"su bstantiation" of the imperialist policy aimed to erect vanoU!)
ob stac les in the way of any further internati~mal detente.
f
Bourgeo iS ideologists would very much hke to have the theO{Y(Oe
eacefu l coex istence between the twO systems mean a cont~mp a IV

~nd passi~e attitud: o.n the par: ofl~he s~~~~iSI~ f~~~~~iy\~~c~:~~ t~;~~~

and prac tice of qUieliSm and ata Isn1.

ere utation in the We.,t
Catholic theori st. Gust~w A. ~ett.~o~:o ~as~~ as~s 'his reader .. Ihis
of being an "expert '" . sovlfet I e furc~ex istence follow from the
0 d p'th
eac
e an eye he ..' N o. "
q uesti. o n .. Does the pohcy
.
t batting
ayS.
Marxist -Le ninist doctnne: An \VI ou '
. Z kim/I dts Mrnsf/tfU. \\un.:hen.

~'l Karl Ja~pcr~. Die Awm!wm/>e un~ die

f Coexistence'. &n-it'l Su,,e'. '\;0.

II

See Gu"aw A. Welter. '-The ~;tet Concept

30. October.December. \959. pp. 19 .
!(I

\q~8_.

,'XI

1'0

I
I

Wetter reaches the following conclusion: either the Communi\t" of the

USSR arc true to Marxism-Leninbm. find then they mu:-:,l be. again \t the
idea of peaceful coexistence: or they ~tand fo~ ~eaceful coe'(~sten~e, and
then they have abandoned Marxlsm-LcIlIOIsm . ~etter ~ View of
Marxism-Leninism is similar to that of other bourgeOI s th eonsts, but he
has no rea son to worry: the Communists arc true to M ~ rxism-Lenini sm
and that is precisely why they stan? fo~ the po.hey of peac eful
coexistence. The Communists do not Identify ma ssive revolutionary

activity and war.

The period of peaceful coexistence is a period of ever morc active
struggle by masses of men for peace. a growth of the role of th e masses
in deciding questions of war and peace, and consequently. of th eir ever
more active intervention in the solution of the key political problems
and the rallying of ever broader sections of the working people round th~
working class and its Marxist-Leninist parties. This view of o ne aspect
of present-day social life and this approach to the age-old questions of
historical process _ questions of war and peace - is a great achievement
for social thought.

come
. ... t obstacles thrown up by the capitali,,'
. t u p on every hand agam
sy') em. On the other hand. any idea of the prospects of social
developm~nt must now take account of the level of scientific and
technological de~elopment. and the use of nuclear energy. remote
control. automation and computer'). This is one of the characteristic
features of the development of soc ial thought in our day. Close attention
to ~he development of the natural sc iences and the use of the'
achlevement~ in h~man life is due not only to the vast prospects openi~~
up b~fore ~c lence m the atomic age, but also to the fact that ours is an
~ge m which the gr~at social energy of the masses is being revealed.
Incontestably showmg that. capitalism has become a drag on the
develo~mcnt of human ~oc l ety a~d a barrier in the way of progress.
There IS now a n~w soc ial orgaOisation of society on the globe which
ensures the solutton of the great problem of mankind'S progressive
development. The struggle between the forces of socialism and the
forces of capitali sm gives soc ial thought its direction.

PATH OF PROGRESS FOR ALL MANKiND

Chaprer Fjl'e
SCIENTIFIC COMMUNISM
AND THE MODERN THEORY
OF PROGRESS
The starting propOSition in modern social thought is that in our age the
development of social labour and of science afford an amp le opportunity
to produce an abundance of material and spiritual goods for all men on
the globe. "Under the socialist system of economy, scientific and
technical progress enables man to employ the riches and force s of nature
most effectively in the interests of the people, to discover new form s of
energy and to create new materials, to develop mean s of weather
control, and to master outer space. Application of science in production
becomes a decisive factor for the rapid growth of the productive force s
of society," says the CPSU Programme. 1
Never before has the development of the natural scien ces run so
closely with the development of social thought as it does today , wh en the
question of realising and using for man' s benefit the vast achievements
in t~e sc ien~~ of nature inevitably comes up against the que stion of the
soc.lal conditions necessary for doing so, the question of capitalism.
which slow s down or distorts the use of such achievements. Bourgeo iS
scientists pondering the use of sc ientific achievements in hum an life,

As seen in retrospect. the path travelled by mankind show s qu ite

obviously that this epoch of ours has to tackle in practical terms the ta<;ks
it has inherited from past ages and millennia, and to cut through the
Gordian knot s tied up by the exploitative system.
The ext remely uneven deve lopment of various part s of the globe is
characteristic of the capitalist epoch. A handful of imperialist powers
ha s amassed vast wealth, while peoples in Asia. Africa and Latin
America li ve in terrible poverty. Million s of people there have never put
pen to paper or read a book. and can only dream of having their fill of
food.
For ages. the exploitative society was based on the principle of great
inju stice: the exploiters advanced along the path of progress but kept the
vast ma sses of deprived men and women in the dark. When the first
seats of the slave-holding civili sat ion originated. with their developed art
of writing , the figurative arts, and culture. the.rest o~ the world was
steeped in the darkness of barbarism and semlbarbaTi sm. The slaveholding civilisation "enlightened" the barbarians with fire and. sword.
The raids on the settlem ent s of the neighbouring tribes were deSigned to
capture slaves an d the products of the labour of others. N~W states.
g
based on slavery. emerged on the periphery of the sla.ve-hold.ln world.
but the vast ma jority of the population of the globe stili remained at.the
stage of prehistory. As for the masses of men and wome n turned Into
us
slaves. their condition was even worse and more arduo T~e: ~e~~.n~
more than the pedestal of the history and culture 0 f "a\ e- 0 In
society. as Marx put it.

Tht Road 10 Communism. p. 572.

:258

".

..'<9

When feudalism emerged. the framework of world hi!'!tory w'

considerably extended. but the tribal system .. n~1 harharism .. t~i~
remained outside the feudal world in Europe and ASia . The economic
social. political and cultural development of the serfs within feudai
society was variously hampered hy the landowner.,' oppression.
Capitalism further c:\tendcd the framework of world hi story . but it
clamped the fetters of colonialism on a majority of mankind and pushed
whole countries. peoples and contincnb 3\',:ay from the path of progress.
A vast impoverished countryside. where people still live in hovels
surrounds the developed urban civilisation of the capitalist world. Withi ~
the capitalist countries, the imperialist bourgeoisie ha s constantly so ught
to keep vast masses of working people from culture,
The true progress of all mankind began in our epoch, when the peoples
of the soc ialist countries took control of their own future, with th e
peoples of the once coioni al countries wresting their independen ce from
a weakened capitalism, and with the working class, givi ng a lead to all
the working people, becoming the decisive force in capitalist societ y as
well, History becomes truly worldwide because vast masses of people
are involved in historical activity,
Pr?gress ultimately amounts to the activity of masses of people
makmg use of the real historical prospects opening up before them to
overcome the, obstacle~ and difficulties in th eir way, Progress is alway s
connected With the discovery of new ways and creative initi ative
With,o~t, ,acti~ity by the masses, it is impo ssib le to convert laten~
POSSI~lht,les lOt? reality. ,The theory of progress, in short, mean s
ma,nkmd s confidence ~n Its future, This confidence is great when it
rehes on an under~tandlOg of the laws of social development. on men 's
awa!eness of thelf powers and the potentialities latent in historical
rea~lty" An,y theory of progress is, in effect, relevant to the extent to
which I,t brlO.g~ out the historical potentialities and shows men real way s
for thelf aChvlty,
The Marxist-Leninist, partie~, which express the working people's urge
for progress, and which gUide their struggle for progress, are of
tremendous I~porta~ce for the whole of the world process tod ay.
Progres~ an~ It s re~u~rements cannot be see n as something indep endent
of the hlstoncal a~hvlty of the masses, Marx wrote that '''history' is not
a, person
. OW1! particular aims' hi story
h' apart
b uSing man
' . as a mea ns f Or Its
IS. not II1g ut the activity of man pursuing his aims",~ The cle'arer the
view vast masses of men have of their real
achieving them the bett th
purpo ses and the ways of
purposes, the fa'ster and d~~ e:r a~e organis~d for struggle for th ese
aspect of society, The Progr~mm~ ~fet~~o~~eSsuslve development of eve.ry
says that the Commulllst

Party "Ioob keenly into t~e future and ~how\ the reorle \dcntifh..'all)
motivated road\ along which to adva~ce. arou\e\ titanic energy in the
Ola\\C\ and lead \.them
to ,
the.accompl!\hmenl of great lao;k\" .J W',h
'
I oul
the Marxi.,t I .cnlOl.,t parties It would be impo<;\ihlc for mankind to
advam.:e along the path of progres'), for the.,e partie\ have \prung from
the powerful ~orccs of progre~s and are their in\trument and com:en
trated expre')\lon.
Mankind '') progre'S., impli~s the need to eliminate the gap which ha\
been created over the centunes b.etween mental labour. ao; a pri\lilege of
the few , and manual labour. which ha') become a heavy burden on the
majority . In exploitative society the benefits of progTeS\ are fully
enjoyed only by a p,rivi!eged minority, Modern technology-the u\e of
chemicals, mechantsatlOn, automation, remote contro l Hnd computen, _ provide the means for eliminating this social inJuo;tice, but the<;e
can be used to the full only under communism. when society is organised
on the right line s. Thu s, the greatest soc ial inju stice in the history of
culture can and must be righted. This is a real task in the progressive
development of society today.
The development of the productive forces makes it possible to
elimin ate another inherited contradiction. that between town and
country, but thi s will become a reality only with the development of
social property. There must be a change in the social organisation of
capitalist society so that communist principles come to prevail in
production and other soc ial spheres. The answer to thi s que stio n. posed
by mankind's development over the centuries, is also to be found in the
CPSU Programme.
.
The proposition. put forward by Marxism-Leninism and elaborated In
the CPSU Programme. showing that all the e\ploitative form s of social
organisation have outlived themselves and that in our day the
organisation of soc iety on soc ialist lines is the only highroad of progress.
is of vast importance for an understandin~ of the p.ro~pects before
present-day social development and the shaplll~ of convlctl~ns. proper to
th e communist world outlook. The apolog ists of capltahsm keep
extolling the path of capitalist progress, addressing their hypo~ri!ical
speeches to the nations which have thrown off the yoke of colomah~m.
But the cap italist way is a way o~ su.ffering for the peo~le, a way of ~nses
in economic development. Capitalist development will further rum the
peasantry, which in these countries already has a heavy b~rden,to bear.
For the workers, capitalist development means ,back-breakl~g toil for the
enrichment of a handful of capitalists, With a ~welhng arm~. of
unemplo yed. The petty bourgeoisie will be ~rushed m the competlt~ve
struggle with growing big business. The benefits of culture and education

2 K. Marx and F. Engels. The Holy Family, p. 125 .

l Tlrt' Rotul 10 CmunumislI1. p. 583.

will remain out of reach of the masse s . The intclligcnt, ia will t'lc fur\:cd I
sell its talents. That is the way of !.: apit a li sl prO~Tt~''''.
u
Lenin used to stress Man' scientific anal y, i, \If \:apitali,t socidy and
capitalist progress as a vast adv;\nce in the devdllpmcnt of thcory ~ AI
the time. capitalism was the highroad of so(.: ial d cvclupment. Today
new highroad has been laid . On the map it is no longer marked
a
dotted line that is to be laid in the future . but as a road that has already
been built. and it is fully described in the C PSU Programme.
Today . M~rxism. h~ving summed .up the v.a s ~ e 'Jlc~ie n ce in building
the new society. provides an analysn~ of soc lail st soc iety a nd socialist
progress. showing that the capitalist way of d e velopm e nt is no longer as
pre-eminent as it used to be. This marks a fundam e nt al turn ing point in
the development of social though!. "Econ o mic g rowth ", to use the
bourgeois term, is now inseparable from social progre ss and consists in
raising all the peoples and all the ethnic and soc ia l sec tio ns of the
population to the heights of abundance . culture a nd c ivilisation.
Capitalism has proved that it cannot do thi s. The Soviet Re pU bl ics in
Central Asia are evidence that sociali sm can . That is the modern
'iormula of progress",
There are various signs that the turning point is at hand . In o u r day
everyone has, heard, and few have d~nied. the advantages o f th e planned
econ?my, It IS .safe to say that the idea of planning ha s a lre ad y made its
~ay mto the mmds of the masses. In the underdeveloped e cono mi es. the
Idea of planning is now accepted by a vast majority of the po pula tion.
Not every?ne as y~t understand s that economic planning is possible only
on the basIs of socIal property in the mean s of production , a nd th at it can
be the r~sult only of, a fundame?tal social tran sformation o f society.
BourgeoIs propagandists have tned hard to ob scure the iss ue a nd to
confuse ,the m~n~s of men. But the great result s of th e sociali st system of
econ~mlc activity have already been appreciated, and the idea of
planmng has been accepted almost everywhere. Vast masse s of men
have already c?me out in favour of it. The key change in the awarene ss
of t,he masses IS already taking place, The masses want economic a nd
social develo~m~nt to be g~ide~ consciously, and capitali st economic
chaos t? b~ ehmmated. Reality Itself will suggest the next step which is
of cru~lallmportance" n~melr. the awareness of the need for switc hing
to social property. ~hls Ide~ IS making headway among the ma sse s . and
world d~velopment IS runmng in this direction.
Man.k~~d h~s been rising from blind poverty and ignorance to culture
and cIV.lll satlOn through labour. Great social injustice has been a
c~ncoml~ant of progtes~. Throughout the ages, men were born and d ied
with the Idea that mankmd wa ~ too pOor for everyone to have their fill of

a:

,,

~ V I Lenin, Col/tcltd Works. Vol. I , p 145.

262

fo od . a nd th aI wealth w ? t~e lot of a fe~ .ludy people wh ile the

maJurit y were doomed to .tnd.lgence. The Biblical story that men were
. rsed with lahuur for their SinS WOlS handed down from one gene ratIo n
~{I: .a nothe r . Va).t masses of men had to Jive in poverty and do
h ck-hrea ki ng tOIl. so that the great palaces of the doge'i ~h\l u ld he
~rrored in th e tranquil w:tters of the canals of Venice. and the pinnacle'i
o f Notre Dame .. hould ~se to. the ,kies. That W~'i the he~\'y price
' ivili .,ation hall to pay for It'i achlevemenh. The cymes ~a l d thl" wa" the
~i.,dom o f hi .,tory. while the romantics called it the greate~t tragedy of
mankind. But hoth believed that nothing could be done ahout. it. f~r
otherwise th e poeu and the composer:! would not be hear.d. 'ielen t~ f l c
thought wo uld d im. wh ile the archit~cl'i would have no~ hmg to bUIld,
Mankind wo uld ., ta rl to regress. mo\mg back to t~e dulling po . . erty of
primitIve tlmc". " hlch "a\ a fetter on man .. C~ea l l\'e poy,e r ~ .
Rebelliou .. thinker .. of the late 18th and early 19th centun~., accepted thl 'i
as being ine vit ab le and hailed the sanctity of poverty. whic h would wash
away the co ntagion of money-grubbing in a purifying 'ilream. That wO~,~d
renovat e ma nkind _ Some .. ugge~ted that for ~he sake of p rogre~ .. SOCIal
ustice sho uld be .. acrificed for ever. while other\ urged a return
Jto the pa~ t ~o that 'iOC1.3I"Justice cou Id I nu
. mph . II was a ",'ic ious
circle .
f h' ,.
. I by
Marx. Engels a nd Lenin found the way o~t 0 t I~ \ ]C]<?US C1~c e..
develo ping the th eory of scientific commun~s~ and ~h?~ ~ ng .":,a~k md
c lear pros pec ts of implementing the age-old \]<,Ion of s<?cla~ J.ustlCe alo ng
the path of prog ress. instead of a,:,ay from i~. Wh~n th~1 \~S]o~\,~~~ant~~
be impleme nt ed the old-establi.;,hed, nallon .. crum. e .
..
purifying sto rm o f th e October Re\olullon brok.e out. w h~n \t~:t ~~~~~;~
and the to iling peasant ry began to re.sh~pe th~ fa:~r~~ ~t;~e old no(ion~
without the la ndo w ne rs and the caplt\lst~'~~I~ came to po nder the great
of progre ss was shak.en . :\-I en all 0\ er t e e ' s is e li mination of ma n's
truth : the fi rst co mm andment of modern P~o~/utopian soc ialists fi rst
exploitatio n of "." an , Th~~ "aSt h~t ~~a(t is the im mut able law of soc ial
announced . Ma rxi sm has s o\\ n
d ' nt o hi storical reality by the
f
development. It has been tra n ~ orme I
October Re volution , .
. d th Soviet peo ple fulfilled their fir st
When the Co mmumst pa rtt~d a~n thee ~ec on d. many people came to
Party ProgTflmme a nd ~tar o wer o f u nfe ttered human labour.
reali se the trllth of the great p . _has been ine . . tricab ly con nec ted with
Since th en . the p.ath of pro; re!> ' Olut ionary tra nsfo rmatio n of soc iet y
the prac ticill c . . pe r~e.nce o f t ~~:'rirst to the second ph ase of soc iali st
llo n
The US S ~ '~ Ir,a n"l
,~O~rtant stage in the progre ssive d ev elo p m e ~t
con stru ctio n Will be an I P
. f Soviet soc iet" into communi sm \\,111
d
because
the
entry
a
J
f l.
o f a II man k In . .
d ' I
ent o f th e produc tive power 0 a ~,o ur .
.
I' d
b e a ney, ., tage In the .e\r e' opmf the new system . whic
h has proc a lme
showing the vast potentia Itie S 0

that laoour will becom e the ma ~ l l'r n f. th e w(lrld

.trlll v. hil.:h h,11,

re ... olutely mo\'ed on from the wtlrld lhlll\lIl alt'd hy I.:apllal.

While the Soviet people puill ~ ll l: i a ri 'm. un r{)luin~ \ICp hy ~lcp the
unprecedented productive force." llC frc c la hll UT. the}' had yet fin;illy 10
escape from the grip of poverty In whid th e ('oll n t ry had hcen doomed
by the domination of the lam.iowncr, a nd (,:api l ali\h. Where" ... in the
bourgeois world. men', mind . . w e re .,till hcing warreu hy the fahe
theories of capitalist progre ...... . AI Ihe "'<lOl l' li me hu ndred ... of thou\ilnds
of men were dying of hunger in the I.' ollnt.-i c, of , \ ,ia, Africa and Latin

America. and in the USA itself ten:>. of thou\<l rHl ... of unemployed and
slum dwellers lived from hand to mouth.
Then come::; the turning point in the mimI<. of me n bli nded hy stories
about capitalism creating wealth and abundanc e On th e g lobe, Men in
various countries come to accept the idea of soc ia l wealt h and
abundance created by all and for all. Marx anticipated th e period when
all the sources of social wealth will flow in abundanc e , and this period is
at hand, The fact that mankind ha~ reached the po int in w Orld hi story
when the sources of social wealth can flow in full a bunda nce wOrks a
fundamental change in the whole of world development. g iving rise
to new and powerful forces of progres s , tes tifying to the weakening of reaction and stagnation, and to a revolution in the minds of
men.
In order to appreciate this change in the mind s of men , one s hou ld bea r
in mind that the concept of wealth ha s always been conn ec ted w it h the
notion of private fortune and personal luc~, again st the bac kgro und of a
great many unfortunates. That was the idea ever s inc e th e notion of
wealth first appeared on the ruins of the primitive communa l system,
The emergence of a rich elite in society had a religiou s halo a bout it. Th e
"rich man" and the "lucky man" were synonymous, while the notion of
"luc k", appeared to, contain the benevolence of ,;ome s upernatura l force
operatmg for "Divllle election".
That was the origin of the idea that wealth was the good fortune of a
happy few and p~verty the lot of the many, and that it was imposs ible for
everyone, to be nC,h, !hat was the key principle of the ideology of th e
cta ss society. Capitalism which emerged in the historical arena creat ed
the cult of the lucky individual who rose to wealth, Indeed, gelling to th e
top ~t the ,expense of everyone else became the mOlto that was
con sidered fll for every deprived individual and fOr whole nation s , For
that !"ur~ose the concept of human happiness was debased to the le ve] of
a ph,h st1l1e standard, of the "minor happiness" of the a
ho h d had
h' d'
h"
m nw
a
IS 1I1ner, t e m~croscoplc wealth of a few saved dollars , The mo re
abun~ant the fe stJv~ board of the capitalist, the more crumbs will fall
fro m It fOr the work1l1g ~eople - that is the political wisdom which li es a t
~,he root of all the theoTles of "people''\ capitalism". Another rule says:
Persev ere , you , t oo , have a chance to become rich and take your place

ilt th e fC'I li ve h'lrJ. The whole of hourgelli ... propaganda in the L. '):\
ha ~ 10l1g rr<l i ~ed thi... '(:onvcntional wi . . dom-- .md pre\cn tcJ Varil l u'~
V('I\ lO n ... of the "theory of ch'1I1ce" A. (:ontl!mp{)rar~' US wri tl"
cOIl \idc ri nt-: the keynote of h;.lurgcoi\ propag.mda. h,ls rea "Oiled on these
li nes: w hy .. holllJ the worker in the USA. seek to gain the ""hok world, a ...
\1M X a nd E ngcJs ~tJgl-(C\t, if he has a chance 10 hecome the owner of a
filli ng .. 1;l lion. A petty view of happiness indeed! Thi ... tiny f(Jrtunc wilt
di sa pp ear ovcrnight through the hlind working" of the e<lp i tali~t \yslem,
the d 'HHic <.Jntl relentlcss forces of c<lpit<lli .. m, Bourgeo i.. idcologi,I'"
ha vc hoa , teu of t he fact that capitalism create . . incentive for wor k
thro ugh t he overr id ing priHltc-property imtim;r. Addre"ing thcm . . e]vc . .
to Ih e .. ed ion" of the working people with ;10 emhryon ic cia"
awar c n c~s, hou rgeo i\ propagandi~t~ emph,,~i~e the ind ividual' . . pc r . . onal
welfare . a nd a",crt that pre .. en t-day cap i ta]i~m h he . . t able to \<J ti. . fy hi. .
interesh. Th a t I' where thl'Y \eek to S\'.'itch the ideologic<J] ' trugg le, wi th
variou s peddlers of t he po isonou \ concoction'\ of <J nti-commu ni. . m heing
mo st iI ~s idu ous in th is effort
T oday, com muni sm has accepted the challenge in thi, a~ea it, well a n,d
has ca rri ed o n ih offensive for the '\ake of man agaJllst bourgeOIs
indi vidu a li s m , w hich is an ideological echo of the world domln<Jted by
pri vat e pro pert y
. ,
, " '
In the contempo rary struggle between sOClah"m itnd citp lt ;Jh~m the
great power o f ,oeial property ,and, the n,e~ r~l~ t lom between me,n
de velo ping on it s ba~ i s and resull lllg In man:; Indn Id,ual de\ elopment 1\
being increas ingly revealed, Idealism and me l aph}'''I~' ha\'~ a harm ~u :
role t o play in their efforts to obscure the matenal ba\l~ of , ,o~ l a
relatio n s Th a t is a c ha rac teristic fealUre of all the bourgeOIs ,Ind
petty-bo~rgeo i s theories, \\-hich see ~ to drag ~ocial thought away from
it s Lenini st path ,
L "
the t rue ~cience of
It is a great ac hievemen t of ~l aT'\ lsmd+ . e~I ~~. . m~' ia l bonds bet wee n
society, th at it has made a profoun? st,u )'?
e . . 1,; , , .
.
,
d
T d' the Ir dJ\'ersl ty the most Import ant ones,
men ando th~t I~ has }, en t: 1e ~~\ e writlen a greal many boo k ~ in t~ e ir
BourgeOI s soc lolog lsh , \ h ~, "d J"
a nd to provide theoret IC al
efforh to sa lvage, bo,u rgeol~ lJ~dl~~\_~~ ItSr% d to hring out the ba"i" of
backing for it s pf1nC lp ~Cs , ?\t They h,l\-e indica ted fa mily rela tio ns,
relation,> be twee n me n In ~oc lel y"IO ,"ons a nd the \:-triou, hohbie .. w hic h
" I I , 'o n natlonil dre " II )."and many other seconda ry tI,es
pro resslona re a J ~:'
bring men toge ther (like ~ rt a~u:~~; ~~in thing th ey wa nt to o bsc ure is
between me mbe rs of ~ OC let~ -, odu elion i'> Ih e bas is o f ... oc ial life and
the highly im,port a nt trudth ~ l,a P~o n slitute the ba~ is of all the . . oeia l ties
that the relatIOns of pro udlon
d of m:-t n', own de velo pme nt.
between men an
, ' . b ' t \ een men in\o l\ing the m in socia l la bou r
Lenin said thnt~e la IIOl;tlh~ ~i\' erse soc ial lies. No soc iet y ca n e,i . . t
c\\ithout
on ~titLJtestrothe
1:1 :1' 1' ~f a men in th e proees" of la bour Th e , tage, in
ng IIc~ bd\\ce n
0

'_

the history of society are de termined by the !tagc\ in thc developm e nt of

labour and the nature of these ties.
"Whatever the soc ial form of product ion, labourers and mea", of
production alway s remain fac to rs of it. But in a state of separati on from
each other either of these fac tors can be such only potentially . For
production to go on at a ll they mu st unite. The spec ific manner in which
this union is accompli shed distinguishes th e d ifferent economic epoc hs
of the structure of society from o ne a noth er." ~ Wh y is every new epoch
progressive with respect to th e preceding o ne? It is so because it is
ultimately an epoch of qualitati ve a nd qu ant itative growth in the
productivity of man's creative labou r. Th e soc ial relatio ns, which change
with its emergence , are a condition for that growth. The political
organisation of society. expressing and conso lidating these relatio ns,
also uttimately has an influence on th e deve lop me nt of the productive
power of labour. The culture of society is a n indicato r of the quantitative
and qualitative level reached in society 's materia l and spiritual standards
through the growing productivity of la bour .

oaOWING PRODU(TfVITY
Of LABOUR_ THE BASIS
OF SOCIAL PROGRESS

Marxism draws a distinction between the main econo mic epoc hs in the
history of society in accordance with the in strument s o f labour. That is
the starting point for any scientific analy sis of society . Ma rx stressed: .. It
is not the articles made , bUI how they are made. a nd by what
instruments . that enable s us to di stinguish different econo mic epochs.
Instruments of labour not only supply a standa rd o f the degree of
development to which human labour has attained , but th ey are also
indicators of the social conditions under which that la bour is carried
on ." 6 But instruments of labour as a measure of the extent to which
~uman Ia~ur power and social relations have been .'e velo ped a re
Importa~t. In that they determine the efficiency , the res ults a nd the
productiVity of labour , The concept of mode of production is in sepa rable
f~om the concept of la~our productivity , which is characteri stic o f th at
given mode of production. No mode of production has disappeare d from
the a rena o f world history before it has worked out it s potentia lities fo r
greater labour productivity . Every new socio-economic form atio n has
brou~t .with it a higher .product~vity ~f labour. requiring a new
orgams~hOn and new SOCial relations. m accord with the greater
producllve fo rces. The advantages of the new social system were
: K. Mao;, Capilal. Vol. II . MOK,"". 1967, pp. 36-37.
Ibid . Vol. J. p . 180.

d' played in the new social organi'iation , resting on the development of

t~~ pro du ct ive force s achieved. whkh helped. 10. <;ecure a ~ig~er
oduc liv ity of lanour and. con<;equently, a quanhtiJtrve and qualitative
P~crease in material welfare that j" the biJ."i <; of "'pirituOJI welfare.
I So lo ng Wi a given form of relation .. of production _ property
e lations-corre!>pondo.; to a definite !ot:Jge of production, iJml Coo~e.
~uentlY, to a definite Ie~el of productivity o.f social labour , ~ociety keep ..
deve lo pi ng and advanCing. When the relallons of production no longer
accord wi th the greater productive forces of society , it$ technology :Jnd
manpower, thc!e relat i?ns begin to hamper the devel~pment of the
producti ve power of socml labour and b~come a felter on It. The mode of
bringing toget her the means of productlo~ and labou.r power creates t~e
basis for the deve lopment of lab~~r s . p~oductlve power and m
antagonistic fo rmations also puts definite limits to such developme~t.
Marxism has shown that the secret of the collapse o.f the slave-~oldmg
orld and the t riu mph of feudalism, a problem which generallons of
;ourgeOiS thi nkers had been unable 10 s~lve. lay ultimately in ~he fact
that the labour of the medieval serf and arllsan was more productive than
that o f the slave.
..
.
Th e slave had no incentives for work. for de ..:elopm~ hiS.productlve
powe r Th at is why slave labour ultimately carned society Into a dead
end and there was ge neral scorn for labour. The further growth of
productio n entailed noth ing but th~ capture of m;~ an~r~:~es:~~~::~
There were no prospects for techmcal p~ogress. d en n the gates of
first di scovered the importance of steam. It was use to ope
temples, so as to amaze men. d 1" 'ty was reached by the slight
A new level of labo~~ pro uc I'll
com ared with that of the
improveme nt in the condltl~n. ~f !he se1i~~enti\"~ to labour, for he had
slave , giving more ~oom fo r Imtlall::ea~he product he himself needed to
to produce somethmg over and t~. f mily and this ma rked the victory
meet his own wa nt s a nd thoshe ldo " ya stem' Capitalism brought a fresh
of feud a li sm over the slave- 0 IIlg s
.
spurt in the producti vity of la.b~~r . . Russia Len in showed ve ry we ll
In Th e Del'e/o pm ent of c~p ;~a ':~';~~ of expl~ itat ion. characteristic of
that the ex istence o f precaplta IRS! nd ,on the West tended to slow
0,
de T in ussla a
. .
. .. d
I
the feud al-abso utl~ or
0 ment of labour produc tivity. Le~l~ sal
down th e progre~s lve deve l r resu pposes the lo\.. est prod~cllv lt y.of
that "la bour-servICe ne~~s:<;an y. Pts for increasing income by mcreas lIlg
labour; hence . no pOSS ibility eXls be do ne by one means, namely. by
ly
the surplu s produc t : that ca n on , f h "7 Under a purely capitali..,t
.
. f bonded forms 0 Ire.
emp loy mg alldsorts
0
.
' h e productiv ity of labour becomes not
L
.
''"[0 ra ise
economy, sa l
en m.
1 \. I. I.enin. C"I/t"'Uc/ \\."rl.,. Vol. .l. 1'. ~14.

only possible. but also necessary as the sole meam of increasing income
and withstanding severe competition" S
However. there came a time in the development of capitalism when
private appropriation ceased duly to stimulate the growth of labour
productivity. On the contrary. the emancipation of labour from aI/
exploitation alone carried with it an unprecedented growth of labour
productivity. Today. progress is connected entirely with the future of
social property .a~d with the potentialities ~hi~h it Creates for growing
labour productivity. The forms of exploitation were stages in the
development of labour productivity. but today there is need to release
labour from all exploitation for it to reveal its creative pOwer to the fUI/.
Before the emergence of socialist society there was no instance in
history of labour productivity being advanced by workers voluntarily
allied with each other and consciously making use of advanced
technology. In Soviet society the change and improvement in working
habits. once largely a spontaneous process, is becoming a process
generating vast creative initiatives among the working people. impelling
them to innovations and scientific and technical experiments. On the
other hand. science. which has ceased to be a mean s of exploitation.
b'ends with the working people's initiative and innovation . Therein lies
one of the reasons for the tempestuous growth of the productive forces
in the new society.
The development of social labour hal, always been Connected with
changes in the means of production and lahour power. and has always
implied the e~istcnce of definite lahour skills and their improvement.
The steady improvement of lahour skills result<.; in con . . tant changes
which now and again remain unnoticed. That is an expression of the
~rowth of the productive power of social labour. The urge to change and
Improve the means of production has heen expressed in the process of
lahour ever since it originated.

~roug~out

the ~istory of mankind until the emergence of socialist

society thiS most Important process was basically spontaneous, with
~on'lcIOUS effort going mainly into inventions and scientific discoveries
10 tech~ology, which were determined hy the needs of developing
on
ProduCII.
~nd hy the level of lahour development and then exerted a
't~mlllatmg l~fI~ence. o~ production. The form of exploitation determined the hmll~ wlthm which labour skills and technology were
Improved and SClcnce applied to production. Exploitative society has
ne~er left any room (or extensive initiative among the producers. and
ha !<>u~r~lnated. the POwer of science to self.seeking ends.
In sot:lal"t ~o"ety. the grOWing productivity of labour means above all
a ~rowl.ng .role ~or every. w~rker in the prOcess of material production.
Th'J IS In hne With the pnnClple of "Working according to One's ability".
v I. Lenin. (,,116 "d

".

""'jlrl;~.

\"<)1. l pp

:!I"'I~.

h' requirement made by society on everyone of it-. memhers thaI <ill

and tidt; put their hest into labour for the common good. improving their
shou 'he" with the development of social labour
capacl.. .
" . II'r
d'
Th
Th ole of every workmg
person In SOCia I e ten s to Increase.
ose
h
risen to a higher productivity of labour are of great value for
~ 0 hole of society and enjoy its respect. The working per<;on who ha<;
t.
e w t 0 a high standard
of .
labour productivity hecomes a public figure
nsen
.
.
whose opinion is of natl~n~1 Imp~rtance.
.
.
.
Working people in SOCialist ~oc lety hav.e a.n mterest In.lh~ resul~s of
' I bo r and this is the baSIS
...
t h elr a u .
. of the pnnclple of rmatenalInCenllve
'I'
,
.
0 tant principle underlymg the development 0 socia 1St society on
~n
Imp r to communism But material incentives can be held out to
ItS way
.
.
h I
II '
when
there is. a vigorous effort. In the woe
everyone O n Iy
dco' ec[,ve.
h
and also those who supply the raw matenals f.or .p~o u:"on .. I e
instruments of labour. and Ihe goods to meet the Ind,v~dual s V~TlOUS
"
nts Consequently every individual has an Interest In the
,
. . I'
. t Tt at 's
reqUireme
.
of
other
working
people
In
SOCI8
1St
sOCie
y. I I.
I
r
the
labour
resutso,
..
. orlant ba . . is for all the other SOCial relallOns.
. I
the
incentives of each worker. In the res~lts 0 :~~k~nc I eople and the
common interest of. the g,ven colle~tlveh~l~ of "OCi~1 ~roduction and
nationa.l interc~t. \~hlCh ra.nge over ~ne ~e acti",ity of the individual
delermlne ... octety .. reqUlre~ents.
' tere "' takes the form of ~tate
'
,
d
. es ThIS natlona I 10
,
.
IOdustnes an ent.erpm..
. whole eople expres .. es and safeguards
interest. The Soviet state of the.
p d of ils member .. , who have an
the aspir~tions of t~e whole or.socl~~e as~ale has economic and pol~tical
interest In deve.loplOg productlon'
which it uses 10 have the n<ltl~nal
rol
instruments of mfluence .and cont '. the work of every enterpnse.
interest correctly taken Int? account In I
'
d oductlon as a who e.
d
every Industry an pr
.
d "s agencies that are concerne
However, It" IS no t only the
. slate
. an II with laking account 0 r thO,
h

~~ve

anl~m~oviet soci~ty, along~ide

individ~al i~ter~'~n a~hder:~!e~~ae

with bringing out th~ n~tlo:~~n~;;;s s~tisfaCiion. The substanc.e of

interest and contro!hng. ItS
hP h' 'nterest tends ever more wldel.y
Soviet socialist relations ,s such t a: t ol~i~ty becoming a basi" for theIr
to be considered by all m~mber:lf s~cial lie's.
.
practical activity, t~e ba~l~ro~ c~mbine personal material incenllves.
Socialism makes It poss' e ~ t" n collective of workers and the
the interests of the given prt~.~cc~:bination cannot he achieved of
na tional state interest. But I
's v',gorous activity. A knowledge
'
I
a t from men
.
I d h
itself. spontaneous y. ~P rents of social development has he pe t e
of the laws and reqUlrem tasks posed by life.
.
Soviel people to tackle t~e s what social and economic progress In our
The Party Progr~mm.e~. ~w:s that the mighty technology produce~ hy
age means. Its malO pnnclIP.e I the vast productivity of lahour can, gn:en
mankind which helps to re ease

1t1<l

Ihe righl social organisalion. cTcale a \ociely wilh dn ahundance of

malerial and spiritual goods fOT air. Today . continued indu\lrial
development makes it imperative Ihat \ol'ial lahour should !:oe organi\ed
on the highest rational level.

PROGRESS IN THE ORGANISATION

OF SOCIAL LABOUR

The two phases of the one communist formation have a common

basis. and it is that the "proletariat represents and creates a higher type
of social organisation of labour compared with capitalism. This is what is
important. this is the source of the strength and the guarantee that the
final triumph of communism is inevitable".9
The activity of the socialist state. which alone directs the national
economy. is an expression of this high level of social organisation of
labour. Ever since society divided into classes. the relations of
production have ineVitably produced a political superstructure which has
part to play in safeguarding and developing the social system. One
.spect of the great transformation effected by the socialist revolution is
that it works a fundamental change in the role of the political
superstructure in the organisation of social labour. The original version
of Lenin's article entitled "The Immediate Tasks of the Soviet
Government" said: "The task of administering . the state. which now
confronts the Soviet government, has Ihis special feature. that. probably
for the first time in the modern history of civilised nations. it deals
pre-eminentty with economics rather than with politics. Usually the
word 'administration' is associated chiefly. if not solely. with political
activity. However, the very basis and essence of Soviet power. like that
of the transition itself from capitalist to socialist society. lie in the fact
that political tasks occupy a subordinate position to economic tasks."lo
Th~ ~haracteri.stic. fea~ure of development in socialist society is thai its
pohtlcal o~aOlsaIJO~ IS geared,more closely to the tackling of economic
tas~s: that IS. tasks In developing production, the key sphere of human
aChvlty.
Therein lies the profound distinction between the line of the
~arxistsLeninists and that of the petty-bourgeois revolutionaries. who
give least .thought to con~truction, to production and economic activity,
The C?~slsten~ proletanan revolutionary cannot, of Course, take a
supercIlious View of economic activity in the new society and the
development of the creative POwer of human labour. Any attempl to
neglect the growth of labour productivity as being Some kind of
;0 V. I. L~llin. Colltcttd Worb. Vol. 29. p. 419.
[bid .. Vol. 42. p. 71.

" .. amounts to u revival of the petty-bourgeois Iheorits

" conOrnl'im
__ of
1
. 1.ucve
lupmenl _and
fro m the fundamental propo'iliions
SOCia
, a departure
.
he Marxhtl.eOlOl'it dOl'tnne
.. .
of t d d says l.enin. the hoo\ling of lahour produl'tl\llly ISI,he way 10
~~lee~hi'S fundamental ta,k when con . . ideri~g the con'itruchOn of the
to
. ty That i'i preci'iely the way Ihe Soviet people have followed In
new sOCle .
h f
.
I
..
Idocialism and fulfilling t elr Ive-year natlOna -econom~\;
bUI 109 ' i .
S
I
t II
hm
one
after
the
other.
The
oVlet
peop
e
are
1>
I
nt
P
deve Iopme,
.. ,
'Th. . h
.t
dvancing along thh path In bUilding commuOIsn:t. . at IS .t e grea
~. t 'cal meaning of Lenin's formula: "CommuOism 1\ SovIet po~~r
;s o;~e electrification of the whole country." This formula of Lcnl~ s
~buosve all implies a high level of organisal~on. of social l.abo~r .. wh~ch
Soviet society has proved capable of establishing. It also Im~he~ a hIgh
level of technical equipment of labour and conseque~tly. a high I~ve,l o~
roductivity. It also, undoubtedly. means a steep rISe In cullural an
iechnical standards for masses of working people. ~he dev.el~pment of
large scale industry is a key political task of the society bUildlO~ ~p Ihe
~ stem and a necessary basis for growing labour producllVlty. In
~~':urating the Party's line. Lenin combined the highe.st aChiev~m:~~
'n the science of social development with the conclusl~ns re~c e
~dvanced technical thought and natural science. geanng thiS to the
revolutionary and constructive energy of t~e ~asses.. the period of
The unity of the social and the natura SCiences 10
th of
..
d f st in the common grow
communist construcllon IS. ex~resse .. Ir,
vilal re uirements of
their social importance. which IS dete~.ml~e~e~:cl(7~n betwe~n the natural
social devel?pme~t; second'hth~ gr?wI~~~~ir common social role; third.
tion on which they
and the SOCIal sCIences on t e a.sls 0 .
the identical methodolo~ical. ~hIIO~OPh:~~1 ~~~c~~la produced by the
rest. Scientific communism ~nngs ~ge Ci:r because it indicates the
y
science of nature and the sCle.nce 0 dsohOWS 'how these dala are to be
ways for building the new s~cletYtt~~ e~erything for the sake of man.
applied on the slrength of t e mo ~hed a point at which. the CPSU
In agriculture, the USSR has re~ the natural elements has been
Programme says. its dependenhce n to a minimum. Only agriculture
d
considerably red~c~d a~d br?U~a t a~I:~f tackling this task. which is of
organised on SOCIalist lines IS .~ enn
. g the long history of agriculture.
vast historical importance: con " R , . the most complicated queslion
.
ountry like 0 ld us I .
b ..
I~ an agranan c
f eliminating 'lhe fragmentation of la our .
faclOg the country was that 0 t fa s which daily and hourly generated
and switching the pett.y p~asan :o:i~list lines. Lenin devoted much
capitalism. to organ~~hon t:rganiSing the socialist economy. and
attention to the pro em a of cooperation of the peasant farms and
formulated a coherent theory . I 0 ert in the countryside equipped
establishment of larg~scale s~c;:ch~o~og: In order to fulfil this plan
with advanced machlOery an

there ,:"as need ab~ve all 10 rabe and develop 'iucialis' indu,
on which cooperative farm, CQuld 'core "real ' I I " "
try , the h<l\ is
"'.
. .
'"
\;I..C"e\. Ihc COunt ,d eve Iop on socia lsi hnes, prO\ldmg 'I \lllution for 'h
rJ.'~llle
wh'ch
Id
b
.'
e age-old probl
I cou. not e c~mpared wllh any other difficull rohl- _
. c,ms

the new. socIety. Lemn stressed the importance of maierial ~m. In ~Ulldl ng
productive labour among the peasantry a .1 " ' , In(.:cnhvc s fo r
Co
' ,"
h
. nu criticIsed the " [
mmums 5 .. W 0 urged an in ..tant .\wilch I"v communes
. ' alJ ov .eft
h
,
co un r~. L emn stressed that it was possihle 10 build Ihe nc'w
. cr I e
SOCiety not
by "directly relying on enthusiasm, but aided b
engendered
ande
on 'h baSls
' 0 fYpersonal'
the cnlhu~jasm
" by the great rev olution ,
t
I
perso~a Incentl,ve and business principles",!!
In ere st,
Len~n ~Iso p~lnted to another important cond ition fOr the d eve I
of soc,ahs,t socIety: ", .. a condition for economic revival is th
?~ment
!he ~orklng people's discipline, their skill the eff (e raising of
intensity, of labour and its better organisdlion" I~ ~c I~eness, the
~ommumst Party carried on a persistent stru'
enrn, and the
ggle
proletarian conscious discipline over spo t
for the trrumph of
anarchy",1l
n aneous petty-bourgeois
StreSSing the importance of nationw'd
'
development of socialist relations L I ~ a~c,~untrng a,nd conlrol for the
break with the rotten past
h.' h enrn sal that thIS was a fight "10
pr~urement of bread and ciot~e~Ca., ta~g~t Ih~ people to reg~rd the
sellmg as a transaction 'wh' h
. a pnvate affaIr, and buyrng and
,
IC concerns only myself'
.
f h
rld h'
' , - . .,.1 ~reat Ig t of
wo Islonc significance, a fight bel
bourgeois-anarchist spontaneity" I~ T~een SOC lalrs~ COnsc Iousness and
people's consciousness was to s~ t ~ restruclunng of the working
work, to production to the t k ~r WIth a change in their attitude to
goods, .Men develop~d the ha~~t o~ rSUPPI~ing the pe~ple with Consumer
of therr activity as a
' I
egardrng producllon. the key sphere
' .rncenlives
' the ,On'
socIa undertaking co mb"IOlng Ihelr
' personal
matenal
.
, e r e s t s of the give I b
'
rnterests of the whole of so .
h
'
n a Our collectrve and Ihe
whose satisfaction it is imp~le~~i t e nat,lOnal and state intere st. without
working people either. Capits:l~s~ ~Oa~allsf~ the personal interests of the
habituated them to regard this as
the private business of indo 'd I

d
IVI ua s working to
..
,m?~nte . to an apology of the bo
.
se~ure a hVlng. That
rndlvlduahsm.
urgeOls anarchIsm and bourgeois
B?urgeois ideas were at the b .
Len~n wrote: "It is now particularl a:IS of anarchosyndicalist notions.
theSIS that anarchism and an. ch y lear to us how Correct is the Marxist
,Irreconci" a b' Y opposed they are
r toOsyndicalism
a re bourgeois trends, how
so ' ,
clalrsm. proletarian dictatorship and
" V '. L Lenin, Col/tC"/td Works Vol )3
I~
U Ib~d., Vol. 27, p. 258
" , p. 58.
I~ !bId.

~.~

Ll,mrnuni,m"", The attempl' to pu.,h the que.,tion of producing grain

and clothing into the hack~rnuml and to turn thi\ into a minor que~lion of
~cientifiC commllni~m amounted to a relap~e into the hourgeoi~ view of
pwduction :lnd lahour,
.
In contra,t to the petty-hourgeOl<; phra,e-mongeT'>, l.enin laught the
people to work for a ~cientific organi~ation of production, with the usc of
scientific achievemenh and the he\t !-y~tems of accounting and control.
elc. The development of .,ociali~t society i~ clo~ely connected with it~
efforts to enhance it., organi.,ation and cohesion in all ih work.
production in Ihe fir~t place, efficiently to organi~e the whole of social
labour on .,triclly scientific principle~. and to e~tahli.,h an efficient
system of control with exten~ive participation by ma%es of working
people.
In many of his works. Lenin warned against idealistic and voluntari~tic
attempts to leap over to communism. bypassing ils first stage, sociali.,m.
and st re ssing that the new society. and above all ils material basi." had to
be built brick by brick. "From capitalism mankind can pass directly only
to social ism. i, e .. to the social ownership of the means of production and
the distribution of products according 10 the amount of work performed
by each individual." 16
That is why "there still remains the need for a state. which, while
safeguarding the common ownership of the means of production. would
safeguard equality in labour and in the distribution of products"." For
the state completely to wither away there is need for full-scale
communism, Lenin wrote. But after the socialist revolution the political
organisation of society undergoes a change, and as a result of the
triumph of socialist relations the very nature of the ~tate is modified.
"All citizens become employees and workers of a single country-wide
state 'syndicate'." II The development of Ihis "syndicate" .and. its
transformation into a state of the whole people is a necessary hlstoncal
process.
Considering the transition from the first to the second phase of the
new society, to communism, Lenin stres~ed the decisive in:tportance of
the basis of social development. the growth of the productive power of
highly organised and highly conscious human labour. Lenin ~id. not
tolerate any concessions to idealism which w~re so characte~lstlc of
petty-bourgeoi" theorists, who hoped to bUIld a new society by
reforming man's mentality,
.
To say nothing about these precepts of Le~in 's would amount 10 effe,ct
to a revision of Leninism on the key questIons of the theory of SOCial
development, the theory of socialist construction.
IS
16
11
I'

Ibid.
Ibid .. Vol. 24, pp. 84-85.
Ibid .. Vol. 2.~, p. 467.
Ibid .. p. 4H

,Thus. the mainstre~m ,of soei,ll progrc\\ today .:o nsl" '
' eHry .type
and then in furth'r
.
h .m ehrom,lIin"
' off exploitation
.
to:
ImprlHm"
th
0
organtsatlOn
0 soc iety.
. th ' ~ e soc ial
d I f
' Accordionl"
~ J ' th'c m
am I'me In
e
. eve o~m~nt 0 the 'p0htical o rgani sation of pre\enl-da ' , e. ,prog re<;'\iv
In abolishing the dictatorship of the bour"" ~. .
y ,ol.:let y consi\ts
f
e-... t,I'le and e,l abl ' h'
. t t h'
IS mg the
dIe a ors lP 0 the proletarial. which is transformed i
whole people as the new society develops. The w ... ~to a "Ial e of the
through the utmost de\'elopmenl of soc'
} 0 the futu re lies
, ,..'1 "'elf -government

THE EDUCATIONAL POWER

OF EXA\,1PLE IN BUILDING
THE NEW SOCIETY

Lenin gave a brilliant sociological an I '

f
e~ample in building the new soc~t ~Y SI S 0 the. educati~nal role of
history of socialist thought and the' v~ ehbledgban hiS a nalYSIS with the
"I
'I.
lew s e
y the uto .
.
n caplta 1st society there ha e b
plftn SOCialists:
organisation of labour communesv been repe at ed examples of the
painlessly to convince mankind of ~:eo~le who hoped peacefully and
ensure its adoption Such a 51 d .e a vantages of sociali sm and to
b I
...
an pomt and such m th d
f
..
e k
vo e w oly leglhmate ridicule from
.
e o.s 0 activIty
under the conditions of capitalist slav revoluho.nary MarXists because,
by ~ea~s of isolated examples w ld ~r~, to achieve any radical changes
which tn practice has led e.th ou In ac~ be a completely vain dream
conversion of these ente p . I
to monbund enterprises or to
"Th.IS h ab.Itual attitude of
r flSes
ridc mto
I associatio
d
ns 0 f petty capitali st s.
example in the national econo I u.e an scorn toward s the importance of
people who have not thoroum~ IS som~times evident even now among
began from the time of thg y conSidered the radical changes that
proletariat."19
e conquest of political power by the

~r

th~

Robert Owen, and the followe

..
wa~te~ to create the cells of a n:: of ~amt-S.lm~n and Charles Fourier
~oclety ~Ithtn the framework of the
capltahst system, inside the bo
~he rest of the world. Tha~rg;~~scoun~ne,s, to act as an example for
utoplamsm. Marxism re solutely
om bated ~uch views. Followin
pl;ce, ~enm urged a fresh consi~ the. fundamental changes that took
. tartmg from the new social ~rali~~ of the power of example.
~m~ortance of example in or ani. ond llions, Lenin stressed the vast
;~!I~e the cou?tr~. He said th~t t~~nt~:~oduction on socialist principles
est orgamsatlon among the ma
was to spread the experience of
economy throughout the country, sses so as to help raise the level of the

Thi .. ~h~)wed :.In important regularity in the internal development of

Slwid ,tKielY, an important a<,ped of the mechani ... m of the !locialis!

~yslem 's pr~}gre'i~ivC dcvclo.pm~nt.

.
In the spnng of 191M, the SO\lct Repuhhc'!<> fir,t ~pring, Lenin dio.:tatcd
5l
of hi, ,on,ideration .. about the ,haracteri"tic feature, of the new
1me and ih immediate la\ks: '"The force of example , which '(lUld not
sy,tem
be displayed in capitali\t !oo,icty. will be of enormou'i import,lOce in a
~o, iet y that h .. , aboli~hed private owner,hip of land and facturico;, not
on ly becau,e, perhaps, good examples will be followed here, but aho
because a heller example of the organisation of production will tie
accompanied inev itably by a lightening of labour and an in,rea!<>e in the
amount of consumption for tho~e who have carried out thi, better
organisation.":lO o ut side the Kremlin wails lay a Mo,>cow that was yet III
divest itse lf of ih old features, and beyond its suburbs stretched field,
still most till ed hy means of the wooden plough. with villages made up of
huh in which the wood splinter still provided the only light. But looking
ahead, Lenin was aware that a marvellous social energy had been
awakened and that its most efficient development required the power of
example. Advanced example was being creatively ma~tered by new
contingents of builders. with fre<;h examples engendered in the cour'ie of
thisIn assimilation.
Soviet society. Lenin said. the force of example is able to influence
the people for the first time.~' The massive impact of the power of
example is the mainspring of the mechanism which impel\s So\iet
society towards communism. The Party, the Soviet people's vanguard,
sets an example for the mass of Soviet people in various sphere ... of their
activity. Tod ay, the whole work of the Party is pivoted on the spread not
only of the most advanced views of life, but also of the most advanced
experience in labour and production. Thanks to the Party'~ efforts,
various individu al initiatives among the Soviet working people become
massive, generating fresh initiatives which for their pa rt become
massive , and in the course of emulation produce new creative attempl'>,
resulting in a further enrichment of the process of labour, of production
and of the whole of social life . Such is the cycle of progress which
carries Soviet society ever farther along the path towardS commu ni<;m.
The creative assimilalion of advanced experience by the whole mass of
the people is a process that could nol have developed without the Part y's
vast organisational and educational effort.
It pay s to give profound thought to the main thesis in Len in's
remarkable work entitled "A Great Beginning". It showS the important
mechani sm of progress in sociali st society, where example is in effect

:0

19 v. I. Lenin.

ColI~cltd

Worb , Vol . '7 ,

~I

pp. 204-05.

tbitl .. p. 206 .
Ihitl., p. 26\.

'"

274

".

;nitiat;l't, the start of a massive movcmen!. ~it.h e,ample, or initiati ve,

are closely connec~ed th~ e~ergence, assImilation an~ development of
the new elements m ~ocl~1 h.fe, The se new c le,:"ents m human activity
provide the example m bnngmg out .a~~ ":lastenng new potentialitie s in
social development. Example and Imtlatlve show that new objective
potentialities have matured in soc iety . Reali sation of new potentialitie s
by ever greater numbers of citizens lead s to a new stage of development.
Society'S development in this or that sphere has reached a stage at which
the whole point is to have, the progres sive.tendencies int ~nsified, broadly
extended and fully estabhshed. In the peflod of commumst construction
with initiatives among the masses on the increase, the power of exampl~
becomes a key social factor,
Sociologists of the pre-Marxian period used to say th at if the
individual were left to himself his development would differ little, if at
all, from that of an animal. Social influence on the individual is
frequently expressed in the form of example, which teac hes one how to
act and to behave in various circumstance s. Thi s influence in socialist
society does not oppress the individual but in the long run helps to bring
out his capabilities and potentialities, The power of influence exerted by
the collective induces man to accept rules which become habitual and
commonplace. Concrete examples enable the indi vidual to learn that
"some things are not done", and it depends on the correct orga ni sation of
the life of the collective that the example of the most honest , highly
moral and ideologically steeled men should predominate and command
the greatest prestige. Man's life experience includes the examples which
he has mastered and which have exerted a deep influence o n him.
Awareness of one's individuality is totally impos sible without the
influence of the collective and without contacts and close interact ion
with other individuals.
One should not think that the power of example implie s no more than
mere imitation. That is a gross errOr which bourgeois sociologists have
made since the days of G. Tarde, a reactionary theorist of (he 19th
century. Actually, the power of example awakens an individual' s inner
mental potentialities, and an example can be surpassed or can engender
actions applying the example in another sphere, This constitutes the
beginning of a new concatenation, setting a new example, which is to be
assimilated in its turn. Thus, thanks to the valuable example fresh
mas~es.of men are invol~ed in the movement, which grow s in breadth
and IS si multaneously ennched in content, That is why example develops
into initiative, New habits and methods of work are broadly accepted all
over the country, and the best ways of mastering and making efficient
u~e of ~dvanced tec~nology and hardware are adopted by the masses,
Innovation and new Ideas are an expression of this power of example.
The example set by the foremost workers rules out the possibility of its
mechanical repetition , for it shows the need to learn and constantly to

, knowledge, if the lahour proce~'i is to develop, The example ~et

''li,;qUlre
h leading workers shows the way a1ong wh'IC h one ~ hou Id a dvance~
?y~ e ten .. the di ..tance hut does not obviate it altogether.
It ~ho~ ower of example is con~iderable not only for the organi~atio~ of
b C Pthe development of it .. methods and the rai~ing of the techmcal
~andou:~ltural level of the working people, but also for shaping th,e
',nd the mental makeup of men, The power of example IS
c h arac ler <
. '
'1"
unt in fostering emoilons, feehngs. and the abllty to set In
para,mo o ne' <' w',II under definite circumstances to achieve a given goal. It
.~
, . d b I
motion
.'
rtant for sociali~t 'iociety not only to develop. men S ':l1In s. u
~lsl:~~rrectIY to develop their emotions, There again, nothing can be
done without the educational power of example.

LENIN'S IDEAS
ABOUT THE DEVELOPMENT
OF COMM UN IST LABOUR

,
L .,
. the only scientific theory which has shown,
MarXi sm- eOlnism I,S
f labour and its role in the history of
through a ~ompr~henSIV~e~~~~~ ~o the emancipation of labour from t~e
human society . ~ e .way
to the construction of a free communist
fetter s of ex~loltatlO~, han~ed a comprehensive light on the q~estion of
system. The Ide~s whlc s
onent parts of MarXism, The
labour abound 10 all the three ~o,mp nd forms of production. is the
development of labour, of the ~ondJtto.ns economy. the study of social
fundamental problem of M.a~xlst ~o IliC~ Marxist philosophy and ethics
labour has produced scientific SOC~Ohlogy, ph',I'osophical comprehension
,
vable Wit out a
. 1 1
would have been lO.c~ncel
I of Marxist-Leninist theory IS c ose ,y
of man 's la~our activity, T~e Wh~ t~e g reat role of the working people in
bound up Wlt~ the ex~la~atl?n 0 f the way in which they are to secure a
history and With the IOdlcatlon 0 d
' of communist labou r crowns
.
L ' 's
ives The oct one
happy future for t hernse
f scientific commul1lsm.
el1ln,
the great edifice of the t~eo? 0 lat'on of the principles of thiS
immortal achievement is hlfS dr~uS"ghl t into the phenomena of the
a pro oun 10
. h '
doctrine , whlc gives,
to the future.
si ns of the emergence ~f ,the
resent and indicates the W?y,
p Lenin witne ssed the earll.e~t JtO~eo~~vi:1 Republic, but h~S bnlilant
communist attitude to work iO
br onic forms and proJecte~ t~e
thought did not stop at these em t %f communist labour . showi08 It S
devel.ll ol~~ee~ist inction from all the ea rlier stages
Pro spect fo r th e further
..
found qua I a I ~
substance an d pro
nd 's labour activity .
in the developm e~1 ~f rna~kl the ueslion about the importance of the
Ever since Lenin first, ral~e~tiativ~ in sociali st society and dre~ the
working people 's creative dl~1 study and foster the advanced experience
Party' s attention to the nee o.
~~~

in labour which, he . . aid, proum:cJ it triple PTl1dU Clivity (If lahour .

compared w ilh ordinary prodUl:ti\ it y ....c n~ral decade, have flil""cu ..~;
the time. Lenin "tre~scd Iha~ "'fn)m the theMetir.: .. 1 point of view the
... ubbotni\';'s are the only m"t1I~C'lall\"\ we ha\'e 10 ... ho\\ that we do not
only call our~el\'e, Commu1l1""'. that we do Iwl merely want to h'
Communists. bul arc actually doing ,>omcthing that j, communi" and no~
merely sociali st ... ~~
Th e CPSU Central Comm ittee c<1 ll ... for the clo<iest and most
painstaking alieni ion 10 the new, communist forms of lahour. to the seah
of adv anced experience and innovation. The va, t energy of the masses,
which is expressed in every ...ector of communist com,lruction, must be
correctly organised a nd directed to the attainment of great goals. A most
important commandment ado pt ed by the Commun ist-labour shock.
workers and collec tives, a movement sweep ing the whole country. is:
"Learn. work and live th e commun ist way," In every branch of
production and the se rvices yo u will find commun ist-labour collectives.
advanced workers and innovat ors. me n disp layi ng bold creative
initiatives. The point now is t o organise a nd direct all the working people
to a deep study and mastering of advanced experience.
Among Lenin 's many statements about the su bst ance and character of
co~munist labour. our attention is drawn above all to his proposition ,
which ~p'pears to be c ut in granite: "Communism is the higher
~roducllvlty of labour -com pared with th at ex ist ing under capitalIsm-of voluntary. class-conscious and united wo rke rs employing
advanced techniques." 11 These words of Lenin 'S define communism as a
~ualitatively new stage in the lo ng history of labour, a new stage in the
Improvem~nt of soc iety 's greatest productive force.
in showmg. the s ub st~n ce of communist labo u r and giv ing its basic
features .. Lemn emp~a slsed above a ll the high level of con sciousness of
th e workl~g peo pl~.111 the new society .
In SO~let cond~tlOns. labour it self is a most important mea ns of
co~m u.ll] st educatIOn,. It is a primary task to foster the young generation.
W~IC ~ IS not only actively engaged in building communist society but
WIll live under commu~ism. The measure s taken by the Party and the
Govern~ent to reor.g~lllse the schools, to enhance it s bonds with life and
produc.llon, are a brilliant embOdiment of Lenin's ideas about communist
educatIOn. about the education of the new man as he works for the
common good,
. Amon.g the o rganic features of the COmmunist attitud e to work which
IS conscIOus and purposeful, are a broad political outlook d
'
. t
efficie ncy. the ability to appreciate the impo,I'"CO of Ih I'"b comfm lilli S,
one'< coil I'
d
.
u
e a oure f ort 0
ec
Ive
a
n
one
SO
wn
COntributio"
I
Ih
,
_-,--___
0 e common cau se.
~ V.

I. Lenin. Co/ltC'ftd lVorkJ, Vol. 10

Ibid . Vol. 29, p. 427.
. ,p. 288.

In hi~ WIlT" man ha .. alway .. 'ct definite ta.,h and goah and has
'rllwn ;Lccu,tnmcd to achieve them . But communi.,t lahour i., character
to: 'd by the fad that every technological and produ<.:tion a\\ignment i'i
~:~nnected with the great ta<;k .. heing tackled by ~odety at a given ~tage
',nd the aim' ,et (Jut by the Party. The worker mu~t he aware of what the
~coplc m\l~t do to fuln! the Party'., decision" designed for the comm(lIl
welfare, and a"'C\' hI .. own efforh and the eHort .. of hI' comrade\
accordingly. That i~ what give\ our leading worker~ \uch great .,trens.th
in their ,kilful a.,~imilation and .. uccess~ul application of 'pe<': lal
knowledge . accumulation of valuable expenence and the abIlit y 10 \ee
the broad pro.,pecr.. and to con.,ider every task from the standpolllt of

Ihe.l. le

'

Let u<; emphasise that the demands made by society on the conSCIOU\
approach to one's work are not fixed in any sense, but tend 10 grow ~r~m
one stage of comm uni ~t construction to ano the~. The labour actIvIty
wh ich used to sati sfy soc iety yesterday. becomes lIladequate today. The
work ing person i., now required to have an even broad~r outlook, much
more knowledge and greater skills. That is what determllles the nature of
socialist emulation and that is a source for the steady development of
communist labour.
,
k
dI
The demands made upon the conscious attitude to on~ s wor te~ 0
grow not only because technology is improved and. nses .t~ a hl~her
standard. There is a growing demand on labour as SOCIal ~ctlvlty. WIth a
greater understanding of one's social duty connected w~t\lab~~I~t (t~~
transfer of experience, help to those who I~g: ~tc.). an . tea.1 ~ y t
bring out and seek new reserves and potentialitIes. That, IS why It ,s ~o I
ri ht to sa that production can be enlarged only WIth new capIta
in~estmen~:' C~mmunist labour also results in greate.r retdurns f.rom th~
d'
oduced earlier, from theIr a aptatlon an
~e;~sve~e:tr~s uac~~os:lt~f creative quest. and from the organisat ion of
new lines.
.
h 'g
Productiond on
b
t think that a commumst-work team. aVIll
It woul
e wr.ong 0
do nO more than keep up the level it has
sec~reddth~ hig~ltltl~hen:~~sr~oof the title merely means a fresh start !or
achIeve .. ctua Y ' .
i ceaseless creat ive quest in which
the collect Ive. com m.um~t ~abpOr~Vi~g both elements of the productive
there are no boun d anes III 1m
k'
man and the implements of labour.
h
forces: t e wor I~g "
of the high level of consciou sness
There is growlllg , awareness
h' work Because initiative and ad vance d
displayed by man I I l ' S
.
I't of
,.
' h I bour process become an orgamc qua I y
ex peflen~~ I'~ ~ r elab~ur activ it y calls not only for skilful hands but also
commu ni S". 0 " 'd and a broad horizon. In communist labour. the
for a. searc hl,ng ml~1 and mental makeup are not a matter of indifference
worklllg man s mor. "
I
. fI
ce on
various features of the human persona ity e~ert an ,n uen
~l~~a~:~our process. A high standard of morality and a correct
~79

understanding of one', socia l duty can inllut:c man to perform great f

<l<
<II II
C<lt\
of labour. Inadc~uate mora I.... ta h 1 I~Y\VI Ie l~n t~c lahour proce\~ and
harm the collective and society. Per .... ,lencc. consl ... tcm.:y. the ability t
overcome diHiculties . featufe s of the mental makeup which character' 0
<

leading Soviet worker', help them to mollify

~hc

lahour proce ss al~~

why it i ... quite natural

score fresh victories in communist labour. That I'..

thaI the obligations undertaken by commUIlI'it-work teams should
contain moral and educational requirements, If a man is not in the habit
of being honest and truthful in hi s pcrsonal1ife, is th ere any guarantee
that he will not take the wrong path in hi <.; work within the collective?
There are any number of examples to show that today the production
collective extends its educational influence on th e individual, seeking to
foster the communist consciousness in all things, educating the new man
with an integral personality capable of working the g reatest revolution in
the labour process. After all , communist la b our does not involve Some
little part of man, like his hands, and doe s not indu ce him merely to
become a ready reckoner, if he is a bookkeeper , for in st a nce. The labour
process involves the whole of man , t ogether w ith hi s conscience,
morality . his mind and capacity for observation. hi s persi st ence and set
of principles . That is why it is so vastly important for the further
development of Soviet society and its productive forces to fo ster the
working people in a s pirit of honesty and truthfulness t o the Party and
the people, in a s pirit of high res pon')ibility for each ass ignment.
The conscious attitude to labour mean s fulfilment of the requirement
to work according to one's abilities. But thi s, for its pa rt , means. first.
the need to develop one's capabilities in the process of labour for the
common good. After all . one's capabilities will dim and dull un less they
a~e develope~, The requirement to work according to one's abilities is
~Ighly dynamiC because it implies the development of man's capabi lities
III labou~ ~nd .systematic improvement of hi s knowledge and s ki lls,
Second. It Implies an urge to put one' s all into one's work a nd th e ab ilit y
to e,mploy one's capabilities in practice. Thi s has a bearing on what
~eOl.n stre ssed was the voluntary nature of communi st labour. Indeed, it
Implies. an expr~ssion of man's free will, as he gives of hi s capabilities
a nd ~I.S, e~penence to society without coercion, di sp laying his
c apablhtl:s .111 work for the common good to the fulle s t extent. That is a
c harac ten stlc feat~re of Our best workers, who set a shining example for
all the other worklllg peo~lc. Lenin wrote about the vast importa nce of
the fa~ t th at ~h,e.c~m muOls.t ~ubbotniks were organi sed by the workers
?n their own IIlltlatlve. Lenlll s remarkable work about th s s bbotnik s
IS e ntitled "A Gre~t ~eginning" . Lenin emphasised the i~:o~ance a nd
po~e.r of suc~ ?~g l,nnln~ s when he ~poke of socialist emulation, Massive
act ivit y and Initiati ves III labour are inherent in Comm <s
Wh
d 1<
<h h
'
Unl m ,
en. ea mg ~It t c con sc Iou s and free attitude to labour under
commUnism, Lentn remarked o n the fact that the workers mu st pool

their efforts. Communi,,! labour is not a ~eries of ~catlercd eff(lrt\ by

individuals, hut implie':> a growing complexification of organi~ational
work. which is to coordinate all the~e effort<.. gearing them to a \ingle
goal, multiplying the great power of labour hy ih organi".tion :lnd the
organi"ation of individuals and collectlve\ into one mighty effort in
communist construction .
The Party's va"t organisational and educational effort i~ de\igncd
precisely to bring out to the utmost e"'ery man's cap,lbility for work, to
induce mass initiative and activity on the <:.trength of the growing and
enriching experience of the masses and their active participation in
fulfillin g the plans formulated by the Party so as to accelera te the
advance of communism, the radiant future. The Party's organ isational
effort blends with its educational work. The capabilitie s communi,t
labour foster s and requires bear on man's most diverse qualitie,:>, and.~ot
only those of one's mind but also of one's cha rac t~r. like the a~lhty
syst ematically to work for a great goal as set by soc le.ty and the Party,
honest y and a refusal to tolerate ,one's. own ~hortc~mlngs and those.of
others. Communist labour increaslIlgly Involves man s .whole p:~s?nahty
in th e labour process. calling for the exe.rcise of all hIs capab]hlL.e~ and
exerting an influence on the shaping of hIs character and.moral makeu~.
Communist labour is the process in which the new man IS shaped and]t
calls for vast organisational and educational work by the Pa~ty In ev~ry
collective and at every enterprise, making new and ~teadlly growlIlg
demands on executives,
Lenin stressed the vast importance for the triumph of ~ommunis~
labour of the use by class-c~~sCiOfus wohrkers
ng~~w~~r o~a~~b~~r
key condition or t e rapl
tec hno I~gr as a
unist ~ubbotniks, the embryonic shoo~s
produchvlt~. In the early ~omm d and emphasised the great increase In
of communist l~~our, he dlsctne most important features. In his article,
labour produclivlty as one? Its'd J the ways of consolidating the
"A Great Beginning", Lenin ~O~~I e~~e excep~i~nal importance of the
new soc ial system and remar e , ~n combined the latest sc ientific and
new organisation of labo~r. w h IC .. " associat ion of class-conscious
tec hnical ac hie vemen ts With a ma~sl\e , .

?J

workers.
.
men!. cap italism has killed the wo.rki~g
In th e cour~e of ]ts dev~lop
ve rting the improvement of skills In
. . ' and en terpTise
man , s .IllItmtlve
, '"con
b man to his " technica I enViron men '
labour into a s imple, "adapt~~~7ve/ ad~il. It is true that capit alism has
as bourgeois th eo n sts the.
d technology resting on accumulated
h I b our "penence
recrUited tea
, I ' anthe further development 0 f t h e means
labou r experience and ~Ilmu ~tlllgh
heen used in the interests of the
B t thiS po .... er as
. h
of production. u
. _ . logist~ present this process III t elrO .... n
I
Bou,geo lS sOCW
.
cxplOitlllg c ass.
<

,"

<

<

<

<

<

~li

light: between the inventor and the scientist and the renewal of hardwa
and technology there is. they claim, 1\ middleman in the form of t~e
"spirit, of ~nterprise:'. ~'hi.c~ accepts the, "r.i.s~ of innovation". It canno~
be gainsaid that thiS SPlflt of enterpnse IS;1 very powerful force
though, not a supema,tur~1 one, ,in capit~llist society,. for it not only
subordinates the applicatIOn of IIwentlOns. nnd the InVentors them.
selves. but also enslaves labour.
The development of labour under capitalism intensifies the system of
exploitation and converts the working man into an appendage of the
machine. In so doing, capitalist society has made less and le ss use in the
labour process of man's capabilities. his inclinations and the various
aspects of his personality, No wonder the theori st s of the bourgeoisie
now urge the need to "humanise" labour, because man's technical
environment is being dehumanised, The whole point, they claim. is how
fast and well the working man tends to "adapt" to this "technical
environment", "Humanising" labour should help in such adaptation and
facilitate it. The theorists of "humanising" labour merely confirm that
the capitalist use of machines converts man into a mere appendage of the
machine, That is why sociologists in the capitalist world now see their
task in better "adjusting"' man's mentality to the operation of the
machine. The development of capitalist technology serves visually to
confirm what Lenin said about the human mind and genius being
converted into an instrument of violence over man him self . an
instrument of exploitation. Even technology. mankind's great achievement, has been converted into an instrument of violence over the
working man, distorting his capabilities and dulling his mind.
Labour at the capitalist enterprise is a far cry from communist labour,
because the former in effect involves the use of the worker by the new
machine. Communist labour implies the use of advanced technology and
hardware by conscious workers. which means that the worker regards
the machine as his own, and makes improvements in the technological
process, Characterising the highest stage in the development of the
labou~ pr<:,cess, M~rx said that at that stage labour appears not so much
as bemg mcluded In the process of production as labour under which
man acts in the process of production itself as its controller and
regulato.r, Labour includes within itself not only the process of
production but also the worker's rationalisation and creative thinking
air:ne~ to <?rganise and. improve the process of production. This creative
~hl~k~ngt mterwoven mto production, is not practised by a handful of
mdJV~duals, but bec?mes a characteristic feature of the activity of all the
workmg peopl.e, which dc:velops purposefully and in a balanced manner,
thereby ens~nng the achievement of a new level in the development of
the productive forces.
The process of change and improvement in labour skills which in
precapitalist formations led to spontaneous changes in the inst;uments of
282

lahuuT. and in the capitali\{ epoch. specifically in the period of

impcrialhm, occilmc no morc than the elaboration of labour \kill, in
application to new machinery and the worker'~ adaptation to new
machine .. , a(;qu irc~ a totally new character in o;ociali.,l \ociety. It
emhrace .. th e whole of the working cia,s, all the working people. and
oecome .. a key factor working for the most rapid and ,u,lained
development of the productive forces.
Of COUf-;C, the way in which the two key elements of the productive
forces - th e worker .. and the instruments of labour-are combined are
common to both pha<;e~ of the communi,>! formation, but in th e period
between the fir .. t and the second phase the productive forces undergo
considerable c hanges: the material and technical basi<; of communi<;m i..
created. the working people themselves undergo change lind their
cultural and technical standards rise. The workers take a more active and
creative attitude to the instruments of labour; innovation and ne~ id,eas
among the workers are broadly developed: the w~rker"s ke~n thmk',ng.
combined with his skilful hands, becomes an actiVe force In technical
progress, There is a change in the character of the development.o.f
society's productive forces. its pace is quickened. and labour produ,ctl~l
ty grows, reaching levels that are inaccessible under the capltahst

system,
d . f
d
The creation by society of a new unprecedented pro uctlve or~e, an
of roducers who are developed in every way proceeds ~UTlng th,e
con~truction of the material and technical basis of commUOIsm and ,IS
one of the most important results of the period of full-scale communist
construction,
' h w'th the
The advance of scientific and techOlcaVho~~~t;s t~~~p~~ica~ion of
solution of problems like .reduct~on Iof wr~~~~~ with the worker's active
operations, etc" is bound \OcreaslO~ Y to dvancin along new ways and
attit~de to t,he ,means o~ produ~~~n'maent weir behind, Reality has
leavlOg capitalist techOical de t' p between collectives of designers.
1
suggested the need for ever cllos~r
les t enterprises leading workers.
and
co
eC!ives
a
'
,
d
h
on the one an"
mist. lanners, This kind of connection
organisers?f production ~n? e~o;~d eco~omical and helps more fully to
makes projects more efflclen reckon with the social importance and
study every aspect and to
h'evement in the sphere of technology
progressive soc ial role of any ac I
and planning.
' c a l e on which this tendency in the
Evidence of the extencstli:~ f~rces is expressed comes from the va~t
development of th,e produ new ideas among workers and the m~<;s
growth of inven~lons an d of new initiatives together with the growing
emergence of variOUS forms,
' 't
. e creative achVI y,
f h
efficiency of maSSIV
d hen the level in the development 0 t e
The time has long p~ss~ t:: t the worker should have no more than
productive force s reqUire
a

elementary technical knowledge. In pre~ent-day comlition .... the ProdUl'

tion training of workers cannot he confined 10 ;l tcchnkal -minimum _
knowledge programme hut mu~t includc clemen" M engineering ;101.1
technical training. This proce ...... h a~ t"leen dcveloping at iI very fa ... t pace
and has engendered new form~ in which each worker acquire s new
knowledge. Indeed. much attention i... heing devoled in inuu ... try 10
various aspects of the effort to rai ... e the working peopl\: ... cultural and
technical standards. for this is an important prcrcqui ... itc for the
development of communist labour .
Conscious use of advanced technolog y by worker!>. is an active proce!>s
resulting in higher cultural and technical sta ndard ... of the workers
involved and leading to further c hange s in the hardw are and technology
themselves. The progressive changes in tec hnology and hardware
require a further rise in the cultural and technical st andards of the
working people. stimulating their creative Ihinking and indu cing the
working man to take an active attitude to Ihe machinery which. in turn.
results in fresh cbanges in the machinery. That is why we do nOI say that
the worker "adapts" himself to the new hardware but masters it, thereby
emphasising the active and creative nature of thi s process. That is one of
the key aspects in the development of the produ ctive forces under
communism.
Lenin said: "Communist labour in the narrower and stric ter sense of
the term is labour performed gratis for the benefit of society . labour
performed not as a definite duty. not for the purpo se of obtaining a right
to certain products, not according to previously established and legally
fixed quotas, but voluntary labour. irrespective of quotas; it is labour
performed without expectation of reward. without reward as a
abit to work for
condition, labour performed because it has bec
___ the common good. and because of a conscious reali sation t at has
become a habd) of the n~essity of working for the common
good ~ labour as. t~e requirement of a healthy organism." ~4
This charactensttc of communist labour by Lenin shows the very
imp?rtant role moral incentives have to play in labour. At the same time ,
Lentn repeatedly stressed that it is impossible to build the new soc iety
merelr o.n ma~s enthusiasm. and pointed to the vast importance of
matenal mc~nh~es to. labour in socialist society.
The ':'1atenal mcentaves to lab~ur continue to play the decisive role in
the pe.nod of full:scal.e communist construction, and the distributio n of
malen~l good ~ IS ~~I~I based on this guiding principle: "From each
accord~ng to hiS abilities. to each according to his work." Di stribution
accordmg to work makes men take a material interest in the re sult s of

I'rouudion ilnd ~timulates the growth of labour produc.::livity th,,' T<1I,inf,

of !!kill ... amI imflrtlvement of production techniques.
In his work. Thf Slate and Re\"IJ/ution, Lenin pointed 10 the key
importance of the !l.trugglc again ... t. any element of par~... iti ... m: when
idler .... the \On ... of gentlemen. !.wmdlers and ... uchhke guardian, .of
capitali'>t traditions" will find it immensely hard to dod.ge natlon~I1.1e
accounting and control. when thi, hecome ... a rare exception .tnd w~1I go
hand in hand with ... wift and "erious puni ... hment , "then the door Will ~e
thrown wide open for the tran ... ition from the fir~t pha .. e ?f communl ... t
!>ociety to i1\ higher pha\e.2$ Society mU,>t be stru~tured In .. uch a, way
that the idler will find it impos\ible to exist, and thl'" ca~ he done If the
rinciple of payment according to work is fully and \lnctly ott ...erved.
p Material incentives to labour in socialist society are, con .. eq~ently . of
great educational importance. They are closel.>', bound up with a hl~h
moral appreciation of labour efforts, the a~lhty to PU! a~l of one ~
capabilities into one's work and to serve ,~oc!ety by one s ,labour: Th.e
" he who does not work neither shall he eat pnnclple e~pre,> ... e~. society ...
moral consciousness and its attitude. to. labour ~s man <; rno .. t I~p?rt~nt
d t The broad extension of this pnnclple and It~ profound a<;sl~TlIlaIlOn
b~ ~il the members of society make attitude t~ lab?ur the basl~ ,:*ora:
value and pave the way for the habit. which IS ch~ractenstlc .oh
communism. of working for the common good. th~ habit aboutbwhlC f
k i t h eriod of communist construCllon the mem ers ~
.
~:;i~~y<;P~eero~teree/in the habit. of finding the satisfaction ~~ t~~
material and moral requirements m work for the common go . for
fo stering of this habit requires
his
the c?mmon. wealth an~ a~ta~n ae~~g~n s~~se of moral satisfaction only
material reqUi rements an 0
m
d'"
by multiplying this ,,:,eaith. instead of squa~d e~~ne~ ~~t at a\l mean that
The habit of wor~mg fO.r the c.~m:e~~;~ instinctive. \iarx criticised
labour in com~uOlst society ~' communist society would become an
Fourie~ fo r say mg .that labour mThat will never happen. Work .for the
entertamment. a klOd of game. .
'\1 become a prime necess,ty. and
benefit of soc~ety.under commu;~~t~V~~out which man will be ~n~~le. to
~n th~t se~se It Will. become a h uch the same way, the crea~ive 100tlative
Imagme hiS own e;ostence. In ~
"11 also become habitual and an
in labour and broad em:,!a l!O~r :~ery kind of man's labour acti~ity.
absolutely necessary .condltlo~h~usands of communist-work collecl!ve'"
The example provlrle~ by and active attitude on the part of workers.
show very well that the ree.
masters of production. to every aspect
who regard them selve.s as b~lOg me art and parcel of their everyday
of life in their collecl!~e ha; b~~~iC i:Spections of the organi ... ation of
life. The regular holding 0 P

th~t eVterYd~n~ s~~~ldmda~"'~~~ r:a~r:f~t

25 Ibid .. Vol. 2~. p. 47""

!~ v. '- Lenin, COlltCltd WoTt). Vol. lO. p. SI7.

labour. di sc us ... ion o f vario u ... as pec'" in cnhan\:in!! Idhlllll ProJul:th,ity

organi satio n of producti o n . econom ics On raw materials. labou;
discipline . help to th e laggi.ng. mut~ al con trol Over e;Kh other's work and
study . the stud y of e :\pe n e n ~e ga ll1 ~d, hy ,be ... t worker ... and collective ...
and ma ny o th er fo rm s of ac tIve pa rhc lpa tlon by mcn and women in the
life of their productio n c ollec tives-all p rovide vivid e:\amplc ... of
voluntary and fre e ac tivit y fo r th e common benefit. showing very well
how communist labour has bee n rap id ly growing and estah lhhing ihelf in
Soviet life before our very eyes.
In the period of full- sc ale communi st constru c tio n , the divi:sion of
labour has not yet been aboli shed . Le nin said th at the d evelopment of
the new society will afford an o ppo rtunit y to "proceed. through these
industrial union s, to eliminate the di visio n o f labou r among people, to
educate and school people , give them all-round development and all
all-round training, so that they are able to do e\'erytlJing, Communism is
adv ancing and mu st advance towa rd s th at goal. a nd will reach it. but only
after very many years ." U
This proce ss has qualitative distinctio ns a t differe nt stages in bui lding
the new society. developing fr o m e mbryonic forms to mo re perfect ones,
In the period of full- scale c ommunist construc tio n new content is given
to the remaining old trade s whic h , however . now req uire all-round
tra ining and de velopment of capabilitie s o n th e part of the working
peo ple.
As labour is filled with a high spiritual conte nt. as it is conve rt ed into
soc ial activit y, with the elimination thro ugh mec ha ni satio n a nd automatio n of the mo st arduous works, the esse ntial d istinc tions bet ween
mental and manuallabouf and between labour in the countryside and in
the c itie ~ tend to be increasingly obliterated . In a se nse . comm u nist
labour gradually fu ses these distinction s, so that th ere are nO lo nger any
e~sential .di stinction s be.tween the truly c ommuni st altitude to labour of
workers m the c ountryside and in indu ~try, On th e oth e r ha nd , the labour
tha,t ,we c all ma nual increa singly requires mental ac tivit y and serious
trammg and knowledge , apart from a broad po litic al ho ri zo n .
Th e development of variou s form s of c ommuni st labo ur in th e Soviet
Unio n is o f tremendous international importanc e , Th e gro wing ex perience o f the Party and the whole Soviet people he lp s to e nric h the
treasu,re house o f th~ ~orld soc iali st system , Imple mentation of Le ni n's
great I d e~s and the h vmg ,creative activity of the ma sses help to w in for
com r:n um sm th e sy mpathies of the working people o f th e world, In the
p? ht ~cal, eco no mi ~ and ideological struggle fo r the triumph of CO lll ffi Umst Ideas the S,o,v let people 's labour effon ~ and ac hieveme nt s a re a key
fac toT., Th e pohllcal a nd economic might of the Soviet Unio n a nd all the
cou ntnes o f th e wo rld soc iali st system has been gro wing , th e ca use of
26 V I Lenin. CQIlt'C ,~d WMk.~, Vol , 31, p . _~_

'"

pt.:a~c I ... hein~ con ... uliuatcl.1,. and th~ final v,iCI?ry o.f ...ociali ... m in the
peaceful economu.: competition With capitalism IS at hand. Th,e
ideological po ... itions of cummuni,>m in the ... truggle agaln ... t hourgcol ...
ideology arc heing COIholidated, and working mankind ha, an eV,cr
clearcr view of the way into the future, reali ... ing the prowect of ~ocl<l1
development. fur whi\:h there j, need to work, The fog of hourgeoi'>
views, preconceptions and prejudices is being di'pelled, Toda~, t~e
power of example, the power of real facts, showing that commun~sm tn
the USSR is becoming a reality. has become a key force helptng to
spread the ideas of communism."
'" .
Lenin used to contrast the vlctones of the milltamts and t~e
imperialist s with the Soviet people's victories in labour. The commuOlst
subbotniks staged by the railway workers of the Mosco~-Ka"tn
Railway, he said, were one of the cells of the new soc,iety carrylllg t~ a~l
the peoples of the world release from the yok: of caplta~ a,nd from ,wars
Wit h these words of Lenin's we are now confidently slndlng forward to
the triumph of communist labour,

THE HtGHROAD OF THE FREE

SOCtETY

At one t ime Soviet society was forced to suppress the remnants of~h.e
ex loit ing clas ... es, and to deprive them of thei~ f~eedom to express I elr
.~ because they aimed to overthrow the soclahst system, Today, ther~
W I , 0 rem nant s of the exploiting classes in the country. and ~ state?

:~~ ~holfe pe~ple is d~v~!~~~g~;r~~~i:,;~~e ~fa!h~n~~~I~:r~~~lec~Sn~~~i~;~

nature. unctIOns an
.
't w'n give way to communist SOC13\
aft er the triu mph of commUnism. I I
.
d
e rsuasion instead of coerc\on.
self-governme nt base on P I
' esses socialist social relations in
Th e stat e of the w ~ ole peop e e~P~ne equal rights and opport unitie"
their moveme nt , hold ing out to ev~ Y ed social roupS in the cou ntry.
fo r develo pme nt , There a~e ~o p~lv:I~~ nat ional Jevelopment fo r all the
Th e S oviet stat e e ~ su res a so u~~ : st~te system consisting of Union and
peoples of the Sovlet,countr y . mous Natio nal Regions and ,~atiOna l
A!lto!,\Omo u~s R~p ub~I CS, n~tib~~~ big and small - opport llnltl(~S for
Dlstnct ~, t,; n ,>~l e" ,~11
e their national cult ure and ~he~r .be'>t
develo ptng their nall ve IOngu. "
.. of freedom of Ihe tndlVldu:l1
f h -e 'Ire e:>. presslon...
d
lrad itio ns, A II 0 t es,
, der-t"nding of man's ... oc ial nature a n
"
l,e b a~I'"
' of correc ll n
... " f the C PSU says' .. A // -roumI
rea
h::;ed
on
I
,
'. "
Th e Programme 0
.
. ',.
.
lIS bond ,> With ~oc let y.
. /"" de",orrac)' aClh'e partlclpatlO l1 of
"
I
t crion of soCia I
ex tell slO ll alt( perle
.'
'
of
Ille state ' ill the management (}f
,'
. II e adm ll lls tra tlOfl
.

all (l tIl,e llS I II I

I d ,I
lell t imprO \'emelll of tIle go\'erlllllt'llt
eeol/ om ic a lid ~'l4ltu ra d el e ~P~' o\'e~ its act idt)' hy the people (,(lIlstiflltt'
appar alll s, twd " Icrease COli ro

the main directio n ill whicll socialist stateililod den'lops itl tile period Of
the building of commutlism :'~'
Theori st s_ who are hostile to M arxism Lcni ni ~m, fail to understand
the development of soc ial relations and the political organisation of
socialist society and do not understand th e influence thi') trend of
development exerts on every aspec t o f soc ia l life. including production.
the key sphere of human activit y.
Social relation s based o n the princ iple of Soviet democracy,
collectivism, comradely coo peration and mutu al ass istance become a
great force in the developmen't of pro duc tio n and th e improvement of
labour. Collectives of workers c on stantly bring out and use reserves in
production. starting variou s new drives for progressive innovations.
working to reduce the input s per ruble of ma rketable goods, the lowest
labour intensity per unit and the highest la bour productivit y.
At some enterprise s new relation s betwee n men are expressed in the
fact that the whole collective is re spon sible for eac h ind ividual. and
every individual is respon sible fo r the collective as a whole . T he greater
the collective and the individual interact , th e broader the basis of
comradeship and tru st for relation ship s withi n the collective, and the
stronger every collective and it s every indi vidu al member.
Of course, in human society there c an be no ab solute independence of
the individual from society , becau se soc ial bo nd s re main so long as
society exist s, so that ab solute independence is no mo re than imaginary.
Actually . talk about such "freed o m" usuall y serves to cover up
anti-social acts aimed to harm other people . The bourgeois fairy-tales
about the "absolute freedom of the individual "' a re e mpt y a nd harmful.
No society can exist without a clear di stinction between what is
permissible and impermissible , for otherwi se a ll soc ial life a nd soc iety
it self would be abolished.
At the dawn of history we find . according to the 19th--century Russian
sociologist , Maxim Kovalevsky , the emergence of the " principle that
everything promoting the material or moral pro sperity of th e gro up is
deemed to be good , desirable . in accord with custom , and that which is
du e. Conversely , everything which for this or that re ason harm s the
interests of the group. its security , its material welfare, it s honOur , is
deemed to be bad . shameful and by nature intolerable ". Th ese notions of
th e primitive societ~ a~e not clear-cut and are veiled in fanta sy. Indeed.
t~ey are extr~mely hmlted . Thus, Kovalev sky notes the e xistence o f this
"... ~ d Of. la~ In the prim.itive commune : "What is allo wed in respect to
ahens IS Int olerable With respect to kinsmen ." ~8 Subsequently. neW
standa rd s of what wa s permissible and impermi ssible were dic tated by
11 Th t Rood /0 Comm uniJ m, p . 548_

\i ~ Kovalev~ky. "Demar.;alio~ of Permi'~i blc: an d Im perm i ~~ jblc: A(: h " In: Nt\<'
I;l n.
I,/e-(u m .,."'1II/0R:o', Coned Ion No. 4. SI. Peler,hurg "" p. 90, In R U ~\ ..)
IS

""

.. lave-holding \ociety, when what wa<; allowed the !>Iave-owner wa~

prohihited for the ... Iave . In fClldal society. the fetter'> of ~erfdom and the
hierarchy of variou\ fur!';e" were a feller on the working. people.
In the 18th century. demands were made for formal democratic righb.
This wa\, 3\ one Ru ... .,ian revolutionary thinker put it. an unfca.,ible
demand for every man's "right" to cat off gold plate, The further
development of democratic ideas in the course of the social struggle led
to demands for real. material guarantees that the people's democratic
rights could be practhcd, for otherwise all the rights and freedom ..
remained on paper. The 20th century proclaimed that it wa<; impo')sible

to extend such guara ntees to the people without eraducating the power
and influence of capital in society, for in any clash between formal right
and the real. material power of capital. the latter always won out. The
pri me guarantee of the people's freedom is destruction of the power of
money.
When Lenin and the Bolsheviks entered the arena of political struggle.
they gave a real basis to the question of freedom. discarding the false and
obscu re reasonings of bourgeois ideologists about "freedom in general" ,
This is how they put the question: freedom for whom. freedom from
what? The Communists put forward the demand of emancipation from
exploitation. the demand for freedom for the working people. Tod~~ it is
safe to say that in the Soviet Union there is freedom for all. All c ltlzen~
en joy eq ual rights. Let us ask this question: "What is this.fre~dom fro~')
The a nswer will be quite clear: it is freedom from exploitat ion. g~nu~ne
freedom from every type of oppression and. consequently. emancipation
of hu man thought and action from the age-old fetters pr~duced by the
econom ic, political and spiritual domination of the e~pIOiters: ..
Genuine freedom is the possibility to unfold one s capabilities, to
display them through one's activity and tirelessly to develop them, TIi~t
is the ki nd of free dom, as the highest privilege and the g reates~ :alu e 10
human life, th at forwa rd-looki ng men t~roughout the age~ had VISIons of
There is now a society which reqUires that e~ery~ne ~ho~ ld work
according to hi s abi lities. That is a law of Sov iet l~fe and. Its moral
t da d Th e main conclusion to be drawn from thiS law IS that t~e
fn~~vidru~l'S personality is enriched with the devel~pment of Sov iet
soc ial relations . That is the most important conclUSion drawn by the
. .
' .
. '
modern theory of soc ial progress.
Th e rogress ive aims of modern society consl ~t. ln unchU1m~g t~e va"t
. p , , .al.",-, , n man This calls fo r abohtlon of explOItatiOn and
creative. pO enF .. thermore
I ....
'.
IS need to have the 1a b our e [[,
o r o[
there
~~~~~~IO~~c re~~e the s~cial wealth to a point wher~ all ~ u man
.
b- met It is also necessary that man hlm~elf ~hould
reqUire ment s can..
.
[b Id th
c apabilities and gain in stature in the course 0 UI 109 e
"IS to crea e tho.. he'
deve 1op h. IS
, Th- ' ask before modern soc .
iety
..
new .bsoc
.... [o
. r brin" ing out the creative
.
' IItle
. .. an d
potentia
l le y. d, on'
pOSS I e con I I
to

capabilitie s of every ind~v!du ~1 a nd, co n "eque~ntIY. of the \\'hole rna,,\ of

the people , Ma ss c reatiVit y IS a key .featun: of, the pre ... ent epoch of
tran sition from c apit alism to comm u m ... m. That I" what accelerate \ the
progressive development of soc iety,

THE WAY OF INTE LL ECTUAL

AND MORAL PROGRESS

There was a time when the bourgeoisie ad vanced to power under the
banner of the progre ss of rea son an d know ledge. Bu t bourgeois social
relations created a gulf between the peop le a nd sc ience, T hese two most
powerful forces of progre ss we,re divided. Th eir ~ n ification must be
started in the process of labour It se lf . Th e p rogress ive d evelopment of
modern society requires that the powerful forces o f scie nce and the
people should be blended into a single wh o le. and that can be done only
by the new society. It is the hallmark of the new society that the CPSU
Programme indicates the main lines of develop ment in th e key fields of
natural and social science .
Capitalism has deprived labour of its spiritual content. converting the
workingman into an appendage of the mac hine . That was the
arrangement in the age of steam , and such it is today in this age of
automation and remote control. Communism restores t o labour its
spiritual content and enriches it manyfold . Soc ial rela tio ns require that
every working person should have knowledge , while science should have
clo se contact s with life and should sati sfy the require ment s of social
de velopment. That is the main line of intellectual pro gress in modern Y
soc iety , And today we have already left the capitali st world fa r beh ind in j\
this re spect.
For centuries the best minds pondered the pro blem s o f man 's moral
improvement , but all the wisdom of the moralist s was unable to secure
mankind 's moral progress , Capitalism pulled men down into th e morass
of greed , envy, wild egoi sm, and social inju stice .
Thinkers of the past , contemplating mankind 's intellec tual and moral
progre ss. pr?duced ,a gr~~t many theories for improving the individu al
and devel o ~mg all hiS s ~lf1tual potential, but all these doc trines preac hed
mora l and mtellectual Improvement for the individual a lone. Th at was
!he w~o ng wa~ . Moralists are apologists of bourgeois individuali sm and
m their re a so~m~ abo~t t~e defects and vices of "huma n nature" th ey did
not say that It IS capltahst bonda.ge that tends to distort man 's mo ral
~o ~ s~ iou s n ess . The preaching . of moral self-improvement fo r the
10dlvldual served to .p~o~ote the mterests of the ruling cla sses, fo r it was
used by the bourg.eolSle m an effort to divert the working people fro m the
struggle fo r a radJ3nt future for all mankind . Forward-looking thinke rs in
the 18th century noticed the connection between moral progress a nd the
290

lkvelopmcnt of cdw.:ation. M:ience and culturl!. hut they reduced the

qUC .. tillll of moral cOI1\l.:iou ... ne!io" to enlightenment. Of cour.,e. there i., a
connection hctween the development of the mind and moral con~ciou"S
ne., .. , but the acqui.,ltlon- uf knowledge doe-.. not in iheTf amlmnt til a
development of moral con'>Ciou ... ne~.,.
Capitali.,m ha.. in fact converted the working man into a mere
appendage of the machine. and knowledge into an instrument of greed.
distorting men\ moral consciou.,ness and in<;cribing anti-intellectuali .. m
and amoralism on it., banner a 19.ng time ago.
i
Pre-Marxian ..ocial ism was likewi<;e unable to show the real way for
ma nkind's moral and intellectual progress. Utopian ~ocialism believed
that the new man would emerge from special test tubes and hothouse'>, in
the cells of the new society that would germinate within the entrails of
th e o ld. That was a metaphysical and idealistic view. \\. hich wa .. a far cry
from the truth.
Marxism a lone, taking the material dialectical approach: .. howed the
way to recast ma n's consciousness in the struggle for the tnumph of the
oew social system, Marx and Engels said that the consciousness of m~n
who was to build the new society would initially . be burdened With
su rvivals of the old world outlooK and thill there woul~ be need r~r a
fundamental remoulding of man's spiritual cast. On thiS key qu~stlon.
Marx-ism produced a totally new answer which resolutely b~oke With the
old utopian views, Leni n wrote: "What distinguishes. MarXism from.the
old. utopian socia li sm is that the latter wanted to bUild the. new socl~ty
not from the mass huma n material produced by bloo~sta1Oed. sordld
J
rapacious, shopkeeping capitalism, but from very VirtuOUS men an
women rea red in specia l hothouses and cucumber frames. Everyone
nOW sees that this absurd idea really is absurd a.nd everyone has
di scarded it, but not eve ryone is willi ng or ab le to giVe th?ught to the
oppos it e doct rine of Ma rxism and to think ou t how comm umsm can (and
shou ld) be built from the mass human material which has been. co~rupted
by hundreds and thousands of years of slavery, serfdom. caPltal~s"!. ~.y
man
small individual enterprise. and by the war of ev~.y h
~gal~~ h;s
neighbou r to obt ain a place in the market. or a Ig er pnce r s
product or hi s labour.":!9
h '
f t 'an
M x'sm resolutely re jected the idealis m and metap YSlcs 0 u op~
,a~ I
howed how th e new soc iety was to be built from massive
~~%~I~S~:t~~i!1 in stead of artificially created mehn wit ht hspecr i~lo~i~~~::~
. d h
was to be led o nto t epa
0
and ex plame
ow man
, answer was prov ided in the light of
inte llectual a nd mO.ral p,rogress. T~ISr
h'c h had estab lished the
~ i a lectical anrd hl.stlonc:~ tiC:a~~~I~ ~~mdev:lolpme nt of knowledge and
Import ance 0 SOC ia pr
hum an consciousness.
29 V_ 1 Lenin, Co/lr("/rd Works. Vol. 111. p ..lIl8.

".

09'

Subsequently. v~rious oppo.rtuni~ts. r~\' i ... ioni."'h and Mem.he \" ik~,
abandoning. revoluh~nary Marxi sm, mcludl~g the Idea of remoulding the
mass c~n~clousness.m t~e cour~e of re~'oluho~ary ~truggle, claimed that
the soclahst revolutton m Russia wa ... ImposMhle because on the whole
the general educational and cultural standard,) of the people in the
country were lower than those of the ca~ita1ist. ')tates in w.e~tern Europe.
That was a rehash of old metaphY~lc al Views, and m the light of
revolutionary Marxism Lenin rejected thi s false opportuni~tic thesi~ and
said: "If a definite level of culture is required for the huilding of socialism
(although nobody can say just what that definite 'level of culture' is. for it
differs in every West-European country). why cannot we begin by first
achieving the prerequisites for that definite level of c ulture in a
revolutionary way. and then. with the aid of the workers' and peasants'
government and the Soviet system. proceed to overtake the other
nations1"lO At the same time, Lenin remarked on the difficu lties of
tackling this task. He said: "Of all the socialists who h ave written about
this, I cannot recall the work of a single socialist or the opinion of a
single prominent socialist on future socialist society, which pointed to
this concrete. practical difficulty that would confront the working class
when it took power. when it set itself the task of turning the sum total of
the very rich. historically inevitable and necessary for u s store of c ulture
and knowledge and technique accumulated by capitalism from an
instrument of capitalism into an instrument of socialism.")1 This kind of
transformation of the whole store of knowledge. culture and technology
into an instrument of socialism is a key task of socialist society as it
creates its own basis for further development.
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union has worked out among the
~ey problems of scientific communism the problem of mankind's
mtel1ectual and moral progress. The Party has carried on re_education of
the masses in the course of communist construction. "The Communists
reje~t th~ class_ morality of the exploiters; in contrast to the perverse.
~ft~~ vlew~ an.d _morals ot the old world, they promote communist
~orahty. which Is~_he noblest and most just morality. for it expresses the
~nterests and ideals of the whole of working mankind."J2 Indication of
the w~ys t.o. mould man's ne.w spiritual makeup is closely bound up with
the SCientIfIc theory of social development.
1!t~ education and upbringing of Soviet man are inseparable from his
actIV!tr: from the labour process, because Marxism denies the
possl~lhty of the new man's outlook and mental makeup being shaped in
an~ ~md of test tube or hothouse. Only in labour. on the basis of social
activity. can man develop the right habits. skills and notions.
~

V. I Lenin. CoUtcttd W(lfb . Vol. H. pp. 47879.

Ibid .. Vol. 27. p. 412.
n Thl Rood t(l Commwnis m. p. 56(,.

:91

I>roolldi(ln in ",(leiali ... ' !.tk.."it:ly 1<x1ay rcquire~ much scicntifi(.; knowled!!c of everyone. On the onc h,mo. the l<thour pr()(;e~<i require" that thi ...
kn.owl.e~ge should be formed into a 'y~tem. and on the other. help ... to
bring It IOto a w,tem and provide, the pivot for knowledge. cementing it
with practice. The a(.;qui,ition of ~cientific knowledge in connection with
the labour proees' help~ not only to rai~e technical skills but al~o to
shape the scientific world outlook of men in socialist society. If
I
education is organised on the right lines. man learns to go 10 the root of /
things and phenomena, to separate the important from the secondary and
accide ntal. to show the causes of phenomena. to discern the physical.
chemical a nd mechanical laws in diverse phenomena and to apply these
in practice in accordance with known laws. Th is kind of education gives
a sound foundati on for the scientific world outlook. Of course. the
scientific world outlook is not shaped spontaneously. but calls fo r much
educational effort to make me n take an active attitude to the knowledge
they receive, seeking to comprehend it instead of merely storing up in
their heads. It is also necessary that men should not ex tract from the
system of knowledge that whic h they need at the moment. regarding the
re st as use less. This kind of approach is a survival of the bourgeois
attitude to knowledge. The bourgeoisie has always held th at knowledge
is good only insofar as it helps to make money. The bourgeoi~ie ha"
always feared that knowledge acquired by its servitor" - the workers-would one day blend together in their minds into a coherent and
integrated world outlook . The Soviet people
I reject the ~
rl'
in ,nd
the

eel,,;.

~~r,;~~:.~~~s:;~::t1,

de velopment of social thought which was crossed only with the

emergence and development of Marxism. of scientific communism. The
working people. who are masters of the new life in the USSR. seek to
have the know ledge they obtain to be const ituted in a system and. what
is most important. in tackling practical problems try to learn to Ihink and
to rea"on on "cientifie and principled lines.
Moreover sc ientific knowledge in this period of tempe stuou s
technical pr~gress has to keep growing and being replenished. The
knowledge in sc ience and tec hnology considered satisfactory for a
worker or an engineer 10 years ago is now clearly inadequate. The s~mc
applies 10 the social sciences. Life requ.ires that every ~e~ber of SOC I~{y
should gain an ever deeper understandl~g of the Party s hne. of the vlt~1
task s of social development. and grow 109 and well-grounded economIc
knowledge. That is not a mechanical pr.ocess. leading. to a mer.e
accumulation of knowledge but a process 10 which man s o.utlook ~s
developed in close connection with the extension and deepentng of hi'
life and work experience.
.
The combination of knowledge and labour not o nly makes thl'"
knowledge . backed up by practice. much clearer and less abstrac i . hut

also enriches and deepe.n ~ it. Thi \ pr?ducc\ not only in~i\'itlll"l Ilev.
ideas. but leads to the ral smg and tack li ng of great prouu..:tmll pmhlem s
by whole collective s.
The selection of th e tasks a nd the underta ki ng of commitmenh by
team or an individual worker requi res not only hreadth of Icchnica~
vision. but also knowledge in th e econom ics and organi"ation of

production. the ability to di scover unta pped rese rves to achieve the key
task of the enterpri se . whic h is close ly bound up with thc overall ta ... k~of
the state in the given indu stry and with th c state plan as a whole.
In Soviet society, knowledge implies th e formation among the masses
of correct notions about the forces of nature, noti ons whic h rule out any
faith in the supernatural and the unknowable. Kn ow ledge also implies a
correct and profound understanding by the masses of th e role of social
forces. an understanding that is equally al ien to su pe rs tit ion. blind
admiration of these forc es o r attempt s to ignore t hem by mea ns of
various subjective idealistic dodges and illu sio ns. Comm unist education
also implies a correct understanding o f man 's ro le. of ~ i~ strength.~nd
potentialities. an understanding which rules out an y SP Irit of serV Ility,
debasement and downtroddenness, o r the s pirit of w ild and inflated
irt4ivid".lism . These scientific notions become the basis for ma n 's whole
a:tiiit,. and behaviour. Notion s brought togeth er in a system of views
and strona)y influencing human activit y deve lop int o conv ict ions and
induce people to uke correct action . C onv ictio ns he lp to steel man's
cban.cter and shape his whole mental makeup .
In Soviet society the study of the law s o f natu re and of the natural
sciences runs in close connection with a study of the social fo rces whose
in5trument is science. in close connection with a study of society's
economic and social life and the task s whic h the Sov iet peop le have to
tackle in the sphere of production and the econo my ma ki ng use of
scientifIC data. In other words. the science o f soc iet y . t he th eory of
social development , is an important theoretical basis fo r the s haping of
all of man's convictions . When man comes to see th e f, reat idea ls of
communism and realise the ultimate and immediate goa ls in his
day-to-day labour activity, the high level of communist consc iousness
then awakens his creative initiative and activity in labour , a nd prod uces
collective rationalisation experience and bold novel approac hes, All of
thi s works a fundamental change in man 's spiritual makeup .
At every new stage of communist construction there is a growt h and
change in the c riteria of political maturity and co mmuni st co nsciou sness
in t he various spheres of activity involving Soviet peo ple. Thi s process
shows best how socialist society bridges the gap. c reated by the
cent uries of do mination l;l)' the ex.ploiters. between the " loft y" vis ion and
the "low" day-to-day ;ac ti v~ . This gap was constantly used to ju st ify
bourgeois duplicity . "r.poc ri ~Y and phrase-mongering . and ex plain the
contradict ions between ",I:'oul and deed .

The new ~riter;a require a deeper po1iti~al edu~ation. an understanding

of e~onomi~ proccs,.,e'l. in Soviet ... m;;e1y and more profound and
all-round knnwled~c_ There i .. need nol only for ,10 urge 10 work fur the
benefit of ... ociety. hut aho the ability in~rea . . ingly to produ~e \U~h
benefit, Thi ... ahility al .. o implies ... elf re<;traint. wfficient steadfa~tne,,~ of
character. a mentality th<Ll rule ... out ... udden ~witche . . from elan to
depression or idlene ....... We ... ay that ru ... h-work methods have long ";n~e
outlived themselves, That i~ not to . . ay. of course, that elan. enthUSiasm
and revolutionary romantici~m are ruled out in the activity ,of Sov~et
people, On the contrary, in the period of communist construction Soviet
people have produced remarkable examples of labour heroism and great
feats for t h~ benefit of their ~ountry,
..
.
But the point is that in the present-day condlllo~,>. great feat ... reqUIre more t han determination. They call for skill and conSiderable
knowledge. The achievements of Soviet cos.m?nauts a~e ~he. b~st
con fi rmat ion of th is changing character of explOit ill the ~O~lety bUlldmg
ommu nism That is why the development of the vUglO lands h,as
~ecome a school of political and cultural education for millions of Soviet
people.
.'
I
f
Education in labour for the common good Imphes the deve opmen~ ~
respect for the common wealth. an understanding that ma~ can .",atlsby
his material requirements and derive a high moral s~tlsfachon ~
multiplying this wealth, instead of w~s~ing it. The ,~ostenng ~~~h~i~~er
att'tude to work is a necessary condition for m?\o,iIlg on ~o
. d1

Th advance of soclahst sOCiety towar ...

~~~~u~fs:~~~~e~l~d'evel:pment of labour and fundamental changes
in the work ing people's. consciou~n~~~. importance of initiative which
a condition for growing labour
In th is context. Lenm stresse
as
develops at the grass root~
. 'tiathe of the masses has been
productivit y. The v~st creative ~ntlh growth of th is initiative is a law
awakened by the Sov Iet system an, . e
.
.
h d
lopme nt of soci3hst sOC iety.
goverOing t e eve,
.'
. t labour helps to shoW every aspect
The point is that Ill. soc.'al~st.sOc~~v~rse capabilities: Labour helQ? to
of hu man perso nah~Y an, It~' it the ability to think fa_s.!, to ~rasp. a~d
,develo p th_e h u rnan;~nll~df-ke_e.~ d -to\'ee -so_calleal11lnOr details With In
understand the, n:'aln ~1R~ea':irement fn s'OCiali st society that everyone
~on.e's fieJd 01 YJSlon; e h~ ability implies. first . the need to develop
shou ld wor~ .a~co.rd lllg toocess of labour fo r the common good, becau s~
th ese capablht les III the pr.
less they are developed, Second. It
capabilities w!l! dull an~ d~:e'~~apabilities in labour, the req~i~em~nt
implies the ability ~o afinro the labour process, Consequently. It Imp',les
to lea rn to put one ~ al
. . his all to societ y voluntarily. developlIlg
the shaping of m,an wh b~~v.es to the full in working for the common
and display ing hiS capa I It les
good .

>\

~95

In o ur day . the hig h mora l app reciation by so~iety of human laho

and also the high level of sc ien tific and technical equipment of laho Ur
..
d
.
I
.,
the advance of mec ha m sat Ion an ;lutomat,ontcm toncatcasituOItio '
whic h the old disti~ction between the "high" and "low" types of lab~~~
ac tivity te nds to dl ~a pp ea r . That ' ''' a .vcr~ Important an~ characteti~tic
feature of c ommulllst labo ur and soc iety s moral con",clOusncss in the
period of c ommunist const ruct ion . In t hese condition .... the attitude to
any lype of wo rk depe nd s on how earnest ly, ... k ilfully and dcvotedly man
serves soc iety by hi s wo rk . a nd how much of hi ... capabilities he
dedicates t o his endeavour.
For a long time in the his tory o f Marxist th o ught it was suggested that
communist labour would mea n an e nd t o the tra des and to professional
training, for labour would bec o me uni versalised. It is now fairly safe to
:say that in the period of communist c on stru c tio n every trade, including
Ihe new ones and the old ones whic h a re still necessary and are fi lled
with a great content, requires broad vi sio n a nd muc h di verse k nowledge.
In the USSR. some shepherd s have a full secondary ed ucat ion and continue to study to become speciali sts in a nimal hus ba nd ry.
As communist labour is filled with great s piritua l conte nt and develops
into a social activity , with me chanisatio n a nd a uto mat ion increasingly
eliminating the most ardu ou s operation s. the essen tial d istinctions
between mental and manual labour a nd be tween labour in t own and
c ountry are obliterated.
An indication of the gro wing requirement s ma de by soc ie t y on the
individual. requirement s whic h promote the development and enrich
me nt of his personality is the fact that men taking part in the movement
fo r communist labour in all it s di verse form s underta ke commitments to
lea rn to live and work the c o mmunist wa y , and me et these comm it ments
step by step. This formula . in effect, ranges ov e r a ll the ma in s pheres of
the individual' s activity , his outlook, mentality and c hara c te r. This
fo rmula requires that the princ iple s of communis m s hould be a t the basis
of the working peoplc 's whole activity.
At the sa me time, thi s formula expre sse s in conc rete term s in t he new
condition s the
i put forward by revolutionary Ma rxis m that the
I and lab9I;1r. !n bui!din!Ub_ue_ '!'I_~ocie t y. A
of man is set forth in theL: PSU
Programme , which say s: "Communist ideas and c ommuni st deeds
s h ~u~d. blend organica~ly in the behaviour of every pe rso n and in the
ac t,vllle s of all collec tives and organisation s." J)
In fulfillin g the requirement to work the communist way . the Soviet
pe~ p le has a d v a~ ce d from the early expression s of the c om munist
attitude to la bour 10 the form of subbotnik s to the grea t c ollectives whic h
1J

Tht RO(ld

/Q

Commun ism. p. ~6~_

r1ao.:ti,c I he rr;m;;plc of ctlmmuni~t attitude to labour in their J;~yt{l-d;,\

work. Th1'i greal way traver'icd hy the Soviet people i~ o.:haractcri'icd hy
thc fad thai thc idea of working for the common good tend ... incrca~in~ly
10 penetrate into the mind'S of the ma\~e'i and become ... the overriding

idea .

A ... for the requirement to learn, to raise one',> educationilllcve1. Ihi ...
init ially meant with re ... peel to the whole mass of working people nO more
t han a requirement of general and political literacy. Thi .. requirement
a1,,0 exprc'i''icd the hi,>loricai need to build up a Soviet inlelligenhia that
originated from the working class and the peasantry. Today. the
req uirement to learn. addressed to the whole mass of working people. to
the whole people, is a requirement to assimilate high culture. great
general and special knowledge, and have political education. Fulfilment
of t his requirement is an important link in the process of aboli"hing the
essenti al distinctions between mental and manual labour.
The requ irement to live the communist way means the final
remoulding of men's mentalit y, character and way of life. the ultimate
rooti ng in man's behaviour of the principles of commun ism, the new
outlook. a nd new relations between men in every sphere of life ..
T he sphere of so-called private life under the system based on pr.lvate
pro pe rty is regarded as being the broadest sphere. Th~ or~er estab~lshed
by the capitalist at his enterprise is considered to be hIS pnv~te bus.,ness,
one's att itude to one's wife. children. fellow-workers. etc., IS consIdered
to be o ne's private affair. With the restructuring of social relations on
socialist lines. the socalled sphere of private life has natura~ly be~n
subjected to change as well. The elimination of the rule of greed 10 socIal
re la tions between men has also exerted an influen,ce on su.ch purely
perso na l relations as friendship. love. etc. But the IOtroductlon of the
new principles into these relations between men:. has. of cou~se.
inev it ably been much slower than in the sphere of pohl1cS ~r pr~duc ll~n.
The furt her development of socialist relat ions of p r~ductlon. 1Oc1~dlOg
frien dship and mutual assist ance. inc reasingly reqUIres a change 10 all
th e att itudes and habits of human behaviour ~ith r~spect to other men
Even suc h purely personal q ual ities as Im?atlence and lack 0
self-rest raint in this o r t hat member of the col lectIve could become. a ~rag
on the de velop ment of the activity of the whole g rou~. If ma n.d ,sp ays
variou s features of the old o utlook in his perso nal relations. for IOsta,nce.
.
d . d d al"sm suc h fea tures of c haracte r a nd outlook are
egOism a n In IVI u I .
.
. d ee in
bou nd to be expressed in one fo rm o r. another a nd 10 vary 109. egr
his social ac ti vity as well. The reqUIrement for. the reshap Ing of the
individu al'S o utlook and c haracter tend to g row With the developme nt of

soci ali S~e soc;~~~d of comm unist constructi? n .. the w~ ole of man's
In t . p. 'ncreasingly involved in SOCial hfe, which becomes a
pe rso n~ht y h'SCh' his mu ltifaceted capab ilities and qual ities a re expre ...... ed.
sphere 10 w I

There is ever broader growth of the creative initiative of the 01 ..... ' , '
every aspect of social life. and the imrortan~c of lahuur cnllccti\'csc~ I~
" "
"
h '
an~
mass orgamsaltons IS on t e IOCre8\C.
That is not to say that the sphere of personal life j ... impovcri ... hcd . 0
the contrary. man's personal life is enriched, benHlst! the vihrant 'OCia~
life helps to purify man's personal life as well. In '(.le iah ... ! society. there
is no gulf between social and personal life . In hourgcoi" society, it i~
characteristic for men to doff his social persona lit y after office hours
and to don his lounging clothes in which he enters his "privilte life" that
is no business of society's. in Soviet society, man remains a member of
communist society in every sphere and circ um~tan ce of life,
For man in communist society regards hi ~ social endeavour as a
personal one. which has an immediate bearing on hi~ own life. On the
other hand, everyone's personal life adds up to various express ions of
social relations based on friendship and comradeship, because in his
personal life man also inevitably enters into various rela tion s w ith other
members of society.
The private-property outlook. which makes man "mind his own 'y
business", gives way in the minds of ma sses of people to a profound j\
interest in social affairs and a sense of public duty, which is not confined
to the sphere of production but extends to various other spheres of
man's diverse activity. Of course, not everyone displays this se nse of
public duty in every sphere of life, on every occasion or is always guided
by the rules of communist relations between men in his attitude to all
things, Some work well in production but are s till variously burdened
with the old rules of morality and behaviour in the family. Others have
not yet shed their individuali!'>m, and for that rcason equate moral
incentives to work and ambition, love of glory and honours. Some
have gained various scientific knowledge. but have st opped short of
carrying the process of cognition to drawing the conclusions concerning
their world outlook, which remains hazy, so that variou s old prejudices
live side by side with scientific facts. Consequently. the assimilation by
the masses of the fundamentals of the new world outlook and rules of
morality and behaviour cannot be seen as a proces s whic h equally
emh~a~es the whole consciousness of every individual with mechanical
preclslo.n .and absolute regularity. There are still many me n with
contradictions between their habits and skills inherited from th e old
days , and t~eir wO.rld outlook has a new basis but is yet to be full y recast.
Defect~ 10 men s mental makeup, survivals of the habits and c ustom s
cultivated by exploitative society for centuries under social relation s
which distorted the personality are now a serious obstac le in the
fostenng.of the new man: Changes in ideology must go hand in hand with '\l
c hanges ,10 mass ~entahty. Def~cts in human mentality are a drag on J1
comm unl,t educatIOn and prOVide the soil for a revival of various
preconceptions. incorrect notions and alien ideas.

Men'\ mentality i\ inevitahly reshaped hy a high <;en<;e of con\..:iuu,,

ness whi..:h rcnetrate~ into every sphere of human thinking and practke
Thi" kind of remuulding of man's mentality and chara..:ter is of
tremendous importance in communi,1 education. It i\ not right for man
to reason corre!;tly on general io;sues but to remain a phili'line in his
mental makeup on Vilrious particular points, Lenin u<;ed to stress. for
instance, the importance of the ,truggle against ,>uch phenomena in
men's mental makeup and their behaviour a<; "relapse<; into petty
bourgeois spinelessne\\. disunity, individualism, and alternating moods
of exaltation and dejection", \~
Spin eless ness is a trait that may convert even a capat'lle man into a
virtually use less member of society. The same applies to lack of
re stra int , when man's behaviour keeps alternating between enthusiasm
and dejection. Ind iyidualism, i'jOlaJion and ~...!:fl,l,sal to mi.x_'!Vith other
men are indicalionso{ inadequate deveJ~'p_m_~_nt of the __ ~~Il~_ctivisl
outlook a nd adoptj911 01 tne corre_sporyding rule~jlf be.havi.u!.. These ilre
. features inherited from ttie past. when man's mental makeup was
distorted. Bourgeois psychologists insist that various features of ~an's
mental makeup are properties of man'o; abstract nature. That 1.5. of
cou rse. quite wrong. There will always be t.hose w~o. are ,:"ore \oclable,
more excitable. etc. But that is not the pOIOt. Indtvldua!ls~ mean\ Ihe
mental makeup and character fostered through the centune\ 10 which the
..
world was distorted by private-properly relations,
Consequently, ideological and educational work .c~lIs for a r~lslng of
the level of communist consciousness to exert a deCISive mfluenc.e on the
whole of man's mental makeup and his behaviour. l~eologlCal and
educational work, correct ly organised. results not only 10 a gro\\.th o~
positive knowledge, including ,political knowled~.e among mu\se\ h~'
eo Ie. but also exerts a great IOflu~nce on man , ~enlal -:nak~up, 1\
~abft s and character. In their e~~catlonal ~'ork, SOVIet society a~d th~
Lenini st Party rely on the positive expenence of a greal num her 0 t
.'
1 who have already done much to adopt t h e co ere~
worklllg .p~op ~r1d outlook. In Soviel society. much importance "
.
f
n the posilive example\ ~et by
communtS w
attached to the edu~:t~~~ Zf :oer~i~g people, who displu~ ~odels.of
thou sands up? n tho u . .
and remarkable mental quahlle~, which
high commu ni st consclOUSneSi> ' .
"
b known as the "SoVIet c haracter.
have c?me to e
'.
he abilit t o control these are a par,1 of
d
Feelings and emotlon\ anL- t ,e",1 o,y the \\ hole man \vithout feellngo;
t
There can pC no .
. '
h
man s c arac c r..
h"
"to the great cause and hl~ cnthuslao;m
.
Without IS serV ice
h
and emotion s,
' . 'd tho t" there has never been, nor can t ere
,\ ...
.
,.. All h"
" h "d als Lentn ,al
t or h Ig I e
'1 t- th I uth without 'human emotlon',~
t"
be, any human sear< t or e r

J(

needs for human emotions and feeling s to he ~iven the right direction and
the right outlets. so as not to obscure the ffillld. ,but to help . in-.lead of
hampering. man. to find t,he truth and adva.ncc \~Ithout :rring. Feelings ,
emotions and various traits of character. hke will. persIstence. and the
urge to overcome difficultie s: cannot be fo st ered witholl,t the develop.
ment of a coherent communist outlook and moral conscIOusness.
Of course. society cannot be indifferent to the various expressions of
human feelings. These expressions of feeling become distorted when
man seeks to vent his joys or sorrowS in drink. Now and again some men
seek to fill up with drinking their "empty" time in a period of leisure.
which gives one a sense of emptiness. Education al work h elps man to
discover other ways of expressing his feeling s of joy or sorrow, his se nse
of dissatisfaction or fatigue.
But the right expression of emotions and feelings im p li es some
education of such emotions and feelings that have an influence on human
behaviour. Education and self-education help man to refrain fro m these
feelings to be vented as rudeness to other men , drunke nn ess, wild
behaviour. etc. Of course. example has much importance in the correct
fostering of emotions. feelings and their expressio n.
We now have many people in society who in moment s of joy or sorrow
tum to music. with its great spiritual depth or to the theatre. or reread
their favourite poems. seeking to find an expression for th eir mood. The
working out of the right reactions. including emotional reactio ns. to
various situations in life is a great task in education and se lf-ed ucation.
Here. exceptional importance attaches to fiction. which contains a
profound and truthful description of many situations in life and men's
negative and positive attitudes in complicated situati o ns. In Soviet ~
conditions. fiction is of growing importance in tran sformin g man's
mentality, character, emotions and behaviour in various situation s, for in
B. s~nse it is a reflection of mankind's collective experience of life. In
fictIOn, the power of example is expressed in imagery, which acts on
man's feelings and thoughts.
Among the negative features of man's mentality and character are still
those which Lenin designated as "this slovenliness this carelessness,
untidiness, unpunctuality, nervous haste. the incli~ation to substitute
\
discu ssion for action. talk for work. the inclination to undertak e
everything unde,r the sun .without finishing anything".~ All the se harmful
features of man s mentahty and character. these habit s and attitudes are
a lega~y from the centuries dominated by exploitative society. For
centune ... mental labour was separated from manual labour and this
ex?,lain ... the gap be~wee~ such notions as "to think". "to sa~" and "to
do , when the mam thmg was to think or to say, while doing was

)1

L'on ... idered to he of minor importance. That i" the origin of th~
inclination. whil:h I.enin noted. to ... ub ... titute talk for action. Eal:h of
the ... e negative qualitie ... can become highly dangerous for society and the
collective. A man burdened with <;uch negative qualities can be a "eriou",
handicap to the collect ive, even in the ab<;ence of ill will or alien
bourgeoi<; views.
Lenin pointed to the true way of eliminating the ... e negative trait<; of
character and mentality in Soviet conditions. He stres'>ed the need for
"exercising practical c_olltrol over the translation 01 word,,-_intQ ~eed)" .J1
There muStoe nodiscrepancy between word and deed, and that IS one ~f
the remarkable trait s of man's character and mental makeup In
communist society. Th is calls for control. which can and must be
exercised by the individual him self and the collective.
.
In Soviet conditions, the collective has a growing role to ~Iay 10
shaping man's outlook. mentality and behaviour. ~he more attentIOn t~e
collective gives to the material and spirit ual reqUirements of each of Its
members, the greater the spirit of collectivism and the less
there
is for any individual in the
The activity of
.
.
\I
enhances the moral power of the collective, creatlOg e~ceptlona. Y
favourable conditions for the morally strong and well-kmt collective
exercising an influence on its less reliable me~~ers..
f
Where concern is show~ to, meet the sp~ntual reqUl~:~~;! t~e
individuals (o rganisatio n of hbranes. thea~re outlllgs. e~c.) an. bl art
necessary conditions are created ~or contmued educa,tl~;'i: ~~~ b~ Pthe
of the indiv idual> SPirit~a~.r~~U1rt~~~~~ea~n et~:~o~l~ctive and with it.
collective a nd thiS helps In IVI ua sl
'llust rating this concern of the
There are any ~um?er 0 r ex~~p es ~eds of its members.
collective for, sa~l~fYlng the spmt~a! n receive help from the collective
Where an In.dl~ ldua~ can e~p~~ ha~ personal troubles, the collectivi~t
even when he IS III a tlghtds P . d' 'dual has no reason to feel that he IS
outlook carries the day an t he ill IVI
alone in the whole wi~e world. educational efforts the influence of the
d the ground is c reated for relap ses
But if as a res~lt ~f ,.ncor.rect d
collective on the IndiVidual IS ~e uc~ j'ty Let us bear in mind th ai there
men
into the individual outlook an ' d
a fl c~llectivism The revival of the
.
'deas o r innate leas 0
.
11
a
are nO Innate I , .
ce of vibrant ties with the co ectlVe m. Y
individual mentahty In the ~bsenf
s ego in contrast to the collecti ve
.
've
inflation
0
a
man
.
t
result ill. an exce.ss l
i ht to neglect of a man's duty to soc,~et y ..~
and society . ThiS le~ds stra g
otto is "I'm all right. Jack. Thn.
. . d'viduahsm w h ose m
anarc h IC In ~
. I ts and the att itudes of the turncoat.
produces anti-Socia ac '
11 Ibid .. p. 413.

16 V I . Lenin. Col/feud Wor/o , Vol. 26. p. 412.

301

A man out of touch, with the co\le~ti\:c ,fail ... to ,feclthe,grcat power of
the collective and society, The lone tndlndu".1 will e~renen(:e mood~ of
dejection, will seek illusory. \~ay s out of hi ... I~ndlne ...... and artificial
solace, Some hope to find this In alcohol. other ... In the ... tupefying effect
of prayer. the chanting of hymns and sermons about ... ome \upernatural
force,
In other words. less than adequate educational influence by the
collective on the individual creates favourabl e soil for a revival of
diverse relicts of capitalism in the minds of some individual!>.. There is no
social section in the country all of whose members are infected with the
survivals of capitalism. but those who still carry the se survivals in their
mind belong to different sections. some being among the workers. others
among the intellectuals and the collective farmers. The soi l for a return
of the survivals of capitalism is always created as a result of poorly
organised educational work at enterprises or collectives. The way to ~
eliminate aU the survivals of capitalism in the minds of men is
to eliminate the shortcomings in educational work in every collective
and take a differentiated approach to each individual and group of

men.
The Party organisation is the core of every collective and is it s guiding
and directing force. In the period of communist construction. all mass
organisations and all collectives of working people have a growing role to
play. This applies above all to the role of Party organisations. which
unite the activity of all the collectives. and muster. direct and organise
the great energy of the masses. Where the Party organisation takes a
creative approach to the instructions of Ihe Leninist Central Committee
of the CPSU concerning educational work, its successes in this work are
truly tremendous.
The Party has worked out in theory and practice the complex problem
of developing the human personality. It now has a coherent doctrine for
raising cultural standards in socialist society, for shaping a coherent
world outlook, which does not tolerate any discrepancy between word
and deed. and for the shaping of a highly exacting moral consciousness
and the moulding of man's mentality along consistent collectivi st and
humanist lines.
The Party determines the interaction between various aspect s of
culture in fostering the new man. It has addressed itself to Soviet
wrilers. emphasising the educational importance of literature. In this
sphere. the mighty power of public opinion has also made itself felt . for
it brings out everything that is progressive, and all those who have
succeeded in boldly advancing and helping others to advance. The power
of social influence is also expressed in scientific achievement s by
<;timulating the solution of the fundamental problems and turning the
development of knowledge inlo a state and nationwide endeavour.
Concern for developing man's spiritual potential is expressed in a system
3m

of state mc:a ... ure!'> lnu Party d. ci ... ions. and ha~ become part itnd pan:el of
S(wiei social life
..
In Ihi-; epod, the explOiter'S pm their hope'\ on the tena!.:ity of old
conception!'>. idc:ao; dnd preJudice'S. produced ~y the centurie'i of
priv atc-propcrt Y domination. These preconception') may hlind some men
and prevent them from ... ce.ing the correct con~o~r ... of r~a.lity. therehy
feuering their will and their revolutionary aclI\lt.y.. Lenml"'~ comhab
the!>.c scheme ... with the full power of Ib pohllcal and IdeologICal
weapon!>.. The brilliant light of scientific .communism cut, through the
darknes') of bourgeoh and petty-bourgeOl~ preconception, .all over the
globe. cau!>.ing _~e!Q. cha..f!g5~. _in. t_h~_ mind} .of . ~he _ wQ~kms._ peor le ,
awakening social thought everywhere. '\howmg It the rI.ght .way ;lnd
equipping the mas\e~ with an understanding of the urgent hl'torlcal ti1~k ~
of this epoch.
. ' .. h
A powerful factor in the ideological educatIOn o~ all mankm~ I'" t e
real development of social property where ~t has .... on out and ~he
examples testifying to the, natur~ of the relatiOns between men .... hlch
have been developing on Its baSIS.
.' f
Soviet society is now building the material .and .tech.mcal.ba~ls e
.
This foundation for the future society IS belOS laid .by th
commUnism.
. .
" h ha\'e been tackling the
labour. effo.rt of m~hons ?fd~:~e~n~y\\ ~~:i~~ ~h: task of raising labour
key hlstoncal tas . as III ..
each of capitalism. Only those
productivity to a le.vel.'ha~ I~.be.;o;db~h;h~ bourgeois outlook will claim
theori sts whose thlllkmg IS I~I e k N turall'" they fail to ...ee that
"
purely economic tas. a
J'
.
h
h
that t h IS IS a
. 'deoloey of parasltl ... m \\lt t e
communism contrasts the bourgeOIs I
is .... inning ou1.
;
deol
ideology of labour. a~d that the la~er Iramm~Yand the Leninist Party' ...
The ideas sel forth 10 the CPSU . rog f the future have spread all O\'er
d construction 0
. .
me ssages o f progress an
d these words. both friend ... and en~~le ....
the globe. Everyone has hea~ 'd ology is becoming e\er more \'I')lble
The grandeur of the comm u~lst I e . his work What Is To Be D01le"
t
There was a time when Lemn wro. elmt nd the bourl!eo i~ ideologies and
the SOCialS a
-.,
I"t
about the struggle b etw~e~
I gy is far olde r in o!.ljlliI. ~~f1n ~Qqa J~
stressed that "bourgeOis Ideo d
I p-ed andthatlt has at ib dispo,,;ll
. .
fully eve 0
.
ideology. that It IS more nS of dissemination".'~
'.'
imtlleasurahl)' more me~
d decrepitude for bourgeOl" Ideology
Thi s is a period of sem le decay adn d it despite the fact that the
h I has engen e r e .
. d"
na
and the system t a
f I techn",cal instrumen'" for I'" l'isenll
. ld's power u.. "Bourgeoi')
'
.
"h 00 IS have
bourgeO ".
Isie stl"II wle
doctrines
an d sc
'.
tion. The Party Prog~a mm e says. have been and still are unable t? ~urnl"h
y .
'led
in
the
test
of
history.
The.
d by life The bourgeOIsie I ... no
fal.
.' .
ers to the questions pose
.
'\clentlflc anSW .
1" rk
Vol.~. p. 386.
" v. L L enin. O>lInud \ OS.

longer in a posilion 10 pUI forw ard id eas Ihal will indu t.:e th e ma\sc
follow ic" _>9 Meanwhile . soc iali st id eology has alrcady wo n OUI OVCr ~.to
expan~es of theg.lobe ..il s influ ence o n man ki nd. is t.remcndou .... and it ~;~
been formulated m all It s as pec ts . It has heen wmnmg out hecause it i<;'
expre ssion of the vital interests of th e working c!;lS ... and of the vaa\~
majority of mankind. which yearn s fo r peace and progre ... s.
Today . success of the re volutio nary ca u ...e depends on a c lear-c ut
understanding by the working cla ss and all th e ot her worki ng peo ple of
the tasks put forward by hi storical realit y. o n co nsidera tion an d utm ost
use of the prospects which it open s up for massive activ ity. On th e
knowledge of way s which lead to th e solutio n of th ese problem s and On
the correct organisation of the ma ss es to t ac kle th ese problem s. The
world communist movement ha s indicated th ese ways-both peaceful
and nonpeacefui- for the victory of the co mmunist cau se. The
Communist parties have been working to ra ll y th e mas ses round the
banner of struggle . The Soviet Union . building co mmun is m, has it s Party
Programme. whi.~h gives; tbe rnasse.s....a c le ar historical pro spect for their
actlvify---:- organising and fostering them for th is hi storica l activ it y for the
sake of building the best society on earth. Fo r th e fir st ti me in hi story ,
the principle s of scientific communi sm are being accept ed by the whole
people . by every member of society . That is an ea rn est of our successes
in further developing scientific communi sm.
Now that the masses create history . establi shing th e pri nc iple s of
scientific communism in their day-to-day effort . and taking part through
their struggle and labour effort in advancing communist social th ought.
theory blends directly with the working people 's great historica l act ivity
and is closely bound up with the cau se of the people bui ld ing the new
society. That is the greatest force in modern progress and mode rn social
thought.

Section Three
OBSOLETE IDEAS PERSIST

J'I

Th~ Road to C()mmlmiMn. MO<.cow, 1%1 , p . 497.

Th~

ull;:l1I miJc''''Ctpli,,,, Ih(l/ indu<'tJ

)"OIIIQ fram/o,m into tlrrRa/la"'J v/"ll/urt
ond "f rlll:l/)II, fht Jocial forms. ,prinllinll
frum ),ollr prutl1l modi 0/ produnion and
farm 0/ prQPtrfy-hillnrical U/llriVnJ Ihlll
IlriJl and diJapptllf in lilt prollnu of
prQd"'trion-lhu miH"On('tplian you "IICI.t
"'illl f"fry ruling dan Ihlll has prfctdfd
you

IK. \lar" ;md F. Engel, Stltdtd Wnrli:.

in three volume~. Vol. L p. I:>.)

CIJapfer Olle
BOURGEOIS SOCIAL THOUGHT RETREATS

The ope ning lines of the CommlHlist MalliJesfo describe the confusion
caused on the political scene in EUrope by the stalking spectre of
communism. Men began to talk about a new force that was about to take
up the independent position assigned to it by history. There was alarm in
the ranks of the feudal-absolutist reaction and bourgeois liberalism, for
they were faced with the common adversary. Just recently, the political
arena had appeared to belong to no one but themselves.
Even in the early 19th century there was growing realisation among the
capitalists and landowners that a new social force had arisen. This was
clearly indicated by the struggle of the weavers of Lyon in France and
the Chartist movement in Britain. This new force was called the fourth
estate by some, and the proletariat by others. As the working class
developed Itsownpoli"tical -organlsation and ideology prerequisites
appeared for a radical change in social life. What was the state of
bourgeois social thought as it faced these historical changes':'
THEORIES OF UNABASHED REACTION

Theories of unabashed reaction appeared in the 19th century like a

poisonou s weed. They reviled the revolution, science and free thought
and even questioned the importance of sc ientific and technical progress.
They were reflected in the schemes of the reactionary philosophy of
history. These saw the meaning of the 19th century as lying in the fact
that "the tranquil harmony of a naturally formed social hierarchy was
upset and overthrown by the restless. critical and levelling spirit of
educat ion and revolution: from the ruins was to rise a new world of
harmony and order". Among those who wrote about "harmony" were
Fourier and Saint-Simon, but the spiritual leaders of reaction gave the
term a different meaning. Reaction required the protection of "law and
order", with religion playing a great role in the process. "It wa<, thi . .
~,

formula that determined for a long time hi,toril:al ~()n l:c p" '
,
'h
interpretations.
cutting
t em 0 fff rom I hC Ph'l
lo .. ophy of pu re ,11l
' dl!
uninlerrbpted progress put forward hy Le .. ,ing. Herder and r~n .
dorcet." I
n
Reacti~n. Pro.fessor Yip,per says. ",faced aho\'c. all the ide;I'I of
progress. and directed Its first blows at It , anathcmat.\mg rc"olutio naT
struggle, extolling religion and the church. and claiming that "order"
the basis of society. and that the key social function wa .. to maintain it b;
political and ideological means and to put down the "'fouble -maker,"
The exisling relations of domination and ownership, they claimed '
constituted the social "order", with "anarchy". that is. revolution. it ~
main enemy.
The main content of the theories spun out by the reactionaries wa s a
reappraisal of the events of the French revolution to extract from its
experience the "lessons" that would help to prevent a repetition of any
revolutionary storms. The revolution was reviled in every way, as
diplomats. writers and churchmen set to give ideological substantiat ion
to counterrevolution.
In the history of social thought that was an attempt to show the harm
of sociaichange. A theorist of the period, Loui s de Bonald. claimed. for
instance. that revolution meant "disorder" when the "natural functions \
of the social body were disrupted and stopped" ~ The "pe rfect society"
was to be a monarchy, because men were unable to obey their equal s.
This kind of society had to resist all evolution and change. wh ich could
be only for the worse) Various philosophical. historic a l and legal
"arguments" were aimed at maintaining the idea of "socia l stab ilit y".
immutability and immobility of social being. All innovation. even in
science and technology, did more harm than good. any modification of
the established order which changed its traditional form. were
dangerous.
Barruel sought in his voluminous History of Jacobj"ism to exrose the
'triple
.
which had led to revolution in France and confu sed
He claimed that this "vas. first. a
...
.
to be philosophers", second. a
consp~racy of sophIsts agamst all the royal thrones" a nd third, a
consplTa~.y, against '.'a.1l civil so~iety, and also against every type of
property. Such wrltmgs were mtended to scare the already terrified
bourgeois with the spectre of revolution.

w/

0 __' "d YEo V.il"per;;'><I<ill/ f).,clrj"t'.1 WId ~i\I"rkfjl Thmrif'l ,,/111{' IXIII IImll9th Cf'lIWrit',
.~('n
IlIon, :YlO'COW, I90S, p. 134 (m RUhian).
1 l.IS do('/rine,1 PQliliqufS mfld .. rnli , New York . 1947 p " ,
"od
. --.
I .. p. ')0
_ .
, I A"be (J"rru.:l . .\f('lIwirtl nmlf \f", i, . /'h'
,
,.
<I
1.110",' d" 1/U.. II1,lhllll, I '~ p;,rli(,
Londre\. 17911, p. XVII.

)0,

The rolitical wi"Jom of reaction in that period was a very -:;imple one,
Social inequality wa \ a natural human state, for some men were born to
he ... Iave .... The same law prevailed in relations between nations, for some
natiom were d\:\tincd for colonial slavery. That was. in effect, the world
"order". which government'i had to maintain. vigorously acting again,t
any trouble -maker ... . Such view s were adopted in one form or another by
the \laveowner ... in the ... outh of the United States, many Tory lords in
Britain, the legitimi sts in France. the serf-holders in Rus!'.ia and other
reactionarie') . Some reactionaries styled themselves as the "sons of the
Crusaders" and proclaimed their "right'" to interfere in the internal
affairs of other states in order to re-establish the feudal-absolutist order
by force of arms. This was fir st suggested during the preparation of the
counterrevolutionary military coalition of 1791 against the bourgeois
revolution in France. This "right" was..5llQsequently .arrl?gated _~y the
Holy Alliance. a military and political coalition feudal-absolutist ..,IOItes
in the ea rl y 19th century.
.
A congress of this ultra reactionary alliance held at Troppau .I~
November 1820 proclaimed intervention in other states to be "1:g,lhmate" a lso when their state system was changed as a result of an upnslng
and w hen such change presented a danger to members of the Alliance ,
Naturally. the leaders of the Holy Alliance were to decide when thes~
conditions were met. That was when the lame sophism of the 'threat'
was invented. At that time. Austrian soldiers ruthlessly trample.d. the
c itie s of Italy on the pretext that some of its ci~ies displayed a SPlnt of
freedom thus presenting a "threat" to the Austn~n mo~archy. The ~oly
..... Alliance e nshrined the practice of grossly !ramph~g natIOnal sovereignty
as a principle: whenever the reactionanes deCIded that there was a
"threat" they resorted to armed force: . '
,
Actually , this kind of social a nd, poht.lcal phlloso~~y ~ as not new. It
was a rehas h of old reactionary vIews In new condll '~~s, It marked an
attempt to expunge the development of soc ial and pohtlcl thought o~er
the centuries, to return to the ideas of the RO?l.an sl,a\"eowners and t.
Augusline, and to disc.ard any progressive traditions In the development
of bourgeoi s thought In the 18t h century.

-or

I
I

t
THE EMERGENCE OF LIBERALISM
AN D ITS CONNECTIO N
WtTH BOURGEO IS SOCIOLOGY

.,

was radually shedding the burdensome stock of

h Th~ bOU~g=~I~: of ~ocfal organisation which had spread in the second
t eones an
centur It was bourgeois liberalism. which became a
I' Yj t end and a party of the bourgeoisie. that
half o! the 18th
most Impo rtant po Itlca r

undertook to reappraise
th e politi"d lC'l!'ll'Y nf the Jlil ... t ill 'H:~tlrd',\flq~
.
with the new reqUirement s.
The ~~eories of the ~Rt~ cenlU.TY,haJ pru~lairnL'd Pl)I"IUlal' 'tlvC'rt:i~nty
recogOlsmg the people S right 1(lle\ o lllt IlH~. Anwng tho,~ whu L'1I.prc"'\c<i
the idea was Thomas Jefferson . a lL'adtn~ puhlll,:al h~hl in Am,r .
Tl
.
h
lI,;a
during its W~r of Indep~OltencL'. lL' tm~n~r ant buurgeoisie no IUnger
needed such Ideas. The ht'lerallcaJ ers. ril.\lIlg the hanner of .. huggle fll
the "rights of man", declared the Jacohin dict;llorship anti the lIndividc~
domination of feudal-absolutist rt~action (0 he equally "illL'~Hlimate"
This idea was best expressed by Benjamin Cllll'lant. a founder or

bourgeois liberalism in France .

o!

Considering the roots,

bo~r~cois libera lbm, I~ngch wrote: "They
must merge all feudalistic pnvllege and monopoly of mOlley. The
political dominion of the middle cla s:-ies is. therefo re, of an essentially
liberal appearance," ~ Down with every privilege except the " natural "
privilege of capital, de,clared the spokesmen of liberal ism. The privileges
of the estates had to be expunged from legi slation . which had to provide
complete freedom for the power of capital. It is on th ese lines that the
old slogan of freedom was then resolutely reinterpreted.
The bourgeOisie had no intention at all of interpreting freedom in such
a way as to allow the emergence and strengthening in society of
democratic organisations like the Jacobin Club or th e organisation of
"Equals" led by Babeuf. which had called for soc ial equality during the
French revolution, That is not the kind of unit that was to make up th e
politi~al ~rganisation of society after the victory of the bourgeoisie. This
orgamsahon was to ensure the domination of capital, which is why the
o~d sl?gan of freedom had to be reinterpreted, The theorists of the
vlctonOus class now began to talk chiefly or even exclusively about the
freedom of the individual.
But wh~t is thiS freedom of the individual in bourgeois soc iet y? It is a
~es.al and I~~ological expression of the rights of the property owner, who
IS m.a pOSition to use these rights depending on the size of hi s property
(capital). ~v~n,then, as bourgeois liberalism emerged and flouri shed the
slogan of mdlvldual freedom came to be contrasted with the requirement
of complete so~ereignty for the people. The bourgeoisie, terrified by the
Frenc~ revolution, presented popular sovereignty as being despotism
and VIolence over the ind~vi~ua1. Popular sovereignty was furiou sly
attacked for the sake o~ thiS Illusory "rights of the individual ", which
~ecomes an empty shell If the social and political organisation of society
IS not base.d ~n pop~lar rule but on rule by the rich or the "noble".
BourgeOIs Ideologists als~ markedly modified their attitude t o the
th~ory of progress. Onc~ In ,power, the bourgeoisie began , by th e
mId-19th century, to revIew ItS attitude to the theory of boundless

prCl),:rl'SS Earlier it had made exce",.. ive u'!e of the theory uf progTl!'j\ 1(1
e).lol il1 tlwn order. hut thi\ enthu,>iu1m over Ihe idea of progrc\\ did n(ll
l<I.,t lung. "Till' idea,> of progres,> <tnd evolulion," wrote Paul lafargue.
"enjoyed ex(.:eptinnal tow.:(;cs.., in Ihe early year1 of the 19th century.
when the huur~eu .... le Wit" ~til1 intoxicated with its politic.:al vi(.:tory ;tnd
Ihe rcmarl-.ahle Srowth of ih economic wealth. Philo\opher\, hi\turi,In\,
Illurali.,ts, polltician\. writers and poeto;. pre'!ented their writing'! and
'!pecchcs under the '!auce of progte"''!ive developmt'nl, '., But hy the
mid-19th century they had to moderate their h()undle~~ cnthu\ia\m. The
cmcrgcm:c of the proletariat in the political aren<! in Britain and France
produc.:cd anxiety in the \oul of the bourgeoi':oie about the la'!ting nature
of it'! ... ocial domination-with the re'iult that progre\\ no longer
) ( nppeared to he .. 0 admirable."~ The theory of boundle'i'i progre'i'" gave
way to notion'i <tbout the boundle ...... determination of the bourgeoi ..
order. which wa ...... uppo ... ed to en'iure mankind''i progre ... sive development.
Thu .. , while the landed reactionarie .. bridled at the very not ion of
socia l change and enshrined the immobility of social life as a principle.
the liberal bourgeoisie opposed any radical changes in social life and any
"rocking of principles", In that light there was need to reformulate the
theory of social development which was to glorify no more than the
partial improvement s in the various institutions of the bourgeois ~ystem:
The key task which bourgeois liberalism set it ... elf conSl'ited III
maintaining an ideological and pOlitical influence on the working people.
\ , th e working class in the first place.!!!.,d tying it to, bourgeois poli~i~s.
)(' That is why the solidari ty of all the elements of soc Iety and recogmho.n
of th e possibility of improving the system based on, bourge~I'i
domination was proclaimed as the starting point for the theones of socl3l
development enunciated by bourgeois liberalism for ,the purp?se of
winning over the working people. This was a theoretIcal premls: .for
decla ring as superfluous and even as harmful,an,Y independent,pohhcal
line for the working class and its struggle for Its IIlterest,s and a lms. The
whole th eory of social developmen.t put fO,rward by the hberals served to
justify the domination of bourge~ls relations,
.
'
In conc rete co nditio ns. dependlllg on the state of the class struggle III
the variou s countries where th e roots of ~iberalis~ were not as strong or
where the s ituation was different , liberalism had It S ow n featu~e.!' but the
general c haracte ri stics of bourgeois liberal ism a~ a pohhcal a nd
ideological trend were most pronounc.ed as. soo n as It .ap?eare~,
,
I h t
'od the trend that was alhed With bourgeOIs libera li sm was
thenh\g~I:~~ st ab le bourgeois radica li sm. wh ich variously ~eflec!ed .th e
attitudes of Ihe petty bourgeoisie. In the old days. bourgeOIs radlcahsm
'p. I I
.1lI

.1

310

Karl Marll/Friedrich Engels, Wtrkt , Rd . 2. S. 0579.

.. a:t

rgue Lt dlttrmini.wrrt t('(lIIomil.lllt dt Karl Man.

Pari~. 1909. p, 17 .

as a rule differed from li?eralism by taking an anti-I,:k'ril.:al (lr C\Cn Y

atheistic stand and att:lckmg the Church. the pOilqi \)f I.:omprom" ,
. Clfe
. Ies an d t h e corruption
.
'"
with the lando~nrng
anu,. gra f ~ in th e upper
sections of society and, the state. Subsequently. the radical,, ' po-.itive
programme came to differ less and less from that of the hOurgeOis
6berals.
Of considerable importance for the history of social thought was the
fact that the most prominent ideologists of the bourgeoisie CHme Out in
defence of the capitalist system under the banner of liberalism
criticising the "extremes" of openly reactionary theorie s and standing
for science and the scientific approach. That is when the term
"sociology" appeared and CornIe and Spencer propounded their
sociological systems. First. they strave ta create a climate .of public
opinion that would accord with the palitical line of liberalism. Secand,
they took account of the. need ta produce same kind .of synthe~isof the
SCiences, a general theory of knawledge ta contrast the tradition s of the
Enliahteners and the materialists of the past. wha had taken the
scientific view, and also the newly emergent materialist and dialectical
1I+oory of Marxism, which had then scored its first victorie:s. The authors
of sociological schemes tried to take account of the rapid development of
the natural sciences and to show the importance .of their grawth for
social thought, together with the connect ian between the science of
nature and the science of society. The ideologists of the bourgeoisie
mechanically applied terms and concepts from the science of nature,
biology in the first place, to designate sacial phenamena and believed
this to be a solution for the problem of "synthesising the sciences".
By then, the social sciences had accumulated a cansiderable store of
facts. Solid historical works had been written on ancient society, while
the life of the peoples of the Ancient East was being studied
scientifically for the first time. Impartant works appeared on the histary
.of the Middle Ages, and many pr.ominent scientists were engaged in a
~Jose study of the history of the French rev.olution. Ethnographers and
ar~h~~alogist~ left their mark by publishing numerous data on life in
pnmltlve society.
The ~Id philo~aphy a! ~istory was no langer equal to the task ~f
p~ocessln.g ~11 th.. s matenal m the light .of the bourgeois outlook, for thiS)
did ~at fit Into Its schemes, while its categories did not meet the new
requirements. The bourgeoisie was in need of pseuda-scientific
sc~e".1es, and thes~ SOon a~pear~d in the form of "sociological systems"
claiming ta explam the diVersity and unity .of the Concrete material
amassed by the various social sciences,
N~meraus works summing up the history .of civilisation were
pubhshed to shaw how the elements of barbarism and medievalism
~ra~ually gave way .!a the baurgeais demacratic .order in an age of
sCience and reasan . The baurgeois .order was declared to be the

,~mmit of dvili~'.llion. and the capitali\t social and political systcm a real

triumph for clvl1!,cd mankind.

. The: most gcn~ra~iscd ,:,",ork'i on the theory of social development in the
light of bourgeol'> Iiheralism were produced by the positivist \oc iologists
of the 19th century Comte and SpenCer--: -

COMTF'S SOCIOLOGY

up

The idea that palitics had to become as positive a science as physics

was first expressed by SaintSimon, who also made an attempt to draw
an analogy between life in nature and in society. This was no mare than a
presentiment of the need to praduce a social sc ience as a foundatian for
palitics. These ideas were used by Comte. wha first described soc ial
science as "social physics" and then as "saciology". This term,
consisting of Latin and Greek raots, was first met with scepticism, but
Comte's system satisfied the requirements of the liberal bourgeaisie and
the term was accepted as his views spread.
Another idea Comte borrowed from SaintSimon was that soc ial
science was to look to the future society, but Comte abandoned all of
Saint-Simon's socialist ideas and preferred to speak of a future mankind,
by which he meant the unification of all men in a single society under the
guidance of "positive p.hilosaQ~~rL. That saciety ~as not to b~ based on
Socialist principles. Positive philosaphy was ta mt~oduce firm m.aral
rules in relations between warkers and employers, With representatiVes
of the indu stria li sts advanced to the helm of the state. These
representatives would be led by bankers on the "philosaphicaT' ground
that they had to perfQ.fllLth.e.....mQst 8.e.~erat abstract funcll~ns. The
politicalorgamsatJon of soc iety wauld take the farm .of a republic: All of
this accarding to Comte, would mean mankind's complete maturity and
its domination over the forces of nature., That was .a grea~ step back as
compared with SaintSiman. But Com.te S ~ourgeols admirers spoke at
len th about Comte's influence on. Samt'~lmo.n.
."
}]though Comte did call his SOCiology 'soclal physICS. he held that
c' t was a social or collective .organism that was m a sense a "
so I~ y .
f an,'mal develapment. He was unable to show the basis
contmuatlon. I0
nectian between men and spoke 0 f t h"
elr mterac !"lon,
for (he s~m b~~~nd superficil.ll analogies ab0:1:I~ ~~~_ iryflu.e.n.c..e.. .of the
never gOl~&. arts a(anofga'n"ism on eicnother. Harmon~ w~s the ~ormal
compo~e~ t~ parts of the social .organism, with the ~amtly, Its baSIC ce.lI.
state. 0 ~n t~e bialogical and the social. From thiS came such SOCial
ver~~ng
and the people. Naturally, Comte failed to see the
entities as the gens
.
. '
.
. of the biological and the social.
dialectiCS
. e d progress in human society and even believed thiS to
Comte recogOis
t
. c'al development but he did not exp I'
am t he source of I.,
f
bealawo,ol
.

self-movement . Natur~J ~~nditi on s in which society live? and the grOWtn

of population . the di v Is io n of, lahour and co?perahon WCTC either
retarding or accelerating f~ctor_s In ~rogress. But II,W3,\ t~e human spirit
that gave social chan~e ~ts dl reC l1on. and ~.ankmd ", Ideological and
social development comclde d. From the \pmt came Impulses for the
development of indu stry , po litics a n ~ e~ery ,other sphere of social life .
This most clearly re vea led CornI e S Ideahsm. The power of ideas J
constituted the basis of the soc ial o rd er, of harmony and the movement
of all the elements of societ y. The " mec hanism" of social change was as
follows : change s were first wo rk ed in o pini ons. then in mOres and ,
finally. in social institution s .
Whenever Comte sought to indicate any regu larit ies underlying the
activity of spirit. being apprehen sive that hi s p se ud o~sc i entific edifice of
sociology would be upset by allowing a boundless arbitrariness of spirit,
his arguments are especially impotent . In ord ~[J.().l imit the arbitrariness
of spirit he falls back on the fir st law of moti on . th e law thaCact ion and
reaction are equal , and the principle conn ecting motion and equilibrium. \
Comte's crude idealis m was c ombined with an equall y c ru de mechanicism. and the laws of mechanics were made to regulate th e activity of
spirit. ]t is hard to believe that all thi s was written after Hegel's
Phtnomenology of Spirit ,
Cornie held that the world developed from th e simp le to the complex,
the two "laws" governing social develo pment being the organic
differentiation of social function s and th eir coo rdin ation. Comte's
sociology amounts to a superficial connectio n between ph enomena. their
outward deSCription , without any penetration into the su bst ance of the /
historical process , with idealism and my sticism going h and in hand with
mechanicism and metaphysics in the a ssess ment of social ph eno mena.
Comte introduced a distinction between social statics and social
dynamics , borrowing the concept s from physics in stead of biology.
Social. statics ",:as a consideration of constantly o perating factors and
estabhshed social phenomena like mores, idea s and in stitutions. But
social dynamic s did not at all show the moti ve forces of social
devel?pment, being no more than an attempt by mean s of ab stracti on to
descnbe .a nd ~ssess t~e course of social development. Ha rm o ny was the
overal~ direction o~ thiS development , being a state in whic h all th e fo rces
of soc,l,ety and all Its members were component part s o f a single "social
whole . He held that th~ epochs of social development were determined
by th~ development of Ideology , but he was no longer dealing with the
~ebel h~u s rea son of the French Enlighteners of the 18th centu ry,
Im pel li ng men to ad~ ance , but a reaSOn that had been pac ified a nd
fettered by metaphysIcs and agnostici sm.
From Saint~Simo ~ Comte b~rrowed the idea of three stages in the
developm~nt of society. The . ~Irst - theological _ stage was do minated
by th e pn esth ood and the mlhtary ; the second-metaphysical_stage

)1

JI4

w""

dominated by legi"lators and lawyers; and the third-posl'

live- stage was dominated by industrialish and scientish. But Cornie
gave hi'! own reading to the positive stage. by combining the
development of thought with agnosticism and the expUlsion of the
critical and revolutionary spirit
The whole purpose of Comte's sociology was to defend "order' and
block the path of the forces of "anarchy", and this purpose is served by
all the historical material he used. together with the idea of alternating
destructive and harmonious epoch which he borrowed from Saint
Simon. Positivism was to carry society to a state of final stability and
harmony, with al1 the destructive forces of history overcome. In thi ..
way, Comte's positivism is crowned with the idea of a world
development completed. One Soviet scie~tist says: "~e t.heory of
progress, inherited from the 18th-cenrury enhght~nment, .fltted mto th:se
contours. It continued to be fed from the same ImpreSSions of growing
industrial and scientific development. but in the new formulation it lost.
together with the vagueness of its expec~at.ions. the ~~ncept of an
endless advance."1 This is a good charactenstlc of the "'pmt of the 19th~
century positivism.

SPENCER'S SYSTEM
AND HIS EVOLUTIONISM

In a novel from English life in the early I~h centu~ the Fren~h wri~er
Andre Maurois wrote that Britain. in her fight agamst the enhght~m~~
hilosophy "required of its public schoob a sag.e~y hypocnt!l.;a
~eneration". 8 Positivism, too, fostere~. a sagely hypocntlcal generation.
for it was shot through with this spmt. o'nt of not using the term
l
Characteristically. Spencer made " P th available data on the
"
.. and strove to genera Ise
e
.
d inor anic nature and of human society to
progress ,
develo pme nt of o r~ante~~lution gOPPosite 10 the dialectical understandformulate a concep 0
ht to discover the gene ral type of
ing of development. Spencer :~~~n imate and inanimate nature and in
develop~e n ~ for aU ph ~ 1ln0~~~ fi~st mark of evolution as a universal law ,
human hfe. I....o nce ntra llo .
r the Earth and the other planets from
.
.
I
t the basis of the emergence 0
was a
. <.
d the de\elopment of organisms or hlstonca
a pri mord ial. nebll lo~lty, a~
of nations from initially isolated tribes.
processes: 1.lke the hrmak Ion a k of evolution. meant transition from
Differentiation. anot er ey m r
7 R. Y. Vipper. S,Jfiu/ D.II/rintS lInd Hiswrin.ll Throrirs oflht /Slh IlIId 19rh CrnfllritI.

. 19')
14
P . 171. (in RII ~,i,m). A I ou III ,i.. dt Shellt~. Pans.
. p.
.
8 Andre Mallrol~. nt

the more to the less homogeneous. There was a certain harm

between concentration and differentiation. In society, a~ in biolo~ny
growth led to a change in st ructure. Spencer supplemented these tenuo~' {
laws by mean s of which he so ught to characterise development with S
number of others. like th e law of the conservation of force.
a
The eady stages of life in soc iet y were dominated by concentration
with the individual being subordinat e to the whole. The personality wa~
yet to develop and was, accordingly. subordinate to soc iety . Then came
the process of differentiation , giving rise to individu a li sm, with
individual s going their own ways. Th at is the c haracteristic mark of the
epoch of indu strialism. Spencer anticipated a thi rd epoch, the harmoni,
ous combination of egoism and altruism, a term which, incidentally. was
introduced by Comte.
It will be easily seen that the idea s of bourgeois individuali sm. which
stem from private-property relation s, co nstitute the basi s for Spencer's
sociological views. Spencer declare s th e individual to be the "social unit"
which is equal to the biological call , allowing an except ion only for
primitive times, when the family or th e s ma ll horde was the unit. The
whole of society's subsequent history had to do with an indi vidu al.
Spencer safeguarded bourgeoi s individuali sm a nd th e system of private,
property relation s against any attacks by claiming that soc io logical laws
were immutable.
Paul Lafargue summed up the idea which, in effect, completed
Spencer's theory of soc ial evolution: " The bourgeois who proclaim that
their takeover of power was the so le moment of social progre ss in \.
hi')tory, claimed that their di slodgement by the prolet ariat would be a
return to barbarism, 'to slavery' as Herbert S pencer put it."9 In the
~eco nd half of the 19th century. the ideologists of the bourgeo isie made
an effort to scare their audiences and readers with th e prospect of
soc i.et~ s degradation if it were to move beyond the bounds of
caplt.ahsm. ~fter the bourgeois takeover , the whole of hi sto ry was to
consist only 10 "imp~o~ing" capitalism, but not in eliminating it, for that
would m~an undermmmg the very "pillars of civilisation" or even of the
v~ry baSIS of human community living. These unscientific theorie s were
dlctat~d to bourgeois liberalism by its fear of the growing stre ngth and
consc IOu sness of the working class.
. Long befo~~ his pre~ent-day followers , Spencer proclaimed commum... m t~ be the commg slavery" , the bulwark of bureaucracy and
complamed abou~ the excessive costs to society of nationalising the
banks. the facton~s a.n~ all the other mean s of production . In sisting on
freedom. for the mdlVldual , he came down resolutely agai nst soc ial
ownersh ip .

1\

Paul Lafargue. u
'I'

,(
l(

Thus. Spencer put a limit to social progress. claiming that bourgeoi!O

!;ocial relation~ had to be everlasting. if the individual wa!; not to be
impressed into a new "slavery" .
Spencer's book The Coming Slavery (1884) was thoroughly analy ...ed
by Paul Lafargue. who reached the conclusion that "Spencer has be~n
misunderstood: he has been erroneously deemed to be an evoluhom~t
because he is in the habit of classifying the facts he deals with in
accordance with their outward appearance. never taking the trouble of
analysing their intrin sic properties or their external causes and studying
the action of the environment on them and their reaction on the
environment." 10
Lafargue was right in saying that Spencer could not be u~c~nditiona~ly
classe d as an evolutionist not just because he put a lim it to socml
development , The fact is that Spencer'~ whol~ philo~ophy was based on
agnost ic ism, and claimed that sciences, Including soclOl~gy, merel dealt
with phenomena whose substance was elusive. But ~s it poss.. ble to
produce a theory of the evolution of social forms while declanng the
substance of social change to be unfathomable?
.
Indeed, Spencer dealt only with a di~t~ibution. of facts by theIr
outward appearance. In the light of agnosticism one IS able to constru:t
no more than a formal theory of evolution, The basic "law" of Spencer s
theory of evolution is transition from the homogen~ous to the
heterogeneous. In accordance with this law of evolutl~n. Spencer
classifies societie s as simple and complex, as being,of ~he ftrst: secon~,
third, etc., degree of complexity. these stages cons.tllUt!O.g t~e dlfferent,lation of the soc ial whole. Consequently. the start .. ng POI~t !OdSp~n~e.r s
social evolution is simple . homogeneous and, untffer~nt,at~t p;;~~tl:~
societies But that is no more than a pure Y or~a ~spe.
.
:
'bl to get the substance of the hlstoncal process by
course. ~mp~~s~'laewS". This question naturally arises: why does soci~'

~~;enr~~tia~~on

begin in

primiti~~ sOci~ti:~s:e~e af~~t :ela~ees:~~e~~et~!

metaphy sical ph iIOSO:~\~~e~ 1 ~h~h swallo~s up the first, homoge"assistance" o~ anot /

lates ~he process of differentiation. which is.
neou s, one a n so Sdlm~y an external impulse. This shows up the
consequently, cali se
f
f Spencer's whole theory.
weakness?
. fc theory of equilibrium is a prominent element ~
Spe ncer s mechams I t hs first mal' or work, which appeared In
. logy 11 was set ou In I
.
d
(

. I Social Statics. Equilibrium gnd Its Isrup I?n

h IS SOCIO
th e 1850s under t~e ~ It e between nature and society. between socml
depend o~ t~e re ~t l~nsand between various societies. The idea, of
gro~~S .w lthm ds~~I~i~ruPtion does not . quite obviously. shed any hght
eqUlhbn um an I
on ....

.. ,' Herh-erl S pcncc:r ~

10 p"ul L,,(arguc: . ..
"
di'~nnjnilm~ i("ollOmiqu~ d~ Karl Marx, pp. 15.16.

-v-i:di_me' l.erellollleik I"".... ,~("I . . p. 4 .

c:~..,....
.

'"

on qualitative social c hanges and ignores them, In effect the theory of

equilibrium provides no explanatio,n, fO,r the evol,ution, to which Spencer
pays lip service. Why does eqUlI~brt~lm and ,Its disruption prOmote
that is a question
mankind' s advance. instead of makmg It murk time
Spencer never answered.
There ca n be no sc ientific theory of ')ocial development until the
nature o f soc ial ties and thei r ')ubstance have neen discovered. Spencer
saw society as a greater individual. an organism, Bertrand Russel WrOte:
"The prestige of biology caused men whose thinking was influenced by
science to apply biological rather th an mechanistic categories to the
world , ",The conception of organism came to be thought the key to both
scientific and philosophical explanatio ns of natural laws." II Spencer
also used this concept to explain the laws of social development,
resorting to the "prestige of biology", but th e application of biological
conceptions to socia l life. far fr om exc luding mechanicism, in effect
merely supplemented it. The result was a c rude scheme. in which society
was seen as an organism, with it s component part s "supplementing" each
other, The growing differentiation of th e various function s of this
organism and its organs was the only co ntent of soc ial evolution, The
application of biological term s and co nceptio ns merely put a scientific
gloss on such a theory of society,
At the same time, this kind of terminologica l transfer had a reactionary
role to play, Spencer. for in stance. applied to socia l life the concept of
natural selection. according to which only the strongest survived, and
said that this was beneficial for soc iety , S ubseq uently, so-called social
Darwinism became one of the most reactionary, man -hating trends,

'REFO RMS" AGAINST REVOLUTION

Bourgeois-liberal theorie s, having dive sted them se lves of the "vagueness of expectations" and hopes for an age of reaso n and happiness,
~o ught to prove that the h ighroad of progre ss lay in a gradual
Improvement and change of the bourgeois system of power and property
through reform and improvement. Spencer had vis ions of a happy time
when a "mobile equilibrium" would be establ ished, th at is, when
tranquillity would re ign with some movement that d id not change the
'i tru c t~re o~ upset the equil ibrium, All of tb is wa s pre se nted as the latest
w?rd \0 sCience : as a "positive" and progre ss ive theory th at did away
With the romant~c "e~aggerations" of the o ld theory of progress,
In ,1906. LenlO sa l,d that "progressives" of this stripe sought to
<'Ubstllute I he bourgeol., theory of "'harmony" in "social" prog ress for the
theory of the class struggle as the only real driving force of history. Th ey
Bertrand Rus~ell. Hi5for), 01 WtSftrn Phjlosoph~'. London, 1946. p, 754

'"

refused to rccogni'ie that progress in the 'iociallife of capitali'im re'iulled

from the development of highly acute contradiction." They held the
motive force of progres~ in bourgeois society to be "harmony" and
"'iolidarity" between classes. That was a key dogma of positivi<,m and
the whole of the bourgeois-liberal theory,
"According to the theory of socialism, i,e" of Marxism (non-Marxi~t
';ocialism is not worth serious discussion nowadays), the real driving
force of history is the revolutionary class struggle; reforms are a
subsidiary product of this struggle. subsidiary because they expre.,.,
unsuccessful attempts to weaken. to blunt this struggle. etc, According
to the theory of bourgeois philosophers, the driving force of progress i<,
the unity of all elements in society who realise the 'imperfections' of
certain of its institutions. The first theory is materialist; the second is
idealist. The first is revolutionary; the second is reformist. The first
serves as the basis for the tactics of the proletariat in modern capitalist
countries, The second serves as the basis of the taclics of the
bourgeoisie," 12
, '
'
The idea of solidarity is especially charactenstlc of Comte and hiS
follower s, Comte saw the embryos of solidarity in the animal ~orld a~d
then went on to depict such solidarity as a key fact,or. 10 '>ocml
development. The bourgeois liberals held thai Ihe proletanat .~ ~t~u:S8l~
tended to undermine this "unity", to introduce no more than diVISion
into society . while the class struggle did not promote. t~e cause ~f
progress, Positivism provided the theoretical substantiation for thiS
thesis, The substance of progress was reduced to attempts,to reform and
"improve" the various institutions and asp~cts of capltali~m.
, ..
Continuing his analysis of this bourgeOIs theory, L~nLn wrot~. A
logical deduction from the second theory is the tactl.cs of. ordlOarr
bourgeois progressives: always and everywhere support what IS better.
ction and the extreme Right of the forces that are
~~~~~:db~~:ae~i~~~ A log'ical deduction from th~ first theo.ry is~hat~h~
advanced class must pursue independent revolutionary tactiCS. e s ~,
d ce our tasks to that of supporting the slogans of the re~orml~t
never re, ~
' u e We ursue an independent policy and
bourfeOisledth:,t!l~res:c~s\~~;~~s ~s ar~ undoubtedly favourable to the
p~tereso~;a~f the revolutionary struggle. that Wldollbte~l~ enhanCt t~e
'"d
dence class_consciousness and fighting effiCiency 0 t e
In epen
.
the struggle against bourgeois-l iberal. positivist
proletariat." 13
1
Co nseq u~nt ~~ ress- evolution _ was closely bound ~p with the
sC h~me~ t~s ~as~ struggle and it s transformation into ~n IOdepend~n~
pro etan~ded by revolutionary tactics. That is what prOVided a power u
fo rce SUI
12 V 1 Lenin, ColltCftd Woris. Vol. I L p. 71
IJ II'oid .

-.J
1\

impetus for the further development of M an.i \m J .c nini '>m, the \l: icon ,
'\ deve \apmco.
t 1,em' n "t n.:, .... c.
'd' " RCf
t,u:hc\
. ,Ire Ithe
It
theory 0 f socia
.orml'"
least Iike!y to secure real refo~m ... The most cff.cctlve way to .. ecure feitl
reforms IS to pursue the taches of the revolutIOnary cia .. " .. tTuggle." I~
Without the right perspective for social development it i\ impos!)ible to

assess the importance of reform s or to decide whether they 'Icrve the

cause of social progress or amount to a movement in circ le .. ,
Lenin thus gives the only right criterion to judge about the progressive

nature of a reform. gradual changes in bourgeois society and the ir need

for social development.
One can have a criterion to judge the progressiveness of changes in
every aspect of social life, including any particular c hanges, only by
showing the real prospects and trends in social development . The theory
of social development must consider the question of societ y's future and
show how the present paves the way to that future . Bourgeoi s liberalism '
was incapable of taking such an approach to the problem , which is why
its theory of social progress was an apology for marking time. in stead of
advancing. Its notions of what is "better" or "worse" for social progress
do not rest on any scientific analysis of the pro s pects of social
development, but result either from abstract reasoning about "social
good and evil" and "absolute social ideals", meaning the principles of the
exploitative society enshrined as an absolute, or are shot through with
downright subjectivism. As the theory of soc ial development inc reasingly became a theory of the working-class struggle for a better future.
bourgeois theorists increasingly abandoned the theory of progress and
the very idea of uniformity in the history of soc iety.

SUBJECTIVISM TRIUMPHS IN SOCIOLOGY

In co~trast to the Marxist view of the objective laws of society's

progre~slve devel~pment, bourgeois theorists claimed that progress wa s
a relahv.e and arbItrary conception which depended on the researcher 's
standpomt. In the COurse of the ideological struggle. bourgeois theorists
have adopte~ SUbjective idealism in socio logy.
In the closmg years of his life, Comte stressed the subjective nature of
kno:",le~ge and reach~d t~e conclusion that sociological system s were
subjecl!ve. an~ not ob~e~t.l~e. Since then bourgeois theori sts have gone
be~ond hiS Views, cntlClsmg the formal concept of social evolution
wh.'ch ~~encer gave. and Opposing the "transfer" of laws and
umformlt.'es from the nat~ral sciences to the study of the soc ial process.
They claimed that the sCIence of society was a science of s pirit , whic h
" v

I Lenin. Col/tell'd WI>"'_t. VoI_ II . p. 71.

meant that anyone wa" rree to invent <,uch'formula<, of progre\'~" a, he

"IW (il. and that the category of progress was defined in accordance with
the thinker's "!>ocial ideal" , SOcial ideal. for its part, resulted from the
activity of the hrain. heing the re .. ull of subjective a<,se'ismen t of reality.
The <;ubjective ideali<;t view of hi,tory was developed in greate<;t det<lil
at the turn of the century by the neo-Kantians Rickert. Windelband and
other~ who in.,i<;ted that ,ocial .. cience was a system of .. ubjective
evaluations of variou<; ,ocial phenomena. They came out again~t the
appl icat ion of the conception<; of law and un iform ity to ~ocial life.
claiming this to be an unwarranted transfer of conceptions proper on ly 10
th e natural sciences. With this kind of approach the most die-hard
reactionary and c hampion of obsolete social systems could present
him se lf as a champion of progress. That is exactly what th e apologists of
th e bourgeois sy<,tem did. Social-reform ists under the influence of
neo-Kantian views. unable to see the prospect of social development
and . consequently. to obtain a scientific criterion for what is progressive . also put the label of progress on anything they liked. and this meant
chiefly any bourgeois reform.
The bourgeois th eorists concentrated on attacking the fundamentals of
the sc ientific view of social development. the doctrine of the mode of
production, of socio-economic formations and their .law:gO\'erned
development. They were intent on refuting the followmg Import~nt
conclusion drawn from an analysis of the historical process: everythmg
that ac tively promoted the victory of the working class and the new
soc io-economic formation over the old and obsolete. and subseq uent ly
helped to establish and develop it was progressiv~.
.
.
In the course of the ideological struggle. bourgeOIs theonsts s ubjected
the positivist theory to critic ism from the Right. This was an alt~ck .by
bellicose s ubjective idealism agai nst the recogrutlOn of any objective
law s governing soc ial development. The attack was mounted by the
~eo- Ka ntians and raken up by other subjective i.deal~st s. On the .crest. ~f
we f,'nd Max Weber the German hlstonan and SOC iologist,
'
t h IS wave
'. . . '
. \ '
who claimed that the laws of SOC ial hfe. mcludm~ econo~'lIc aws. were
no more than the product s of the hu~an mmd whic h helped ~o
d t d eality Th e social structures which succeeded one another In
un ers an r . 'r were no more than "ideal types" produced by the
th~ course ~f t~!t~erearcher so rt things out in the historical process .
mind to he P h d Weber st rove to avoid the impre ssion that the
On' the one san.
. t he assum~"Ion
.
was chaotic. and on the other . to aVOid
hl stO.Tlcal p ro~e~tive and law-governed. The historical process conw;;ted
that It was obje
d phenomena and there Weber agreed with other
f
'que events an
' '
.
o um
. s including Rickert and Windelband . B~t .the .compara h~e
neo-Kantl~r . (eguarded soc iology from complete ehmmatlon. In the\e
method stl sa d phenomena one cou ld discern some general feature~
an process one could generalise
.
um'que events
. _ 'c'\
somet h'
mg"
. \0 as t 0
of th e hl ston ..
'
\~I

produce .vari~us ideal t~pe s .. In thi s way. Wcher modifil'd the

neo.Kantlan view of the historica l process.

How~~er lhe~e ,was this ques~ion t,o ~ n sw.er: ,where ~;H. the limit to lhi ..
generahsmg actl~lty. of the, socIologi st ,s mmd ,) Wa ... ~t possible to go On
(rom Ih~ generahsatlon whl~h re~u1ted In the produchon of ideal type s Or

successive models of the hi storical process to assume their succession

and change. thereby producing a theory of th e social process. however
idealistic? On the strength of hi s neo Kantian views. Weber allowed
himself to recognise only one line in the ~istorica l proces s. namely. the
growth and development of the abstractmg power of th e human mind.
But even this he did with his characteristic reservations: "The
emancipation of the world from illusion and th e attendant
rationalisation could be either good or evil, suc h is our lot.. .. The old
churches are mercifully open ". if there is need to perform a 'sacrifice of
the intellect'."l~ Progress in scientific knowledge consisted in a
destruction of the old. "comforting" philo so phical schem es. Those who
are afraid to abandon these schemes have only one alternative: a return
to the past, a sacrifice of the intellect.
Thus. Weber put forward a theory according to which social life could
be understood only by means of the "ideal types" constructed by the
sociologist. Let us add that in Our day the advocates of such theories of
"ideal types" or "images" have propounded Platonic idea s, claiming that ) '
reality is no more than a reflection of ideal type s. Others have confined
themselves to preaching the Kantian view of conception, declaring that
the .con~eption~ of "type" or "image" arise prior to experience. Other
soclOlo~lsts claim that image-conceptions are, after all, so me kind of
generahsations of empirical material and help to generali se it . On the
whol~, Weber> theory proved to be valuable for bourgeoi s ideologists.
M~rxlsm, which has attacked bourgeois ideology from the sc ientific
pomt, has put forward the doctrine of socio-economic formation s.
Maki~g use of Weber's ideas. bourgeois theorists say: we have our own
doctnne of the "types" of society. However. because these "types" are
no more than t~~ fruit of the mind, because they are ideal , the theori sts
of the b~ur8:eols~e have nothing to worry about. But that has confused
many sCientists an the West.

CLASSICAL POSITIVIST SCHEMES

IN C RISIS

.By the end of the 19th century the data accumulated by the soc ial
sCIences had grown and was seen to be in crying contradiction with the
f Ih
" Max Weber . Gtsammtlrt Au/sQru lur WisJtnsch arst
1:!:!

ft.

T lIblngen.1951
'
.S.5% .

dogmas of flat cvolutioni .. m and the organic theory of society. Historian ..

had ,shown that the hi .. tory of mankind abounded in revolution<>. period ..
of fIerce struggle between the new and the old. and the collapo;e of the
obsolete. The scene in the early 20th century showed the .. mooth and
conflictfree development of society predicted by the positivist<; to be an
iII~sion.. Th~ reduction of all social phenomena to supe rficial analogieo;
With biologIcal processes was being resolutely refuted. The question
arose about the specific character of soc ial phenomena. The
neo-Kantian s claimed that it was due to the domination of the spiritual element in social life, but this clashed with the data obtained by
soc ial sc ience by that time, notably, information about econom ic development. It was clear to one and all that the old positivist schemes were
irrelevant.
It was the French sociologist Emile Durkheim. who made the most
resolute statement in bourgeois science about the disintegration and deep
c ri sis of "classical" positivist schemes. He considered the question of
"social fact" and social phenomenon and declared in his Method of
Sociology (1895) that these could not be reduced either to biology or
psychology. He held that "social facr' was a blend of notion and action.
the reby dealing a heavy blow at the schemes put forward by Spencer and
Comte. It was not the individual but the group. the collective that was
the basic unit of sociological research. Social ties and relations between
men were. consequently. what the sociologists shoul~ ~on~ider in the
first place. That was the right way to attack. b~t the cntlcalln:aportance
of Durkheim 's writings is much greater than hIS attempts to flOd a way
out of the positivist dead end.
.'
.
How ever . he did try to find a way out 10 hiS work ent It led On the
Division of Labour in the History ?f ~ociety (1893). Let us r~call that
Comte had drawn attention to the diVISion of labour un~er the Impact of
the ideas which had bee n characteri stic of Saint.Slm?n and ?th~r
utopian s. Durkheim saw the division of labour as the baSIS of society s
progre ss ive dev elopment. which explaine.d int ei1~~tual, moral and le.g~1
0
The growth of population reqUIred a n SlOg labour product IVIevo I u I n.'s was achieved by ever stricter specm
. I'lsatlon
" 10 wor,
k 'h roug h
, y, an"d 'h I
<

h' fforts ' 0

' , '
f I bour Th ai is Durkhelm s startang POlOt 10 IS e
.

. ' ,. d h
,
f
a d IVISlo n 0 a
sw itc h the attention of soc iology to "SOCial action an t e sys e.m ~
'I I" ns However. he ignored classes and class struggle. whIch IS
SOCia re a 10
.
.
h'
rt
f 'he
wh the roble m of social relations. includlOg t e Impo ance 0
Pf labou r for their development, were problems he could not
. ~.
dIVI Slon 0
solv e . .
k d the e mpt y abst rac tions of the old positivist schoDurkhelm altac soc,
e ',1 phenomena had to be seen as rea I an d matena.
' I
ols . IOSIStlOg

.. an d deve I opme nt 0 f
duccda
the effort
to a study of the ongm
~ut. ~e re hen omena in social life. abandoning the general idea of
IOdl vldua.1 P'he hi storical process. At the same time. Durkheim favoured
advance 10
.

, " 'h'

a study of sociological laws a nd st ric t det ermi?i'im in analY'iing 'iOl;ial

phenomena. insisting th at I.h ese shou ld be c:\pJamcd through an anatysis
of social life . in stead of bi ology or psychology_
Durkheim tried to use this method in his work entitled Tile Silicide
(1897). Thi s wa s a ch allenge to th e \~c i ologists who reduced. social
phenomena to biological and p syc h olo~lca l f~c.t ors. ao.; ther ea'illy did,
for instance. in analy sing phenomena hk e sU Ic ide. Durkheml sought to
prove that suicide was a social fac t caused primarily by social factor s.
He had statistical data to prove th at o nly a small number of suicides
occurred at a time of great pol itica l c rises a nd consolidation of Soc ial
forces in the epoch of re volution a nd wars. Fro m this he drew the
conclusion that the cau ses of suic ide were to be fo un d in the individuals '
unsatisfactory participation in soc ia l life or inadequat e integration of
collectives to which the individual be longe d . These conclusions were
clearly aimed against the harmful biological a nd purely psychological
theories, but they were still fairly ab stract.
In a work entitled Elementary Form s of R eligio us Life (1912) written
mainly on the basis of his study of religion a mo ng the Aust ralian tribes,
Durkheim sought to tackle the question of the o rigin s of re ligion as a
social phenomenon. That was an achieveme nt. He co nnected the
origination of religiou s beliefs with the eme rgence in the primitive
commune of notions about the " sacre d" and the 'profa ne". Here he has
many valuable observations, but his conclu sio n was wrong a nd harmful:
he held that religion was a bond between the individu al a nd society,
and so had a positive role to play in social development. 16 T here
again, the re searcher was fettered by an ideali st ic view o f social
bonds.
It became e ven harder to present the ideas of Co mte a nd Spencer as
incontestable achievements in social science foll owing the pu blication of
Durkheim 's works, which were very widely read . But th e systems of
Co mte and Spencer were defeated by forc es that were more powerful
than their critics in bourgeoi s sociology . The old libera l positivist
~st.~'!l! .~ f the }:~ ~ur,g~O!~ ! ~9l@Dsed_ .b..e_cause _ of the . fund amental
changes In the world 's social and political situation .
A hist ori an of English political doctrines has thi s to say about the
atmosphere at the turn of the century : "The morning sun of J a nu ary I,
190 1, illumined a happy and hopeful World . , .. Men hoped a nd beli eved
that the new century , while bringing perhaps even great er material
prog ress, would a lso bring a greater mea sure of order a nd stability, of
peace a nd prosperity.
" Loo king bac kward , it is easy to see that this sanguine state of min d

16 See G. P Franisov, The Origins 0/ Relig ion ond Fru Thoug h, . Moscow , L eningrad,
19.'i9, p. 208 (in Rus~ian'.

324

W;t~ ~f.:an;cly

x
,

warranted by the fact ...... ~ The old certainty about the

... ulidity of capit;tli ... m wa~ a thing of the past.
Elton Mayo. an American hociologi ... l, wrote: "The Victorians were
very ..ure of their progrev-i-of its reality and beneficence for
humanity." IR What he meant, of course, was capitalist progress and certainty in the prospects before capitalism. The prominent Engli ... h phil
osopher Arnold Toynbee. says something similar: "The writer's mind
runs hack 50 years. to an afternoon in London in the year 1897_ He i...
sitting with hi'i father at a window in Fleet Street. watching a proces'iion
of Canadian and Australian mounted troops who have come to celebrate
Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee." 1'1 The pomp ceremonies were
eloque nt evidence of the political and economic might of British
imperialism, but Toynbee feels that only a philosopher might have
refl ected th at "where there is growth. there is likely also to be decay". ~
However. at the turn of the century bourgeois sociologists still gave
little t hought to the decay of capitalism. British bourgeois publicists sang
praises of "business expansion" and prophesied everlasting prosperity
for the empire, Herbert Spencer, pretentiously called the Aristotle of
Victorian Britain. ruled the minds of men, and his evolutionism and
"organ ic theory of society" were accepted as the summ it of social
thought.
,
.
.
Spencer patronisingly recommended to SCience that It should share Its
authority with fideism, declaring in his Social Statics that the world was
on its way to harmony and equilibrium. including the har~ony of
classes, that everything in the world tended gradu,ally to ada?t Itself to
the ex isting conditions. which is why _~he worklOg people s st.ru~~e
would cease. The decade tllal forrowed wowed that these optimistiC
., expectatio n s~ashed with the harsh truth of historical,reality, "~pe~cer' s
idea of evolution as a process of adaptation progr.ess,vely t,endlOg In the
di rect ion of an ultimate condition of complete adjustment IS contrary too
all th e fac t s we have," ~I Spencer himself has now been decla~ed by hiS
c ritics to be no more than an amateur scient!st and a pseudophll?sophe~.
for life has comp l~t~l~xploded his synthetiC theory and demo hshed hiS
political postu lates,

17 Ch, C Ma)(ey. Po/i/i{"(ll Philo$ophits. New YOr"._I~H8, p. 609.

18
S .- / prohl~m$ 0/ an IndIHln(l/ C/rrk(l/lOn. BO'lO~, 194.'i,.p_~.
E, Mayo. nit, O(llI p
t Point in History". For~jgn ..I,//II;rl, Vol. 26. 1"0. I.
1'1 A. Toynbee. 'The
resen
October 1947 . p. 187.
:'0 Ibid.
-,
h~6'
~I Ch C Ma)(ey. Po/ifif(ll Phi O$OP J~l, p. - . -

o, ,

Chapter Two

HISTORY MARCHES ON
DESPITE BOURGEOIS THEORIES
Bourgeois social thought. starting from th e .dog m'l of capitali\m being
everlasting. found the key fact s of modern hl\t o ry to be an insuperable
barrier. The great forces of the old world pro ved to be unab le to stop the
revolutionary advance of the working class. Th eir po litical. eCOnomic
and ideological impotence was mo st pronounced whe re they had
appeared to be strongest, where they acted a s th e main st ay of European
and Asian reaction- in tsarist Russia. In his work What Is To Be DOlle?
(1902) Lenin wrote: "History has now confronted u s with an immed iate
task which is the most rel'Olfltiotlary of all the imm edia te tasks
confronting the proletariat of any country . The fulfilment of thi s task,
the destruction of the most powerful bulwark , not only of Eu ropea n.
but (it may now be said) of Asiatic reaction , would make the
Russian proletariat the vanguard of the internation al revolutionary
proletariat. ,. ,
The theorists and ideologists of the bourgeOi sie b elieved the victory of
the revolution in Russia to be a miracle. They wrote a gre at many books
and. the slanders and conscious falsification s apart , they were a bsol utely
sincere on one point: they did not understand how the miracle had taken
place and how the great revolutionary force took shape at a turning point
in history. when real prerequisites had been created for revolutio nary
change, enabling Lenin to say that there was a party that c ould t ake over.
~i~ Pany gave a lead to the broadest masses of people a nd guided them
With great skill in carrying out a great revolution. Bourgeois th eo ri sts
holding forth about the October Revolution missed the whole hi st ory of
the p~litical. economic and ideological bankruptcy of the bourgeoi sie in
RUSSia. That was an expression of the clas s short.sightedness of
bourgeois political thinking, which had prevented them from di sc erning
the co~tours ~f the ~bjective historical process.
The Ideologists of Imperialism did not see first how it wa s so acutely
evident .i~ Russia that politically. economicallY' and ideologically the
bou~geols.le .was powerless to cope with the contradiction s of the e poc h
of Imp~Tlahs!,". of. which the First World War wa s a mo st vivid
expressIOn With all.lts dire consequences for the people . They fa iled to
~ee, second, that It was in Russia that capitali sm had proved t o be
Incapable of overcoming the country's backwardne ss . of rai sing the
underdeveloped areas and carrying the country along th e path of
progress . They were unable to understand. third , how the new historical

,V

I. Lenin , Collrcttd Work s . Vol. S. p. 373.

fnr,l.:c was born ,in the form of the I.en ini..,t Party, <;III of whose act ivit y
relied on the allIance of the working clas\ and the pea'iantry. to \ee the
'ioe ial energy latent in thi\ alliance and the importa nce of Lenini \m and
the Communht Party for awakening thi\ migh ty energy.
The theorist<., of bourgeoi'i parties also failed to unde r'itand how and
why the bankruptcy of .. ocial opportunism was accele rated by the
revolution in Ru\ .. ia. They failed to notice the major turns in the clas\
struggle at wh ieh opportun ism lost more and mo re of ib ideological and
po lit ical influence on the masses. Bourgeois theori\t\ failed to see th at
th e cor rect tactics used by the Bolsheviks before and after the socia li st
revol ution impelled Men\hevism to disintegrate. and put the opportunist
leaders into isolatio n. wh ile the best workers and the best eleme nt\ of
pettybourgeo is democracy sided with Bolshevism. They failed to notice
that th e ideological banners of social opportunism were incinerated in
th e fl a mes of the Civ il War.
Furthermore. it is extremely important to note that the soc ial thought
of the bou rgeoisie was unable to understand that the process which was
accelerated in Russ ia a hundredfold by the cou rse of the revolution.
continu ed aft er th e Oc tober Revolut ion throughout th e world, even if at
a slowe r pace. Th ere is growing evide nce that the bourgeo isie i\ unable
to cope with the deep-going contrad ictions of the e poc h of imperialism.
It s policy tend s to aggravate these contradictions.
But what most clea rly exposed the impote nce of bourgeois soc ial
thought was the problem of the attitude to take to the ideas of
communi sm and then to th e commun ist reality.

BARRI E R TO BOURGEO IS SOCIAL

THOUGHT

Whe the great ideas of sc ientific communism first appeared ,

ng the inevitable advent of a new stage in the de velopment of
hera Id iO
.
f t he reac t'lonary bo u rgeoisie ,
. t they were met with a fi erce wallo
S:~il~hY~bov e all stro ve to persuade the sections o~ s~ciety under the
influence of it s views thai the destruction of the ca~l~a.h st .system would
, truction of mankind 's culture and clvlh satlOn, and of the
d
am
a e and economic. soc.
'IOte IIectu a I rr'
y . It
'1ount
ars of10 moral
ml and
I e In so c'et
I
pi I
d th e fund amentally new stage in soc ial develo pm~ nt a~ a
te
en
pre s . di sa'iter for all mankin d. Comte's .positi vist soc Iological
potentia!
which condemn ed "c ritical "' de structi ve e poc hs and extolled
~onc:~i~~n 'positi ve and constructive epoch s bac ked up th.is approach .
or~, a th eo retica l bas is was prov ided by the hourgeol.s t~eory of
whIle. whic h decla red capitalism to be the last and culmmatlOg stage
progress:,

of ma nkInd s deve lopm ent .

.,.

In Iheir Commllnist ,lI,flUlljcHO. Marx and Engel ... responded 10 th

,JanderoU'. charges with impeccable logic nod ... howed them to he q C.~e
,
'
1
1
h
Ullc
empty. They. made It qUIte .c c~r Ilat t ere wa, no substance in the
bourgeoIs claim that the capltail,' system was the he all anll end all of
social life.
However. for,decade s to come thi s mylh o~ antl,-communism would
continue to be \vlelded as a weapon by th~ r~acllonarlc> During the Pari s
Commune and the Gre at October Soc ... !lst Revolution the myth that
communism posed a threat to the ve ry found alions of the human
community. which should allegedly be ba sed on private property and the
power of the bourgeoi sie. was being sp read about with especial
in~istence by all the bourgeoi s propaga nd a media. For their pan
the social reformist s joined in the general cho ru s of the reactiona:
,
nes.
The bourgeoisie stubbornly refu sed to see the great creative power of
the socialist revolution and the creative energy of the proletariat , which
advanced at the head of the working people , It took long years for the
ideologist"> of the bourgeoisie to start considering the g reat creative force
generated by the socialist revolution in the masses. But one cannot say
that the theorists of imperialism have altogether aba ndoned the old story
about the "fall of civilisation", and one will find it in the books and
articles written by sociologists and philosophers following in the wake of
Spengler. who prophesied in the 1920s "Europe's d ecl ine". The loudest
voices in this chorus were those of the Nazis. who claimed to be the
"champions of Western civilisation", even if they were unable to play
the part for long. The propaganda "legacy" of the Nazis is, of course,
being variously used by the anti-Communists to this day, but more
frequently the old myth is being spread by bourgeois propaganda in a
somewhat different version.

ANTI-COMMUNIST MYTHOLOGY

1\

The .fac~ is that th~ myth about commun ism destroying the foundation s
of ~oclal life was ~mg spread about in the 19th century in thi s form: the
clalr1~ ":a~ ~hat ~OCISlI progeny clashed with bltman nature it selL damping
man S Initiative and enterprise. while private property accorded with
human nature. Towards the end of the century these views were
propounde~ by Herbert Spencer. the leader of bourgeoi s sociology.
Indeed , .thls umen.able id:a is virtually the only one used by all the
bourgeoiS economists, p~llosophers. sociologists and lawyers in the ir
efforts to refute communism to this very day
. Thus. the Catholic philosopher J. M. Boche~ski said that since Plat o's
lime Western c ulture tended to consider
the ",'nd'IVI'd ua I' " In contras t to
.

''''

\(

JI

'"

the 'ah-.tract" concepts of the collective, mankind, etc.' However, the

very concept of the "individual" a" opposed to the collective took shape
precbely during the centuries of private-property domination.
I.enin "hnwed Ih;\t far from damping emulation and hold and creative
initiative. sodali .. m in effect allows masses of people to di .. play these
attitudes for the fir .. ! lime in history on a truly mas .. ive scale. Life ha ..
borne out Lenin' .. idea, hut the propagandi'>ts of reaction still refu ..c to
abandon the old myth, which is deo;igned to discredit the future o;ociety
They have heen spreading it through their periodicals, radio, televi .. ion,
books and pamphlets, as the basis for their stories about the "free
world", the self-styled image of capitalism today
Since the mid-19th century, the reactionary bourgeoisie h<l~ relied not
so much on ideological struggle against commu ni sm as on force and
police repri sals against the Communists and the working-class partie~.
The slande rous inventions about communism clashing with human
nature naturally helped the police, but there was need of a more direct
ideological sanction. After all, if communist ideas were contrary to
"human nature", why did they not die out, but continued to spread
across the world? The myth about exponed revolution was brought to
the fore during the Paris Commune, and fitted nicely with the
sociological and philosophical conceptions of the reactionaries: w~o
denied any uniformities in historical development. and set up s.ubjec tlvism and voluntarism as the basis of the social process. They claimed that
the revolution had no internal causes, that it did nOl result from internal
development but was an "evil" imported from .outside .. Bourgeoi"
theorists c laimed that revolutions resulted from arbitrary actIOn, so that
force had to be used to end revolutionary mo .... ements.
.
This producecj a very convenient ideological pretext fO.r putllng down
the vanguard of the work ing class, the best part of the natIOn. ~o .. e who
accepted communist ideas were declared to be agent~ of a forel~n power
that was al ien to the nation. When Man and Engels Issued t~:1T call for
th e worke rs of alt countries to unite, the reactionary bourg.eols le stepped
't propaganda of the myth about the exported revolutIOn, and a.bout
lip I S '
..
f
oluIlOnathe making of the revolutionary ideas and the tra lOl,l,lg 0 . rev h
d"
ry le~ders in some kind of "international centers which t en ISatched conspirators to every part of the globe.
.
p Th
th about e."\ported revolution was blasted by Marx an~ En.geb
e m~ he Paris Commune Man wrote' "The pohce-tlfl~e d
and dU~lflg.t d na~ ural1y figures to itself the International .Work l~g
bourgeO Is ml~ .
. ' the manner of a secret consp iracy, Its
as actmg Ifl
.
.
d'ff
t
Men ' S ASSOCiatiOn
d'
f om time to time, explOSions m I eren
cent ra l body or enng, r
,

B ,.

"., "Der freie Mens.:h in der Auseinander\c\zung zlloischen We\1 und

- J. M. o~"en. ,
.
.
3 S 8
0,],' In: .-\rH P,I/itik lind Ztilgtsdudrrt. -' JUn! 196. . .

'ountries.'" The exported revolution myth ha ~ served and continuo

. '
'f'
. f . hI
I
.
(Slu
scn"c imperialist reac~lon as Jw.. 11 .. cat ion or Ih Otll} fl'r n ,,!!,. armed
interventions and police persec ution s
The imperialists an~ their theori st,' have prl~dll\:ed. ,mother Vcr'iion of
the exported revolution myth : hanng established Itself III the SOviet
Union. the revolution proceed s 10 spn::,ad across the worlll either thrOugh
Soviet secret agents or by means of Its armed for\.'c.
The emergence of the People' s Democracies in Europe ....'a ... presented
as Soviet "expansionism", The fact that So\'iet troops were stationctl in a
number of East European countries towards the end of the SeCond
World War and prevented armed interve ntion by the imperi alists against
these countries was prese nted by the id eolog ists of imperialism in a
distorted light. Never before had the false a nd absurd th eory of exported
revolution been spread on such a scale a nd with such effort as in that
period, Why was this done ?
First. it was designed to induce the masses to believe Ihat \
revolutionary change was not a result of intern a l development in this Or )
that country but that they were unnatural and ill egitimate becau se they
were implanted by an alien armed hand, A c haracteristic feature of
bourgeois political thinking is unwillingness t o recognise the deep and
natural changes in the world since the Second World War. and
unwillingness to recognise the historical sw ing towa rd s socialism in some
countries.
Second, it was
the export of counterrevolution and
to substantiate the i
affairs of other states,
, n the early
19th century under the Holy Alliance. and it was now taken out of
mothballs.
Third, the false version about the People 's De mocrac ies was designed
to help t,he im~eri~lists to mount slanderous cam paig ns against the
CommuOist parties m the Western countries and to revive the old story
about the "hand of ~oscow", which wa s allegedly manipulating the
whole ,:,",orld commumst movement. The reactionaries so ught to change
the aU,llude of the masses to the Communist partie s in the cap italist
countnes. and to undermine their prestige. In the early postwa r years,
Co~mum,st~ were members of the government s in France an d Ital y. and
the Imper.'ahst reactionarie,s,then put through a strategic pla n to oust the
Commums~s, fr0":t t~e pohhcal arena and to help the bourgeois partie s
control pohlical life m the capitalist countries. That was the first major
postwar
attack hy reaction against Ihe P
"lve f orces.
\
I
r O
gress
t ~as p~ec:eded by ~ wil~ attack before the Second World War, when
he
Ib
Imp.e nali st reachonanes, having trampled all the t raditions of
ourgeol s democracy , reSOrted I0 th e f"lercest forms of s uppression
" to
r.;

)1

) K. Marx and F. E

1 5

nge\,

tltHtd Work s, in three vo lum e~, Vol. 2. p, ~-II.

put lIown the w(H~ing,das .. movement. il)t,roducing fa\cism in Ih,cir

efforh to c'>t~lhli ... h an~ecn dictator ... hip bythe-mo,>f extr~me aggre ..... lvc
grllup ...,)f monopoly capitaL That wa .. an-alfempt by monopoly capital 10
find a new and more convenient form of political organisation in society
However, the attempt to ou ..t the working clas,> from the political arena
ha .. proved to he a reactionary utopia and ha .. failed. Thu"" fascism was
unable to rule for long . for it\ key features-aggre",sive foreign policy
armed invasion. colonisation of once independent countries and a drive
for world domination - naturally caused growing contradictions and
strong resistance throughout the world. The pre",ence of the USSR, a
great socialist power, was the main factor which doomed fa\cism to total
military, political and ideological defeat.
The rout of fascism, the shock force of mO,nopoly capital.. released
vast democratic forces in the capitalist countries, Without some reliance
on these force s. Britain, France and the USA could not have with",tood
German and Japanese fascism, but even during the war the reactionary
c ircles were terrified at the growth of the democratic movement and the
grow ing strength of the Left-wing elements. the Commu~ists in
particular, in the Resistance, Now and.agai~,the m~litary-stra~eglc ~a.s~s
facing Britain and the USA were fulfilled m the hght of their ~o,htlc~1
goal. which was to prevent the democratic elements from gammg m
strength. After the war, the most vigorous steps were taken to block .the
way of democratic development in the West European countTle~.
especially Italy and France, But the reactionaries were unab!e to do. thiS
in a number of countries in Eastern and Central Europe, which took the
soc ialist path, set up democratic people's states and dropped out of the
h
imperi alist system,
The new stage of ideological struggle was. marke~ by the f~ct that I e
apo logists of capitalism found it altogether ImpOSSible to ,~Ialm that the
soc ialist revolution was a purely "Russian phenomenon a~d that the
Sov'et Un ion's way was unfit for other countries, The false Id~a about
the Ic apitali st countries of the West being immune to co~mumsm w~s
also refuted. The situation that has take~ shape, mcrease~ t, e
possibilities for historical activity by the workmg c1as!t m the cap it alist

count ries,

"
' I" I monoged to
""
d development which the Impena IS S
Law,-gove~~sl after the Second World War. by roughly 1947. has not
~IOCk I~~l~:hed altoget her. After all, it is the bulk of the nat!ons that h~s
ee~ a
I " doing away with th e sway of the monopohes. and thiS
an mteres m '
. . . ' g Ihe
't o-sible to unite all the democratic movement!>, opposm
akes
n:t
. II PI"g' orchy I'n a mighlY anti-monopolist tide, The working class,
flnancia" 0 I"
. of this struggle favours extensive
, natlona
'I"
I Ihe head
Isa"Ion
advanc mg a '
.
I
d
I I by
erm s which are most advantageous for the pe~p e. an con ro ,
o n t,
I Ihe Irade uniom and other democratic and representative
,
..
f Ihe
arhamen
.
'
P,
over Ihe nationalised industries and the economic activity 0
organs

slUe al a whole. tOietherwilh radical agmrian rdorm ... under the ... I\)!!;IO:
"LInd to those who till it!" . The general democratil.: ,truggle again ... t th
. h
. d
e
,,~ marks an important stage In t e progre''''lve evelopment of
IDCiet)' because it helps to rally the working people round the working
din aDd brina on the socialist revolulion .
There is no doubt about the overall line of developm ent: in itl> ')truggle
for peace and . .ainst preparation for w~r. for better l~ving an~ working
conditions (hiaher wages, shorter workmg hours. l>ocml secunty. etc.).
the working class exercises it,S right to have. a. say in policy decisions. in
seleetina the forms of social hfe and determining the prospects for social
development.
..
.
Thus instead of being destroyed, as the bourgeOis Ideolog ist s think ,
the id~ of socialist revolution and the question of its forms are being
pven ever more thought by millions of people throughout the world. In
the new historical conditions one comes to realise the great achievement
of Marx, Eosels and Lenin, who first posed these key Que stion s of social
development and provided the scientific answers. What then is the state
of bouraeois social thought in these historical conditions?
CHRONICLE OF 11IE SPIRITUAL IMPOVERISHMENT
OF AN'J1.coMMUNlSM

Here is a document testifying to the atmosphere of the time . a n extract

from the chronicle of the spiritual impoverishment of anti-communism.
An editorial entitled "Ideologies and Idea Systems" in the solid
bourgeois TimtS Litmlry Supplement of August 24, 1951, contained an
attempt to sort out these problems. Here is its conclusion about the
results of the Second World War: "One of the main ideologie s of our
time-Fascism-has been crushed, but another-Communism-is
the main beneficiary of its destruction. So at the present moment the
wond has the appearance of being divided between monolithic
Communist ideology, able to draw the functions of million s of people
within one political drive, and the 'West' which has no unifying ideology ,
from its own point of view; although, from the Communist one , it can be
analysed as a complex of diverse impulses all directed toward ~
destroying CommurUlm. The West has been made to feel amorphous
and incoherent; with a dozen faiths, and yet without faith in itself; ...
.....It is not inconceivable. in a time when half the world is fa sc inated
by Communist ideology . ...It would be accompanied by a persecution of
liberal opinion and an attempt to direct all thought into channels which
were supposed to be anti-Communist.
... "1bere is also a danaer that in fear of Communism Fascist ideas
might revive in piecisety thoae countries where Fascism 'has been most
successrul. ".

.132

Thi'i i" in cffed i/,n attempt to present the pro<,pect of the vi(;ious
cirdc: f.....ci<,m~- milt of f;,1'Scism - anti-communi ... m - re\l ivai of f;lh:i,t
tcndcn<.:iC'i. Thi'i article W;IS de~igncd not to a'Ssert the pro~per..:1 of
another fia ... cn with the re\lival of fa"r.:i,m hut to <,uggc,t another WilY
What attempt... have been made to e~cape from this \licious circle"
After the Second World War. the formation of the world socialist
system, the succes ... es of \1arxi ... tl.eninist ideology and the Soviet
Union 's achievement~ became especially obvious. There was ~ grow.th
of sympathie\ allover the globe for the Soviet Union in t~e period of It<,
heroic struggle again\t fa ...ci\m, while the Commum\ts adv~nced
fearles!'.ly at the head of the ma~ ... es facing death and tor.ture In the
struggle against the fascist invaders. The ~re.stige of commun ism and the
Communisb was enhanced. For bourgeOIs Ideology. the ~~cond World )(
War had very sad resulb. Fasci~m ~uffered not only a mlhtary bu.t al,o /\
an ideological and politjc<.l! defeat, and ther~ couJ5!.now be ~QJll,le~tH"u,f
an open revival qJ.!he.QldJa<,~is-,- ideology. The~e ,;,'as need I~ ca.st a~out
10 a "new" id eological platform for the capitalist world In Its .fl~ht
a ~inst communism. Accordingly, the bourgeoisi~ sel about ful.fllhng
t;is task nOW smuggling in the ideas of fascist reaction, now coveTing ~p
its polici'es with rel igious sloga~s ~r ex~racting f~om t~ek mau:~;:t ~h:
banners of 19th-century bourgeOIs hberahsm. But et us a e
h a d the p<;ychologihistorical milestones along this way.
Ju st after the war ..the vast prota~an~~ m:~r l:~er; turned ~gainst the
cal warfare" mechamsm. \etyp ~~~g h ~ dropped out of the capitalist
Soviet Unio~ and the countnes '":mlcle a~d cynical: all the habit.ual idea'>
system . Then. sc heme. was ver Y S~eft_known arguments of wartime were
e
advanced against faSCism, all ~h h Sovet Union so as tocreate round
to be mechanically a!med agalns~ t::
I Hort to ~onvince men that the
it a thick curtain of lies and slan eSr In .a~ ~nion and the other socialist 1
. 1
developing in t he oVle
..
f hast A.
sOCia .system
rbin er of the futu.r~ .Eut .'!..n;pe~lh~~ 0, I e p .countries was no! ah~ g~-.- - l'k 'totahtanamsm With respect
r-d'o kept uSing terms I e . , l' ,
The press ano ra ~
.. e world" with re spect to the capl a IS
to the Soviet Umon. and fre
countries.
.
.
dec ided to make use of the main ideas ~f
At the same lime: It was. the Communists. From Dr. Goebbels s
fa sc ist propaganda l~ ~ar~: I~~e "iro n curtain" and th~ ~yth. of a "red
d
n Western CIVilisation.
argon they borrO we er
~mperia1ism" allegedly inte~t on the!~~J: a~'communi<;t military threa!" .
EmphasiS was made on t e my . the West had grown accustomed to
During the Secon.d W;rld ~a~o~:;slll and the Western press wa'> its~f
respect the ~~v~~~ut rt~: defeats i~f1icted by th:: Soviet trboop~t~J/e,>~
forced to wn
1
d d and occupied anum er
.
d
ow kept say ing that the
. who had fairly easl y I.nva e
NaZIS.
untries BourgeOIs propagan a n
Eur~pean ~o wer~ po i\ed for an attack on the West.
H~
Soviet armies

With the emergence of the world sOl.:i.liisl 'y\lcm. hou

_
rro paga nda began spreading the false idea that the historical t:~~~OI \
helwee n the two syste ms was bound to he decided through war. D. C~I
day . the peo ple in th e capitalist countries were induced to aCCent th a Y by
. . hi
d h '
h
I'
C, d Ca
h
t at ~I.a r ~as mevlta e. an t at 'dt ~va,. t defecore. natural for the We st
to ~l It a fl ~e . to ca rryon an ~rms f.ne an pr~p~rc for war again st the
Sov iet Umo n a nd the cou ntn es takmg the sOCI"II,! path . This- req Uned
.
much propaganda effo rt. because th e men and women who had ju st g
th rough th e Seco nd Wo rld War. were ..;till under the influence of o~e

idea th at th at war had been the last one. Also there was much war f~t~
gue .

w:

In order to overc ome th ese a ttitudes, a g reat effort was made to ass rt
that war and it s root s we re indestru c tible, that th e seeds of war
_planted i~ h~n:'an n~t~re a nd ma n 's fa ta l passio n , w itho u t which hum:~ )(
nature was mconcelvabfe.
Among those who joined in the c ho ru s. were t he Ma lthuSians , who
argued that war wa s necessa ry to save the wo rld from overpopulation
and to keep pure mankind 's genetic ma t e ri a l.
There were other theories
He rbe rt Read a
sociologist,
argued that wa
and man 's
~
but th~re
thi s philosophical postula te : th ere was need even in
peac~tlme of s0".le Ersatz of wa r. Tha t was a lread y an attempt to
provide a theoretical bac kup for the co ldw a r po li cy.
John Foster Dulles c a me out with a book de signed to p rove that during
the Second World War a mi stake had been mad e th at s plit th e Western
~o~l~ . The policy of the We~tern powers had t o be designed to avoid
dlvl ~lOn s ~nd to ~et up a, umted bloc of c apitali st po wers against the
SO~ let VOion. Thi s US diplom ati st coined such a well. know n Western
pohcy term as " roll back" , and then ;'containment" of co mmun is m by
armed fo rce . It was also he who fir st used the " po li c y from positi o ns of
strength " term.
Thi s helped
' 's speec hes urgmg
. a
, to Create the b ac kgTOun d f Or C
hurchill
~~~ .s~~e a~alt st communism and. the establi shment of a milita ry b loc of
i deo)ogfce:II~:~t /ow ers . The Signal wa~ iss ued fo r a driv e on the
war fa tl8lJ e a ~ t~ as to Create ~ c hange In Western opinion des pit e th e
n
e great yearOing for peace
Th e pro paganda again st comm
f'
sta rt of the " Marshalr s r " f uOi Sm was urther inten sifi ed with the
togeth er of th e Atla~ti~ I~t 0 Bthe We~tern co.unlTies and the kn ock ing
mi lita ry. aggressive allianc oc . f ~urgeo.l s ~heon st s argued the need for
Qf Western c ulture" the .~lt~ t . e c apltah st, powers. pra ise d th e " un ity
'
antic c ommuOlty " e lc
But 'It soo n tran spired
that for all th ' b '
'
.
IS elhc.os~ noi se c apita li s m lacke<!
the offensive theoretica l wea
negat ive. In August 1949 lhe ~~ln , a.nd ~_h~t _lt ~ IdeQJp..8Jc a i content was

aflhc c arned an artic le by the US w riter

n4

An.:hihald Mad.ci ... h , who fin,t con\idered the matter ... : "American
foreign policy wa ... a mirror image of RU'isian foreign policy: whah:ver
the Ru ..... ian .. did. we did in reverse, American dome .. tic politic .. were
conducted under a kind of up\ide-down Russian veto: no man could he
f elected to puhlic office un Ie ..... he wa'i on record a'i dete\ting the
) \ RU'isian\. and no propo\al could be enacted. from a peace plan at one
end to a military budget at the other, unless it could be demon'itrated that
the RU'i\ian\ wouldn't like it. American political controverw wa"
controversy 'iung to the RU'isian tune; left-wing movement'i attacked
right.wing movements not on American issues but on RUS'iian i\sue\,
and right-wing movements replied with the same argument'i turned round
about.
.. A merican education was Russian education backward: ignorance of
Communism was the principal educational objective recognised by
po liticians and the general press, and the first qualification demanded of
a teacher was that he should not be a Communist himself. should not
have met persons who might have been Communist~, and should n~ver
have read books which could tell him what Communism was. American
intellectual life revolved around Russian intellectual life: writers stopped
writing and convoked enormous meetings in expensive hotels to talk
about Russia for days at a time. with the result that the pro~lem.s ~f
American culture (if that selfconscious and overfingered word IS stili 10
use in 1980) became reflections of the problems of Russian ~ulture. Even
religious dogma was Russian dogma turned about: the first duty of.a
good Christian in the United States in those ye~rs was not to love hiS
e nemies but to hate the Communists-after which he wa~ told to pray
for them if he could." ~ The idea of this piece was to argue 10 fa~our of a
sim ple t ruth: it is impossible to base a world outlo.ok on negatIOn. The
a rt icle was an alarm signal. For several years such Signals came ~ne aft.er
anothe r showing that anti-commun ism had driven b?UrgeOis s~ lal
tho ught 'into an impasse and signified an extreme s.tate of Its degradat 'o~.
T e n years later. the same questions. we~e raised by the bourgeO Is
ourn al ist Pie rre- Henri Simon in an article m Le MOllde.o~. M~rch II. )
J
He wrote: "Thus, in this world of ours where two clVll~ satlons are
I960 .
.
't h each oth er either- through the Will of brute

If
I
in co nfro nt atio n WI
f
ed conflict or for a lengthy peacefu compet l 10~.
ch anc~ohe~~ :~~m u n i sm shout ing to us: 'On my side I have the weIght
see m count less masses of men, disc iplined by my law and my hop~: on
of ~rde I have th eir wi ll . which has been liberated from God a.nd aUT~ed
my
bl' h dom ination on Earth the sorcery of my laboratOries which
to esdta I.S celest i~1 stars which have created into the skies; I have on
put side
a nc mg
.
..
hundreds of my UniVerSitIes,
ml11'Ions 0 f mY :).tudents . my
my
d doct ri naire youth which scorns the affectatIOn and the
Spa rt an an
'

TI,l' Alililltic. August 1949, p. 17.

corru~(ion of yOUfS. and wh~~ h "!a k,es jO~l~~I~'i U\C'

uncham Prometheus and to kill hi s vult u re.

(l(

all il\ !"lower<, to

Tllc~e

... tah.:lI1ent .. I..:uming from profe ..... ional anti-Cummllni~ti. ~how

tlwt capit .ii!o.f1l ha ... already lo ... t a numhcr of impurtant idcolu1!k .. 1
po ... ition ... and ha ... heen forced to retreat from ... trategk rrontlinc~ on thc
feld of the hattie of ~dcas.
. .
(COfl'>Cllllcnt.lY. lh~ life ha'i "ho~n that .p~ese.ntday mo~o?ol~.c;.I~ltall'" ,.
unahlc to feed ",o(;lal thought With POSitive Idea\. f?r II'> m.tln 1.1'>1\.....
"
dcfen\ive and prohihitive. It ha.., int1~ced ih t~eofl"'''. to fCitr. "(~I~11
change amI any fundamental re'itruetunng of ~ocl<Il re.lat'on .... It rc~Ul~.C'i
. " I thought to camouflage and embelh ... h reahty. Only p.lrtldl,
SOCia
. I
th III .''Iny
empirical re\carch i. . allowed .
In the SOCI~ ",clence.s, WI. 0
deep-going generalisations and bold con~lus,on\: Socwl sele~ce I'> ~o
provide the ideological weapon~ for the fight agamst comm~Oism, tha.t
is against progres\ and its mighty forces. The m.onop'ol~es ~xert ';
d~vastating influence on social thoug~t and lead 10. ItS. ehmm~l lon, ~~
soc ia l thought which fails to ~onslder the ba~lc Is\~es I,n SOCial
deve lopment inevitably tends to die out. To reduce It.t0 refmed a~,c7rs
to protect what is on the way out means to lead SOCial thought Itse to
destruction.

There are three points to be bro~ght o ul in these Illime-Wlh '>tatemenls.

First. they recogni se the organic bo nds hetween -.:nmmunism and
science. and it s "faith" in sc ience. This bond W'ls denied only <t "hart
-while ago , when bourgeoi ~ ',hea d sts ass ured us that science was entirely
on the side of the bourgeOI sie . Th at old m yt~ has been hlasted for gOOd.
Bourgeois theorist s ar~ no longer ab le as c.as l,ly to refer to science as they
did in the past. and thiS has narro wed th eir field of movement. Even the
rabid champions of bourgeois ideo logy have come to realise thai
bourgeois thought has had to retrea t fr o m t he fi e ld of battle. Second, )(
they admit that communism is a " synth es is o f he re tica l tendencies" in
mankind's development , the re s ult of "bold ex press ions of the human
spirit", that is, that it is a legitimate heir of all th e progress ive tendencies
)
in social development. That. too . t end s to na rrow dow n the f ield in
which bourgeois theorists can operate , a nd fo rces th e m to repu diate the
classical legacy. with the re sult that th eir soc ia l th oug ht is totally
impoverished. Third , they stre ss the active a nd e ffec ti ve c haracter of
thi s alliance of science and communi s m , which is a im ed t o restructure
the world.
At the turn of the century, bourgeoi s soc ia l th ought reac hed the
~
conclusion that society could not be changed through revoluti on and that
communism was a utopia. After 1917, the re v olutio n ary change of
society was designated as a "Russian deviation fro m th e rule", an
"episode" on the way of capitalist development th at was mu ch to be
regretted. The time has now come to accept the realit y of these c hanges
and to draw up the balance in the battle for the mind s of men . The result
~as been discomforting for the bourgeoiSie. The powe r o f co mmu nist
Idea s ha s been recognised indirectly and with va riou s reser vat io ns, and
such a~mission s have from time to time appeared in th e press.
We. ~lnd mOre and more statements in the capitalist world about a lac k
of abIlity to act with the use of ideas. The US Sen ator Th o mas Dodd
proposed in a lengthy speech in the Senate the establi shment of a s pec ial
academy to. train perso.nnel capable of carrying on the ideo logical
stru~le again st commumsm. He said: " We seem to be so ob sessed w ith
studymg the enemy. we have no energy or talent Jeft ov er fo r thinking
through the conclusion s to which these studies s hould point. It is al most
as tho~g~. we were hypnotized into a condition of pa rtia l me ntal
paralYSIS. ~e attacked the amateurs using primitive metho d s of polit ica l
wa r~are whIch are eaSily frustrated. " We have produ ced no Free Wo rld
Lemn
s tOlseahdoers.
w u~. ~ow to develop Our own o perational sc ience a nd t rain
ou
r own
#.

l.t MQndt, I I mars 1960 , p. 4 .

Vjlal SPUChtl oj Ih t Da y. Vol. XXVII No 4 D b 1 1%0

'
. . ecem er .
. p. 123.

CHARACfERISTIC FEATURES
OF NEOLIBERAUSM

,l
2

. '

b' g glorified m the West In t e

Just at present, neohbera Ism IS e~nt 'deas for it is claimed that
search for remedies against. co~mun~~e I back' round to become the
liberalism has pushed reaction .mtocommunis~ Indeed. this is a very
dominant trend capable of defeat1~g.
'alism ~o use the banner of
indicative attempt on the part 0 Impen
bourgeois liberalism as a ~over.. I thought and the bourgeois theory of
As I have said. bourgeOIs sOCia
. e closely connected with the
soc ial developmen~ in the ~9th ~~~t~~~s:et~eories their direction, fi~led
ideology of hberahsm. which g
d
d these theories to substant13te
them w ith po lit ical cO.ntent and ~r~o~~~f bourgeois liberalism is clos~ly
it s pol itical line. That IS why the f bourgeo is sociology and the theones
co nnec ted wit h the development 0
of soc ial progress.
bourgeois liberalism underwent p~ofound
At the turn of th e century...
feudal-absolutist conservatism rya~
c hange. It s one-t ime op~osltlOn ~~erebY depriving the social theor~es
lo ng si nce become mean~~glt~~~al i sm of their relatively progress~ve
co nnected with b~Urge01s I
ervat ism and liberalism is b~commg
feat ures. The marg m betweena~~n~een ever more frequent cflses and
'th various leaders moving from ~ne
ever more tenuous. There .h
divisions in the liberal partl~s~u;~eo i s liberalism has not stop~ed trymg
to another. Of course.
.
eo Ie and the workmg clas .....
camp
. fiue nce on the wOrklOg P P
.
f the working
to exert an In
II
sions and deception 0
.
d the policy of sma conces
d.' still current in vanOU'"
In deee . by bourgeOIs
. liberal catchwor .., IS .
peop I
.\.p

capitalist countries .. From time to l im~ this pOIil'Y alt~nlilk\ with the
policy of ,open . re,pnsals and suppre~slo~ of tl~~ w~r"lOg c1;l'i,'i. In the
epoch of Impenahsm. we no longer fmd .111)' m.IJor liberal parhe') in Ih
political arena. the banners being left \~'ithoul standanJhearcfS, Bu~
monopoly capital has refused t o cons ign the political weapon of
bourgeois liberalism to the archives. The parties of monopoly capital
have tried to borrow some of its weapons. and usc is also being made of
the old speeches of bourgeoi s liberalism about free competition and
democracy, which arc given a new reading .
But there is a most profound internal co ntradi ction in the present
attempts to revive bourgeois liberali sm. On the One hand. monopoly
capital has sought to ensure it s influence on the petty and middle
bourgeoisie. and on the other hand , it fears th at th ese sect ions could
unite on an anti-monopolist basis of opposition trend s. One cannot say
that there is no ground in the modern world for a re viva l of so me ideas of
bourgeois liberalism in the form of oppos iti on to the reigning
monopolies . But the monopolies. relying on their influ ence within the
bourgeoisie, are trying to control the process an d c ut it s hort whenever it
has posed any threat to them . seeking to u se it ultimately to support the
sway of the monopolies.
"Free enterprise", which is allegedly ensured by present-day capitalism. is brought to the foreground. The stereotype conception is roughly
as follows: private property produces "economic democracy" and
intensifies enterprise and personal initiative . This corresponds to
"'political democracy" which promote s the development of economic
activity, whereas social . property and the planned economy allegedly
, and result In t'iotahtaflanism~ "et at ism--" and
-ofeconomic activity.
In the ~rocess some
.
remarks are allowed against the modern
bourgeOIS state concerning its "interference" in economic affairs, etc.
B~t th~ whol~ con.c~~ti~n is deliberate demagogy and a reactionary
utopia . FlTS,t, ~nvate IDitlatlve and enterprise are not the pre sent, but the
past of capltahsm. and there is no return to it. It is confidence trick on
the part of bou':8eois propagandists to describe the pre se nt as the
premonopoly pe~l?d of capitalism. Second, today socialism alone can
cr~at~ the cond~tlons for a steady growth of initiative a nd c reative
thinking and. aC,hon by all the working people and every individua l.
Whe~ capltahsm wa,s taki~ over from feudali sm , it did so mething to
fost~r, In men ent~rpnse, vigorous action and bold initiative . and this
explam s the creative power of epochs I', ke Ih R
'
h 181h
'
,
e
enalssance,
t
e
d
~e.n.tu~y an partlal~y the first half of the 19th century. but even then
initiati ve was not displayed by broad sections of th
I
d d'd not
hecome truly massive,
e peop e an
I

C~n

there ~~ any "free ente~ri~e" under monopoly capitalism today?

Lenm wrote. Under such capltahsm compel,'I,'o
h '
d.-Iy
,
n means t e mcre Iv

".

uta I suppres'iion of the enterprise, en~rgy and .bold in~tiative ,of the
oras-i- of the population. of it\ overwhelmmg maJont~ ..of n.mety.nme out
TIl.
h dred toilers' it aho means that competition IS replaced by
of every un
' .'h
of the social
\( financiaL fraud ... nepoti'im. servIlity 9n t e upper rungs
-_
dd .. a
la T c~. y under 'itate-monopoly capitalism competit.io.n mea,ns s_uppr~s.
, 0 a ~nterpri'ie even among the middle bourgeOISie, which IS b~lng
sion of
f omthe sharing of the pie by a handful of gian~ monopoh~s
~~Pt ~.w~o:opolies have the petty bourgeoisie in a tight gnp. That bemg
e Ig there be any initiative or enterprise among workers under
so, '~~~s m ? Thus the tall stories about "free enterprise" relate to, ahPa "
capl a I . ,
f "free enterprise" intend to abohs t h e
(
age. Per~aps .the advocates 0 east" But is there a force that could do
present Situ atIOn and return to th p. . , the USA o nly about 50 are
this" Of the thousand s of corporatIOns m
I U'S News and World
'
.
contracts by the govern men '
f
awarded major war
h
II companies seek to become satellites 0
Reporl has stressed that t e sma
t t But that is a systefILof
the giants who secure the fattes~ c.?n~~~ ~~' it to be abolished without
vassalage and not of "free enterpnse .

J\

- senous-soCial,c~ange'!.

f ht the sway of the monopolies. and the

Of course, It IS possible to Ig
h II ence of the working class
I
I
's's to enhance t emu
only way to d 0 Ih I I
ocial affairs and attain,:"ent 0 rea
which develops towards ~ontrol ovt s the working class umtes all t,he
power. In its democratic strugg. e.
'd
The reactionary utopias
anti-monopoly elements in a smgle Ilyl s~'rve to divert sections of the
. a return 10 Ihe past canb mere os elements from t hIS anti preachlOg
middle bourgeoisie and pett~- ou;ge ~n any way to a realisation of
monopoly tide, wit hout advancmg t em I
.

their int erest s.

,
t of the legacy of bourgeois liberahsm
The new methods of USing a par
oly capitalism were best
.
sts of state-monop
b . g
to promote the mtere
. W t Germany where most was eln
illu strated by the developments Ir ~~mpet ition ~nd curbs on the po,",:,er
sa id about the ~arket eco~omy. e~:~nce of this "neoliberalism"? Havmg
of the monopolies. What IS the neoliberal Chancellor Erh~rd. every
read th e stateme nt s of th e himself this question: whe~e IS the ~~rce \ /
SOber-m inded person m~st ask wn the monopolies. restOTing the free "that is capab le of putliOg ~o other benefits for the middle and ev~~
market economy" .a~~ s~~~~~~g said th at this requires a "st.ro~ s~:~eoi
the petty bourgeoIsie.
countr 's economy going. But iO t IS
which must and ca n keep the
ts
uiring vast investments wh? can
rapid technological d~v~~O:~ae;talistqwOrld? Of course. Erhard dl~d~~!
trol the economy iO
roducer or even the ml
~~; a moment believe. th~t t~~d ~~\t~te~d to rely on the working class,
bourgeoisie cou ld do thi S. or I

:e

. C n11,,'lttl n -o',I;... Vol. 26. p. 404_

V. I, L.:ntn.
.'~9

In present-day capitalist ~ondition~ the "strong st.~te" i.. a stmc

controlled by t~e monopolies . Having .. tarted out W.llh liheral tillk
.
Erhard ended with an apology for state-monopoly capital.
The growing concentrat~on of capital an~ the .present level of
technological development Impelthc monopolies to.lIltcrfcre in every
element of the state apparatus so as to en .. ure .. tncter regulation of
various aspects of social life and th e production proc" ...,. ranging from
scientific research to labour relations. This tend .. to aggravate the class
struggle. and impels the proletariat to la"-c ever more vigorous action
against this monopoly line by ad\:a n~ing the slrike struggle and seeking
to curb the power of the monopohes III an effort 10 h ave a greater say in
economic and social affairs. When this conflic t belween the monopolies
and the working people becomes highly acule. the FRG government acts
as an arbiter. sugges ting a comprom ise in order to prevent any furth er
deepening and extension of the conflict. The FRG 's example shows thai
Ihe government assumes the attitude of arbi ter wh en the working-class
struggle is e\peciaJly intensified and \\ hen thc refusal of so me monopo_
lies to compromise poses the threat of grave consequences for the whole
capitalist class. Does this mean. as the neoliberal s claim. that the state
becomes an arbiter standing over and above the c lass strugg le between
labour and capital? Of course. it does not. The state acts as a
representative of the ruling class of the bourgeoi sie against individu al
"feudals" in order to protect the interests of the whole ca pit alist class.
When assessing neoliberalism. one should bear in mind that the threat
of isolation of the elite of monopoly capitalism from th e whole nation,
including the middle and the petty bourgeoi sie, is an ever growing t hreat
in the political life of the imperialist states. and many represe ntatives of
the monopolies are clearly aware and apprehen sive of this threat. But
how can one escape from this growing isolation? During hi s pre sidency.
F~anklin D. Roosevelt arranged some fairly bold compromi ses with the
middle and ~ve~ the petty bourgeoisie. but his policy inevitably resulted
In the growing Importance in political life of sec tion s inclined to oppose
the. monopolies. That is why Roosevelt's more resolute way aimed
agaln!>t th~ growing isolation of the monopolies is still a source of
apprehe~slOn for the leaders of monopoly capital.
H~re IS another fac.t to take into account. Writing in the Saturday
Rel'lew, Norman COusms noted this paradox in the USA: " It is that some
of the men who most loudly proclaim the virtues of the free enterprise
~yst~m ma~ reveal the least faith in it when the c hips are down. Th ey
inveigh agamst an inc~ease in federal powers. but ignore the powerful
filc~or of government '~volvement when it comes to military proj ec ts,"9
It I.S ?f course utopian to expect a retreat from s tate-monopoly
ca pltaitsm. back to the period of free compe tition . The neoliberali st
9

,<0

S<IIurJa.\ Rf'I"il' ...

Augu~1

catdwonh arc heing u'ied in order to perwade the middle and petty
bourgcoi\ic tn have {aith in the "creative powers" of capitalism. that i"
ultimately to rely on the heneficial effects of the power of the
monopoliC'i. which are allcgedly intent on using their power in the
interesh of "general prosperity". When these promises are not backed
up by action. they tend SOoner or later to lose their aUractivene~s among
the middlc and petty bourgeoisie. The real way of fighting th.e pow~r of
th e monopolies i\ for all the democratic forces to unite In a \lIlgle
anti-monopoly tide.

POLIT ICAL CONCERNS

AND THE SPIRITUAL IMPOVERISHMENT
OF THE INDIVIDUAL

Let us comider another aspect of what is happening to l i ber~l~sm

today . Liberalism flourished at a time when there wer.e. strong pO~ llIcal
f es which adopted it as their banner. Today the political arena I~ the
ta~~ for instance. is dominated by two parties. whose platf~rms. d l~fer
little from eac h othe r. if at all. They hav~~ tight gripon p~lit lcal hfe III ~
country which has not only a big bourgeOIsie. but als~ a ~TIIddle a~d sm~
b
geoisie and which also has a working class which IS not umform In
c~~rpositio~. and also a sizable farming section ..AII these classe~. ~n~
social groups have their own interests. Meanwhl!e. only two po Itlc.a
, . _ the Democratic and the Republican Parties - have vast capltp,\rtle s.
..
wer In West Germany. France and Italy.
al. which mean.s ove~ndlng p o .
trated on establishing a monothe effort s of b'~ ~uslness ar~ als~.con.cen political life in the capital i"t
pol y i~ th~ political are na n t~ ISi;pa:~t of the growing rule of the
countn es IS deformed un der . e
. ' the USA
d there are no liberal parties III
I

monopOI les. an
.. I
having taken over the politica
The two ~owerful po~t:~~t~;~~;r;~litical struggle a duel betwe~n th.e
scene , have In effect su s
the difference between which IS
Republicans and the I?em oc rats .. I-s' in US political life. tried to
. I cr ton ROSS iter a specla I
h
margilla .
In
. I .:.. d eached the conclusion that t ere was
characteri se its "specla. Splflt an ;(on and as individuals, of a deep
a lack "in our beh~~lOr. as a n. lof liVing and of do ing the fublic
commitment to po.htlCS as a. w,ay th . others 'indifference' ."1 Such
business. Some wTlterSb~all ,t.hlS .~~yast:~ As a result of the noi se raised
e of the" Ipar Is a n
I
G
s
i<; the outcO m .
. I elections says the French ana yst eor.ge
during the p~esld~nt~~t shift in the voting pattern s. which results.1Il a
Lavau. there IS a s I I
I b II ts" II Rossiter adds that what either
r
h'lndred
or
so
e
ectora
a 0
.
Win 0 a
10

10. 1%1. p_ 14

Il

.
Pllrtirs WId Politics in-\mrrifll. lthac;J. Nt:" Y.:.rk. 1960. p- 2-l
C. RO'~ller.
.
- '9~l
80
Plrtis pfllitiqllrs rt ,tll/itis sfl<"lflirs. P:m~.
_.. p.
.
G. E . L.lVIIU. I

American party ~ants of it s adhcrenh i "'l~cir vote. Atid tll.thi ... that the
parties give nalhm,S at ~11 to the. rank-anti-file adh~n::nt. while the leader
can expect to obtam a smec ure

III

th e cvent of a v!I.'lory at the polh, and

that is the root of the "apathy".

Political life under monopoly capitalism is organised like a market
dominated by mighty monopolies on which the con ... umcrs are offered a

"range" of products turned out by one or more corpurations - frequent.

Iy only one, bec~us~ the variou s ,b.ranus are turn ed out by "i.ub~idiar~es. Is
this in any way Similar to the political setup under bourgeOI s ilberahsm in

the period of premonopoly capitalism"!

In other capitalist countries the dev elopment of monopoly capital and
its political power has yet to reach the US level, but the monopolies seek
similarly to organise society's politics on the same lines. In Italy,
monopoly capital has been trying hard to in stall th e C hri st ian Democrats
as the ruling concern in political affairs. There was th e same tendency in
France but it was expressed in somewhat different concret e conditions
in view of the president's increased personal powers. These tendencies
have not prevailed entirely in these countries only because of the high
level of organisation and consciousness di s played by th e working class in
rallying broad masses of people, in opposing the rule of the monopolies.
This situation is not reminiscent of political life under big bourgeois
liberal parties either.
In the past. bourgeois liberalism was a political trend with a political
platform. Today some bourgeois observers belie ve there is much danger
in the fact that the monopolies have in effect stifled political life in the
USA. Rossiter admits, for instance, that the time ha s come to inject a
new dose of ideology into US political life. The pre se nt political ideology
of both parties is extremely poor. "The conservatism of th e one has been
entirely visceral. the liberalism of the other has been a mockery of the
idealism of Jefferson and Wilson." 12The fact thatJefferson . the political
le~der of the 18th century and Wilson, who was pre sident during the
~Irst ~orl~ War, are being brought together under the umbrella of
liberalism IS merely an indication that the concept of liberali sm in the
USA has become extremely vague. "What we need from both is a little
less group diplomacy and a few more ideas about the American future:,\J
Group diplomacy is struggle for domination in the state apparatuS
between various. groups of monopoly capital. The bourgeoi sie has faile d
to produce any Ideas about the American future and here Ro ssiter put s
hi s finger. on the weakest aspect of bourgeois ideology today.
There IS go~d rea~on why in -diSCUSSing the prospects opening up
before the Soviet UOion the British Conservative weekly . TI,e Observer,
wrote on the eve of the 22nd Congress of the CPSU on October 15, 1961:
12 C

R,",\iler.

"J"d

,,'

342

Partin and PO/ilics

in

Amtri(o

17\
,p . . .

"That "0 amhiliou'\ a programme can fire the popular imagination ami
'muhili \c' Soviet .. I rc ngth necd not be douhted: and that the !:>tate!:>men of
thc We .. 1 arc offcring thcir people ... no "i.,ion of the futurecomparat'llc in
allfllction i.., aJ..,o true." I' What the capitaliw.. fear mo.,1 i., that ...odali ... m
hOI" madc men I()ok into the future and think about the pro .. pect ... of .. adal
development.
In bourgeoi., writing ... in Britain we find remarks about Labour taking
over from liheralism to develop Ihe liberal traditions in oppo~ition to
Conservatism, just as at one time the Whigs opposed th.e Tor.,es, and
later the Liberals the Con ... ervatives. Consequently. hberali'>m has
slightly shifted to the Left. Robert McKenzie, who wrote a lengthy work
about British political parties, quoted a turn-of-thecent~ry I:~der,
Lowell, who sa id this about the Liberals and the C?nservatl~es:. B?th
are sh ams, but with this difference, the Cons~rvalive o~gaOlsallon Is.a
tran sparent, and the Liberal an opaque, sha~. M:,Kenzle added that,~f
the word "Labour" were substituted for Llberal : there wo~l~ be a
se n se in which Lowell's remark is equally appropriate today The Conservatives and the Rightwing Labour lea~ers are agre.ed on
the main thing, namely. the principles of the bourgeOiS system. It IS tr~e
. a sen se that the Right-wing Labour leaders now perform t e

~~ds~rb'e~~1 functi~n of leading the. wor~i~g c1~~~ ~~!~~~ ;o~rsk~o~~~t~

movement in the wake of bourgeOIs ~o ICles. ..

'iree market" etc.
..
. h t ompetltlO n
"
the old premonopoly capltahs~ ~lIt n~: ~f state-mo'nopoly capital, and
but serves to conduct the In ~e.
d the working people various
suggests to the petty bour~eOis;e oa~em orary capitalism, which has
illu sions about .a transf~rm.atlon ~ t~n~e a:d has turned into a welfare
allegedly lost Its explOItative su s
state".
.
")
he Liberals were either friends of the Labour
Lenin wrote .10 19_0 th,at t .. 16 The Labour Party leaders have ~ho.wn
lead ers or [their] new m,l~terS . I . I se relations with the capltahsts
. h t they prefer t 1('lrc 0 '
h Labour
again a nd agalO t a
. ,. t7 The tactics of the Rig tWlOg
to the unit y of alll~e worker~ the Conservatives, was to push the Left.
leaders together WIth th ose a
k.
class and the Communists out of
I ents of the wor 109
ff
and in
,
revolutionary e em
I of both parties- that in a Ice
the political arena. The rO e
. g the arena of political struggle a nd
.
I
gns and
..
unt s 10 occupym
oPPoslllon-amo
. I advantages 10 electora campal
making use of I~e vast r~:!~~I~ny other fo rce, especially th e party that
propaganda medIa, to p
k.
class from moving into that arena.
is th e vanguard of the wor 109
,
. October I~. 1961. p. 13.
Lonu0n, Toronto. 19~~_
"

TIlt Ohsrrl cr.

8rilis/l po/ilil"al Partin Melbourne.

II Robert T. McKenlU:.
p. ~8\.
. ell/tdt" \\"II,b. Vol. 31. p. 86.
16 V _ I Lenni. '
I' Ihid .. p. 11.7

But such a "biparti ~an" \y\tem ultimately tcnd\ 10 keep \Ome of the
voters away from Ih e polls and make, the ma"e, lo,c confidence in
political activily .
_
In the recent period, an att empt h;h heen made In Britain 10 restore th
Libera l Part y to th e political a rena in Britain. in view of the genera~
tendency for a re vival of liberal ism. The Lahour Party. which has a
gro wing Left wing and whose can ~ida te\ are support~d, by th~ Working
cla ss. is still a sourc e of a pprehen sion for the bourgeoIs ie. An Important
aspect here is the hope o f recruiting th e white-collar workers. that is, the
sections of the emplo yee s a nd the tech nica l spec ia lists who become a
part of the working class o r re prese nt th e inte rmed iate sections close to
it.
The political organisatio n of bourgeo is society in the general crisis of
the imperialist system has bec om e a key issu e in th e struggle for
progressive development. and again st the fo rces of reaction . It is
possible to mount a broad democra tic struggle again st t he monopolies, to
recruit to the working-class side variou s a nt i-mo nopoly elements of
bourgeoi s society . The monopolies ha ve to ma noeu vre and use every
means to bolster their influence on the middle a nd petty bourgeo isie. The
monopolies are afraid to provide any rea l o utlet to a llow the interests of
the middle bourgeoisie,to say nothing of the pett y bourgeO isie, to emerge
in the political arena , bec au se these ele me nt s could become a political
force in opposition to monopoly c apital. Th at being so, t he monopolies
seek to control the attitudes a mong these socia l sec tio ns in t heir own
intere sts. stubbornly preventing them from any independent political
action. thereby converting liberal sloga ns into me re talk and deception.
The old liberalism , which stood for pri vate prope rt y, competition, free
enterprise and individuali sm, was the taproot fo r th e systems of Comte
and Spencer with their po sitivist sc hemes and theories. Co nt emporary
neoliberali sm is either a barren reacti onary utopia a bout a ret urn to the
premonopo ly stage, or a SCreen for s tat e-monopoly ca pitalism . In either
case , neoliberali sm lead s bOUrgeoi s soc ia l thought to noth ing but
degradation .
WH AT HAPPENS
TO BO URGEOIS LIBERAL
SLOGANS

Of a ll th e sl.ogans played up by the bourgeo iSie today th e most

fraudule~t One IS that of "freedom of the individual" , whic h libera lism
~el~ .up 10 the old days: In. capitali st soc iety today , the right s of the
lOdlvldua~ c an ~e ~alOtamed only thro ugh vigorou s and stro ng
d~mOCr~tlc orgamSahons, again st whic h monopoly capit al, in effecl.
d irects It s attac ks. In the US labour mo vement . a ny sig n of de moc racy i\

'"

lu~{ed <lnd replaced by ho'is oligarchy, \1onopoly capital in other

:ountrics a"o hopc'i to achieve thi,. No trace ha<, been left of the
and educational
working people's and pelly.bourgeoi,
Iuh,. which were so popular at the end of the 19th century_ The
man
him,elf in
vicelike grip of mo.no.poly capita.l. The
monopolie, !>eck to i'olate hl.m, t~ foster a phl.h~tme mentahty o~
self-complacency and to confme hIS mental honzon 10 the mmov.
framework of a consumer world.. The individua.1 can have no freedom of
, because the monopohes have established a whole ~ystem of
h IS
' own
coerc ion over the isolated individual.
. .
. .
T he soc iologist David Riesman has drawn thIS l'!lportant conclus~on.
" ... s ki ll democracy, in fact, based on respect for ability t,? ~o somelh ~ ~g,
tend s to <,urv ive on ly in athletics." 13 "Skill democracy ~n the capltdlist ~orld ha~ always been bounded by the ~r~mework of pnvate.prope,r~y
re lations a nd the narrow limits of 70mpetltl~n. Under ~onoPolY capJlal
it disappears altogether, and that IS what Riesman mea~s: ..
.
Of course, so long as private property is there bourge?ls mdiVIdufhS~
,
b e a most important aspect of the bourgeOIs world out 00 ,
is being used by the ideologists of neoliberalism.
under
:onoPOly domination, individualism is distorted and
f
al life and all the sp heres In ....
h I
ate. The woe 0 SOCI.
b the iant monopolies, Under their
capabilities are used are domlllated y I :es his bearings in society
crushing we ight, the ordi.n~~y ~::ndo cannot realise his true role or
dom inated by unknown SOCI~. ~~Cg from an inflated ego, solipsism.
soc ial val ue. He keep.s. SWltC In r debasement. mysticism and awe
amo ralism, etc., to servlhty, a sense 0

~ultural
~ommon

societie~,
t~e

find~

~o~t;~~se:a~~

B~t
t,end\ti~h e;~~:r~

su pernat~ra.1 ~orce.s,

of

to im overish the personality, produc.ing

.~. h bourgeois socio-psycho[ogISb
Ex treme IIldlvlduailsm ~ends
mental quirks and even allme;~, ~I~~S "onel iness, It is an elementary
admit spring from a sense h I op that human consciousness develops
propo~ition of ,sc ientifiC psyc
~v~~~e soc ial relations are impoverished
e
in relations WIt h ot h~r ?1 : .. e de leted. Men who live alone for a long
man 's con sc iou sne~s IS li ke ~~ an:one lose their power of speec h , Thai
ti me and have noth lllg to ~at~e modern abstract art and other phenome~a
may be one of the roots 0
esti ng the impoveri shment of,~ e
in bourgeois We.stern cult~~eu r~~~s theorists hold "free~om o~ art to
Bu t creativity is impOSSible wlt.hout a
c reative personahty. S0n:'e ' I
be freedom from any Prlnc~~sand guid ing pri nci pl~s w,h!ch dI rect a
o~nclp
s~ Ies any world outlook, WIll dlslOtegrate or
world outlook
based pn
'I W'thout
man's wlI , I
thing but arbitra ry actIon,
,.
degenerate and beco~e no 't I modifies the old bourgeois in~ivlduah~t
Thus, state-monopo YO"fPI a _ t he basis of this individualism _ pncou rse.
outloo".'In I'ts own way.
!~

1),,'''/ Ric,man.

nit'

1.,m(,1\- em ..J . :-J

' C" York . 19~J.
-

r>

1'(4.
3-1_~


\3tc-property relation s- i" stilllhc~e: hut it i ... no I~)ngcr PO\\ihlc for the
individual to displa y th e \am~ Spmt ~)f _c~terpn\c. ,The ideOlogy of

parasitis m increa singly con sl r~1I 11 \ I h~ . I nU lvlduill. I.;I,'h n,g all hi ... aCli ...
and creative element<; . Abs trac t art 1\ an expression of Ihis dUllingc

ideology .

These fealure s of pa ras iti s ~ a rc incr~asingly i nle~sificd as cap i[a/j~m

moves 10 irs decline . The ac ti ve, Crea ll ve personality Iran<:;forming the
world is no longer held up as a m od~1. In fi c tion it I~e in~ard-IOOking

!')

character who ignore s the s urro unding world Ihat

IS VictOriOUs.

In stead

of engaging in action, he goes thro ugh a SlIccc!'i')ion of menial states. The

"active principle" will be foun d. pe rh aps. o nly in t h e detective thriller.
where the exciting plot c on sis t s in the du e l bet ween th e c riminal and the
sleuth. That may explain the popula rit y of a d ve nt u re stories and
sensational reports about unu s ual events a mo ng read e rs Who are fed up
with writings in which nothing happe n s.
In the present state of the ec onom y a nd p o litics in th e imperialist
countries there can be no question of fre e d o m in th e sph ere of spiritual
culture even in its bourgeois liberal sen se . Th e b ookm arket , t he cinema,
etc., are under the control of the big monopolie s. Th e destruction of
democratic institutions in the political s phere has to ld On the cultural
sphere as well. The notoriou s "individual of th e fre e wo rld " is in effect
an impotent and defencele ss person. who is h e mmed in on all sides by
market relation s controlled by the monopolies. whic h use the sit uation
not only to control prices but al so the preferences o f th e audiences,
whose members are habituated to a definite s piritual-food ra tion.
Bourgeois ideology contains le ss and le ss libera l idea s o f th e old days,
and mOre and mOre old reactionary feudal dogmas . Indeed , words like
"religion" and "order" now have the same meaning with wh ic h they were
invested by the reactionaries in the feudal period . The o ld ideas of the
Holy Alliance. which arrogated the "right" to interfe re in the a ffairs of
oth~r s tates to establish order. are being brazenly re vived . The racist
ravings of COunt de Gobineau, who preached a "natural" inequ a lit y of
the
century are now being presented a s the latest
word In pohhcal Wisdom and even science (So-called p s ychorac is m).
Let us stress that state-monopoly capital ha s not aba ndoned it s
attempts to change the polilical organisation of soc iety to s uit itse lf as il
mov~s .. away from bOurgeois liberalism. It has no int e ntion - or
Such attempt s . Indeed, the political orga ni salion of bOurgeOIs society known as bourgeoi s democ racy too k s hape in
the premonopoly epoch of
The new period of dominatio n by
ha.s ,brou,ght changes In the POlitical organi sation of bourgeois
socle~y. giVing n se to plan s f~r tran~ferring to One favourite pa rty th e
func II,on s. of the old
parties , so as to Ou st all the political
orgalllsatlOn s o f the workmg cl.ass from legal political ac tiv ity . As the
rea l pro sp ects fo r the Workmg cla ss making use of democ ra tic

ra~es in.t~e mi~-19th

~osslbl.hty_to .aban~on

cap~tal

ca~italism.

bou~geols

"',

" (tutions and representative bodie!> for its Own class purpo~~\ 8 rO"
II''> I
. hd
II h "
(
monopoly capi~al "cds to Wit, raw a . t e 1I1strumcnts 0 governme~1
frllm democratic pre'isure: ~Iencal parlJes have a~so bee~ .used for ~hl~
urpo\e. In Italy, the Chnsllan Democrats. a clencal POllllCill orgam\a.
p
"on nee ted with the Vatican. has been brought to the fore 111 the hope
tlon c
h
h
I""
h' t 't could u\e the Va\t machine of the churc and play on t e rc IgIOU\
t a I nception\ of the masses to promote the political interc'it ... of the
circles. Soon after the war. the Catholic MRP in France.and
Germany Adenauer's Christian Democr:lIs al ... o a clerical.
.. 'd p'lrty were advanced for the same purposes,
mJlluc
.
Bu t t h is stake
on the clericalisation of po I""
II I C~ I 1"("
I e 111 some W es (
Euro ean countries has failed, because the work1l1g class has become
Sfrong a political force for monopoly capital to be able to try t.hat
d o f trick unhampered. Besides, the establishment of mass clerical
In .
recruiting work ing people into their ranks has
to be less
pa rtJesafe for t he mo nopolies, The true attitude of the
people.
s rge for unity with the political organisations of
.class "
1 e lf u
h .
0 ition to the monopolies domestic and
thei~ u rge f~r peace and t , elr fP~o sbreak through to the surface in these
fo reign poliCY beghan vanoLus((yS( (-ends among the Catholics. with some
By now t ere are e I .
d 'II'
t
.
. I d monstrating their anti-capitalism an WI Ins 0
parti es. ,
o f th em lIlcreaSlllg y ,e
.
I s and the Communists, The
make a rrangements With th,e working c as a well and an indicat ion of
Pa pacy has had to reck?n With .t~es~r~~n~~y ~he P~pe John XX IJI in the
this was the cha~ge,of linecar~:t~oliC :riests who had made a p?in~ of
latter years of hiS life, ~ome
h
Id not go along with cap italism
e
wo rking in industry ad~ltted t~at \h : ~~urgeo i s system it sho~ld. be
g
and th at instead of Improvm
(war attempt to bring clerlcahsm
h
..
Oldsaythattepos
'"
s
e hmln ated, ne cou
' h fa'ied although It IS still dangerou '
to the fo re in pol itical affalfs as I t h~t monopoly capital also, breeds
E v en today one should n.ot ffrgetof extreme c hauvinism, rac ism and
the ideology of fasc ism. an Ideo ogy, he;y of the bourgeois world the
wild a nti comm unism. ?n the si:;~~ fasc ist reg imes. In t he dep~nde nt
mon opo lies conti nue to I m~lant erroriit ic military dictatorships dl~ect ly
and sem ide penden,t countnes I ca ital are being installed. T hai IS t he
c ontro lled by for~lgn mO~co:no~ounfries. where t here is. law lessness. a~
c ase in some Latm ~ m e~I' flin s and pol it ical assass i!lat lOns. h~rassm:na
"n(lat ed police mac hme. kl , ~ and subversive actions pract ised a .. '
'
.
provocallon:;
of progressives,
f thi s is a very far cry from the t h eary and practice
olitica! system. AIl.O
.

pre~~onary
~~a~cst

~~o

prove~
workm~

(hha~

t~e ~ork1l1g

~( bou,geo;s l:b'~~~'I~mbe w,ong

(0

say (hat bou '3eo;s

saonc~a:~:~~~~;yh:~

Of cou'~~:d lalt ogether. It still d~splays shre~ ;r~s~lems on whic h the

be: n
Iwhen it
to
acule
ta e( 'ttl of the monopo hes depe n ' h s nags constantly occurnng \0
pro I ~
he ca pit alist system. t e
built IOto t

~:~~

com~s

lack~ngB~~ot~~m~ost

contradi~tio~s

production. the di spro porlions in the clevelopment of variou~ '>CcIOr, <tn~

region s. the slow pace of .dcvc~opmcnl a .. a whole-all these aTe

problem s that capitali st soc la t ..elcnee hOi" been unah~e to solve. Th ~
allempt s to tackle social problems amount to \ugge .. llon\ for variou
impro vement s in the c ondi~ion of ... orne .. ce li,oll.''' of the wo.rking peoPte~
which arc pre sented as belOg des ig ned to elimmate explOitation and 10
per ~ uade th e peo ple in th e ca p ~ t al i st cO ~lO lr i c\ th,.1 politica.J power and
form s of propert y are questio ns whic h have lost their erstwhile
import ance. That is the subst ance of the ta lk about transformation of
present-d ay capitalism .
For the development of bourgeois soc ial Ih oughl Ihis postulate means
a claim that the bas ic issue - the origin of soc ia l a nd nat io nal Oppression
and what will happen to e xplo itatio n in th e COurse of historical
development - ha s been supers ed ed . Th a t is a q uestion soc ial thin kers
have tried to answer for centuries. Som e sa id it was everlasti ng and
inevitable so long as human society e x ist ed , w hile oth e rs conte nded that
exploitation had to go with the in stitutio n o f soc ia l prope rt y. Presen t-day
social thinkers in the bourgeois w orld have t o subst a ntiate this sophism:
" Western" society today has neither ex pl oita ti on nor domination of
social property.
There is some analogy here with the development of bourgeois
philosophical thought . which ha s now allegedly ma naged t o rise over and
above materialism and ideali sm and to overcome th eir "ext remes". In
place of the fundament al question of philoso ph y, it has allegedly
proposed other "aspect s" . in virtue of whic h the re la t ion bet ween mind
and matter has osten sibly lost its e rstwhile impo rta nce. Bourgeois
philosophical and social thought has declared these "accursed questions"
to be nonexi stent , and to have been overcome by the development of
capitali st society. Accordingly , scie nce . inc luding soc ial sc ience, needs
allegedly to deal with other "aspec t s", lea vi ng as ide the cardinal
problem s of world outlook , to study the " pa rtic ular" a nd t he "concrete"
questions, confining it self to positivi sm a nd empiricis m . However, in our )
d,IY the specific problems in the individual sc ie nces the soc ial sciences
in particular , are ever mOre closely connec ted with the ge neral qu estions
of world outlook. Such is the logic of social life and of th e development
of sc ientific knowledge itself.

C hapter Three
CONC EPTIONS OF SOCIAL STAGNATION
Sociology is ,the daughter of the greatest c ri sh in the life of the West.
Th at was the view taken of bourgeo is sociology by the late West Ge rman
Pro fessor Alfred Weber. We mu st agree with him .

'"

l.oSS 01 HISTORIC'",I. I'ERSPECTIVE

Bourgl!oi\ sociology i, the d~ughter of the greate~t crisis in the '~f~ of

the We,t. and it must con~ld~r at lea~t some. of. the mo~t acute
t radi<.:tions in modern capltah~m. But m so domg It. ~uts the wrong
~0t" rpretation on the~e. hecau ..e it spring~ from th .. t cmls and fe~r~ to
~I~W that these contradiction~ lead the capi~alist ~ode of producllOn to
de,trudion and .,ub.,titution bY:1 new, ~oclah.,t ~oclal system. Bourg~ol~
.. I thought has cea~ed to under~tand the fact that the pr~sent l~. a
S~CI: in the hi'}torical process, and that is something without which ~oclal
~h~~ght cannot develop. Thus, the theor~ of social developmen~ I.urn~
t to be breached at its most important hnk, so that the whole c am 0
~~e historical process falls apart and the conception of its law-governed

pr~~r::ssi~~:t:~~i:ld/:~isPf~~~' present-day capitalist ~ociet~ Sh~:~~~i~~e

conflic t ~etween the produ~tiv~cf.~~~eg~S~;~~~~~:~a~~~so~t

fac t s which some bourgeOIs s I

~~scovering

their real sign ificance.

h
t ' (c of their view of the historical
T heir conclusions are c arac epr;:s~nt-day bourgeois philosophy of
prOcess as propounded by the
hist ory.
t day US sociology, put forward a
William Ogburn, a founder of ~.re~e.n - resent-day that is. bourgeois,
theory in 1922 according to w I~ l.n . p d techni~al development and
.. h
has
.
between SClentl f IC an
society there IS a gap.
called the "cultural lag t eory,
)
spiritua l development. ThiS the07 'one of its aspects: technology under
0
become very popular. Let us
e
t of the productive forces have
modern capitalism, the deve opm~~ced by that system. This has made
out stri pp~d th~ spiritu~' cu~~r:o~rr~e, from here one may very welllo o.n
ma ny SOCIOlogists pon er.. t technology and science. whose ef ec~ IS
to hurli ng accusations agaills hould be moderated. That i~ ~xa~t~y w at
" inhuman" and whose .pow~r s h \ie done. attacking sC lenliflC and
ma ny bourgeois sO~ lologlst~h in: civilisation" wh ich !s allegedly at
tec hnical ~rogress. tha~u:a Th is carries them straight.lIlt~/heab~gt~!
vari ance With hu.man n ut the "disurbanisation" of socml Ie, n cenreactionary utopl.as t~~~ and technical progress. Others ~ave ;o~o[al

restrain~n; ~~e SC'~~~fects":

~odert:!_.w~.~:: t~nr':~~~t~~he~i

of _
defects.
..t ra ted
e ot and have tned tQ:ill~ent.teqp. th-eneed:afterSpencer.
de ve1o..pm: el(di(1"Someth ing Simi lar by ~rglllg
..
Ogbu rn hlm~adapl" to his "tec hn!cal envlronme~t . of "the di ~par;ty
fO~ man ;~erican sociologist raised the i~:s~~Oe\and. and our social
bet::en modern science a~? tecHhno~~fl 't~~t the social in~titutions of
e
Y k
.
on the other.l
inst itut IOnS,
. . ' I .. /t.f On'Rilis lind Dnt/opmfnl. Ne.... or.

...

HII/"n{.r/ 50'-1{> "R'

Harry EI mer Blrne~.
.

'~

II

capitalism were unable to cope with th e prohlem .. rut (\)rward hy mOue

"industrial civilisation"', But he. too . doc .. nOI say in \0 many word .. th~'
-, rc ,. ,-... m h ih lagged ochind"
the development of the socia
.allon, 0 r cap ita
the development of. Producl.,~'e forces. The same. h.M.house
approach will be found In the wntmgs of We .. 1 German SOClOlogi\h who
have reached the conclusion thai the "social \truclure" lends to lag
behind technical development. Consequently. modern capitalism ha) not
been developing at all smoothly: its spiritual life a nd social structure
have lagged. But having put their finger on one contradic tion of capitalist
society, bourgeois theorists evade the questio n and a re afraid to tell the
truth about capitalism's eventual dOom .
The English philosopher A. D. Ritchie blames th e gap between
technology and spiritual culture on man's int e llec tual and moral
development. declaring that the term "conquest of na ture" is a most
misleading one. He says: "Wild nature remain s unconquered as always. y
The scene of the conquest is an artificial world of machines: and those 1\
who are really conquered are the men who. in one way or a nother. are
subjected to the power of the machine s."' ~ He reaches th e following
pessimistic conclusion: ..... the process of human evolution will mean no
more than that men were once a small and simple herd and now they are
a large and mechanized herd." 1 A roughly similar view was expressed by
Bertrand Russell. who said that human nature and man \ fatal lusts
remained unchanged, while science and technology me re ly provided new
means for satisfying the old lusts. That is why such glaring dispropor.
tions have appeared in mankind's development. but the blame for this
falls on imperfect human nature.
Thus -and this must be stressed_as the role of capi tali st relations
of prodUction in slowing down and distorting the development of the
productive forces. science and teChnology become s clearer. bourgeois
theorists are forced to admit. in their Own way. the existence of this most
acute contradiction of capitalism. Indeed. many of them have started a
\Carch for remedies that could ease the ills of capitalism and maintain
it at this stage.
This purpose is served, for instance by some of the basic ideas of
modern "industrial sociology" which sta~ts from Ogburn' s "cultural lag"
postulate. A group of "industrial sociologists" has reached the , /
conclusion that their main task is to help the workers' mentality 10 {"adapt" to the conditions of "technical environmenl'. The o ld idea
expressed by Spencer about man adapting to his environment has been
re\lived . Num.erou~ recipes for this kind of "adaptation" have been
lO\lented. SOCiologists and psychologists went off into the pla nt s and
factories to give the employers the benefit of their advice. These
~oc iologists are
engaged in tackling the practical tasks of organising
.

. A.D

Rilchle. S.it"nu lind Po/i'in. London. 1947. JI. ~~ .

'hid. JI.46.

'<0

labour, ami some of their ~fleciric observations are of ""orne ~cien tific
intere\l. However. they ha~e al~o ~pread. among the wOfk.er<; ..the
bourgeoi\ ideology which ..dalm~ that da1~ mtere"t ~an be re(:on(:lled
'th the "right approad . Thu ... Ogburn \ proposltl.on which cou~d
~~come a ~cientifi(.; hridge ultimately I.eading to th.e flgh.t wa~ ha\. In
J the oppo .. ite effe(.;t. leadmg bourgeOiS 50ClOlogl\t\ ever
d"
of
e ff ect. h.IU
farther away from any scientific analy\i\ of the contra IcllOn\
present-day cilpital i ~m.

"SOCIAL CHANGE" INSTEAD

OF PROGRESS

There is good reason why it wa~ Ogburn who ~as am.ong !he flrst~~
our day to attack the ve~y ~~ti~n of progres~ m so~~~itu~~sto~~ocial
c laimed that it was "uhn~Clentlflr'f :;ds~~~~~~~en~/~ny notion about a
c ha nge"- that wa~ to e p expe r tad of soc iety's advance. But the
succession of stage.s of devel,?pre~ n excluding. in effect implies the
conception of "SOCial change .. ar. ftom When Ogburn considers the
progre ssive development of socl~r'soc ial change". there can be no
question of innovatlo~ as a faetor
to expunge from social science
ffort
objection. But we object to ~he e ressive change. for there can be no \
conceptions like progre~s an prog ent without such conceptions.
scie ntific theory of SOC ial :~ve:~p~pponents of the social development
The arguments presente y e
.
f "social change". far from
theory do not h<>.ld w~ter. The ~:en~~~~~~ ~nswer the ques~ion. of v. hat
releasing the SOCJologlsts from d hat this change consists In. In effect
precisely undergoes change .an th~ fact that a change has occurr~d In .a
makes it necessary to est a~h!~so need to decide what this change IS: I.s It
given ph enomenon. There IS l ent 10 which the future belong~. or l"' I~ .a
a sig n of growth of the new: e~ ound to recede into the past. But t IS
'modification of the.old ..~hIC hh~~er he likes it or not, must tadle th~
meanS that the soclolog lS . W formation. tendencies of chang~ an
question about devT"hoP,n:':~~~ething scientific cognition cannot In any
.
. of c hange.
a I
direction.
.
oint of referring to
way aVOid. ents of the theory of progress m,a.ke a p ake the scientists
.. d
h'ch they c 31m, m.
The oppon
.
e and sc ienllflc ata WI..
ocial development. They ~ay
:~I:~~on 'the concept~on o.f prog~~~~~e :as short of fac ls, producedh~t
h ntury ~oclal SC ience,
. e development. w Ie
Ihat 1?~p'I~~ed theory of SlTa~ghtfOrw~rd ~r~~;ei~~I:ontent. has up~et the
overS I
ial sc ience, Imm ense Y TIC
.
ded them.

)f

~~~i~~~l:;:~~~~,;::;,o:,~,~:~o~~'~:ln;~~~~~, t~~~:~~ ,~:';~~'n .~~~

, "kine the agnostIC approac.

Cornie.

"I

" Iimit s to human cognition", Sc ience ha:-. long ... inee gone heyond 'h
.
h
I '
e\t
limit ),. The succ~sses 10 mal ema~u: ... , nllc ~ar phYSKS, chemi\1r
astronomy and biology have lo~g SlOce IInahdated all 1<llk about 1~ '
" limits" 10 h~ma n know le dge 1;l1d down hy the 19th.century agnOMjC'i~
Th e boundaries of human knowledge have abo been broadly extended'
the soc ial scie nces. New and hitherto unknO'kn stages in the develol~
menl of soc iet y have been d iscovered. the history of manl.;ind since t~
Great October Social ist Revolutio n ha\ entereu a new epoch. openingu e
grand p rospect s fo r soc ial development. wh ile the Soviet Union i~

engaged in its successfu l const ruction of communism.

What then are t he dat a allegedly test ifying against the theory of
develo pment ? Modern scie nce
doct rine
I
"iiifiiiiTa nd most
_
i
materialism is
while
S pencer, with their pos itivist schemes of flat
ev olutionism , are t ot ally wro ng. T he developme nt of sc ience and the
gro wth of our knowle dge about the hi st ory of nature and society have ) (
upset the metaphysical sc hemes of developme nt as a gradual accumulation of changes without any leaps o r re t reats.
Many bourgeoi s theo rist s be lieve th at t he emergence of the new marks
a break in the line of develop ment which they see as a straight line
between the two po ints, In stead of g iving up the ir incorrect and limited
notio ns o f development , whic h the positi vist s advocate, they prefer to
discard the very idea of develo p me nt as appl ied to nature and society.
Emile Brehier , a pro minent Fre nc h h isto ria n of p hilosophy, wrote:
'The importance attac hing to th e prob lem o f origin in history was
connected in spirit with Darwin's doc trine of the origin of species .... BUI
this re search into origins appears to have led history to totally
unex pected results ....
"One fin ds different soc ial structures wh ic h have neit her been the
results of ~re c eding ones nor the basis o f subsequent ones, but which
emerged with their o wn spirit and their o wn irreducible individuality; this
has been neither transformatio n, nor metamo rp hosis of one into another
but was rather death and destruction ,". This expresses t he incorrect idea
t ha~ the theory of development does not recognise the emergence in
,oc l e~ y ? f. qualitatively new elem ents " with thei r own spirit, and their
own indiViduality", Having presented the theo ry of develo p ment in this
gro~esque f~r~, Brehier c laims that "social struc tures" ex ist in history
which had neither been the re sult of preced ing o nes nor t he basis of
,uhsequent
ones"
Th IS
' 'd
'
.
.
.
:'
I ea has become very po pu lar wit h many
bourgeOIs hlstonans and sociologish , and Breh ie r h olds it s appearance
to be a most ch~racter~stic mark of the tran sformatio n u ndergone by
present-day phIlosophical thought. Closely con nected with this

E. Brchier, Tr"'uIO,,"lI lion de III philo.",,

. , ans.
.
... W / rIHl(IlUt.
l~

19.~O,

p. I ,9 _

mcl'lphy ... io.;al ..;om:eption are pre~ent-day "tran,formations of

philo,,"ophi..;al thought". claiming that "social ~tructure~" unconnected
with each other exi,t in hi~tory Thi, i'i. a real sign of the degradation of
bourgeois theoretical thought.
To il1u.,trate what he mean\, Brchier cites. for instance, the di<;covery
of the ,ocalled Aegean culture on Crete C2nd millennium B.C.) which
preceded the culture of Ancient Greece: L~t us take a closer look at
these claim .... The,e example~. lR effect. lRdlcate no more than that the
new discoveries in hi.,torical ~cience cannot be understood or explained
in the light of the old flat evolutionism. These examples once again
confirm, the fact that only the Marxist-Leninist doctrine of socioeconomic formations can explain the different ways in which the
slave.holding society took ~hape and how its concrete forms deve.loped.
Actually. the development of slave-holding society which Brehler has
in mind, when dealing with the culture of Crete, has proved 10 be ~ v.e!y
complicated process. and in n~ sense a straigh~fo.r,:"ard o~e. The IRltl31
forms of the slave-holding socIety are more p.f1mltlve, belR~ connected
with a continuation of the land commune. ThIS form was wlde~pr~a~.1n
the Ancient East. and the civilisation of Crete also had such an initIal
form of slave-holding society. At the eady stages, slavery help~~ to
make considerable advance, in building, the arts and the ~rt of wntmg.
The civilisation of rrete was de
ar.banc" trlbe~ who
occupied I e island. Many Western historians speak o~ .a penod of
"Greek Middle Ages", but the analog~ is a purely s~perflclal one. The
h'slor of the early slave-holding society abounds m events when the
I
~ g pockets of slave-holding civilisation were drowned out ~y the
~l~~~g~nr barbaric invasion. At any rate, this kind of referen~e wlll.not
hit
rute the theory of progress. The ancient slave-holdmg society
e ~ ht~e emerged marked a new and higher stage in the development
h
e~e of production based on slave labour. One need me!e.ly recall
w I~
f
h t e m.o t society produced the alphabet. the writings of.Eurlpldes and
h'loso hical works of Aristotle and Eplcurus. Under
t at ancien.
AeSc~ylu~. t'~.~:sl~ve.~old;ng
system nothing of the sort was achiev~d.
1
Crete s pnr: ~i urative arts and some other aspects of slave-~oldlng
alth ough . th, g fair! high level. But the slave-holding despotisms of
culture ~ Id /~:SltOd~d notYreach the state of Greek antiquity. Con.sequentthe Anclen ,.", ""eat was simultaneously a time of preparation for a
Iy,there lah
'
fres h leap forw:;~'r the theory of progress also refer to the MohenjoThe oppone) ulture in Ancie nt India (III -II millennia B.C.). They are
Da~o (Har~f: i~S building techniques and hold forth about the level
dehght~d b thaI culture, But Mohenjo-Daro was also a culture of
re~c~~ve ~ave-holding soc iety, wh ich also fell under the blows. of
pnm1tl. t 'bes and this meant some retardation, but the progressive
~~~~~e;~~:rllf1\lf ~Iave-hoid;ng was not thereby stopped in any way .
~\

_.

)\

There arose the cullure of Ancie nt India. from which rem ark: b
political tractates.yrofound philosophical works and undying lite:a~e
works have come down to ~
y
The breaks in the history of societ r do no t at all s ignify the ab~ence of

advance . On the contrary , an analy sIs of th ese breaks helps li S to ga'

fuller and de~per ~nders(anding of th e dialec tic,s of the histor:~a~
process . That IS precisely what pre sent-day bou rgeoIs t heorists, whoa
captive to the metaphysical way of thinking , refu se to u nderstand re

The fact is that Bn!hier' s examples upset the sc hemes of 'flat

evolutionism and the conceptions of rectilinear de velopment. but not the
scientific theory of progressive social de velopme nt. On the contrary
these examples show very well that progre ss iv e deve lopment goe~
forward within the framework of formation s, a nd that forma tio ns are not
fixed once and for all.
Slave-holding societies which emerged in different hi st orical condi
tions and at different times in the Ancient East. in Gre e c e a nd in Rome
were different. being concrete stages in the dev e lo pm ent of the
slave-holding formation and slave-holding relation s, all resting on a
common basis-the use of slave labour. These were diffe re nt epochs in
the life of slave holding society.
What was Lenin's approach to the conception of histo rical epoch?
First. he urged the need to consider "which class stands at the hubof one
epoch or another. determining its main content , the main di rection of its
development. the main characteristics of the historic al s ituatio n in that
epoch: etc:.6 in the history of Antiquity , which has a ttracted the
attention of bourgeois sociologists, this would of c o urse be the
slave-holding class. But the slave-holding elite in Crete and the
slaveholding democracy of Antiquity characteri se differe nt stages of
maturity of slave-holding relations.
Second, Lenin ,used to stress that "only a knowledge of the basic
features o! a given epoch can serve as the foundation fo r an
u".derstandmg of ,the ~pecific features of one country or another".1 In
thl~ context, Lemn said that a distinction should be made between the
mam features of, different epochs, and that one should not c onfine
onesel! to studymg separate episodes in the history of indi vidual
countnes,
Lenin urged an analysis of "the most outstanding and s triking hi sto rical events ~nly approximately, as milestones in important historical
movements' . Thus , a sClentl
" f 'IC relahon
.
between the conceptions 0 f
l Th e opInion
"
0 f these processes'

I
hid'
' 1
<.e Jeoce will be found in VoL lof winS ave ~ Ina wciety held by So.vie t histonC3
V f L
ell
d'"
orid Hu/ot) , Moscow. 1955 ( m RU 5Man ).
~
. . emn. 0 It wnria, Vol. 21. p_ 14~ .
A V .. I. Lemn . Colltt:lt d Wnrks, Vol, 21
14'
Ih id . p _ 146.
,p.
.1.

'hi ... wril:al event" ,lIld ' hi,wril:al cpol:h' i... c ... tahli~hcd. An hi ... tori.::al
event like thc fall (If Crcte under the on'laught of barharic tribe,
,hould I"H! regarded it' a mile ,wne in a majur hi,toricill movemcnt. Thi ...
eve nt ... howed the intcrnal weaknc, ... of ('ret,1Il 'ocicty, which Wil' un;!I:llc to with ... tand the t'larh;!ric drivc agilin ... t thc ,eilt' tlf ~lavc-holding
civili,ation.
Brehier'\ cxample,> taken from ancient hi~tory merely ~erve to
illu '>t rate thc corrcctnes\ of thc Marxist-Leninist methodological princi
pies in defin ing thc variou,> epoch'>. Bourgeois theorists who reject the
co ncept ion of formation, a key category of scientific soc iology, are
unable to sort out the que~tion of epochs. because outside the context of
formatio ns epoch~ have no meaning at all and cease to demarcate
qualitatively dh tinct stages of important hi~torical movements and to be
milestones o n t he way of the development of formations. Without the
di alec tical development of formations there can be no understanding
either of epoc hs o r of historical event'>. Scientific analysis of social
phenomena in their development ..
a i
the
_~nd ~he
logical. and any- hJpfure of this
[
.
ana the
sCleA~e oChTstory. The "birth and
,of sepa~te ~~ents. ep,oc.h~.
c ultures and civilisations cannot be the subject of SClenhflC analysIs I! It
is assu med beforehand that these are totally isolated phen0n:'-ena which
have no connections either with preceding or subsequent history. Nor
.' ,
will it do to st ri ng out such phenomena in time. .
H ow did Len in :lIlaly\e the ep()("hs in modern history? H e I.denllfled
them as stages in the development of the capitalist formatiOn. ~~e
epoc h _ from 1789 to 187 1- was the epoch of the rise ~f the bo~.rgeol"le
and marked it s total victory. Another epoch opened Ill. 1871. Fr.o~ a
. .
d og"ss,'ve class the bourgeoisie has turned mlO a dechntng.
n smg an pr
.'
h
1
h t' ow on
decade nt. and reactionary class. It IS q~,lte anot e.r c ~ss t a IS n .
the u rade o n a broad historical scale. ~ Thus, hlst.onca\ epoch~ m the
. pg
the logic in the developme nt of fo rmations. They can also,
~t;o~~r~~eS!x p re~ ... the zigzags of hi~tory. since the .development of
f
t"on~ is a dialectical and contradicto ry process wm Ofthe cou rr of )(
or~ a I
ssive.l ces nolY and again s.u!1.e.t. t e Il 3.[)!_?C.,?t s,
whic h the pr.9.s.r.c ann: be-understood o ut side tn e logic of nlstoTical
But these zigzag s c,
de ve\opme n.t.
nature of the bourgeois theoretical approach becomes
Th e. reac t:o nary hen one deals with the definiti on of the presen.t epocn
espeCia lly C ea r w . fh h'o tory of mankind . Anyone taklOg the
\
, ,
o
h'". c hange 10 h e
ot say wh
at determines
the
maIO conten f 0 f
f s
metaph YSIcal a::;~~l~ t~~n;ai~ 'lines of it s dev elop ment. None ~ f them
th e pre sent ~~ld the emergence of the new . and keep regardlOg ~ur
can undebrs~ , merely a "continuation" of the earlier pe riod or some ~lOd
epoc h as emg

x:

!l'

[pid. I'

IJ9,

of i\olated epi~ode in thc hi,tt1ry of man!..in\!. Thosc who co l'

stubbornly to insisnhat the rresent eror.::h i, :111 erOt~ of impCri;lli\~I~~~
proletarian revolutlo? thereby .h\Crl. Ihal Imren;lh'm. \!~termine\ th
main conle~1 of our lIm e. But the facl 1\ Ih'lt a world 'ocmh,t 'Y\lem ha~
been eSlabhshed and has been d,evcloplOg., 11, dev~lopment docs nOI at
all take ~lace because of the e\I'tenc~ or l~pcn~lh,m. fl.?r ~I Creales ii,
own basIs and develop.~ on thai t'I;1\I\. Th.1I t'le1Og '0, If IS no lOng
pos s ibl~ to .hold t.hat,lh e ?ourgeoisie is at the c~nter,of Ihe epoch a~~
determ10es It,S m.a1O dlrecllon ..The cla\\ struggle IS a ~Ign of the growing
might, organisation and consclOu 'nes~ of t he pro letariat and all the olhe
working people. In the presence o f the world socialist system, the clas~
struggle bet ween labour and capital is influenced by the growing strength
and solidity of the developing new society. The working people's
strength is multiplied as time goes a nd their struggle against their
oppressors takes on a new qual ity because the working class and a/l the
other working people now have a n organised stal e which relics On an
economy independent o f capita li sm , Thi s provides the working people
with totally new in struments for pUlling pressure on the exploiters and
gives socialism a prepondera nce over the forces of capitalism. A truly
scientific view of the epoch ca nnot be stat ic; it is dynamic. being
connected with an analysis of historica l movements, mOlive forces and
tendencies in social development.
Lenin set out his doctrine of hi storical epochs in application to the
history of capitalism, But it is also equally appl icable to earlier
antagonistic formations, Only with respect to the primitive communal
formation. when classes did not yet exist, are historical epochs
determined directly by production and com pletely coincide with the
stages in the development of production . to which the development of
primitive social relations also corresponds. Such, in short, are [he
conclusions drawn by Marxist sociology about hist orical epochs as
~tages in the development of formation s. Here , bourgeois soc iologists
are totally confused, because historical epoch s and the scale and nature
of hist~rical events can be determined only within the framework of
formatIOns, as the only basis for bringing out the spec ific features in the
de~elopm~nt o~ in?ividual cOuntries and the meaning of separate
episodes 111 their history. Bourgeois sociologists have discarded the
conception of formation, and that is why they find historical events and
epoch~ falling apart in their hand s like a hou se of cards. They keep
shuffllllg. these cards at will, labelling them with pseudo-sc ientific names
and ~oldlllg forth about their sudden birth and unexpected death.
Thi S approach naturally carries the scienti!>t!> from flat evolutionism to
aband~nment of the very notiOn of development. Bourgeois theorists
have d!scarded. the. key categories or historical sc ience, thereby dooming
II to bh~d groplllg lIlt.he chaos of events and epochs, and have drawn the
conclUSIOn that any Idea of development is defec tive as such , French
,~~

\o~iologi'l Eril: Daniel .. aid that the "ilIu'ion~ have burned down in the

name, of rcality",'" u\ing the word "ilJu\ions" to designate all Ihe

\oc;0108ical theoriC1 whi(.;h, even if in idealistic form. recogni~ed the
development of the hi~tory of society, including the theorie\ of progre~,
adViln(:ed by thc 18th-<:entury Enlightener~. Hegel\ philosophy of
hi~tory, etc.
But actually it wa~ only the idealistic theories, the libcral-positivi~t
schemes or development Ihat were burned in Ihe "flames of reality",
while the weapons of dialectical materialism have been tempered in
thesc purifying flames.
That is the point at which bourgeois theorists began to put the most
diverse and unexpected interpretation on the conception of "social
c hange", seeking to deprive it of any positive content. They used the
conception to reach the conclusion Ihat it was not right at all to use
expressions like "mankind's progressive development" or "evolution in
world history" , but only "long-term change". Social life tended .to
change, bourgeois sociologists said. but it was impossiblc to say whIch
way such change took.
The conception of "social change" was used to fragment the coherent
historical process into separate proccsscs of :'c.h.ang.e". while hi~t~ry
began duly to break up into indcpendent. cl~lhs.atlO~s or soclel.les
genetically disconnected from each o~her, ~0(:1~1 hf~ In thiSor ~~at penod
being cut aparl into separate sphercs 111 whld SOCial changes also took
part almost without any connection with each other. The only bond thaI
was recognised in this chaos of processcs was ~he huma.n psyche, ~n
wh ich relations between men wcrc based. bul thIS ~ond dId nOI explall1
anything in the objective process. Co~ere.nt world hl~to~y.law-governed
stages of (:hange in social being, ob}e<:tlve stages 111 Its development,
pre vailing tendencies in various soc131 changes at every one of the~e
sta es have all disappeared, In this wa~, t~~ pr~sen~-day bourgeOIS
hifoso h of history has broken with sClenhflc hlstoncal k~o~ledge.
~a ing ~e;lrOyed the living bond of social phenomena both wlthm eac.h
his~orical epoch and in the succession of epochs. Present-da.y bourreo~~
.
h'ch wants nothing to do with any concepllOns 0 t
~~~II~!~~~y :f IhislOry. actually finds itself closely conne<:ted with such

co~:p%~s~' characteristic

aspect of this philosophy. of histo~r is .th~

of any conception of concrete stages m. the Isto~l~a
abse nce
t f society and of any conception of the socl3l whole .uOltm~
developmen
0
_ " I_, e. Tho ,9th-century positivists beheved. II,
0 , sOCia
. us aspects
h
t e vllrlO
has'se in their own way, the existence of a socia
b
10h
', "'dcee~~~~~gtft
~~~e II~ e~olving "organism". Bourgeois sociology in
woe
,
10 E, t)ardeJ . L 'HiS/f)in: 5cit",~ du ,on('rtl, Paris. 1946. p. 6.

the 10l,h c~ nlury has d isc<lr~ed ,Ihi:, un .. cientific notion of ... ociel}, <1\'
"orgamsm . but together wllh It. It hil'" rejected IHlt only Ihc n r an
..oe ial de velop ment hu t :lbo t he m>lion of the "'01.:;,,1 \\lholc reo, 1,~n.Of
'
rcatln,
. f"
ev en f af! he r a way f rom any ~r.:len l l Ie nI..lt lon of \ocicly.

UOL' RG EOIS CO ~CE PTt ONS

OF CtVILlSATION AND CULTURE

But in analy sing concret e historical da ta. prc:-.ent-day bourg, 015

.
. 1ogy c annot hi
. WIth t h e c_?~cepl1ons

c. p ope ra tl~)g
of the ~ocial whole l 1
\ OC IO
_and o f c onc ~~t ~ ~,mt~. ~~ at .IS wh y.:"cst crn sociologIst s ~ecp juggling
t e r~ ~ like cl vlh satlOn,' c ult ure , etc. In pr.esent -day bourgeois
SOCiOlogy th ese te rms have lost all conc re te meamng and have become
mere clic he s . Behind them there i::. not hing except a vague notion of
~ om c unity of \'ario us as pec ts of <;oc ia l relat ions in this o r that hi storical
period and within som e ethnic fr a mework . The fac t th at these term s are
being juggle d merely sho ws that th e alt e rn ation of various "cultures',
"ci\'ilisation s" or " soc ieties" ca nnQt be elimin ated from. the hislorical )\
proce ~s . Th~r e is no evading the vast a rray of fact~ accumulated by
hI stOric al sC Ience . But if o ne turns a blind eye on production. the key
<;phere of human activ ity. if the mode o f p roduction, a cardinal
conception . is eliminated from historical scie nce, if t he q uantitative and
qualitative growth of the produc ti ve powe r o f hu man labour and the
c hange of social relations are ignored. the hi storical p roce.&do~~_.
mdeed , become a chaotic alternatio n of "ci vili sations" "cultures" or
t ~ocietie s " .
- -- -"". -.
.
-

'f

But how are these alternating pe riods, whic h

I
each other to be defined. what is "civili sation " a nd

an
iii
I
ito
.
. i the ,phere of politic al a nd jurid ical develop
men!. Pre sent-day bou rgeoi s sociologist s e ither use these conceptions as
eqUivalent or contrast them, by invest ing " c ulture" wit h a spiritual
co~tent a~d "civilisati.on' with material c ontent. Be that as it may, it is
~~~~ obvIOUS t~at ~:Ither the conception of "culture" no r of "civ ilisac an be sCientifICally tenable unless they a rc based o n a study of
~~r~~r~teBsoc~o-~conomic formati~n s . I have alread y c it ed. in charac
. g. rehler " stand. examples of the use of "c ulture" to designate
the <,octe\les of Crete (lnd M h . D

.
of "culture:' and" . .. . 0 .~nJo.- <~ro . In Ih ls , ense, th e conceptIOnS
.
CIVIlisation COinCide with th e c onc ret e stages and
~~i~C~~~t~~~~hdeev~lopment of t~e slave-ho!ding formati o n . But outside
tio ns. which at YbeOsedal1 meanm~ . bec ommg empty idea li st ic abst ~aCcal
d st 0 not advanc e. our knowle dge of the histon
roce<;s at all
..
, an at worst retard !oc lence
P

The prominent ~S ph.ilo\ophcr and ,oc iologi~1 F S. Northrop .

reali,ing that II 1\ Impo\\lhle to do without the conception of ..oejal
whole. ha ... con..,tructed a peculiar conception of "cultural political
un;t~". which he ~ay\ are created by ideas. concept\> and assumption ...
Culture i.., ha ... ed on a complex of " the basic concepts and a~sumplion ..
agreed upon by ih people for organi.,ing the data of their experience and
ordering their relation to nature and to one another"." Northrop hold ..
that the "concepb and 3swmptions" determine the relation of one
people or another to nature and to other peoples. He has lost sight of
production, human labour which conquers nature and social relations,
wh ich ari~e in the prOcess of production. Nothing but ideas remain.
But even ideas are treated idealistically: they "organise the data of
experience". Consequently, there is no question of whether ideas give a
correct or incorrect reflection of objective reality and whether,
depending on this, they are capable or incapable of playing a progressive
role in the history of society and of directing human activity along the
right or wrong lines. No wonder Northrop ultimately reduces ideas.
wh ich "organise the data of experience" to religious notions or to
idealistic philosophical trends which determine this or that "cultural

po litical unit".

to Northrop. the British

.
peculiar
.
.
. ..
tic phenomenon of religiouS life in Bntain. while empmClsm IS
c haracteristic of British philosophy, but why should the<;e two
phenomena in Britain's spiritual life, taken out of the general conte:>.t.
determine the whole "cultural political unit(? Northrop appare.ntly
seems to realise that such "definitions" are flimsy an~ so adds vano~s
other features of social life in Britain. which are Just as arbltra~lly
pic ked, designat ing these as the "bas;c e1eme~ts" of ,CUlture: clas:<lcal
education, British law and the Royal Fam.lly. This ad~s up, to ~
hod e-podge of '"elements" which defy I~glc .. For all hiS ~rbltrary
idea1i stiC approach. Hegel did succeed m hIS Phll?sophy of HlsfOry to
di scern the movement of the material world behtnd I ~e movement of
ideas. Present-day idealism. whic h has abandone.d t~e .. dea of development . has doomed th e sociologists to total subjectIVIsm and extreme
arbitra riness in dealing .w it h. social. phen~men~.
.
Some bourgeois SOCiologists allied With SemantIC ph ilosophy have
be
gone even farther, and have declared
ap pears,
.

,c"t."
" tv'
.... . A

" F. S. Northrop. 111e ,u"''''.~''

'''I~rn'''i''''U/ Po/icy, Nt'" York. 19~4. p.

~.

.lIuJ, 01 the ell/II""/ Btllt"' ,./

(he game of poker. Everyone acr.::eptinl! thC"l' rule, j .. ilHied in

r.:ommon culture. Of course. the advoci.le~ of \uch theorie\ cannot ~
why men have "agreed" to ob~er\'e the~e ru le ... in the "game of lif," \a~

,and
nol. \ome other set.
Here again. Ihe~ hav~ n~1 gone. heyond defining Ihe "spirit of the

times" on the basls of mdlcl.a Wh.'Ch ha ve bee~ altogether arhitraril~

\elected. Thus. the Dutch \oelologl51 Landh eer. In a book analYSing Ih

relationship between "consciousnes~ and society", suggests the follow~

ing \ucCeSSi~lO of cultures in the West: I. 400-1500. Medi~v~l SOciety.
Ascetic penod; II . 1500-1850. New Era . Early hedonlSllc periodIII. 18~O-1914. Modern period. Hedo ni stic period . Period of Jndi:

~'jdualislic capitalism. I V. 1914-1939_ Late-modern period . Late hedonis.

tic period. Period of strong class confl ict. V. Present structure of

We~tern society. Neo-stoic period seeking of new equilibrium.ll
Con~equently. the epoc~s in the histo.r~ of W est E~ropean cullu~e.are
marked by a succesSion of ascetiCism , hedOni sm and slolclsm.
Satural1y, the author could hardly have s ucceeded in his altempls 10
force-fit into such a scheme the whole of c ultural development. including
economic doctrines , and the urge to subordinate even the development
of the cia,s struggle to an arbilrary succession of "lead ing ideas"
Artificial sociological schemes run into contradiction with the vast
amount of data accumulated by soc ial science. Today Ihe scient iSis find
an unparalleled di ... ersity of cultures, together with hilherto unknown
cullural interactions. Thor Heyerdahl. ,ailing on his raft across the ocean
and leading an expedition to Ea ster Island, brought back interesting
material on an ancient culture apparently a llied with America. OUT
knowledge of the culture of the Maya in America is becoming deeper and
more distinct. Sew data on the medieval and ancient cultu re of the
people~ of Africa ha ... e been brought to light. Remarkable monuments of
an dating bad. to the Stone Age have been discovered in the Sahara. In
the pa'it 30-40 years, our knowledge of the history of world culture has
!:Ieen markedly enlarged, giving rbe to new problem s which require
,>olution and to qUe"ion,> about the hi~torical connec tio ns a nd interaction~ of people. But the ,ubjecljve-ideali~t method makes it impossible
to lac kle all these problems.
The de ... elopment of culture tOday presents an even grander picture.
The majestic edifice of Socialist culture is being erected. The national
cullur~ s of the peoples which have thrown off the yoke of colonialism
are being created and developed. Many apologists of capitali sm now also
have no doubt.tha~ bourgeOis culture is plunged in the most profound
crisis. The SCientist ha~ to identify Ihe tendencies in the cultural

..

enl of pre~enlday mankind. but being fettered by Ihe dogma\

dev~e~~i~m. he cannot tell U\ anyt.hing convincing. Indeed: wh.at can one
of' h ut culture if one ignores 11$ earlhly roots, It~ socml nature. and
,ay a o. "'1, 'lnd contradictory process of mankind's cultural developthe mtnc...
, delermined by .
. b , 0 ne can per h,p\ make a
'ch
is
It\
~oclal emg
h,
I
men w
.
f W observa lion~ and nolhmg more,
.
. I
e The conception of "civilisation". which pre~~nt:day .bourgeo.ls SOCIO o
h
'1l"ngly accepted i~ ,hot through With Ideahsm and IS. [or th~t
gy as \Oa~~o;u telY un~cie~tif'c, When operating wit.h it. bourgeOIs
re~,o~. t ' sually take some concrete historical state entity, hke Egyp.t or
SC lentlS i~ uthe anci~nl world. the Western RO.man .Em~ire or Byzanll~~
I

~r~~~e ~edieval

epoch,

et~. ~~I~;i~~o:~e~o~~~:o~~:I~s~~rOo:~ l~h~r~~~'~o

economic. nature o,!c~~fli~~~i~ns" they lake 50me arbitrary combinations

characteTise these
h
rl" I and ideological superstructure. The
of the features of t e po, Ica.
lared to be the Slart of a
emergence of thi~ or that. ~tate ,~ /~~ate to be the "death of that
"c ivili salion", and the. decl.me.of tha'
to draw a line between the
\
p
ble
civili sation". Here It ... qUlle ,m o,.s51 . "The West German DiC/io.
of "culture" and "C,VI Isa1Ion
the
conceptions
. ff I make a distinction between
lIary of Sodology does not. In e ec.
terms of civi1i~at ion and culture."
b. d,r context thUS. "Western
.,
,dm,much roa
. ~
The term " a so u~
.'
nd ca Italist Europe and sometime,
civilisation" means bOI.h med,ev~f:en Ihi: conception is contrasted With
even the age of anllqUity. Very
f b Ih these conceplions is usuaU.y
.,. . .. The content 0 0
. 'Ih h"
"Eastern CiVl lsatlon
.
.
h'l so her is free to invest It
ve r vague. and every Id~alist p lOP the cont rast in an effort to
meaning. The
this unscientific lermin?logy
downgrade the peoples of the h' ntrast the "culture of the East and
is also used by other theoTl:.h w oco t" bourgeoiS nationalism {or the
the "culture of the West", by subslltu 109
. .. . .. to mean. Eurof
class approac h .
.
ld "Western Clvlhsatlon
Liberal.minded IheoTlS~s ho r ' I and cultural tradilions. ~hleflY 0
ean bourgeois-democra.llC. po Il lca t was recently made to mtroduce
ihc 18th and 19th.cen.tu.r~es .. A~,a~t~;~cientific usage on the plea Ihat
h
"AtlantiC CIVilisation m
d that Iheir culture was
t e te.rm had been sell led by Europ~ans ~'~'cal and ideological terms

)1

w,

ow~

cOloOlahS~a~t;~~~~.

:u~~;~c,~entIY closely alli~~~~ t~~~~~~~C~~~I~~. bul the int~~d~~i:snl~::r

with
lerm

EUrO~\S'~ Cs~~!~'an urge to dislinguish.these ti~! ~r~ls"

o~ thiS I.n ular in order

to trace in h,st.oTY. I

known a~

of < the
NATO.

u;:~~n;~d::~:~itary'-political bloc ?;~~~~o~~:~~~a~~;ng abandoned the

p Many facts show that bourgeOi
I'

. J"lilt.
. S,uuprt
19~~, S. 637.
Wbrltrltuclt dtr S ..:,(I

""

l( arbltranly
id~~
studying I~e mat,erial hasi,s of =\(~,ci.al .uk. -'l~Y_~ heen quite
constructmg their
of
and
of, _

~oncepllOn'

..
~" lh sallOn

1o i~ aware of the (;I\l~e interpenetration of Ihe Judean culture with

W~HI of Egypt ano Hahylon. ;mo knnws how diffi(;ult it i~ to under~tano
Ih 'L (;olturc of Ancient Per~ia without .. study of the culture of Babylon
t ~ A~~yria, Where i~ the watershed hetween these cultures? Further.
'"h'l Ihc Wc~tern "third ~t ..ge"" h that Ihe period of Charlemagne.
W.LI'
, of t h
' C ommun.e" It 1\
hT 11 of Spain and al~o the penod
e Pans
~ I ~~ible to an~wer these que~lion~, Concrete history does n~t fLt at al~
:~t~ this artific~al ~~heme. 11 i\ quite impos\ible to support thLs kmd 0
d'vision with hl~toncal facts,
.
- f
IS
d why do these civi1isation~ develop. what IS the mOtive orce
dec~n iu' of the development" Why does the first stage gIVe, w,ay ',0
~~e sS:~~~d. ~nd that in turn to Ihe third? The three "spheres" e,xLstl~~~~

"Culture"

with political motives becommg the only ba~l\ for such con'tru(tio
'
'
"',
and for the inventIOn
of empty a b stractron,
Wh'Ie h ;lre of no scientific
value at all.
A group of West German bOUrgeois sociologists. whose recogni$Cd
leader for many years was Alfred Weber (1868-1958), scem to have
realised the arbitrary manipulations of the terms "civilisation" and
"culture" and did much to put the study of both spheres in modern
bourgeois sociology "in order". As a result of numerous "amendments"
and "explanations" they produced a fairly invol ved sociological scheme
according to which the individual civilisations fitted int o a "general
stream", while a kind of Struclure supporting the diversity of social
phenomena stood out within each civilisation. Th e architects of this
system hinted that
with Marxi srn,.~~

5Oo:;;;;;';d '>orne
on their head to suil

)(
;m,

conceptions.
Weber's followers find three "Iayers" of phenomena or a combination
of three "social processes" in each civilisation. The first process is a
tcchnico-civiiising one, which includes production: Ihe second is a social
one and creates a definite social structure of soc iety ; and the third is a
cuhural movement. One will easily find some Marxist ideas in this
scheme. but "amended" by means of bourgeois soc iology. However. as a
result of this "amendment" the meaning of the Marxist theory has been
altogether distorted. The three "spheres" develop independently. but
influence each other. determine each other, "coincide" in their
development or do not "coincide" but do not have a Common basis in
rocial being. Idealism has been salvaged, but sociological thought has
run into another dead end. even farther away from the sc ientific view of
the historical process.
First. the scientific criterion for idenlifying definite stages in the
historical process disappears. Sociologists of this school present this
picture of the world historical process; Egyptian-Babylonian civilisation
as the "first stage"; Persian-Judean and antique civilisation-the
"seCond stage": Byzantine-Slavonic-Oriental Islamic and Western
civilisatio~--:-Ihe "third stage"; in the offing a "fourth siage". with
~ome ternfymg features borrowed from the Apocalypse. Such sc hem es
are. naturally. empty of content and arbitrary in construction. One may
well ask where, for ~nstance, is the end of the "first stage"? Doe s Egypt
pr.esenl a new "Pers.'an-Judean" stage after the Persian conquest. or is il
~tll~ ,at .Ihe "Egyptian-Babylonian" stage? Why did "Persian-Judean"
c,v,!tsattOn al ~1I b~come a separate and independent stage despite the
facl that any h,storlan who has a knowledge of the culture of the ancient

is

e~~~u~it~~~S~~i~:,e:~~a;~enr~tl~~~:~s~~c;r~~~c~~:'~:;~~;~ ~j~~~:I:~~
~OCiOIOgist
h left wit~ no ~t,,~.er'~'dtetron~~i~:t~t~~~ ~~ ~~~:I~~tti~ ~~;ment for
God". 10 the "collectIVe WI . "

actual soc ial relations.

'I 'Sl~' "amendments" did nothing t,o
Thus. the West German,\~cloogl. 'I
which dislortsthe histoTl'
improve the defective ide~~I~tlc melh~:'~{h bring Oul in even greater
cal process. All these are subst~lule I utriment in the capitalist West.
relief Ihe absence of any real S~lTIt~a n ssible arbitrarily 10 divide the
This kind of methodology makes ,It. ,po : c structuring a "~Iage of
. to separate CI\'llsaILon".
. h h' I
historical process. I~_.
. . 'Iar artificial slages lilt e, LS ory
Persian-Judea~" clvlhsatl?n ~r ~~y ~~~:ent Egypt. Babylon, ~erslaan~ a
of soc iety. "Without notlclllg t d'it h slave-holding formallon With all
number of other state~ ~e,longe 10 t e
its regularities and speCifiC fe:'~'~~\he historical process into ~epara~e
Despite all the all~mpt.s 10 I. I
d history conlinues to he a c~aollc
onsistent stages arbltran ly deSignate ' .
I L
)(
~gglOm~ratiOn of civilisallOns

)~

h'ch he tried 10 consider

I ar ~ork. ProgrtSS alld CataSlrop~~. ~:s~n~ of peoples and states.
prew.
e eriods of world hlslo~y. ,e
the historical prOcess, He
the separat /
to discover the umf?r,mlty of f civilisation. a peculiar )
without see mgociety only as a definite type 0 d' world history as a
regards every Sb the given people, He regar s
way travelled Yerimental civili sallons.l~
. ent in which the
laboratory of e.x,~t culture wa~ a pec uhar exhPenm"periment W:h the
Egypt'S anCI
'
I to play Anot er .
h' I
had
Ihe
leadmg
ro
e
,
."
sia
Minor:
ih
arc
It ec,~
Y
aristOCrac d 'v ili sation of the HlttLteS of ~ d which is why theLr
cullllre an CI
d concentrated on the an .
d the ~ea an
ignore
t ndon lq,~
.

L ,

Pro~'tH u/III Cuw"rul'h ..o

.. S c ...on.

,-

1-fIJ

civilisation was destroyed by the invasion llf ,c;lfilring (lcoptC\ . R

contrast. the civilisation of Ancient Crete was maritime, bUllhe time fo~
such an experiment had not yet come. nnd \ll thai siale was unable I
withstand the invasion of its. enemi('~,. h~cau,e it ha~ ~hown scan~
concern for its defences. Thai I ~ Casson ~ hne of rCasllnlOg. nee,luse he
regards world history as someth ing li~e a collection of exhibits. The
substance of these views was summed up by the prominent Brithh

historian Profes sor Gooch . who wrote : "Each ci\' ilisation makes its OWn
experiences. and is subject to the processes of growth and decay. Here
agajn there is ... but a series of errorts. of va rying degrees of significance
and success . If the past is to be our guide. we can expect nothing mOre
(

Ihan a continuation of this sequence of experiments." Il

Thus. world history becomes a di sorderly accumulation of d iverse and
uh.imately futile experiments. Thai is a philosophy o f history produced
by men who see no prospects for the future and who have losl Ariadne's
thread which could help them to get out of the
However, the)
"uperiment" theory

socw

,.

.of theory was of no use in

fighting Marxism-Leninism , which had discovered the most profound
IawdJoveming lhe development arid decline of the ancient world and
leu
sm, and the forthcoming debacle of capitalism.

decline, seeking to ~resent a, sc~e,m, 'mo~dt~e

to decline. a YPIC

\ .~~

REVIVAL OF THE "CYCLIC THEORY"

But perhaps there was a theory that said something about the
destructio!' of "society" for internal reasons, under the shock of a most
acute SOCial struggle, but one that did not suggest the conclusion that
capitalism was bound inevitably to give way to socialism? Such a theory
was .found. I~ was an expression of the old urge to prodUce a philosophy
of history Without a future, and to
the historical process as the
~nd downfall of
"SOCieties" or "civilisations". It
There is
a circle and exists only
tfie bounds
passing through definite stages, but
o~ce ~t has reach~ il~ zenit~ returns to its starting point. Many
hlst~rJ~ns and socIOI08lSlS claimed that the epochs of feudali sm and
capitalism had already been passed in the ancient world, and that after
the downfall of the Roman Empire in the Middle Ages SOciety did not
ent~r a new phase . but merely started out on the same path all over
agam,

r~ G. P

Gooch. "Some Conceplions of Hiuory", l'htSOdologiroIRt,.it.... Vol XXXI.

No. 3. July 1939. p 244

Many hourKcoi~ hi,torian<; today. while not ~etting out thi .. kind of
conception a<; a whole. ~till .. tart from it\ aS$umption in their writings,
!>{Heading the '~theory uf. the cyclic movement"' in ih variou, elements.
~eeking 10 hahltuilte their reader .. to It
Thai i~ the attitude taken by SOme pre~ent-day hi,lorian'i, who in\i\t
that an "ancient ari,tocracy" and a "new bourgeoi,ie" exi~ted in Ancient
Egypt roughly in the third millennium B.C. Their method for ~omparing
different historical epoch~ includes superficial analogies which do not
penetrate to Ihe 'iubstance Of. pheno.mena. and rre.quen~ly e~en
downright aucmpts to \tretch vaTlou~ pomts. Such theone .. make wl~e
use of the comparative method in order to declare that <;oclal
development is a mere repetition of the past, so as to convmce the reader
that throughout its hi~lory mankind has never gone beyond .th~
boundaries of feudalism and capitalism .. Th.ese a~e "etemal.categon.es
of social development: a rejection of capltahsm ':"'111 merely carry society
to barbarism, which in turn will lead to feudalism. .
..
The cyclic theory was elaborated in greatest detail by t~e Br~tlsh
Professor A mold Toynbee,f6 whose chief work in ten volumes IS entitled
A Study 0/ History (1934.1955),
d
He starts from the idea that every civilisation goes through growth h~n h

'v
1\

~~

~~~~ss f~~ g~~t~~'c~ti~Cs,

i
,
.
the growmg
., .
'
.
with the old social relations It IS time ~or social, f
.
.
I,
. f
f n and a new and higher leve 0
.
givlOg nse to a ne.... orma Ifd l"k to find a "substitute" for Ihls
developmen~. TO,ynbee wou. ~t social development. He claims to
scientific, dialectical conc~ptl~n
according to which society goes
eory
have found it in the cy~hc I h
., A' the first stage, it consists of
. ,t"Des 10 eac cyc e.
. ' , ..
through twO
maIO
"b
"
, ' " ' , , , " an "uncreative majority
.
h
rts' "creative mlOO,
'h
the followlOg tree p,a , :
, . " Toynbee says that for Ihls or t at
and "surrounding pnmltlveeSOC~~~~ ~nd developing civilisation should
society to be a ~ucc~ss :~ati~ns bel ween these three component parts,
attain perfe~lly Idylhc r rid
eople's class struggle a.nd th~ str~~l~
re lations ruhng out the
In~h~ ideal case, the "creative mlnontl~s
of the oppressed peop es.
I
d do not clash with ''Uncreative
rk for the welfare of the peop e an d'
"barbaric tribes" are just
wo " Their relations with the su rrou n 109

mass.
as idyllic.

to

Crisis in de\'elo ping civili sation . ,ay, Toyntoec, i~ connected with th

change in their ideal re lation ~. FirsL the. "~~eati \:e minoritie," leave
scene. giving way to a "dommant minority. w.h lch pursues a policy of
violence with res pect to the rn a.,.,. A spht de\'elops within the
"uncreative mass" and this lead s to the form.lIion of an "internal
proletariat", Second. becau se of the differe nt pol icy pursued by the

th:

"dominant minority" with re spec t to the surrou nding uncivilised peoples.

the laller become an "external prolet ariat ", As a res ult of conquesl. this
"external proletariat" frequently become s an "interna l proletariaf',
There follows a fatal "rift of the so c ial unity", an d thi s means its decline
and breakdown.
.Toynbees cycle convey s some outward fe atures o f th e collapse of
antique society. and hints at the pre se nt le vel in the d evelopment of
capitalism. But the actual content of the hi storical process has been ,, (
emasculated and the socio-econofT!k ba sis o f soc ie ty 's developm.ent is
completely ignorea. I hi s IS the metaph ysica l t!leory of development
stripped of its covers. The starting point is peace a nd ha rmony: the
struggle of opposites is evil. and lead s soc iety to d ec line instead of
progress.
Present-day capitalism is the second stage in Toyn bee's historical
cycle. Thus. he admits that in capitali st society a minorit y rules the
majority. But his theory does not at all envisage any ra dical econom ic,
social or political reconstruction of bourgeois so c iet y. He bel ieves
capitalism to be natural. so that any attempt s b y the pro letariat to c hange
it is a threat to civilisation.
Toynbee has structured a period of "idyllic" relation s be t ween the
oppressors and the oppressed , and insist s that one can return to this
idyll, which has never existed, by retaining the exploitati ve system,
To achieve this aim he calls on religion and Chri stianity to he lp capita- Y
lism.
/\
Toynbee holds that if modern capitalism relies on Chri stianity it will be
,
li y ."
complete
~, He writes
if
Christianity was able to "create a unity" between
white s lave-owner
and the black slave in America in the 18th and 19th centuries it is t o be
h~~e? that Christianity will be able to "heal" modern capitali s'm from it s
diVISions and t~e str:uggle of the exploited against the exploiters . He
a ss ~m~s that \0 thiS way "Weslern civilisation"-a s he c alls the
c apl.tall st worl~, in contrast to the ancient civilisations - will be ab le to
avoid destructIOn an,d eliminate the division of the social whole and the
class strugg~e, despite the threatening symptoms of decline . The US
Ti~e magazlO~ played up Toynbee' s "merits" in this s phere a nd o ne of
ItS
Toynbee
' s portrait with the ,' ub'lI an I'IO scnp
: IIo n .. " Ou,
" Issues
I. .carned
.
.
' d Ih at " A
CIVI Isatlon 'IS not mexorably doomed"
. The au Ih ors c Ialme
S rud y 0 f HIStory was the most provocative work of historical theory

J\

)\

"'"

\Hittcn in England ... in~l" Karl "'"p.-s Capilli" 'But Toyn!x:t:! ... tht:!oq
wa" \0 full of holes and rode .. o rough~hod over the historical fact~ that.
despite hi., good intention .. , it evoked a flood of obje~tion .. from
bou rgeoi .. historian .. and won hardly any advocates. The author'..,
intention., are welcomed. but his theory is ~carce1y applied.
One of Toynbee's few follower .. is Professor Wright. who ,a~~ that
each civilisation ~tarts with a "heroic age". then follows a penod of
conflict s between variou., movemenh. arising in the "heroic age". The
period of sharpened c?nflict corre~p.onds to Toynb~.e s "disintegration of
the social un it y" and IS called the' time of troubles . a term borrowed toy
British and American hi~torians from Russian history in the ear~y 17th
century. and is appl ied to Ancient Egypt and 10 vari.ous other pe r.lOds of
mo dern history. The .. time of troubles" starts when iOlernal con.fhct ~ ar.e
set in motion. civ il strife begins and economic ,u.ph.eavals am~. T~ls
period gives way to a period of re-established eqUlhb.num. con~~!ldatIOn
of the state and its expansion. a sta.s.e ~oyn~ee did not prOVide f~r.
However . the period in which eqUlhbnum IS rest~red als~ ~a~ It~
negative side because it is marked by a suppression .o~ 1~~I\I~Uf
freedom and a narrowing down of local autonomy. Wh.IC, U tlma e y
leads to a decline of society. Among the upper classes thiS IS e'(tes.sel~
in a seclusion in art. and among the "internal and e;..te~n~lror~t~TI~he
'n the establish ment of a new religion. The ".n~'." s';"Cl3 I ea 1\
~arbing~r of a new cycle. giv ing ris~ t~oan~:Wti~I~I~:~~~I~ a:nd :t~:;p\U~~
o f the spiral of d~v~IO?men~ T~~unismP Nor is Wright alone in time
compa re early ChrlStmnlt y .an ~o ld Laski wrote about thi .. at greiner
to do this. A Labour th.con st. aro
t tOdo history. such theorist s
length , But for all t ~e vlolen.ce th~y ~,~~ ~mmunism to the level of the
will never succeed iO T~dUC iOg ~~ Ie; .~ effect heralded the decline of th e
visions and dreams of ,"vdes 'I"'! IC,"d' "IS substitution by the serf system.
mode 0 r prO uc Ion ..
h '
slave- h0 Id Ing
I lh ' po litical intentions and shoW u p I CIT
These attem pt s mere ly revea en
theo retical helplessnes,s, ' T
be's is an ov ersimpl ification of the
' h '
c herne h e oy n e .
. r
I'
W fig t s s ,
.
r akdow n of the antique slave-holdi ng orma Ion
process o f dec hnea nd b e. r odern capitalism . Because both Greek
'
.
h '
os
me as pects 0 m
n Middle Ages had thelT ow n er.olc e? '
and a lso 0 r so
antiquit y and the ~uropea
.ods a vague stage of " the herOIC age. IS
whic h describes t~~~;~rlX:e~r~ink 'u p with the pe riod of capit~lism lIl.a
constructed; ~~e . I "e . h be an with a " heroic age" an? IS now III
com mo n "c l vlhsa~ol~d' whlC, e s guilt up in the capit alist period SUgg~st
dec line. The ~orl W I e ehm~l~he Roman Empire. The overall conc lU Sion
an analogy With the epoc 0

.' runt. \'01 . 49 . No. 11. \\;\rch 17. 1947. p. !9.

_YIn
from this scheme is thai
wiD once 'pin follow "barbarism".

~yonJ Ih~' !'fe\enl "ci'ili~'tt"

"

. IOn there
'lite Toynbce-Wright schemes me intoll'rahle o\'cr'implif" _
~. aI process, an d t he prol'
.,em tl f repclltlOll
. . hccomes in'
K.tIIO"
_ b'Istone:
I 0f
Nor can they find refuge in references 10 the f:leltha! there is' no:~ U?le.
pUb ill history and that the old schemes of rectilinear devel0pment~"ght
been upset by the facts.
aVe
Marxists are well aware that there is no straight and narrow path'
history and that the course of history is tortuous and COntradicto 10
"History is moving in zigzags and by roundabout ways." IR But it is ry.
nol
_
to dnw any conclusion from this that there is no historical pro,r

.~.

reCI)~rllt iun of

e.

Of coone, various civilisations and societies did exist in hisla

M"b processes ran their course, but each such process Created so~~
and social prerequisites (or the emergence of the fOllowing One
wIIicb the lan~ w<!uld have be~n impossible, Once history i~
0DCe the histoncal process IS broken up into separate and
the very possibility of scientific cognition of history

,incvilah1e ')uccC:S!\ive ~tage'i of development. It is this idea

of the \UCcc ...... lon of \Iage\ of developmenl that the bourgeois theorists
like lea ... 1 of all, oecau'e it ultimately sugge<,ts the conclusion that
capitali<,1 society i... ihelf no more than a ')tage in the ~ocial process.
which h'~'" to give way to a higher ,>tage. a new form of society called
commum'>m ,
Why do bourgeoi ... ideologi . . t<, "'0 willingly accept the "cyclic theory"?
The people ... mu ... t move into the past. instead of the future, says the
"cyclic theory". That is why there afe insistent attempts to revive it.
Subjectivi'>m knows no bounds in all its attempts, which are all based
on a common and defective foundation. The British writer Aldous
Huxley has produced the following scheme: "Period~ of classicism
alternate with periods of romanticism, periods of devotion with periods
of unbelief. periods of pacifism and internationalism with periods of
nationalism and militarism." 19 This kind of "theory" may merely serve to
explain the "inevitable" triumph of clericalism, the preparation of
another war, and activity by reactionaries and militarists. because
mankind is doomed. according to Huxley. everlastingly to switch from
"periods of pacifi<.;m" 10 "periods of militarism". from "periods of
unbelief" to "periods of devotion",
,
.
The neo-Malthusians have also produced their own version of the
"cyclic theory" in the history of society, '!he pOp'u~tio~ explosion. some
of them say. proves that the rise and dechne of clvillsallon, d~pen~ on the
genetic "quality" of the members of society. whic.h they dlv~~ed mto two
categories: the "problem solvers" and the "soclal burden. -r:!'ese ~re
even marc oversimplified cat~gories, than Toyn~e s
creahv~
.
.,'"
the develop
mmon
les and "uncreative mass . At different stages m bit
,
t of each civilisation the leading part belongs to the pro m so verso
:~~e masses of men falling into the soci.al burden~' cat~g0'r are
,. . ,d" ,n v,'r,ue of "natural" processes hke starvation. hIgh mfant
e Imma
e tc The fiercer these curses stnke
, at t he work'109 people the
,
mortalY,e .
,
,..
be er." say the neo-Malthuslans.
.
of "crisis" for society begins when IVlng
The
stage
" .' dangerous
'.,
v and when the death rate among those who
on~ 0
con~lliO~sll:U~~~n:"category is reduced and their share of,the popul,aho,n
~he s~cla In consequence of this there is a sharp worsemng Of. s~let~ 5
mcrea~es.
. " h' h leads to "genetic erosion". so that clvlhsatlon
"gen~tlc ~ual;,ty ~:d ~~entuaI1Y breaks up. With the re-establishment of
goes 1010 ~c me f the laws of "natural selection". with the sharp
the op~rall~; Ii~ing conditions and 'I8ravation of the "stNII~ f~r
worsenmg.
'd r the "burden" and a new cycle opens In its
,'"
"oclety
gets
n
0
.
surVI\' ."

be' ,

declare that the main danger of

that they are based on a
"V,I.I:;'.

16I

IG.

I~ '\"1'''''''' lu', I.>

I' .j7f'o .

W"rill

PMt,t.

Fourth Symposium. New yart. and Looikow. 1944.

development. Here the cyclic theo ry is .,cllsoncd with hiologicalt

and is approximated to the "soc ial Darwinisl" conception. whicthl'tl\
long been supplying ideo logical weapon .. for the mo" rcaclionary , "
'
' I'Ism .
and
aggressive circles 0 f Impena
The "cyclic theory" has opened up the way (or diverse ~PCCulatio

for it prese,nls the repetition!n hi story as a mere return to the pa\l. giv~g
rise 10 vanous Ersatz theone., of development based on eulogy for Ih
movement in reverse. White the advocat es of the "cyclic theory" seek /
scare the people with the prospect, of societ y's move-:nel~1 in rcverscan~
try to induce them not to le~~er WIth pre se nt -day cap itali sm. if SOciety is
not to be plunged once agam mto the darkened ways o f the Middle Ages

Olher bourgeois theori st s. who are aware of the cris is of the capitalis;
~ystem. seek a way out prec isely in a return to past stages of social
development and pre sen t the movement in reverse as a boon,
Thu s. Wilhelm Ropke. who is very popular in We st Ge r many. claims
that all the ills of capitalism began with the 1789 Fre nc h Revolution , and
that is precisely the date in hi story from which society should be moving
hackward. He contrasts the French Revolution a nd revolutionary France
on the one hand . and the Engli sh revolution and t he A nglo-Saxon
countries. which had allegedly sprung from "an earlier and mOre
organic" democracy and Iiberali sm .!O He believes th e way ou t to lie in
soc iety's repudiation of the "pernicious" spi rit of the French revolution.
and a return to the sweet vision of "a n earlier a nd more organic" way of
life and thought. He preaches an absu rd a nd reac tionary utopia of
"deprolelarisation" of industry through a conversio n of the proletarian
into a petty bourgeois. That is, of course, a reac tionary utopia but it
~ how s the kind of notions prese nt -day bourgeoi s theorists have of the
hi.,torical process. Some of Ropke 's writings have been adopted by the
We!>t German advocates of "neoliberalism", who declare th at they have
a miraculous means of returning capitali s m to it s premonopoly stage.
However, it is the reactionary utopian writings of Catholics that are of
esp~c ial . importance for imperiali st demagogy . The French Cath ol ic
SOCiologist Bardet has issued a call for a return to the feudal orde r , 21 to a '(
"polyphonic organisation", wh ich he has invented a nd which implies a "
theocratic feudal society and state. the only environment in which man
can escape absorption by the machine s and can reca pture th e rh ythm of
the COs mo s and of God-the countryside. This is de s igned to back up
the need for a. re~i.val of the feudal order. a dismantling o f modern
Indu stry and big cities (and the proletaria t with them) . White urging a
retu,rn .to . the "gold:n age" of the Middle Ages. he preaches a
denc~hs~tlOn Of. SOC ial relation s. without excluding th e possi bility of
estabhshlOg faSC ist or sem ifasc isl .. ystems in bourgeoi s countri es.
criSt d~ n<)lr~ Itmp$. Neulhalcl, 194) . p. ('>2 .
D~mDln. (' ~$/ fan 2000'. p..,j \. 1 9~2.

:. w. Ropke . La
G. BMdel.
\711

For all the difference\ hetween the view\ propounded hy huurgcoi'

thc\lri~" and for allthcir diHcrcnt.vc.f,iom of '~ial development. what
they hilV!! in Ctlmmon. I .. a rep.~dlat~on of th~ Idea of p~o~re" .. Some
rcpudiilte it hy extolling Ihe. cydlC theory . Other, dium th'l~ t,h~
hi,toriclil proce"" can move In rever,e. StIli oth~r... (and the\e. arc
a' ority) prefer to accept the typically new pO.,.t.Vlst conceptIOn of
~~~cial c hange". wh ile rcfu<,ing to determine the line~.along wh~ch .It
run,. But all of thi<' i<, repudiat ion of the very conception of <,oclety <,
advance. There is only one rea,on for the emergence of all the,c
theories: the di,appearance of faith in progre\s in the modern We.'.,le.fO
Id i\ connected with the lo.,s of faith in the futUre of the capllall,1
w~~em L Bernard hl" ,aid. for iml'lOce. that in contra..,t 10 the
s~' i lO<;O'phY' of the 18th cen tury . soc ial thought in t~e 20th century
fmean ing, of course. only bourgeoi .. ,o~ ial th~ugh~) \.., base~ on.~.~~
,' ct',on that "evolution is not nece~s<lr1ly and JOevltably progre .. " C
con V ..."
..
.
. f'
.. !! The fact Ih<lt
and Ihat "progre~s Ihelf \s not an IIlherentlaw 0 nature. ,. . f "Oth
'p,ogress as a problem ha, been disappearing fr~~S I~e wl"fl.,~gto',o, :,'"
, exp I'
II,
ce ntury socioI01' ..,15 I"
allleu as .follows'
. . . .e\era . ,....
I . ..,t to the
contribut ed to Ihi, decline of interesl JO t~e S~bJe~r l~ al ~~t '1 few
abandonmen t ~f the attempt . to treat It sCleanst~:i~ y;ogre..,s ~nd of
soc iologists believe that we lack a method of me.
goPt., .., hold that
"
'b
ogres .. and retrogressIon.
"r
discnmlOatlOgetween ~r
.
oals we ~et up and hold that no
progres~ is entirely relative .to the 6thers still are discouraged by the
absolute goah can be esta~h~hedd
fe~ to work on different a~pect..,
great comple ,\ilY of the subJe~1 ~~ c~~e ain a sure r social per..,pecti\c
of social change. at lea\~ until ~
g . , '''ho believe that ~cience
. 1\ offenSIve to .. om
,..
S 11
Even the term progre~s . '
. Jo'd all value judgement' ..... tl
must limit itself to descnptlon an '~~o:l n 'cd by recent ..,ocial e,ents
olher soc iologi,ts a~e p.ro!ounJly
of g~~eral decline. Therefore they
and believe that soc lely IS I~ a proce~ re,'" altogeth er.":'
avoid di..,cus .. ing th e question of p~ 1 .., t," that ha\ e di~couraged
sOCta
of general dec I'Ine 0
But what are ti1 e "recent
.
. 'ev
.' n
., p,oce~,
.
. I ' I '" WhICh ~oclety I~ In "
,
bourgeo" SOC IO og l ~ ~~ ' 11 th'll Ihe emancipation of the ma'">',;'
h it not cleaf, .lfter .1. '.

!"iV'lte ro erty in the meal" of profrom ex ploitation. th~ abolltlOn of ~i'\1 ~rogert~. mankind '.., re lea ,c from
f
duc t ion :lnd th e e'tahh "'I~llle n~ 0 . ~ocbo'lition of the moral it y of gr:ed and
. lnU .1 , I 'ance') h th'lt not a . ,oe l..,1 p"r,bloody war.., of ."""re,..,IOIl
e-o ..
~
g:l in . that all of thi.., ~clp..,. ~:u~lto .~~\~ bo~\r(!eoi~ Ih eori'h refu..,e to
pec tl. vc,"'.1 But [hal IS p'CCI't: Y \ .
di..,cu's,

d'.,

,. ,

Thai i!<. why Ihe lerm "p rogrc~s" docs nOI appear in "'llm~ cdilio
" "
"I(11-0' Th al j.. why it 11\h.of
the Wesl German 0 ICIJOfUlr),
(), S0("10
disappeared (rom Ihe Enc)'cioptltdicl RritwlfliclI
a\

But if a scientist has lost his I:lcarinp in (hc hi\torical process h .

" ~ay "
" h 0 r h"I s~~nca
" I rilcl\ and i \ at. best
e IS
bound to lose his
In h
t e I11 b y.nlll
confined 10 recording casual and slnglc fael,. I hal r... In dfcel, \~'hat In
hislorian is impelled to do by Ihe prc\ent-day hourgeois ,ociology an~
philosophy of history.
CHANCE INSTEAD OF OBJECTIVE REGULARITY

The denial of the necessary connections between soc ial phenomena

of objective logic in history and of the unit y of the historicai
process-that is the patterned wisdom of bourgeo is socio logy. Still.
many historians continue to hold the se idea s.
Thus. Fisher declares that there is no regularit y in his tory. but only a
succession in time of "one emergency following upo n another as wave
follows upon wave". 24 ThaI is why. says Fisher. the his torian'S task is to
recognise in the development of human des tinies th e play of the
contingent and the unforeseen.
This view is untenable not only in theoretical terms. but is also
politically harmful. The theory of contingencie s. which allegedly
dominate history. is a logical premise for voluntari sm. which in politics
refuses to reckon with any regularity. The ideologists of imperialism
reprd mankind's advance. the triumph of social is m a nd th e successes of
the national liberation movement as a regrettable con tingency which
needs to be corrected. Claiming that history is an agglomeration of
accidental events is a way to justify any arbitrary policy. That is where
the theoretical roots for all the talk about "containing" and "rolling back"
communism are to be found. These philosophical conceptions contain
the theoretical roots of the assertion that force can help t o "check" or
even to reverse the tide of history in the "right" direction . Thus, the
philosophy of history closely interweaves with the political philosophy
of present-day imperialism.
Marxism does not, of course. deny that accidents take place in nat ure
and in social life, and that they can exert a considerable influe nce on the
COurse of events, But aCcidents do not determine the course of history,
and to refer to them as an argumenl is to seek "refuge for ignora nce", as
Spinoza used to say. Recognition of the role of c ha nce in the
development of nature and society does not contradict the proposition
that ~evelopme~t in nature and society is governed by law . It i<; the ta~k
of sC ience to gam a knowledge of these regUlarities. The theory of SOC ial
24 H. f'i\her. AI

"2

HUlory 01 EllfO/H.

Vol. I. london ,

19~~.

JC\fdopmcl1t whi!.:h pre'cnl .. the hi,t~rical proces~ a ... ~ ,eha,o" of

;Icddcntal happcnin~'S lead .. 10 a repudiatIOn of the :<'c lcntrflC view of
o -ial phenomena, No amount of mathematical methods. theone ... of
~r~babi1itY or law, of large numher~ will \ave \~cial thought fro~
complete degradatiun once it ha., ahandoned the notlon~ of regularity In
social development.
' .
.
Some sociologi"t., in the We . . t are commg to reah"e, that the bourgeol\
theory of \ocial development i" in an impas~e. In th,ls con.lext.. mlere,,1
attache' to a book puhh... ~ed in 19~.K hy the bourgeoIs ~~1010g l ~t R:.~.
Bailey. containing a cntlcal exammallon of European ;Jnd American
, 'ology in the 20th century. Bailey doe~ not accept the conce~tlons
sO~'~h deny hi~torical progress and urges an effort to "s~ve SOCiology
~o~ the undermining attack . . of the cyclical theomh and the
irrationalisb" )1
.
.
.
h d
d h' d
Bailey notes thaI while the epoch In which SOCIOlogy a emerge .a h
of 0 timhm present.day sociology was shot through wlI
been. o.n,' In fhe early' "'Oth century. the mood of disillusionment was
.
. d
h
e one hear~
pesslml m.
widespread mainly in Europ~an ~ lrc1e s. ~o ay 'thco~e:it~d Slates"'"
more than rumbl~ngs of diSillUSionment e;~i:isliC attitude in society
only re~el~te~e ~ailey resolutely opposes any
Soc iological. Iheones
but. for their part: he p to ;p~:~ uile ~ighl in saying that the idea of
such role for sociology an
. q h 181h century sprang from the
prog ress and faith in progress \0 tl e. hlY and that human behaviour
conviction that human reason was a mig

71

was rational.
ban do",d these very
nolion". Thed
"ology
has
a
.
Prese nt-day SOCI
.
r
and theoTles of the crow
" I . I theoTles 0 masses
"
numerouS SOCIO oglca
..'
I Lack of faith 10 progress.
"1 as bemg Irratlona .
f ' T a(on and the nOlion of man as a
regard human actlVI y
proph ecies of the downfall 0 ClV,I ISm~ved by myths. blind faith and
being that is irrational ~n~ that ~sopeless pessimism inlO present-day
illusions-all of these iOJect a
sociology.
,1
. hI in indicat ing another sou rce of
I think that Ihe author wa~ a so Tlg enlS of the theory of pr~gress.
insp iration for Ihe o:l.and~Ou~e o~~~~eory of progress that de~le" t~~
Indeed. in our day I ere c. n "which make history. BourgeOis socia
great soc ial energy. of thCd ~~:~~~~ses of the working people w hatrert~s
theory has always Ignore. misl;ust' and downrighl contempt or
e
conceptions. Today, thi S, k and Ihi ... has been largel~ pr~mol ed hy
masses has reach.ed a p;a . hological trends in irratIOnalism. Some
various philoso~hlcai ~ ~ . ~sY~de lise of Freudianism, have dc\'eloped
" pcycholo"hh.
m.lrdng W I
.
SOClo"
~
..

SOf;<>ltI~". F<tt'n PO,lmll.lnl .

~R663,ey.
I
:!I>

p. VII

Ibit!.. p. 14.

The Hague .

19~1\. J'

1M.

Ihe mo ... 1 di ... lorted nOlio n ... of Ihe role of [he- ... uhl'lln ...l.'iou .... in~linq\
ell'.. in the ;lcli\'ity of t.he .ma,,~e .... Prof~'l~ml rnl'[n .... t {If Ihe ma,,\C\'
lack of confidence in theI r h"to n cal crea l l\ It~ amI fear of Ihe ma\\c,"":
Ihere we have one ~f the n~o h o f the dc mal of pro!!re ... " in "'ocicly b~
pre ... enl -day bourgeOIs Ihe o r~ ~t ~..
.
Sociologisb taking a p es~ l m l " Il C \ lew o f the pro'>pcct>; of mankind'
development. the a uthor sa id . refuse d 10 understand Ihe imrortance o~
sociology in the tran sform atio n of ,>oc iety. Lei u,> add that these
sociologist s have been so blinded by their theoric" that they no longer
see the rea lities of life . The expe ri ence of th e Sov iet Union and Other
socialht countrie s show s lhat Marx ism-Le nin i,> m . Ihe Irue science
of social development. has bec ome a va sl fo rce in transforming
society.
The implem entation of the CPSU Progra mme. Ihe 10nfHerm Soc ioeconomic development pl ans and the Part y's ac ti vit y in managi ng Ihe
....hole complex of sociali st life. and remode lling soc ial relations and
remoulding man himself are a triumph of soc ial sc ie nce.
Bailey said Ihal Western sociology should bec o me t ru e knowledge and
sh ould start fro m a rational view of ma n an d hi s ac tivity, T here was
need . he sa id . to find a synthesis o f th e o ld 18th -centu ry t heo ries and
pre sent-day doctrines: Thi s ne w s ynth esis would accept. but with
qualification and limitation . the belief of th e eight ee nth cent ury
philosophers that truth pre sented t o rational beings will resull in social
progress."", That is a good wi sh . But to thi s s hould be added that the
main tendency of social progre ss today is expressed by scientific
communism, In our day. the idea of soc ial prog ress. the t heory of
scientific communism and the theory of social deve lo pme nt are fused
with each other.
Many bourgeoi s theorist s now reali\e that their stubborn atl empts to
deny the very notion of progre ss in thi s age of triumph of the greatest
progre ssive tendencies in social life could ultimate ly i:so lat e th em from
their audiences. In these condition s. more a nd mo re bourgeois
ideOlogi sts have been racking their brains in an effort to tak e th e st ing
out of the theory of progress. to switch from t ota l de nia l to an
acceptance of progre ss that would make it quite meaningless.
.Bef?~e the emergence of Marxi<;m , the theory of prog ress had no
sClenlJflC substantiation , with bourgeoi s philo sophic al thought erring
bet wee n a.ssenions th~t progre ss wa\ the developme nt o f reason
an~ educatl.on , to assertIon s that progres <, was some kind of form a l evolutIon leadmg to the differentiation of individual form ,> o f th e soc ial
orgam<;m.

n R. B Bailey, SO<"iolllg), Facts Ptlfimi"lI . p . 1/11.

'"

'E("ONOMl(' GROWl I\" lHEORY ERS ...11 THF.ORY OF PROGRESS

The Marxi.,t theory of progre~\ i., now widely accepted and it is ever
ffcult to deny it by meam of "cyclic theories". etc. Wh~t
more dI I
.
.,.
omlc
ur -cob theori\t\ are mo~t concerned with is the SClentl IC. ec~n
be bs~antiation of the Marxi.,t theory of progress: That 1\ wh~
..,u
nt -day bourgeoi\ political economy ha~ pro~uced Its ,:,wn theory 0
pre<;e
'the form of a "theory of growth" which has failed tosee the
Pbro~s"oSfSp'rnOgressive social development. BOu~geois theorists declare hthat,
aSI
..
.
thO. t a growt 0
k ' d' progress boils down to "economIC grow , 0
.
manlth," b~t they h~ve failed to answer the question of how and why tthh",
wea ,
.
h .
al refuse to see
rowth occurs. Bou rgeO Is t eonsts, ~s USU f
wth" 'uggles
~orkingman, t he act~al producc~: ~he\ ~~eo:t~ 0 b~tr~hey h1ve not
different term~ li~e ,"I nv~stments, sav~/pr~duc;;on. It appears that
tried t o ,gain an I~slght In t~,e P~~h~~S without the working peopl~'s
capital Itself atta1lls such gro k' d has to thank capital. from wh ich
II Professor Walt Rostow. a
participation, C~nsequently. man In
all benefi ts de n ve, f,:,r progres.s .ascl~:d 'to deal with everything under
leading ex ponen~ of thIS th~OrYt~: ~~tablishment of nat io.nal st ates, etc ..
mechanICS,
I,ttle mdeed about a
th e sun '. Neuton.s "
th" but he says very
.
h
as (act ors helping grow ,',
.
es the various forms in which t .e
cat egory like labour produ~II~lt;~~n:~iCh ensure economic growth III
working people are expl~Ite
d f Is to analyse the modes by, mea~s
antagol1istic-class fo rmatIons, an, I al sources in these formatIons IS
of which the growth of mat~na f tr~iS theory want to conceal the fa: t
achieved . In short. the expo~en so mic rowth sprang from man s
hat throughout the centunes eco~o Oi~t has now been reached ~t
~x ploitation of man and that a tur:lIl~iXng any form of exploitation, III
which economic growth . far f~oh~;p~ r social development and for tha}
effect lends to SIOwrd~w; ~~ at is the substance of the modern theory 0
reaso n has to be abo IS e .
..
e [hat it does not matter
progress.
t s of the "growth theory declar h
society or its
The advoca h: resources and accumulates t ae~~le still becomes
who owns t t classes because the country as wealth in the hands of
privat e-pro~~rls k oslow 's 'theory . But th e growth of t the same thing at all .
richer . Suc r
d a growing social wea llh are no . ty while the Jatl er
the monOPo .Ies an bst ac 1e t o progress in modern socle .
erl s an o , .
'ty
.
f
The or m he ath for unlimited pros pen '. the imperialist count ~es
opens up t a ~ that the growth of w~alth In in the capil:llist countne~
Rost o~, s ~evels of mass consumptiOn " B~t rialism wastes them ~n
meanS n~lngre short of material goods whl.le 1~,r:rt ificiaIlY limited while
war Agricultural production I:> . 'on A sizable part of
the peop. e a
pr.e~arat~rp~~rple
'in' the world, "u~(er fro~1 m~~~~~~ of'unemployed 100"
ns
111Ilho
, f cilities remaIns Idle, w I e
the productIOn a
H~
H

around for jobs. In thi s age of unprecedented :'1cicntifil: and technical

successes and vast development o,r Ih ~ prodll~hvc fon.:c\. hundred ... of
millions of men on the globe hv~ III hOrrible poverty . RC' lrgeOis
economists operate with 'averages. to show that the age of "mass
consumption" is bere. But the fact IS that men cannot he content with
"averages" which cover up inequ~llity . th ey want equality, they Want a
social system under which "averages" do not lie, but expres s soc ial
justice.
Rostow believes that all social antagoni sms are to be found beyond the
framework of the capitalist world. in areas which have yet to enter the
"mass consumption" age. But it is altogether impossible to separate the
rich capitalist city. the centers of capitalist civili sation. from the fringe
areas. from the sprawling "village". which is poor a nd indigent. This can
be done only as an armchair exercise.
So long as the scientist imagines bourgeois society to be an
"aggregation of individuals". as an arena in which "harmonious forces"
operate and are capable of paralysing any expression of "destructive
forces". so long as he refuses to recognise the existence of classes and
turns a blind eye on exploitation, he can never hope to advance towards
scientific theory of social development. This approach is in herent in the
political thinking of the bourgeoisie and is the ideological substratum of
present-day trends in Western sociology. The old positivism sought to
produce a bourgeois sociology in place of the philosophy of history by
borrowing some conceptions and method s from natural science but it
was ruined from the outset by view of SOCiety th at was distorted for
poli~i~~1 purposes. Prese~t-day attempts to escape from the bog of
posl,~lvlsm b~ means .?f dlv~rse theories recogni sing the importance of
the e~onomlc factor, holding forth On "economic growth" as a "law"
of SOCial developm~nt ~~e also bound to fail because they have not
ab~doned. ~h~ unscientifiC view of society.
b
e POSItiViStS of the 19th century saw society as a single organism ,
ut towards the .end of the century bourgeois soc iology already
:~~~~~~~yd t~hee f~~I~:~~ I~~~~ad. it p~t forward the idea which boiled down
contrary so thO
g. oClety IS not something simple, but is, on the
society ~hou~e b~n~egVaed dcomplex. But Comte alway s required that
individual organisms ~n; s:~ ~d whole, that in it , as in the study of
instead of vice versa' so that Ih u move from the whole to the parts,

e part should not in any case be studied in

isolation ."21
The positivist notion of "Societ
abstract and idealistic through and tt as a whole" wa s met ap hy sical,
this abstraction and urging a study of ~~uglh. ~n an effort to escape from
rea things". Durkheim struck out
211 P_ Barth, D~ PhiJosoph~ der Gtlchichte I S '
.
S 68.

."

as Ollologle , ErMer Teil , Le ipzig. 1897.

at the old '-Ichemes, but it was life itself that struck harde.st at this
'whole". The view taken by Spencer and CornIe of society as a
harmoniou'l whole was upset by life: the capitalist world,. entering t~e
epoch of imperialism. wat shaken by the most acute SOCIal contradic.
f
tions .
Rostow has now made an attempt to return to the con~~ptl?n 0
society as a social whole. He has even provide~ his ~,,:,n classlfl.cah.~n of
society in which, for instance. h~ labels a'i 'tra~lh?nal society the
whole of the initial \tage, ranging over the pTl.mltlve system. the
whole of ancient history, the whole epoch of feudalism and a part of the
capitalist period. Thi s example sho~s that Ros~ow has r.eturned to the
bstract and metaphysical conceptions of society. He IS prepared. to
a
. e the economic basis of society but is incapable of gettl~g
~~c~~;~s to the essence and significance of its social structure. Ro.sto~ s
r l "grows" and gets richer but he does not know what society IS,
socle y
.
.'.
.
for it is a conception stili ~e"e~ I~t ~~!~'has no relations of production
Indeed , what sort of society I~ I .
.
ears while the
and classes? The basis of the ~stonc~::~:s~i~~~~P and' arbitrarily
process itself becomes a". agg omera
constructed "types" of society.
BOURGEOIS SOCIOLOGY ' NO SOLlTllOS FOR SOCIAL RELATIONS

PRO.BL~M

.
. T I ott ParS.los gives roughly thiS kind
The prominent US soclologIS(, a ~
ancien; times First came the
.
I development Since
.
.
of picture a r socia.
s Then, in virtue of a mystenous. process
tribal syste~ ~nd tnbal group ~d an 'elite". an aristocracy, With ~~m
of differentlal1on , th~r~ em~rg . ns there arose a bureaucrac.y. mlli.tabined political and rehg lOu.s ~nctl?Pti~n contains everythin~, .lOc~udmg
ry and civilian, etc.~ This th:s~~IY thing it lacks is the ongmatlon of
"religious autonoID.Y.,. but f
. ty into oppressors and op~ressed. But
classes, the great diVISIOn 0 s~c;~ss formation, the sociolog~st , far f~om
having forgotten the process 0 d' g of the substance of SOCial de~e ~p
moving towards an underra~ 10 away from it, increasingly mystlfYlOg
ment, in fact dr~ws ever art er
. '
the actual histoncal pro~essi 11 the diverse social relations con~lsted?~
Lenin said that the baSIS 0 a . sing out of the part they play 10 socia
"t he mutual relations of p~ople ":7hout these relations, and the degree of
labour".)(1 There is ~o society w~ the character of relations ~etwee~en
development of soclalla~~~rr~ne the stages in the social history. ere
in the process of labour

.. ty" FQun d allons

.
Th
. Vol I. The Free
of Modern So{-iologlt:al
tOr~.
.

29 "Theories of S(II;le . " ..j1-49

1961. pp. - .
"65
Pre~ S of Glencoe.
If .,td Wor1.:s. Vol. 6. p. - .
)(I V. I LenIn. Co f {

can be no sc ientific ~oc i oJogy with out an ;lIlaly .. i .. of the .. e relations

Social thought which loses sight of th i .. rod-hottom t'lasis of sOcial
relations inevitably run s into a dead e nd.
Such is the characteristic feature of th e history of hourgeois social
thought. Having dropped the old pos itiv ist theories of the Il)th cen tury,
present-d ay bourgeoi s sociology has ~omc l.lp against an imolu ble
questio n . If society is nol a , ast orgamsm wh ich evolve, according to
law s clo se to o rganic law s what is it th e n ~
Many bourgeoi s sociologists took a d iffere nt way from that of
Rostow 's, The French sociologist G . Bo ut houl believes, for in':itancc .
that it is not right to consider societ y as a w ho le. beca u se the term is
"extremely vague" . When people u se th e te rm "soc ie t y". they actually
have in view only mankind. That wa s al so Com te's v iew of society.1I
Other sociologists have gone even farther : th ey have a lso los t sight of the
conception of "mankind". which leaves them o nl y in divid uals, t he rest
being declared an ab straction.
The US socio logi st E. Burges s divides mode rn soc io log isb into t he
same two schools into which medieval sc holastics were divided-realists and no min ali sts. He says reali sts are th ose soc io logists who assume
''the reality of s ociety".l~ But ''the realit y o f soc iet y" is presented mainly
as "collective re pre sentations", "collec tive behaviou r", etc .. wh ich
govern social relations. They regard soc iet y as some kin d of "psychic
wh ole " . In other word s, the modern "realist s" have su bstituted for the
"wo rld spirit" of the old ideali stic philoso ph y a more "modern"
conception , that of "collective spirit" . But they have a lso e li mi nated the
old ratio nalism . "Collective psychology" is the s phere o f the irra tional.
the s ubcon sc iou s: human reason has a very sma ll pa rt to p lay in social
life .. Natural social relations which hold men tog eth er in soc iety are left
undi sc overed and afC mystified.
In this re spect , the modern "reali sts" differ little , if at all. from the
mOde~,n "nominali sts", who do not recognise soc iet y as a n "objec i of
study . and declare that only "individuals" taken o ut side soc iety.
out side social relations . exist.
'
Ma.ny other. sociolo~ists Similarly cla ssify present -day bourgeois
th eon es of SOCI~ty , makmg a distinction between "soc ial reali s m" which
as~u m.e~ a n "~bjecti~e r~ality of society, irreducible to an y combination
of mdlvldual~ ~nd SOCial atomism" which claim s that the "ind ivid ual is
the o nly obJective , e~piric~lIy ascertainable entity "." The s u bstance
of the former tre nd IS an idealistic separation of th e conceptio n of

!~

G. Southou1. TrCl ili dt so ciolol/it , Pari~, 1949

184
E. w. BuriCSS,Rc\carc h MClhod . Soc 1 . ~.
.
d
by G. GUl1o'itch and W M""N
Y S In
lOOgy. T"tnritl" Ct" ,ur., Sorio/OK}', c .
II
...
. . , ... ""rc . .cw
ork . 1 94~ . p. 21.
F. Znamcckl. StXIlll0rgllnisaiio n d 1 . .
~cw York. 1945. p. 178.
an n\ htUho n \'. Tw t ntielh CtlUun Sociolog,..

...IH:icty from ar.:tual people and aLtual sOLlal relations. while the latter
~c:e"\ tu .. uh~lilulc fur !<>Ilcial man an ideali .. tic abstraction of "man in
general"
The wellknuwn hourgcois philo'wpher and \ociolo,:i,t Karl Popper.
who .. ide~ with "oei,d atomi .. m. helfeves that ....ociety. "sor.:ial group",
.... oeial in'titution .... are no more than ahstract concepls.J4 Indeed. he
declares. only concrete human individual .. exi~I, and the ..e inler;lct
with each other and the environment in different ways. For Popper even
"the war" and "the army" arc "ab<.,traet concepl~" '5
Thi~ kind of nihili<.,tic hourgeoi~ individualism undoubtedly <"ignifies
the elimination of sociology a\ a <.,cience. Mo<,t bourgeoi\ sociologist')
today have nOI, however. taken thi') radical path of "self-de~truction"
Many of them real ise that if they took for the obJe.ct .of thClT re~earch
" naked man on naked earth" they would be ehmmatlng the VC!y
conception of "social" and ceasing to. make any ~tud~ of ~ocml
phenomena which arise from the interaction of men. and wh.lch eX I ~t on
the basis of this interaction. But recognition of such mteractlon doe~ not
yet ma ke soc iology 11 science. In social life there are counties" ~uc.h
interactions, and life would present a chaotic picture unles.s th~ real, bam
of a ll these interactions and bonds between men IS dls~O\ered.
Bourgeois sociologists merely stress the r~le of the. psyche I" th~se
bonds but the chaos of various interactions remams. Parsons ~s
w ritte~ of the great importance of the existen.ce in society of th.e ba\lc
d .
which are not innate. but which are handed ~own f~om
cu ltur:tli~~a t~t~~~~ration through ed ucation. These t raditions ~I\"e soc~ety
ge ner
. .
, ' e ond ...,"
e'e"'e a stable system of mteract
b Tt and duration
III 1m..
. lon.
~~t I~:lt is a "cu ltu ra l trad ition". what is its basis. how c~n. I~" .o~n
..'
wth and change be explained') The answer IS. Y e
stablhty: gro
B h
fo t heir part, are explained by "cultura.l
interactions of men. ut t ~se..r
..
.. "5 hs the viCIOUS Circle of Ideahsm.
. ..
trad itions.
uc. I SOC .IO1ogls
' "s e. . TI', 'c'
b
gems
I ,se the 19th-century POSI I I\I~b for
Most
" "oc
. ,' ,1 p'ocess . and expound al
. h our f the "um1
mear
. lengt h
the ir t eory o. r .
f t racks while presenti ng soc ial relallons as a
about the muIIl P. I~~y.do I ~Sy~ hic connect io ns between me n , while the
greal nu mber. of 111 IVI ua ng lo merate of diverse petty socia l groupS and
socia l whole IS see n as a C~t s ch ic pheno mena. All the ir alle mp~s t.o
a sum total of th.e smalle "'oPn}, n' o a system have failed bec au se wlthm
,
h
psyc hIC connec
.,
,
f' d
1 '
bring t ese . 1 f
h'c phenomena they can be class l Ie on y 111
the c losed Cl fC e 0 psyc I
th some form al as pec t .
..
h' h
accordanc~ WI . I
labours in t he grip of a cont rad Iction. w IC
Y
BourgeOIs loOC IO OSI ,h e ~on t ra dic tion bet ween the universal. the

d
d empt y
'd I m cannot reso ve.
Ipaea
IS
h
'd'
'dua
l
Some
resea
rchers
have
pro
uce
rt icular a nd t e III IV I .
H Tilt p/llltls/II/hintl Rt,i.,,. J"nu.lry 19W. 1'. 98.

" 11>;.1.
.\79

178

abstractions. ignoring the pa rticula r a nd the individu'll in social li fe

Others have artificially isolated the ind ividua l and the partic ular'
because they cannot find in phenom ena any general feature s. o~
regularities inherent in social developm ent . T he most radical ad Vocates
of this standpoint agree to recognise the existe nce only of individuals.
Many m~re sociologists have taken the way of ~etaph.ysically separating
the parttCular from the genera l. construc tmg diverse "individu al

societies", "concrete social groups" , etc.

An

of these

aTC

an inevitable re sult of th e abandonment of the

concrete conception of society and failure to acce pt t he doctrine of

socio-economic formations . Bourgeois sociologists create arbitrary
schemes based on arbitrarily selected feature s o f hum a n society, Their
"new" constructions are as abstract and a rtifi c ia l as th e old ones,
At the end of the 19th century , the Germ a n soc iolog ist F. Ton nie s
proposed that a distinction should be drawn betwee n two t ypes of social
con~ection s: "c ommunity" (Gemeinschaft ), based o n "o rganic", bio logical ties , and "society" (GesellschafO. based on a rtifi c ia l lies. This kind of
classification of social connections is unaccept able, because in human
society there a~e no biological ties that are not simult aneously social ties,
for human society took shape when relations o f kin ship became social
re latio ns, The "artificial relations" are in effec t the ties establis hed by
men in their social labour, in production , The stage in th e development
o~ t~ese, re lation s and of social labour in productio n ma kes it possible to
di stinguish the stages through which society has passed in the course of
its history ,
B~urgeois sociological thought has tried to d efin e society and soc ial
re latio ns f~o m other angles as well , The US soc io logist R . Mac iver
propo~ed In the 1920s that social connection s _ a nd so di fferent
~Ietles - ~hould be classified according to me n 's pu rposes or
mteres!s, HI S atte",lpt would have appeared in a different lig ht if he had
rec~n!se~ the ~xlstence ?f class interests, but he opt ed fo r formal
claSSificatIOn , without makllli an effort to discove r the rea l substance of
the ph~nom~na he was describing. He brought out ec on o mic, scient ific,
~ducahonal I".terests , ,a nd also the interests of power and prestige, the
IOlere st s ~f tn~e , family, etc . Something of this kind was suggested by
other sO~lOlogls~s, Of course, such interests do exist in the hu man
c~m~umty . bUI If ~hese are t~ken as a basis of society , thi s questio n will
an se. what determines. the uRlty of society as a social who le? It appears
a,s a conglo me rate of diverse "ties" which exist side by sid e i~ space and )
~~~~~i~u~tonhdel r so"!etth~rists have claimed that the only rea lity is the
, w I e socle y IS an abstraction
US soc io logists who acccpted leiter ' Ward"
d
d the
5 view s a o pte
h J ' J ' . I
~SYdCd ~ ogJdcad PrmclP e, of, classification of social relatio ns and soc ieties,
an
Iscar e economic mlerests. Thul Gidd '
"
'
was not an organi sm but
. "
ID~S in sisted thai soc iety
an oraamsallon which was in a se nse a
'80

continuation of nature only at the earlier stages of development (family

group~. tribes), Suh\cquently. the pwchic, volitional element began to
prevail in the life of \ ociety. with conscious decisions becoming the
principal la w. The US soc iologl\1 eventually reached the conclu\ion thai
soc ial decision s were subordinate to ideals. and this produced another
idealist viciou s circ le.
But thcre are , in effect , no societies based on instinct. Such an
assumption can be made only if we ignore that which in fact
distinguishes human society from the animal herd, that is. labour. There
are no soc ieties which have been erected on the basis of reason and
refl ec tion, and that was the view held only by the advocates of the
"soc ial contract" theory ,
,
Th e only thing all such classifications definitely su~est IS that
bourgeo is socio logists completely ignore the in.controvert.'ble fact ,that
relations between men in the process of labour, 10 p~oduct.lOn c~nst ltute
the basis of all their social relations, Without thIS baSIS ne,lt her the
human family nor any ideas of prestige or power could have aTJSe~, The
attempts to subst itute for the basic soc ial relati~ns secon~~r~, lertlary- or
other derived relations or to invent some kmd of artifICIal relat ions
in stead of the actual ones give bourgeois scientists no chance to see the

light.
h"
'I
"is
The starting point of sociological research-t e socia gTO~p
II
also a concept that is vague in scientific terms bec~use the baSIS 0 a
social relations has. not been discovered, Soclet~ appears as, ~
conglomerate of such social groups and their aggreg~~lOn, adI ds up to It~
, I
, " The "groups" are produced by sOCIa processes
"soc Ia struC ure .
I ' I'
I s" This way of
which ultimately boil down to "psycho oglca Impu se
. . I
I'
nothi ng because the whole pomt IS 0
reaso ni,ng aCIU~~IY :~ic~ I~~cial proc'esses produce groups. where the
d~terml me,. eX~~/bri ng men together in these groups originate, .Some say
. b d on "soc ial instinct". whIle others
"Im pu ses w, I
that the SOC ial process IS,. ase "inst inct" new ones like "m ighty
of
t't
te
fo
r
the
concep
Ion
. I'
h
su b S I U. . "
.
"and "i mpu lses". Bou rgeois SOC IO oglsts ave
re fl ex es, mot lvhes b t the motivation of human acts but they have
f" " 's social structure classes and the class
written very muc a O
.
d the quest ion 0 soc le y
. ,
r
'al
Ignore
.
t and the ob jective reqUireme nts 0 SOC I
struggle, class ~n!~r~!ve remained within the sphere of highly tenuous
developm: nt . an
.
They have not gone beyond general
pSychological abstrac tions. , ., and human me ntality, because they
, about "hu ma n na ure
,
B
0"
reaso mng
I
' to "mysteries" of soc ial bemg. ourge 1.
to v de lost
ve 10
' because,
,hey have
pre f er not
,
all real notions of society
.
soc iologists ha e b ' of soc ial re lat ions and the baSIC SOCial
,
d the rea l aS ls
,
Ignore
hich make up class society.
_
grou ps-~ I~;;~~~~ ;re prepared to study any kind of "groups::, to mven~
US ~O~IO
f the inveterate clubmen" or to study group ... 0
the "SOC iology 0

university professors". For this purpose they have prollucell mOre anll
more schemes for classifying such "groups", like groups hased On
similarity (which include college profes,sors. war veterans. etc .). groups
based on proximity (church congregations), and also on "interaction"
(family, club),
Some bourgeois sociologists are inclined to diville "groups" into
primary. secondary and associations. Some take account of the territory ,
OChers the quantitative elements. still others duration of the relation s
between members. but almost all these classifications refer to the
psychic affinity of members, etc,
These arbitrarily structured "groups" must clearly , according to the
intention of their architects. live in peace with each other, banding
t08ether into ever sreater "sroups" or "associations of groups", Of
course, now and again conflicts may break out between individual
groups, but these are of a purely psychological character and can
and must be eliminated. For some bourgeois sociologists society is a
mere conalomerate of "groups" which enter into variou s types of
"'interaction" witb each other. While conflict is accepted as one type of
interaction. there is special emphasis on the interconvertibility of the
various types of interaction. with the transition from conflict to
cooperation in relations being easiest between, say, groups like
employers and trade unionists.
All these "classifications" have plunged bourgeois sociology into a
state of complete chaos, and have allowed some sociologists to perform
the most fantastic operations. These classifications do not hold water
even in formal terms because no attempt is made to maintain the "ground
for division" , Formal logic says that it is not right to divide mankind , say,
into fair-haired, dark.tlaired. fat and lean men, because in this case the
"ground for division" is upset. and there will be no strict clas sification .
because va.riolls men will find themselves in several groups , at one and
the same time. Some bourgeois SOCiologists who had also noticed this
defect said that sucb groups were the result of empty abstraction
because the same men were members of different groups. But then , say
the modern "nominalists", there is need to emphasise that "social
gro~ps" are someth~ derivative, with the individual being the only
reahty . The conc~ptlOn of. society has disappeared altogether.
~f .cours~, ~anous. social relations and numerous social groups do
e)(ISI m capltahst,soclety. These relations and groups can and mUSt. of
course. be studied from various angles. including that of social
psycho~o~~, but the~ cannot be SCientifically analysed if one ignore s th e
class diVISion of ~~iety or if these aroups are taken outside the context
of ~las~ conl.radlchons. Only a COllect understanding of the basis of
society ~ ,SOCial st!'llcture .makes it possible to bring out the derivative
and addlllon~1 socm) relatIOns between men and the specific feature s of
<;eparate sechons and groups of a aiven society. Indeed, what could we

... ay about the -'group of college professors". for imtance. unles,s ,we have
a knowledge of the pre ... entday class ~truct~re of the United States, ~he
statu<; of the intclligcnbia in bourf::eol'> ...oelety, and the, forms of cI,p; ...
struggle, including ideological ~,truggle'l, One would have to confl~~
oneself to superficial ob<;ervatlons which do not go, to, t~,e ,socia
substance and contradictions inherent 10 the ~roup, Classl~lcatlon :y
ro~ps, as proposed by bourgeoi~ sociologists. I'" eloquen~ eVldenhce~,:~
is impos~ible to understand ... ociet~ and its st~cture ~Ithout ~ 0 I g
the relations of production. the basl~ of all socml re,'allo,ns"
.
,
There can obviously be no scientific view. of socIety If onI e ,Ign,ore~
,
'
I'k
oductlve forceo; re atlOns 0
categori,es of soc~al ~clen~e ct:o~ rtr is the ~1arxi ... t-L~ninist view of
product ion and mo e 0 p~o ~he abstract and schematic approach in
society that does away With
"
concrete hi'llorical term ... as
social science and helps ~o study sO~lety 10 omic formations, But thai is
, fng in the form of dIfferent socloecon
eXls I
. ' I 'sts have attacked,
exactly what bourgeOIs socl~t~\he dialectical method-~s agai~ ... t the
"What ~arx a.nd En~els ca e han the scientifiC method ~n SOCIology,
metaphYSlcal- IS nothlO~ else t. t as a living organism tn a state of
which consists in regardtng socle y th' g mechanically concatenated
constant development (and nol as sOfm'b"t'ra" 'v combinations of separate
'II' all sorts 0 ar I J
'
"
and therefore perml tog
'ble 10 give a more precise deflOltlon
social elements),".ll> It is hardly ~oasslbourgeois sociology, There ~re nO
of the basiC defect, of ~resen\.
'cal process and these are Ju-;t ~ ...
arbitrary combin,aho,n,s In t~e I~ 0;1 research, Meanwhile, bO,urg,eols
tenable in SCIentifiC soclolo~lca .'th this method of artifiCially
un
been operating WI
, th basic
sOCiO logists have
f social life from the rest. ignonng e "
separating some el~menlts? . and emphasising secondary and terllary
d definitiv e socml re at Ion!>
,
an
, . d' , of SOCial
"
phenomena,
,
resent-day bourgeOIs stu les
-.
Th basic flaw 10 ~Il P, '
. n of psychology and reaht,Y.
e
'first the Idealishc separatlo
f creating socm!
ps~c~~!OfJe~~;~!~~. ~iew that the. p~~~~ef ;~e ~~;~~ia~role of ,irrational
This tendency IS closely
an , . ana ... econd, the e~aggeratl
relat~;t~' in thCr.:-OI\Sciousn~s,S .of t~~(m~~st~~~king, wilh its ever prese~t
~:;ect~d with the bOUrgeo~"'I~h~i~o ~~~sciOU<; hi ...torical activity, Tdhl;
I ct of the people an
'wa of irrationalism in present a
is also compounded by the ~ .':, ties between men without an
neg e
t enden.c~_ illcology , A .,lUd)' o~ the P,yc ICe most bolla fide researcher.,
bOurg~,ol~f their material baSIS even by ~ d this opens up boundless
analyslSduced very little , On th~ other ;~,ions Here is one exampl~,
haS pro " _for the most incredible s.pec
d ' heavah. bourgeol-;
opportu~~he;nd
conflicts. ~upprehsslOl'~s ott~e i:~vidual and in the life
s
Contra .- . I ' equally eXist In tel e
sociologlsh calm.

ft

. .
- ,- I Lenm. (', ,I/tctl'd \\-"0"',<, Vol. I, [',

16~

'.
11\1

of society. That is the ~ethod used to ~l ructure many of the concepti on~
of present-day "collectlve psychology The well-known US sociologist
R. Strausz-Hupe has formulated the credo of many hourgeols politici.

ans as follows: "Territorial, economic . and even ideological issues which

heretofore (that is, before the 'revolution' in science performed by the
'socio-psychologists' -G. ~.J were consi.dered by st~tesmen and
historians as causes of confhct. are now viewed as mamfestation s of
neurosis. maladjustment. and culture trait s. In thi s sense, these issues as
such do not exist:,)7 He goes on to explain that these questions, which
bourgeois ideologists and politicians ~ad not been. able to answer, can be
easily "eliminated" by means of a simple operation: ..... the psycholog_
ists' bold leap from the psychology of the individu a l to that of the group,
or .. . to the state.,,38 However, no such "Icap" ha s lak en pl ace. It was no
more than a transfer of the psychology of the individual to society as a
whole. Spreading such "theories" means returning to the pre scientific
stage in the development of ideology, to the stage of anthropomorphism.
The idealism in present-day "psychological theorie s" is even more pronounced than it was in the "organic theories" of the 19th century.
The positivists of our day dress up their idealis m in psyc hologicalterminology.
Analysing the results of development in 19th-century bourgeois
sociology. Lenin wrote that these bourgeois theorie s were fruitl ess and a
priori discourses about society; instead of studying and explaining social
phenomena they merely insinuated bourgeois idea s for a conception of
society.Jt We find the same state of affairs in the latest co nstructions of
"collective mentality".
(
Gramsci once remarked that without historical materialism sociology )
amounts to no more than an "empirical compilation of practical
observations" ..eo This is borne out by the popularity of "empirical
sociology" among present-day Western scientists. But when some of
them want to rise from a compilation of empirical observations in their
n.arrow sphere to theoretical conclusions they fail. and Gram sc i is quite
nght when he says that"a method of social mathematics and of external
~Iassi(icatio~" introduces nothing but an "abstract sociology" .41 Therei n
hes a peculiar paradox: while claiming to be empiricists and favourin g
absol~tely concre.te research, many bourgeois sociologists produ ce the
emptiest abstractIOns.
Take .the cc;>nception of "social prestige" which is very popular in
h?urgeOiS sociology t~ay. They keep saying that a man 's statu s within
hIs group depends on his prestige, But this ostensibly profound idea is in
effect no more than a tautology: status depends on prestige . and prestige
R. StrauH-HupC , Tht ZoM o/Iradi/ltultft New Y k 19~'"
37
"II Ibid.,
p ..
'
O f , . -, p .
.
~R.

V. I. Lcnin. Co/lte.fed Worts, Vol. 1. p. 14'.

A. Gram~(:I. StltOW ,U from .ltt i'rUOlt NOftbook N
Y
., Ibid .. p ..BO.
I, cw ork. 1973, p. 418.

on status. It i'i impos",ible to break out of (hi.., ..iciouscircle if one ignore~

the cia ....). \tructure of ~ociety and the actual form\ of the cla~\ !itruggle.
What i.. the prc\tige of a revolutionary, a leader of the working class, or
of a capitali ..t'? These are diametrically opposite phenomena. How can
onc rea<;on about ....ocial prestige" and obscure the fact that the capitali ..1
ha .. no prestige without hi .. money, without hi.., capital') There are man.y
examples to show that the theoretical conception .. of bourgeol ..
..ociology are not concrete, but are abstract and vague, a1thou~~ ~any of
those who operate with <;uch conceptions claim to be empiricIsts and
devotees of facts.
In deed, this sw itch to empirical generalisation is regarde.d as.a most
important step in the development of sociology. The US socIologIst Carl
Taylor wrote: "To my mind the two great developments t~at have tak~n
in
.
in the last forty years are that soc~a! theory hds
~'''2.!:.
I
historical. .. , and that empirical rescarch
Pre sen t-day positivists claim that philosophical and historical conceptions prevent sociology from becoming a s~ience, because t~ey allegedly
dictate to the scient ist various preconceptions and reduce hiS. effort t~ a
search for examples to illustrate the postul~tes .of thIs. or t ~~
philosophical theory. But soc ial science cannot eXIst wltho~t philos.of h;
cal theory and the point is whether philosophical the~ry IS materia ~.. ,
and has st~od the test of facts, or ideal:.stiC~ w~~~\~:;~~~~~~:;:~~:~~
along the wrong path. The same app les

~~

soepial ph~~~my e~~~rgeOis sociologists declare with pride that they are
resen.0 ary research. But what can one
e ngaged tn concrele and ~oi~te:n~ ~as lost the thread of hislori~al
en
understand of th~ pres
ss that the main defect in the reasomng
development? Le.nm u.sed 10 st~~ "lack of concreteness and hislorical
of bourgeois soclolO~IStS. w~s eoach in considering soc ial phenomena
hlslonca appr 's bo,-Ied down to a repetition of
Perspective" .~l The
I s of concrete rac
.
.1
- ,-r-e analysis with out concrete facts IS
without an ana ySI
!"ons whl e SClen 1 I
.

general. prop~SI I . hislorical approach. Bourgeois soclO logl~,ts S?y

impossIble Without th~
. " d that they favour a st udy of socIal
that th~Y .?ppose "so~laJ s~t~o~~ity. They declare that they us: t~e
and all km s
. I hange" in presenl-day cap ltall "t
dy namiCs
h d I study "socm c '
.
r
empincal mel? 0
nothing about the transfo rm ation ?
society but Wish. I? kn~~o imperialism and of the c hange.s. m
prem~n~pol~ cap~a~~sma lso claim that they are engaged in an. e~~lf1cal
imperialism I~ self. . Y d oc-al groups in present-day snclety m the
~t ud y of soc ial sec tIO nS an s I

West but they ignore the bas is of sodety', social SITudurc, ih divi sion

into ~lasses and Ihe existence of the class . . lru~lc.

The agglomeration of a bstrac t term s ha ... d~lnc ",Olhmg to clarify the

substance of social relation s or to reveal t he lT ba~I"'. In these relation s

everything becomes ephemeral and eve ry matenal

suhstr~tu~

disap.

pears. The sociologists may produc e th e ,most co?,plex definition s and

construct a great many abstract concepti ons w hich have no concrete

content. without advancing social science in any way.

The fact that bourgeoi s soc iologists have lost th e t hread of historical
development will be seen, in particular, fr o m th e fact that historical
sociology. as one US scienti st admit s. ha s di sa ppea red as a scientific
discipline: "It is now dead and the trend s are a ll aga in s t any prOSpect of
its revival."u Sociologists are altogether out of t o uc h w it h h istory. Their
so-called empirical, or concrete , researc h h as o u st ed t he historical
approach from sociology, and without it there ca n be no in-depth
concrete research .
The claims by present-day bourgeois sociologi st s to have escaped
from the influence of philosophical systems for a s tudy o f t he f acts alone
are ridiculous, and this becomes quite clea r wh e n o ne considers
socio-psychology, the main trend in present -day b o u rgeois soctology.
Behaviourists among the positivist sociologi st s. for in st ance, have
subjected their facts to quantitative analysis , making u se of s t atistical
methods to study the behaviour of men. They dec la re th at they are
engaged in a "precise" analysis of social relation s. But these cannot be ....J.
reduced to psychological relations . Consciousness is n o m o re t h a n a true J\
or false rtflectioll of these relations . We find , there fo re. tha t their
starting point is idealism, despite the fact that they h ave repu diated
philosophy in general, and idealism in particular . Their method cannot
yield any precise analysis of social relations .
One American writer says: '''The field has moved fro m broad
historical , theoretical. and philosophical interests to technic a l research
~n specialised restricted topics subjected to detailed contro lled quantitative surveys Or polls .""" But the point is how sociologi st s "spec ify t he
re stricted topics", and whether their studies are based on the a rbitra ry,
subjective ~ethod or 00 the objective regularities of social developm ent .
Meanw~lIe , present~ay positivists have frequently made u se o f t he
math~m~lIcaJ meth~ I~ order to substitute for the cau sal a na lysis a
de sc nptJon of arbltranly established ties between va ri o u s social
pheno mena . Nat~rally. functional ties can and must be e stabli s hed , b ut
o ne mu st not IJDO.~ the actual balis of these relation s a n d t he
funda me~tal reg~lant~s underlyina social development . Ben H a lpe rn ,
a n Ame n can SOCIOlOgist. says: "A "functional' as Oppo sed t o a 'cau sa l'
:: COn ltmpOrary SOciol?" . cd. by J. S. ROUcek. london 1959
'"'66
Tht StOlt of lht Sonal S dtllcfIJ . Ch;""'o 19~
.'
. p. - .
--

"'.

p. .

rclation...hip hetwcen variahles , for example. the relation hetween

economk: and religioll s 'fadors -can be construed in cit her direc
tioo""" Thu'i. it miltters liule whether the economy determines religion
or vice versa. Such is the conclu<,ion sugge'ited by the ideaJi\t
methodology. with its huiltin preconception~.
"The rigollr"' of prescnt-day re<.;carch with the usc of mathe.matic~11
methods can be determined from ~ome of the examples gLven. In
one Amt!riC<Jn collection. u There is ~pecial emphasis on math~matlcal
mode l.. designed to "describe" variou~ social phenomena. ArtH;le .. by
N. Rashev')ky and J_ Coteman analyse a wealth distribution model. Let
us consider their starting point'). Society is regarded. a~ a c.?ngl?m.7T<1te
o f interact ing men, each of which has two charactenst lcs: abLllty and
"wealt h". Tlli') arrangement of characteristics ~i.ve') t he authors a~a~,
for it l>uggests that wealth is created by high ablhty: I n.dee~. Colem.1n ..
conclusion was that according to the model. the ~ I stn~~tl~~ of wealth
"w ill ... be h ighly skewed toward individuals of high a~lhty... Thus . he
owe r of the Rockefellers now rests on the mathematical .mode~s. ~.f
~S sociologists. Wealth is "skewed toward individuals of hl~h ablhty
w hile bourgeois sociologists are "inclined-- to cater .for the .Interests 0
, d' 'd I'" Why have not these sociologists est imated how
.
d
. ted '\Od even
t hese "10 IVI ua s .
ma~y men of high ability c~~italism ha~~;o~::; ofo:~nrkti~~speo~le.1 That
converted to men o.f low abblht Y ~~O;g hen considering the relationship
's precisely the pomt to e c lan Ie w
.
'
I
. . " bT "in bourgeOIs society.
bet ween "wealth and a Illy den the need to use mathematic'i and
Ma rxists do nOI: of co~rse.
Y a but t hese must rule out any
st ati st ics in studymg SOCial phbenobm.enCli~e Only then will it he pO'isible
.
ach and have to eo Je
.
d
arb itrary appro
,
'I egularities However, present- ay
t o di scove r the vario~s ~OCta ;hod in so~iology use mathematical
f the quanlltattve me
.
t he rules of s ubjective sociology. ..
a d vocates 0 .
models accord ing to all
h . r s t he existence of a definite set of
Th e very approach to redsef~r~, "mhePO "ey of so~ ial phenomena. T he whole
'11'f
nd ,a e hLIlI e' h
.
'f
' '
f
views of SOCla
I ea
y allows a correc l Ident
LIcallon
0
"
h , ex ten t suc a eor
. .f
, d of
po lOt IS t o w a
, if o ne is to as k t he right quest ions or a s u ~
vario us socia l processes
, hove a n idea of the structure of societ y
S' s One muS "
.
f en
th ese very p.roces ~'.' b able to cla ri fy how the aggre~atto ~ 0 ~ k
as a w hole If o~e IS.to.e t hat st ructure. Bourgeo issoc lo log!Sls.m,l e
se lec ted for pOUlOS fits LIllO, ' f mode rn mat hemat ics in a pphcallon 10
u se of t he mighty apparatus l~y or arbitrarily selected. T hey take t he
mat e rial thaI hlls.beenOl~i~~apeop le on their so~p preferences , t~e
sa me approach I~. P ess of soldiers t o wea r Uniform \\.'he n on lea\ ,
~'i llingnesS
or unw l lIl~n~: \ on int erests in class ical music. But the re~ul( s
. act of re lSI I
a nd t he Imp
" , J l' lqq Vol. LX I I I. '\ll, 1. p, ~,
l

'1111 J,ll/rItll "f S,,('wl"~~. u~.

" " , Paul F l.al:ar,ldJ. Gltn~.lot.
""' The ."//IUIt
Th-'"
,-n
11,( s.,,-w/ S..,.."ces. tu.
',I
111" IIII' "

..t

I(

4' ,\fufhl'//I"/U <I

1'-l,~J

obtained in a naly sing min o r grou ps ~f men, frequently artificially

selected . or in analy sing secondary socmlp hcnomcna. are generalised
and inflated to general theoretical cO,nelu slOns ,
Marxism .Leninism att aches mu ch Im~ortancc to a ~tudy of concrete
phenomena and c urrent socia~ fac!s. bl~t It ~<I\ c.m~ha"'l\cd thai. the facts
must be taken in a concret e hlsto n cal situation. In Intcn,;onncctlon and in
the context of a long-term tendency. O nly th en \\' ill analysi ... he Jlfofound
and scientific .
We find remarkable examples of th e co nc rete sociological re searc h in
Lenin's writings on social deve lo pm e nt. In his brilliant work Tile
Development 0/ Capitalism ill Russia . Len in drew conclusions On the
tendencies of the social proc ess a s he stud ied conc rete material and
analysed statistical data , When analy sing conc re te dat a and opposing,
for instance. the method exten sively u sed in loca l st at istics to g roup
peasant farms by their allotments, he wrote : " In class ify ing the peasants
according to allotment . we lump together th e poor peasa nt who lea ses
out land and the rich peasant who rent s or buys la nd: the poor peasant
who abandons the land and the rich peasant wh o 'gath e rs' la nd; the pOor
peasant who runs his most wretched farm with a n in sig ni ficant number
of animals and the rich peasant who o wn s ma ny a nimals. fe rti lises his
soil. introduces improvements , etc ., etc . In oth e r words. w~_l ump
1J:I_erober5
rural bourgeoi sie . )
th e di//erell tiatioll, and are
therefore purely fictitious:' " Marxist s have ma de w ide u se of the
grouping method in economic science , but their a na lysis of concrete data
is valuable for practical activity bec ause it shows th e long-term
tendencies in social development .
The sociological use of quantitative indicators a nd st ati stical data must
not ignore qualitative distinctions . ]n the same w o rk. Le nin analysed
soc ial groups among the peasantry and said th at th e "small ru ral
bourgeoi s (in Russia, as in the other capitalist countries) is c onnected by
a number of tran sitional stages with the s mall-holding 'peasant ', a nd w ith
the rural proletarian who has been allotted a pa tc h of land. Th is
c irc umstance is one of the reasons for the viability of the th eo ries w hich
do not di stinguish the existence of a rural bourgeoi sie and a rural
pro letariat among 'the peasantry' ."" It is the me thod of fo rm al
compari~on , the method of ignoring the qualitative di stinc tio n s a nd the
tende ncies an~ prospect~ of social development that is being u sed by
man~, bou~geOl~ soclologlst~ ~o prod,,!ce an altogether artific ia l "midd le
class ~hlch mcludes deflmte sections of the bourgeo isie a nd the
pro let ari at . But t~ose who seck to structure a "middle class" to d ay lack
th e g ro und s fo r It that the Narodniks had in their period .

anne

'"

v, I, Lenin, Co/Jtt:'~d Worts, Vol. 3. p. 103.

Ibid., p. 311.

I ,enin de ve loped Ihe !.cic ntifk .maly.,i" of concrete data 10 a .. tate of

high prcl:i,iun ilno thnroughnes'i, I.et u., recall how Lenin analysed the
chan~ing role of family labour among handicrafhmen. and hi'l. remark
ahlc ,tu,:iulngical analysi., IIf various group .. of wage-labour in Russia at
the turn of the century. He !.howed the pro .. pech for the development of
the working c1<t .. " in the country, and thi .. gave the Party the right
orientation in ih .,truggle. Whichever concrete facl or proce'i" in the
social .. cience of capitali ... t ,>ociety that Lenin analy'>ed we find that he
has alway s oppo')ed any analy .. is of i')olated fach . and insisted on a
'>tudy of the prospect<, and tendem.:ie .. of social development. That wa.,
also Lenin'" approach in studying COncrete phenomena in the life of the
new, Soviet society.
Take his remarkable work "A Great Beginning". which is based on an
a nalysis of the concrete fa cts after the October Revolut ion. With
remarkable depth, he formulated the sociological law that the fu ndamental advantage of a new soc ial system ultimately lay in the facl tha,t its
soc ial o rganisation and new form s of labour organisation enabled Lt to
ra ise labour productivity to a new level. Lenin gave a prof?un.d and
precise c haracteri stic of the se rf holding and capitalist orgaOlsa.tLon of
labour. He started out from an analy sis of phenomena. tendencLe.s ~nd
prospects for the development of the new society to prodJ.le bnlhant
ge neralisations on th~_ key pro~lem of hjsjorjcal materiali"n. "A Great
Beginning" contains an analYSIS of perfectly concrete facts taken from
Soviet reality. Lenin makes a thorough a~alysis of ~ress reports r~o~
Ma 17 to June 8. 1919. about the commuOISt subbotmks. He doe.s thiS Ln
the :arlY pages of "A Great Beginning", where he says: " 1 ~ave gL\'en t.~e
fu Uest and most detailed information about the commuOlst s~bbotn,Lks
cause in th is we undoubtedly observe one of the mos~ Lmp~r1:anl
be
t s of communist construction. to which our press pays LnSUfflcle~t
aspec.
d Wh"ICh all of us have as yet failed properly to appreclattention, an

.. 3()
f
ate . .
al sed his data in the light of the .tasks of moving r?m
Le ni n an y
. I'
developing the doctnne of the pro letanan
" d"cat"ng
Capitalism . to soc. ia Ism.
t his we ll-known definition 0 f c 1asses. In
I
L
dictators hip, settLng o~ Russia's social and economic development. and
the spec~fic fe:~ur~:h~r key questions bearing on t h~ s.ubject. Th is ,is the
conslden ng m y d
"f" fac t - determ ined their Lmportance Ln the
r h f
. an'\lyse spec L IC , ~.
way Lenlll '.' 'cal develo pment. and evaluated them in th~ Ig t 0
course of hlston
I of soc iety and th e prospec ts for Lt S future ""
prev ious develoP:ne~h owed thai hi s fac ts were not isolated. bu.t .that "de velo pment. Le t expression of highly important social re~u lantLes.
they were a co.nc~e e. . 1919 which th e su pe rficial bou rgeoLs observer
Soc ial fac ts In du ss~a Ln'ffiPo r'tant when taken one by one a nd outside
.
.
'gnore as um
cou ld have I f th historica l process and soc ial developme nt. we re Ln
the conl e:.:.t 0
e
I Ibid. Vol. 29. pp. 418-19.

.".:1 of ticiI,endous importance. and this I,enin pro\cd, li t." \\ w I ' Ih

sobbol"k
"d"
I
t.:
,1\
... -RrIt communist
m. orgamse
I'Y t lc." worke rs IIf th

(,oIVCf I \I ON

SOCIAl. PRO(jRI ':SS AN D IDEOLOGICAL STRUGGLE

....,....K".o Railway in Moscow on M<ty 10. 1919 . W iI' of " ." e

.~~
-'-'"~ncc. t han any 0 f I h~ vlct?rI.C'"
"
"r
_ _ .......
I,)
~~ind c n,",u rg.'''"''er
\1T of

........ the BritISh, In the

1914-1918lmpenahst war .~1 Rut Len in 'II

..... that the whole point was a scientific definition and analy,i\ \(;

. . _ _ICe

of this phenomenon: "We must

carefull~' \tudy the fec~~c

. . Ib.ootl. we must ~evote the s~atest. attentIon III th em. do

~ to promote theu growth and nurse them. Some of th em will
IInitMh., peri. We cannot vouch that precisely the 'communi,!
tIIIiII1IfIlait" wiD pia, a particularly important role. But that i ... not the
poIDt. 1\e point is to foster each and every shoot of the new: and life will \
IIIIeat dae most yiebk."Sl This is 8 very important precept for 'iOc ial
wboee task is to brins out the tendencies and pro:-.pcct:-. of

For eyery adherent of the scientific method in sociology.

are a model of in-depth research into concrete :-.oc ial

the use of the latest mathematical method makes no
..... is to ilumine the way for advancing mankind .
ma&erialism sbows how the unity of the universal. the
the iDdiYidual is attained in social science. It is impos :-.ible
IIUdy ay II ocral unifonDities of social development without

....,.... Iheir c:a.crete expression. the specifics of the hi storical

evea. in-Myjd:ual facts. ]t is a reactionary approac h to
udCOCRleana'ysis in the study of social phenomen a.

lOCi.'

...,.. of
phenomena. including all the concrete
poIticnl .... eCClB,uk events. enabled Lenin '$ Party to lead
. ~ of ...... p ple iD shlcming capitali~m. All the stage s in
blQldlDl the DOlt "hl:ty _ "mllaneously highly important stage s in
the fo~u"tia.R 01 t"Ei.t-J......bht datal')'. and milestones in ~tudying
the uniformitiel
the Ioi . .tion and development of th e
socia1~st system..
P"",amme and other Party documents
con~n an anety... of tbemost h"portant social processes today, On the
basiS of. a ~fOllDII seciDIo&t:al Iiulysil, propositiom; on building
commu~lIt .SOCiety in the usn whjrb ue of exceptional practical and

theoretlcallmportaace have bUD put forward. The great Soviet plans

have be~n formulated oa. the . . . of .cientific analysis of economic
~d ~oc~1 ~h.eno:ena m tIdI caVllh,. A characteristic feature of
arxls~ emRlst tUo~ ~.~tity of the Leninist Party. which
shows Its .great power itt~""" with life, with the experience
and
practice
of vast manes of _ -- , that'IS What determlOes
"
Ih e
d
I
eve opment of ~re'h4_ ........... who h d' cd all the
obsolete and reactionary . . . . . . . . ._
.__,
.....
IS adr' ,
. mo' veltc f oewar
~ V_I, Lenin, CoIl1td WCII' ..

v.I.......
. V, I. l..cnin, CQI/tcud Wo,*-. Val B. p. 4".

TRANSITION FRO M ON E H)RM ATION

TO ANOTHER A N I) mEOI.O(; I('A !.

STRUGGl.E

In the period in which feudali ~ m emerged. the ideological struggle in

the world arena was carried on mainly in religious form: the spread of
Christianity reflected the collapse of the slave-holding world and the
emergence of feudali sm. The process consisted in the new society'.,
assimilating the religious legacy of the outgoing slave-holding sy<,tem. in
modifying Christianity to adapt it to the new conditions of social and
political life , Islam became the ideology of the emergent feudal sy'tem in
the East, Changes in religiou<, ideology characterised the formation of
feudalism in India and China, At the .,ame time. political theory wa:-. also
incorporated in religious conception s,
The ballle s in the sphere of religiou<, ideology were e<;pecially acute at
the .. start of the capitalist era" , when the bourgeoi<, ver-.ions of
Christianity came out again,t it<, feudal form, In the sphere of pOlitic,al
ideology the struggle wa:-. carried on against the reudal.absoluh~t
doctrines which ignored the fighh of national states. and th~lr
sovereignty, Capitalism raised the hanner of national s~\'erelgnty_ while
the leading thinkers of America loudly declared, !or IIlst~nce. th~t the
people had the right to revolution_ Feudal.absolut,lst reactIOn c?ntlllu~d
stubbornly to a,sert its illusory "right" to interfere In the dome~tlc affalf~
of other states in order to establish "order" everywhere, In thl~ way the
ideas of legitimism appeared in the world arena and became the central

issue
" of hattie In which
.
H in the
er strugglethe key sphere of struggle was the field
" 0lwr~cv k"nowledg e upheld its inalienable right to give a lead to
- philo
' sop h"Ica 1 mat en""I"
.sClenl1
k' d' _ ogressive development. while
a Ism
r
man"'l p'lcPd ,c Ihe hanner of :-.ociety:-. leading forces. The struggle
wasa(O
'"
' and was persistently
'
'd on
,ph ere of wiritualltfe
carne
every
range d o v e r '
I
r I
ndou"
, art and literature. Of course. thl:-' strugg e was ~ re~e " s
~n rtance for historical development. but bourgeOIs socl~logISts,
Imp?,
:th Max Weber tried to turn the whole process on tls head.
beglllntng
. '
,
d h Y "d
" 1 sI ru ggle and
" h'l.... 1even economic:-.
was determtne
I eo Ioglca
argUing t "

WI

,hi' the development of capitalism proceeded under Ihe impal"t of

",JiIiou' ideology.

.....

"

nat is of course, an IdeahstiC distortion of the IlI',toril:al prOLe,

Any atte~pt to set up i.deologic.al. or political s~ru~~e :h an ah'l,lut c i, \~
tIepartUrC from Marxlsm-Lemmsm. The SCientifIC .theory of "o..:ial
development. in effect. asserts that ~he formati on. of ideology.
CCHlesponding to the new mode of production. has a l.oll,\loerahlc raft to
play in its triumph and consolid~t!on. There is no d.ollht th~\t f~udali"m in
Europe developed a powerful spmtual weapon for Its dommallon and the
hilhest sanction for the feudal .sy~te~ in elabo.rating the ideology of
Catholicism. The spread of Chnstlamty to AnCient Rus abo meant a
break with the tribal way of life and helped the country to move On to
feudalism. Islam. which sanctioned the emergent feudal order and the
establishment of the exploitative state among the Arabs emerged in
fierce
Blainst the survivals of the tribal system and il s allied
ft!lIiaious
11te emergence and spread of bourgeois forms of
Claril1;'nit,. like Calvinism, helped to strengthen and develop the
order and to establish the rules which emerged on the basis of

(I
)

bouIpois society.
'!be fact that the progressive sections of the bourgeoisie turned to
and adopted philosophical materialism. developing new political
naturaUy

an

had a tremendous part to play in the slruggle

IpiDIl feudd-absoMi,t reaction.
In that period. ideological
went hand in hand with political
and the latter coukl not develop successfully without the
COiiCSpondina kleo.al substantiation. But both political and ideological stnlule in that period were an expression of the stages of formati on
of a new mode 01 production.
Today. ideoloak')
is waged over the true and uncompromi sing scientific world
for the triumph of the ideology of labour
over the ideology of
It bas a great role to play in converting
the world socialist system into the decisive force of historical
development. Today. the basic issue in the struggle between capitalism
and. socia1ism is the st~~eniD8 of the might of socialism and its
fulfJlment of the great historical tasks faCing the new system.
Some bou!8~is theorists try to emphasise the ideological conflict
between soc18I.I~m ~nd capitalism in an effort to find justification for
present-day milltansm. Here they IlI'ess the Communists' conviction
that co,":munism is bound to ~ out on a aIobal scale because of the
progress!ve dev~lopment of SOClCty. It is this fact. according to the
bour~eols theonsts. th~ ~e! to make the present-day ideologic~1
co!"fhct so acute, resutting m cold" and even "hot" wars. This idea IS
bemg br~adly used by bou... ~~. proraaanda in its fight against the
Commun~sts and. one must admit. it has penetrated the minds of some
Western Intellectuals.

""",,,,,,k.

39:!

)\

The new move hy the hourgeoi~ ideologi'\ts i~ to concentrate attention

on the ideological differences hctween the oppo~ite <;y-,lem<i. and to draw
the conclu,ion that in the pre"ence of l>uch contradiction'i it is quite
) ( impov.. ihlc for the two ~y..,tems to coexi..,t peacefully. Thi .. i.. an effort to
prove that hecau..,e the two ~y~tcms have different ideologies there i'i no
basi, for peaceful coexi..,tencc and. conver'iely. every reawn for the
militarisation of the economy and the arms drive.
Some bourgeoi'l ideologi"t<; have not abandoned their attempts to
induce the people ... to accept the idea that the conte,;t between capitali\m
and soc iali 'lm cannot be re'iolved by peaceful meanl>. They "ay that
peaceful relations between capitali\t and socialist ,>tates can be
established only if the conte\t between them ceasel> altogether and the
ideological struggle i'i wound up.
For example, the Right-wing Labour leader Christopher Mayhew
has put out a special pamphlet on this subject with the title Coexistenre
PillS. A Positil'e Approach fO World Peace. To the established
conception of peaceful coexistence, Mayhew wants to add ideological
coexistence and an end to the ideological struggle between so-called
capitalism" and "so.called communism". \1ayhew prefers not to .call a
spade a spade. He hates to call capitali sm capitalism. and to admit that
there is exploitation in the "free world". Nor does he want to. call
communism communism and to admit that this system abohl>hes
ex ploitation. In stead of trying to. find out what. the contradict.ion between
the two system s is and whether It must result m armed confhcts bet .... een
them. many bourgeois theorists merely .skate on the su~ace.
.
The whole of bourgeois propaganda picked ~p the fashionable .notlon
of equating the cold war and ideological co~fhct. H,:nce the re~l?e for
ending the cold war: prepa.r~tio~ for war \\'.111 e.nd With the abolition of
..
.
ideolog ical struggle and Unification of men s viewS.

It is uite clear that this is a confusion of correct proposl~lons .... Ith

.
q I f Ise ones Will anyone argue that the cold war means
dehberat.e Yfa ar? will anyone object that the cold war was started by
preparatiOn
. militaristic propagan d a. wh"IC h was carn'ed on b"I
,
. dor w,with
men s .attltu. e.s.
n whole arties and organisations? That. too,
many Imperialist stat~st~: c'old watas a kind of ideological struggle. to
is true. But to regar
a to say nothing of demanding an end to
these twO p h en omen, .
.
.
equate.
I
ondition for relaxing international tenSiOns IS to
ideologl~al strugS i~~~~ a ~ntenable and politically harmful exercises. To
engage m theor~t cord war is in the vital interests of!l.ll people. But
put an end to t e 's a form of class struggle and it will go on and
lfe I ~ I d velopment so long as antagonistic classes
ideological
StfUgg
) (.
. a factor 0 socia e
am
re.m
" oppol>ite ideologies remain.
.
"
wllh t helr
f h CPSU emphasises: .. A gnm struggle IS go
.
.
p gramme 0 t e
Th e ro,
two ideologies-communist and bourgeOis-in
ing on betdwee~is struggle is a reflection. in the spiritual life of manthe world to ay.
_
W~

~'. of the historic process of transition from capitalism 10 soc ial.

....

1_0"1
'Ihe idea that wars are engendered by ideologil.:all.:onflict~ is ideali stic
dHoq:h and through, because this ultimately makes ideas and attitudes
dae basi_ of social being. The idea has been accepted by generation s of
~ in the West who have been bred in the idealist tradition. Ideali stic

tel_

vhw. of society and its history are inculcated at school. where the
is told thai the Crusades were mainly religiously motivated.
ODe of the fint pages in the modern science of history opens with the
of this invention: the establishment of real. mundane cau ses
enaadel was. peat achievement of the scientific world outlook.
campaiaDs mounted
the feudal lords of Europe in
-S",:c:-:ou_l~tr.i~_t of the _East were "
"recovery of the Holy 1

nI"

very down-to-earth aims

which resulted in the Crusaders'
........ the "most
state of Byzantium with monstrou s
CJ'IIicIIm is 1204. No one but those who are blinded by bourgeoi s
....nee wiD refer to the Crusades as being "evidence" of the thesis
tbII
are caused by ideas.
II i& equally WiUI'II to refer to the religious wars of the 16th century,
What i& reaDy impurtant is that these were, in effect, civil wars in
France eapra" the crisis of absolutism. The fact that in that period
two poweiful parties-Huauenots and Catholics-emerged under the
re1iaioos
dues nothina to refute the truth that these parties pursued ~'\
potitica ' iDterelti. The MaIneR: of St. Bartholomew. when the Huguenot. w~re s~ (1572), was also a political act. The religious
fO"!I merely empba"aed th e t the political ideology of the contending
soc::~ .forces w~~ Dot ~y developed because of the existing historical
condltlo!'~' Religious uleokJsy canied the methods used in the struggle
to fanatICism and cruelty, but to say that religious ideas caused civil
wars, would ~ to ret~ historicwl science to its infancy.
, Thl~ quest~on was.. indeed, coafuled by bourgeois social thought, but
hlstoneal scJe~e st~1 found a way 10 its aulution, The anti-clericals
among ,boUrgeol,S Entiahtenen, wbotook the idealist attitude in the study
of sO~lety. claimed that relisLoui fanaticism impelled men to fight
sang~lInary wars, M.eanwhile tbe relcliolllriOi and the clericals insisted
thatltwa.'h.noglectofthotruof-~""_wb
"
V7 AftOU
0 b a db een con f use dby
"fa Ise teac h lOgs that made the ......0...... _....
f h
I' 'OUS
"f"
"bl A tuaI
- - - - " . __ ome 0 t e re Igi
stn e lOevlta e. c
ly, men . . . i=peUod 1
d
fl" t by
"I
t
"b
I"
oerme
con
ICS
mun dane In eres s. Wit re I8K'G ~ 110 m
Ih
" t
form for these bloody conflicts ......- - - ore an a convemen

W'"

n.a

llu Road
l ..

10

Communism. p. 497,

H.i~turi(.:al scicm.:c made it:-. way through th~ fog of !econce tions,
getting al the real earthly cau5cs of the 16th-century war.. whic were
foug~1 ~ml~r rchglut ..., hanners, but which were an expression of the
con~l~ctlOg ml c re ~h of the feudal aristocracy and the emergent bour

Hut \laurgeois M.:hola~tic theory cheri~hed the idealistic interpretation of hi,lory . while univep,ity science raised such interpretations
of history to the level of philosophical generalisations about ideas
causing wars. The propaganda of false views concerning the causes of
wars fell on idealism -fertilised soil in the West, where idealism continued its political work.
It is not surprising that even those who are actively fighting for peace
in the capitalist world will refer to the Crusades or religious wars as
evidence that ideological conflicts may cause war. Such views are
widespread among nourgeois pacifists.
The emergence in the world arena of a new force in the epoch of
imperialism led to bloody clashes unleashed by imperialist .. tates. hut the
emergence of the world socialist system does not at all lead to wars.
because sociali'>m has no reason either for using armed force to take
anything away from capitalism, or for "exporting revolutions",
Economic and social development in socialist society does not produce
any Gordian knols in its rel~lions wilh ca~ita~ism th~t .have 10 .be .cul
through by the sword. Growing and consolidating SOCialism ha .. Jnvlte.d
capitalism to peaceful coexistence in the economic sphere. Bourgeol<;
theorists wili not always easily accept the idea.
Those are the theoretical prerequisites for the origination and ~pr~ad
of the idea that the ideological battle between communisn:' and capltalls~
must lead to war. The real causes of its emergence are dlff~rent and w~1I
be found in the political attitude which was taken ~~ the r~hng class~<;.m
present-day bourgeois society on peaceful competitIOn With the SOCialist

gCOhlC,

Sy~~: 'ruling

circles of the imperialist powers are known. to dre~d

eaceful competition with socialism in the sphere o~ prod~ctJo~, While
~our eois theorists are inclined to boast that the Soviet UOion w.-II never
g h" 1 I of US production. more and more economists and
' t
d
reach t e eve
.. '
. th USA have been sounding the alarm. Sorne t h
eons san
politICians 10 e
.
f h
I onl)'
d' ts of imperialism are apprehenSive 0 t e outcome no
pro pagan IS. 'c competition but also of the current ideological st~ggle.
of the econo~~slern journals keep carrying immoderate self-praIse. of
Of cour~e:d logy but Ihat is frequently no more than a hadly veiled
bourgeOis I eo
,
of Ialarm.
.
har d a b ou thaI
e'pression
x.
of imperialism have been thinkmg
W
The advoca es

,
. h
. battle for
..
ut up in contrast to commumsm m I e ragmg
s
capitalism cadn Pnds of men The loud propaganda about the "ideals of
the hearts
an n
n goes
10 expose the 1'd eo 1oglca
" I pover ty of
'
world"
merely
the f~e~ _ I.' ver more obvious Iha[ these ideas have been borrowed
impenah~m. I l~ e

the premonopoly stage of cap it aJi"m. The idco]ogit:al <i[llWUr dating

I~Ot~e late 18th and early

19th ce nturi e .... whkh ha\ been horrowed from

"the museums. is worn oul. I here Me 11\\ new td~al .... All of thi ... i~ an
. d'cation that private propert)' ha ~ workcu theIr out 10 social

~~~elopment. There is an inevitable urge rO.f \l: icnt~riL' l:Ommuni ... t idea,> .

which show mankind the way to estahll',h 'ioctal properly, clearly

identifying the goal of the emancipalio~l stru ggle. reflc~lin~ .Ihe vital
interests and a~pirations of all the workmg pe ople, and m ... plrmg them
with historical optimism and faith in their strength and vasl potentialities.
In these conditions. some
in the We ~ t have dec ided to start a

propaganda
I
end loil.
A closer
at
the d emand to abandon
"ideological struggle in general" is an attempl to play down ~he
ideological influence of communism. The advocales of Ihls conceptIOn
insist that "ideological disarmament" is the only condition for lasli ng
peace. In this way, first, they seek to divide the forces acting for peace .
and second, to protect those who are preparing a war under a ny poss ible
pretext, including ideological differences .
Life has already ridiculed some of the most reactionary s pokesmen of
Calholicism. who urge "ideological disarmament". Thu s, a le ader of the
French Catholic Church, Guerry, in his book The Church and the
Community of Peoples, put forward the following idea : in order to bridge
Ihe gap between the two blocs. there is need 10 have a common principle,
namely, a posjtive idnl of human and moral civilisatjon, Everyone '"1/
knows thai the Communists do not believe capita fi st civilisation 10 be a n )\.
ideal. and have been resolutely Criticising bourgeoi s morality. Consequently, Ihe Catholic writer argued, it is hopeless to try to bridge Ihe gap
between Ihe two systems) But the author has engaged in a gross
sublerfuge. The fact is that the Communists and the Catholics have
different notions of the present and the future of human civilisation, bul
Ihere is no reason why the Communists cannot agree with Calholic
working people on one very positive matter, which is the need to
safeguard peace as the apple of one's eye, the need to prevent the
aggressors from starting war, and the need to have mankind live in peace )
wil~out wars. Honest men all overthe globe are, consequently, united in
Ihe Idea of Ihe need to preserve and strengthen peace, and thi s is an idea
most cherished by the working people . This has been understood by
leaders of Ihe Calholic Church like POpe John XXIII who slDod for
peace and peaceful Coexislence.
'
NOlhing can prevenl practising Catholics from hearing Ihe communist
c~1I to preserve peace .and hav~ re~ations between the peoples rest on the
Simple rules of morahty and Justice, as the CPSU Programme put s it.
2 Cohitrs du commUl1ism(, No. II , 1959. p. 1051.

The ('(lrnmuni~t'i have heen carrying on an implacahle ideologic:11

~truJ;:!!1c agaimt the advocaks of war and against the ideology of hatred
and h()~ti1ity ,Imong nation 'i .
The a,~ertion of the bourgeoi~ theori~ts that ideological ')Iruggle
c.:on,tiluted the (ontent of the cold war and thai it wa~ a .. truggle thai had
to develop into a "hooting war was profoundly defective. A cold war was
not just an ideological ~truggle or an ideological conflict. hut Ihe
ideologi.~;.!I. preQaration for war. The sharpnes~ and depth of the
ideological "tfuggle -do' not at all signify Ihat it mu~t hecome the
ideological preparation for war. Ideological struggle becomes prepara.
tion for war when the struggle contains within itself the idea thai
ideological in struments are. inade:SI.\Ull,~ truu Ihn'. .are meUec.ti~e_i.n
ach ieving success; that is when the inevitability of armed confhct IS
asserted and the slogan of "gu ns inSlead of ideas" preached.
.
What has been said above shows that identification of Ihe characteri stic features of the new stage of world history which opened with the
eme rgence and strengthening of the world socialisl system enriches our
whole concept of the historical process and of the cha.n~e, of
socia-economic formal ions. The conclusion that the new system Inltl?fJy
has no decisive influence on Ihe course of world history and acquires
such a possibility only later on is profoundly scientific,
..
The definilion of the present epoch as one of t~?SlhOn from
capitalism 10 soc ialism, with socialism becoming a ~eclslve f?ctor of
world development. is a great achievement of creative \farxlsm, for
'tho I it the world communist movement would have been unable
~~rre~IY to orient itself in the present historical silUalion. o.r 10 formulate
it correct olitical line based on the principles of LeOJ.OJsm,.
s Lenin str~ssed that the proletarian diclatorship must.":,lfl ~ut In at leasl
a number of advanced countries if it is to exert a deCISIve ~nf~u~nc~ ~~
Id ff'
Why did Lenin insisl on Ihe advanced count nes. e e
war a alr~..
which has won out in several underdeveloped
h
influence because the socialisl
that Ihe SOCIa li st system
counlr~es c~~~~ut~~e~~:~~ e~u~no~~c st rength. could not be completely
cou ntnes, ~I,.
C ent! , it takes more than a mere
~id of c~pltahsl ~~~~~n~t~ou~~r~~~~arr0ng out Ihe s?cial ist revoluti~n
Increase In th e n
, d' tatorship into an internallonal force. Lenin
to convert the proleta.fla~ IC'd
a ely the need for these countries to
rr .
d he quahtal]ve Sl e, n m ,
a
airs.
also stresse ' 'f they are to exer, a dec',sive influence on world
,
d .
d
be advance
,
I
"
'he
Soviet
Union
whIch
lagge
. I'
. ','a lly won ou In
..
. ]fl
Socm
1].
countnes,
. Ism
I d] 0
conomlC
terms b e h'10 d the advanced capllahst
,
.
b
r
tech Olca an e
d 'sive force it has to W IO lfl anum er 0
For socialis~ to become.a te~ling the sociali st way becoming ad\'U1lced
counlries, WIth Ihe counlr~es I a s This task has been fulfilled by the
in tec hni~ al and ec~~~mScov~~~p~op le, by building up a mighty socialist
Commu Oisl ParlY an
e
power.

T'he transformation of socialism into the dCl'i .. iH' forl.:c of w 11.1

different from the triumph of fcudali .. n~)ror

, '
'
r predel'c "~or~
('o~que .. t~, for it ha .. no nC~d
On, the contrary, I~ ('ames On a struggle to
translatmg the contest mto the language of guns
ad bombs. Socialism begins to exert its decisive influence On the cou
of world bistory by sta~ding ,u~ fo~ peace, checking the arbitrary a~St~
and. u~ of forc;:e by the Impenahsts m, the world arena, The succes~es of
IOClaUsm along this way clearly show Its transformation into the decisive

fon:e.

CONCE'NING SOME ASPECTS

OF THI
IDEOLOGICAL STRUGGLE

di .. playcd il V'I~t inh!rnal ~lrength and the ahility to develop as a world

sy ..tem. The imperiali~ts, without ahandoning their old theory. have been
__ force~ to amend and .. upplelT!~nt j~,. Their !'>eard ha .. been mainly in one
direction: they nave heen cil\ting around for a way to \ecure the de!\ired
"ero!'>ion" of Marxi .. t,L.enini~t ideology, the ideological basi~ of sociali~t
soc,iety,. t<:, unhi.n~e it~olitic~,L~anisation and to engage freely in
anh-socaaliSt aclLvlty Within thl .. or tnat countrY:
. The attacks by the reactionary forces on Czechoslovakia',) socialist
gaim have illu~trated this imperialist tactic in action,
The CPSU Central Committee, having analysed the world situation in
depth, issued a timely and clear-cut indication of the much greater
importance of the ideological
the present
between
socialism and
i
I
and ideological forms
[ca'"na'
to this front.
Marxist-Leninist parties have
given growing allten

II

~eI!co.teat . aDd fo~s of ideological struggle carried on by

nlt socialism have now undergone some important
~. To st"t with. various problems in this struggle are being
tack~d by ~e~ls from N.ATO headquarters , diplomatic
varioa
iDleUl&ence officers. and representatives of
I lectiOoS of the ,tate-monopoly capital machine,
.... become a special industry, directed by major
..!! 2
Wters. AnticommunillD ....
6ii
mass media- radio,
..1e.iIion IDd IIIe
- W a r e subservient to state-monopoly
capital. In short.
jnst the ideology of socialism has
become one of the
of state-monopoly capital and its

The theorists and propagandists of capitalism taking an active part in

the present-day ideological struggle hate the very notion of "ideology".
They have written about the "end of ideology", and. ~ave ~eld forth
vigorously on the "deideologisation" of mankmd's spmtual hfe, ,What
are the true purposes of these fishers of immature men, what IS the
purpose of their hustling?
'
The point is that the ideologi sts of capitalism h~ve come ~p agamst a
might opponent whose strength .they h~ve reahsed: th,e ~deology, of
y
socialism is a coherent system of Ideas. VIews, an~ conVIctions,. WhlC~
has been well elaborated and scient ifically substantl~ted. and ~:h~ch has
' be,'ng put to the test through the expeTlence of millions of
een
an
IS
'
B
'
d
b o Ie developing on this basis a wealth of expeTlence.
ourge,ols
ihe ~iS~S have repeatedly admitted that they are IIlcapable of ~uttlllg
eo
gLviews th~t_ cQPld attract the masses. That IS .w~y
forward a SYs1I~1D;- ale the 'very idea of ideology, which means soclahst
they want to e IIllin
'd 1 yn
place. are
. h
I eo og
I the
d I'first which
'
to save capitalism and WhlC
The sugahre w~~~e of present-day
ideology have failed to
permeate t e
,
stand up to the test of I1fe.
1
,
b '
.
myth about
.
emg a
rem allls .. ,)
all. this used to be one of the pillars on wh.ich the
"welfare state " I'
.e 'led The riots staged by poor Blacks driven to
,
1
o[e,p",,m
'
, [
Ideo ogy. n have dispelled the myth about the USA bemg, a country. 0
desperal1 0
',' s [D. all" Less and less people nOW beheve the IYlllg
.,
I opportu m I e .
,
dd
..
e~ua
b rgeoi .. society is based on "humamsm an emocnlcy..;
__ .__
claims that ou

_,IT_' ....

=_-..:ofeuioDll
policies.

~e cODCCpt of weololk.'
appbclble 10 Ibis kjnd of

apoloaistl of the
warfare" inllead of
"warfare" are not
"I~at lie", slanden,
theu purpose, with
especial value. The
"operations" , includi....
ideological contraband into
Since the Second World
socialism could be put down by
hlockade and diplomatic prella..

which held that

of armed
economic
b n blasled. Socialism has

....

)(

What remains of the much vaunted I:'illuQ!cni\ dl'mOl'nll.:\

deliberate killing in the USA in

.r

broa~ daylight fir .... of the Pr~,id:~~rt~hC

of his brother . a Senator. and a prominent

Rla~" prca..:hC:T 10 "\\J

.
'I
of the many other lesser known \'Icllm....

,,\Kiali .. m ilccc:rtahlt: to the hourgeoi .. ie and to !';pread thi .. view

contra . . t to Marxi .. m-I.enini . . m.

Effort'> arc heing made to formulate a ... y..tem of "amendment\" to
..ociali..,t ideology ~()
to make it "different", Thi\ w"tem of
amendment.., hOI'" (ome to he kl]own as "ljberalhation", that i~ di~,y~e
easemcnb with re.,pectlo anti-~ociali . . 1 activity in the \ociali"t countrie1.
Thi .. ..,y~tem is 011,,0 known a . . "democratic ..ocia1i\m" de.,pite the fact that
when anti-sociali<,t elemenh take over the political arena there i~ no ~ign
of sociali~t democracy. That wa~ well "hown by the cour~e of event .. in
Czechoslovakia.
There can be no ..other" socialism following the origination and
development of scientific socialism. or any "other" social ist ideology
that is not based on Marxism-Leninism. becau~e it is impossible
nowadays to abolish the greal criterion of the truth-the practice and
experience of millions of men.
.
In the early years of the century Lenin wrote that "the DIlly chOice
is-either bourgeois or socialist ideology, There is no middle c.ourse"
From this he drew the necessary conclusion: "Hence. to behttle the
socialist ideology in all)' way. to turn aside from it in the slightest degree
means to strengthen bourgeois ideology:' I
. .
.
Scientific socialism is called scientific because It IS based entirely on
scient ific analysis and does not recognis,: any. equality. bet~een t~th and
error, Of course. searc h for the truth Implies creat.lve .d,ISCUS~lo~ and
d b te but the search must be based on SClentlf.IC pnnclples.
i~di~p~tablY established by Marxism-Leninism and tested In struggle and

'th In"
'"
fl{)
.,

,I"

This is an indication of a deep cri,j, in bourgcoi ... ideology ultimo t 1 ' \

reflecting the deep general CTi \is of capitalism

,\ e y

The advocates ?f capital. c?ming ~ut agaiml ideology in general, and

agairl;st the .Marx.lst o~tlook '.1ll particular. emp,loy all manner of gTO,s
sophIsms , hke the claim that If a world oul look I') coherent. harmoniou
and principled . it is for that rea so n "dog matic" and "doctrinaire", whil:
the unprincipled and fragmented consc iousness is declared to be
"freedom", and "independence".

Some revisionists. echoing the bourgeois ideologist s. hav e attacked

loyalty to principles under the pretext of "combating dogmatism" and
urge the elimination of the revolutionary conv ic tions. t he principles of
socialist ideology. and their substitution by a package of fashionable
bourgeois political. philo so phic and economic theories. Contemporary
revisionism means ideological surrender to capitalism and abandonment
of the socialist ideology as a coherent system of ideas. views and
convictions, which enable the working people to t ransform the world. In
Czechoslovakia, for instance , the revi sionists openly urged a "dismantliDa" of MarxismLeninism. seeking to prove that Lenini sm was not
international but a purely "eastern" doctrine that was unfit for the
advanced countries of the West. The revisionists wou ld like to erode the
class content of socialist ideas, including denial of the struggle between
capitalism and socialism as the most important aspect of mankind's )
whole life today. But the strength of socialist ideology li es precisely in its
coherence and its organic bond with life and practice.

propaganda of "pluralist" socialist i?eoIOgie~ ~s aimed

d mine the international character of Marxlsm-Lem.ms~ a~d

:~C~~iS~rideol~~~icB~~i~~~~it::,e~,r~dt:ri0~~~~~i~~;~!J;~ea~:~e~el~e~'~~~

~nother ,m~th?d is also widely used in capitali s m 's pre se nt struggle

~galOst ,soclabst Ideology: bourgeois ideologists insist on a "plurality" of

,deolog,~s" Actually, they offer a "choice" of diverse versions of

40tl

vi~~:y bourgeois

ttl

bourgeOIs Ideology . In the USA, for instance, thi s mean s that one can
s~p~ort
.
Th ere is a
Similar
etC.
~ut what is flatly
one's right to adopt the sc;en
Ideolo~y and struaJ:e against bouraeois ideology,
Makmg use of, thl.s m~tb?d to erode Marxist-Lenini st ideology. the
~dvoca~es ~f capltahsm IDSist that there should be different "socialist"
Ideologies I~ the world. Socialism commands a high prestige a nd has
been
more
and more social strala . ThaI '
h
tt pt is
' attractmg
d
'"
IS w y an a em
bemg ma e to mvent another socialist ideology" , another v iew of

In

)1

to refute th.e (
, ty which Marxist-Lenimst sC ie nce has dl~covered.
ment of socta lsI SOC le
hlets and articles have appeared in the West
Very many books. ~a~p b 'It 'n the USSR is good only for this
claiming that the ~oc lR
a IS~ UI as I an epilome of the contemporary
t
But tsanst ussla w
'
k'
lass
coun ~y..
d f it had industrialised areas with their wor 109 c . .
im~enahst worl . or with the working class of the other centers .of the
whic h was on a p~r
. t'
consciousness and revolultonary
'I'
world
10 orgamsa Ion.
' I'st
capita lsI
. ' t" sforming Russia's industry on sOCia
I
The expenence In r, n
..
b . g of
.'
ua d Itlon.
.
the treasure house of Marxism-Le~I~lsm. el~ ,
lines has ennched
I t 'at of the industnahsed capltahst
much value also for the pro e an
countries today ,
. area _ and experience in developing them .on
Russia also had agranan
... le for other countries where agranan
, I' t I',nes has set an examp
sOCia IS
.
) V. I

Lenin. C.!//(tud lV.,.kl. Vol. ~. p. ,~

relalions prev ail. Bourgeois theo ri sts expericm::t: a 'ic!n-.c! of fear wh

lhey realise Iha.1 Ihe p.e~ples of t~e ~ast are takin~ a clo~c look at t~~
prospering Soviet soclaJ~st . republics In . Ce ~t ral A ~Ia.
The experience of soclahst con struc tIO n In th e USSR has also show
that the new soci~ty cannot ~e built w ith~ut the leading role of th~
working class and It s Communi st Pa rty o r with out a cultural revolution
which means a transformation of the spiritu a l atm osp here in society.'
Thus. Soviet experience contain s gen e ra l regu la ri ties without which
socialist construction is impossible. But it also has it s specific aspects
reflecting the specific conditions of de ve lopm e nt in the USSR and th i~
cannot. of course . be mechanically ado pt ed b y oth er cou ntries taking the
socialist path .
Loyalty to the basic principles of M ar xis m-Le nini sm and scientific
socialism. their creative application in the diffe ring co nditions of various
countries. and implac able struggle again st bourgeo is ideo logy and
revisionis m-those are the necessary pre re quis it es for the success of
the socialist cause .
IV

Another bourgeois-propaganda line is t o try to " ma ke b reaches" in

socialist ideology . so as to infiltrate bourgeois vie w s into vari ous a reas of
humI D activity-culture. science. literature. art - in soc ia list society.
'"free" from the interests of the working people. Thi s line is a lso a imed to
undermine the economic theory of Marxis m-Len ini s m . it s assessment of
~~nt.~ay imperialism as the last stage of capita li s m , a nd of the
Institution of social property and planning as the bas is of socialism,
Bouraeois ideologists make no secret of the fact that in thi s way they
would Iik~ to ~lay down the leading role of the Party in soc ia list soc iety.
The main aim of the "breaching" exercise is to divide th e g reat army of
labour . whose ~tre~ li~s in unity . Bourgeoi s ideo logist s d ream of
separa~na the 1Rtel~l&ents13 and the working cla ss o r . a t a ny ra te. of
estranJIlII some of Its aroups from the common st ruggle o f th e wo rking
cla~s a~d aU the other .wo~k.ins people . The po ison of bou rge~ i s
na~lO~altsm . they bope. will diVide the working people o n th e natio nahty
pnoclple.
~ul'leois p.ropa,aRdilts have been trying mainly to "breac h" the ~
POh l~tlCba1
eac~nsclOusne.s of the workina people so as t o ma ke th e m lose
(elf
nDis and to confuse th
h
'
. ,
They hay (tacked
"
Ole w 0 may succumb to the ir IO fluence,
e B,
r~ pnnelples of socialist democracy 'he pri nc ip les
of de mocratlC cent
sm ' the f
.
power b means of sian an _ Int place. becau se the y know its rea l
th at ~C i!list de mocrac: d~r. :es ~nd falsifications . Let us b ear in m in~
awakens b road initiativ~ I'~ e h~est form of democ racy because It
I
actiVity amona the wo rking peo ple. and
402

fully relea .. e .. their creative cnergie'i for the purpo'ie of advancing 'iocial
development. and throws up insuperable barrier') in the way of any
anti-sociali'it and anti-popular activity 'ieeking to rever<:.e the development of society or to plunge it into 'itagnation, The principle of
democratic ccntrali'im. con'ii .. tently practised by the Marxi ..t-Lenini'it
Party. the .. tate. and ma'i" organi'iation ... help,) to awaken ma'i'iive
initiative and to concentrate to the utmost the efforts of all on the
so lution of common problems, ensuring the necessary condition'i for the
m~t efficient action by millions of working people,
nfortunately. some people are inclined to make conces'iion!. on the
mai pfinciples and so to agree to undermine the political organi'iation of
soc ialist society. eli minate the leading role of the Marxist-Lenin ist Part y.
give the anti-socialist elements a free hand and. con'iequently. freedom
to prepare for a return of capitalism.
.
The CPSU has been tirelessly combating every attempt to dl'imember
the coherent sociali!.t ideology and to divide it among the national and
regional detachments. The CPSU has done its utmost to stre~gt~en the
unity of the world communist movement on the basis of the ponclples of
Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism.
,
'
Socialist ideology has a sound basis in the economIC., 'io~lal and
political system in the socialist countries. Il expresses the \-'lt~llntere .. ts
of the working class and all the other sections of th~ working p~op~e
which it rallies, This ideology expresses the progressl\-'e tendenCies In
world history. and there is no power an~w~ere, in the w?rld that could
b lock its successful development, Socl3hst Ideology IS not on the
de fensive but on the offensive,
, . If
While socia li !lt ideo logy has been deve.lo.pin g and p~rfectlng Itse
penetrating ever deeper into the minds of mllho~s .of men lIl, th,e c~urse l~
th e st ruggle against bou rgeois ideas. bourgeOIs I deolog~ I,S In ~ ~ota, y
,
'.
It s arms bearers have to use ma In y su ver:.lve
dl f~~~;sl i ~~~~:~I~~'ht against soc iali st ideology. alld that is ev idence of
me
, 'd
h
akness of bourgeOIs l eas,
"
I t
t ewe,
d
'tar -m the bourgeoisie is forced lficreaslfig Y 0
Under prese nt j ~;cc~P~ hi~~ n'o longer meet s its class int.e~ests, fo r ~his
abandon the old ~~ ~rom the period when the bourgeOIsIe was st Ili a
legacy stems maIO y
of the key ideas of the past are no longer
rising class. Today. m~~rsie, B contrast. the work ing ~Iass and ~he
palatable to. t ~e bou ~g
the fegitimate heirs of all that IS progressIve ~
Marxisl.LeOl Ol st pa rt ies are
I
in the past.
,
h
' " ever growi ng proces'i of emancipation
" ,,>ec "Ions,
At t he S'ame lime . t ere IS un, 'd ology amo ng new SOCIa
from th e in flue nce of b.~~ r~~o~~ ;d;o IOgical crisis among the bourgeois
There is ever greater eeV> h n
embe" have expres'ied dissatisfaction
.
' m,any 0 w ose . m h' h,.' ' hey are invited to apply t h elr
'
intei llgen
t'ila.
'
ow frameworlo. 11\ w IC
.,'h ,
h
over t c narr
Id
by ..tate monopoly cap lt nllsrn WIt I'"
capab ilit ies and know e ge
-,

hideboUnd hierarchy . There is growing prote"l again,,' the callou

t
b
.
.
d'
\nc\\
and sp~ritual PQV~rty 0 o~rgeOis Soc, leb'Y ,ahn ;Igalm! ~he con \ Umer
mentaHty. There ~s a mountmg strugge y. C \.ommUm"l" to ~ pread
socialist ideology I.n ~he ra~ks ~f the pro leta ri at ~\nd ot~cr "cchon" of the
workina people s.dmg with II. In th e ~o unt nc .. hemg '>wept hy th
national liberation movement , the pre shge of bourgeoi .. ideology h e
been plummeting because it is close ly connected with the policy ~~ )
colonialism and neocolonialism . while th e pre'i tige of socialist ideology
has been growing . Those are the fact s.
Socialist ideas are bound to win in the fi e rce struggle of ideas which is
now in progress . Socialist ideology alone meet s the vita l requirement s of
social development . giving full and all-round e xpress ion to the interests
and aspirations of millions upon million s of working peop le a llover the
llobe. and reflecting mankind' s inexorable ad vance towa rds socialism
and communism, Socialist ideology has the truth o f life behin d it, and the
truth is invincible.
_..

.riB DlPACT OF EXAMPLE

ONnlEWORLD
PROCESS

Bouqeois aad petty-boullcois theori sts kee p saying that the

cmeappyc of a new formation based. on class antagoni sms has always
hepd in hand with wars. expansion and the sei zu re of foreign
Ianda. But sociaHam bas a different policy to pursue in the world arena ,
IUd this the bcw''Jeois politicians, who take a hostile a ttit ude to Marx
ismLeninism, cannot understand,
LeDin'. maio idea about the role of force and the impo rtance of
military Ilrenath for the victory of socialism was expre sse d in t hese few
concise word.: ""Coerc::ion is effective against those who wa nt to restore
their rule . But at this stage the significance of force end s, a nd aft er that
only influence and examp\c are effective,""
Lenin broUlht out two key tasks of revolution : to defend th e working
people's power by me,n, of armed force and to set an example in
buildi~, the new socie!-Y: Bcooomic ac::tivi'ty reveals the fund a mental
supenonty of the
system and this ultimatedly en sures the
triumph ofth~ ne.w ~iety ~vertheold . The triumph of communi sm on a
gklbal scale IS historically meviteble as a result of world develo pment.
The economic succeSIeS of soeialism are a reflection of the hi storical
regularity expressina the social IlJUCture of the new societ y, its
advantages . development and strenath of political organi satio n , and of

,ODe

SOC"""

y.
1\

the 'it ate ami the Party lla~ing their poli(.;y on science and rely ing on t he
ma'i~C'i in everything. Economic !-.uccesses also eXpre'l5 the growing
cu lture and dcvell)pment of ~cience and technology, and the rising
moral. politi(.;al and cultural level of the work ing people. That i ~ exactly
what Len in indicated when he 'iaid that the task of the new society wa~
to raise labour productivity to the highest level.
Lenin's idea about the importance of creative ~uccesses in the new
soc iety was formulated with great clarity: ''To defeat capi t a1i~m in
general, it is necessary, in the fir~t place. to defeat the exploiters and to
uphold the power of the exploited. namely. to accomplish the task of
overthrow ing the exploiters by revolutionary forces; in the second place,
to accompli sh the constructive task. that of establish ing new economic
relations, of sett ing an example of how th is shou ld be done. These two
aspects of the task of accomplish ing a soci~l i st revolution . are
indi ssol ub ly connected. and distinguish our revolution from all prevIOuS
o nes which never went beyond the destructive aspect ... , Regarded from
the i'ntern ational point of view, from the standpoint of v~ctory ~v.er
capitali sm in general. this is a paramount task. o,r.the entl~e so.clallst
revolution ."~ Alt hough these creative tasks are Initially fulfilled JO one
country, t hey are of tremendous i nternatio~al importance" a~d a~e
assessed by Len in "from the standpoinl of VictOry over capitalism iO
genera I" .
h S
1 fon
Here Leni n st ressed that these fea tures make t e O\'let .revo u I
d' ff ent fro m all the earl ier ones in which the destruchv~ aspec t
I er. 1 d Indeed destruction was characteristic of bourgeOis-demo~~~~~I ~e~olutions: because their task was no more than to destdro y ~h,e
hch hampe red t he development of the pro ucllve
sfuperst,rucbturegeWo,s' societY The new bourgeois relat ions matured within
orces In our
. .
.
BourgeOIs
the feudal
._"
of ' he
I
I
. 0;;
.
..
f oc iety and bourgeo is and pett y-bourgeoIs
political organJ sal1~m h' s Iway's confin ed themselves to the political
theories of re volution , ave a
as pect s of the revol~tlO~ . ks prevail in the soc iali st revolution, which
By contrast. crealLve . as d soc ial system that had never existed in the
. 0f t h e bo urgeob
pro duces a new
. economiC
d ran
will see that the conception
past. ,A n~ unbiased ;~~me Leninism because they do not u.nde,rstand ~t all
theon sts IS a fa r c ry
. , .' the socialist count nes IS to bUild a
,
f
th
e
Communis
s m
'
fe
that the,du Y O
"show how this is done", Bourgeo is theon sts re us
new soc let ~ and to exerted by the sociali st example on. the eme r~ent
to see the mflu ence.
d , a d that the world revolutionary pro!,;es~
.
Th
ey
refuse
to
un
ers n
natIOnS,
~ Ibid., p, 417.

v.

I. Le nin, Coikcled WOIb , Vol. 31, p. 457,

."

can no jollier develop .in~ependen~ly ?f th~ c.," am l1lc sct dail y hy the
Communists of the .socl~hs~ countnes In h~lIldlnS thc !le\\ soc iety
example set 10 building the new society has a hiS palt to phy .
multerina the subjective factor and directing the energy of the mas~e III
lite countries taking the path of revolution along the right lines. Th a~ Ii"
why Lenin said that "socialism has the force of example" and that ther ~
is need to "show the significance of communism in I1rac ticc.

ne

b;

example...
Today. the spontaneous aspect of the revolutionary movement is
clisappearina. The clearer the awareness of the masses of the immediate
and ultimate aims in their struggle, the more effective their action in the
billOrical arena. The Great October Socialist Revolution set an example
in overthrowing the power of the exploiters. and that is the greatest
iIIIIoence it bas exerted on the consciousness of the masses. on their will
to 1ItnIP. on the development of the subjective factor in the world
proceSS. But to say no more would be to minimise its
~ ... orJ:u to muster the subjective factor it is highly
.......... to show the purpose for which the revolution has been carried
... wbII k Us yielded for the workingman, and what the real successes
. . 'a;" ill baiIdiaa the DeW society are, It is this highly important
IIfICttllll the CPSU has tire:lessly emphasised and elaborated. Without
... II is impossible today to try to musler the consciousness of the
lIun. aDd their revolutionary energy. Those who fail to understand the
dEjdh of !enjDS idea about the power exerted by example cannot hope
to WJ7,,'A!I the key aspect in the development of the present-day
revolullBnry paocell. The world revoluticm today is no longer a
sponta-e rJUI explosion like the peasant wars of the 16th century. To
fOllet thiI il to slow down the world revolutionary process.
Lenin kept Jbel_ the intemational importance of the Soviet
constructj,o" of lOCiIIiam aad frequeatly spoke about two aspects of this
example. n-ely. the domeltic and the international: "After proving
t~. by revoluti~ orpniaation. we can repel any violence directed
&gal,ost the exploited, we must prove the same thing in another field by
settmg an example that will convince the vast mass of the peasants and
petty-boul'8eoi. element., and other countries as well not in word but
in deed" that a.commu nist
and way of life. ca~ be created by a
proletanat whICh has woo a WU. Thil is a task of world-wide
~ignific~nce, To achieve !be ucood half of the victory in the
International sense, we m.ust KCOII+p61h the second half of the task. that
which bears upon ~onomic CODltnIction ...., Thus. Lenin once again
cle~rly ~t t~e ~ue ..tlOn about the tuo a'peellof development in the new
society: reslstmg the use of force by Cbe exploiters, and setting an

&i"""'",

.,.Item

~ V .. I. LcrUn. Collecttd Worts. Vol. ]1, p. "'7,

Ibid . pp. 41819.

~xampl~ in con\trudion , The !iecond half of the victory on an

internatIOnal sc ale c on s i \ t ~ of successe1 in Soviet economic con<;truction

and the impact of the Soviet example on the working people of all
countries. That i\ Lenin '<; mo\t important point.
Again and again I.enin returned to cOn<;ider the traditions of sociali~t
thought , connecting with it\ hi ... tory hi., conclusion that the socialist
system must be a force capable of <;etting an example.
"In the place of method \ of th e revolutionary overthrow of the exploit- ,
ers and of repelling the tyrants. we mu st apply the methods of constructive organisation; we mu <;t prove to the whole world that we are a force
capable, not only of reSisting any auem.J.>t to crush us by force of arms
but of setti",!;" .~n .~xam1?le to ".otllerC Alfthe writings of the greate ... t
, socialists have alway s provided guidance on these two aspects of the
task of the socialist revolution which. as two aspects of the same task,
refer both to the outside world, to those states that have remained in
capitalist hands, and to the non-proletarians of one's own country.'"
The strength of the CPSU lie s in the fact that it has successfully
tackled both task s indicated by Lenin. With the growing successes of the
new social system. its growing strength and development th: second t~sk
came to the fore to become the major one. Such is the logiC underlYing
the development of the new system. In May 1911. in opposition to
Trotskyite views completely denying the importa~c:. of eCOnO~l1l;
construction in the Soviet Republic and the ... ery poSSibility of c~~rylng
on such construction, Lenin formulated the following key prOposition to
sum up what had been done and achieved:
.'
"We are now exercising our main influence on .the international
revolution through our economic policy. The w~rkmg peo~le of all
countries without exception and without exaggerat~on are looking. to .t~e
' R . Re ublic This much has been achieved. The capitalists
SoVlet uSSlan
p,
.
. h h
gerly catch
cannot hush up or conceal anythmg. That IS w y t ey so I", h' r ld
. mistake and weakness. The strugg e In t IS Ie
at our every economlOI~al Once we solve this problem. we shall have
,
.
..9
has noW become g .
,
d f II won on an internatIOnal scale.
certainly an lila y
d 'II show again and again. the actual
y
has
shown
an
WI
.
.
'
t
HIS or
, ..
' f h xample of building a new sOCiety III a
worldwid~ , slgOlfl~a:~~t 0 U~i:n ~ In economic', geographi~al and ethni.c
country hkestShRe , r~e a whole world. and that is why ItS example IS
terms the U
IS 1
many-faceted.
I . transforming large-scale capitalist industry
It is, first ..an examp e It the country like the coal and metallurgical
on socialist lines. p~~s ~ h' hly developed and industrialised center
areas of the south, II e t e Ig
3 Ihid., pp. 41718.
~ Ihid . Vol. 32. p. 417.

407

,pctrograd . Moscow ) and variou s ot.h e.rs. d iffcre.d little, if at aiL in

eConomic and ,oeial structure fro m s imilar area ... In I.:apltali ... t We!.tcrn
Europe . By 191 1, the c ountr~"s ~'o rking class. h~d already ... el an e\ample
in conseiousne, s and organi satIOn . The ... oc lallst transformation of the
developed indu"lry of old Ru ssia will a lways servc .. ' an c\ample for
the industrialised capitalist countries.
Second , the Soviet people indicated the way of restructuring agrarian
areas fettered with a web of semife udal de pt! ndence and doomed by
capitalism to hackwardnes s . The U SSR sh owed how su ch area ... should
be industrialised and taken onto the path of soc ial ist deve lopment. This
showed for the first time in history the g reat c reative importance of the
alliance hetween the working cla ss and th e peasant ry, a nd th e role of this
alliance in progressive social developm ent.
Third. the Soviet Union showed how to build up and foster a working
class . to raise socialist culture and develop tec hno logy in areas suffering
from colonial dependence . Today, these are fl o uri shi ng areas of Central
Asia. This kind of experience is of gre at valu e for a majorit y of the
peoples of the globe , The USSR also showed ho w t o carry a long the path
of progress those peoples which capitalis m h ad kept in Stone Age
conditions , These are the peoples of the Far No rth , and th ey now have
writers whose books have been tran slated into many European
languages , let us bear in mind that out side the soc ialist world the
condition of peoples who lagged behind in the ir develo pm ent has
remained unchanged ,
In short. virtually the whole diversity of the modern world has been
reflected in one way or another in the experienc e o f the USS R , so t hat
the Party founded by Lenin, which has alway s remained tru e to his
doctrine . has had to tackle tremendous historical tas k s. Th at is why the
experience of the CPSU is of vast international import ance for th e whole
of thi .. epoch.
The Programme of the CPSU says : .. As a re sult of the devot ed labour
of the Soviet people and the theoretical and practical activ ities of t he
Co mmuni st Party of the Soviet Union. there exists in the world a socialis t

society that is a reality and a science 0/ socialist constructio n th at IlCJs

lo
h~en tested in pra ctice: The highroad to socialis m ha.i hee/I pa ved . This

highroad h as been laid for peoples living in different co nditio ns, T he

Sov iet . example al.so appHe~ to the highly developed indu stri al ised
countn e ... , t o ag ranan countnes and to areas where colo ni ali s m e ither
co nti n u ~!) t ~ ru l~ o r ha!) just been expelled . Therein lies the great
worldW ide hl ..t ~ n ca l va l~e ? f the Soviet Union ' s example , It s experience
has been c rea,t1vely asslmll,aled by countries like highly indu strialised
Czechoslovak ia, and agra ri an countries in Eastern Euro pe a nd Asia.
10 Thl Rood

..,

/<1

Communism, p. 463 .

Today, the peoples of Afrie:, ,lnd Latin America look to its e\perience.
for they face the question of ho . . . to ..tart the construction of socialism in
a backwar.d country. They arc faced with the alternative of turning to
world capllah .. m for aid, and putting off socia\i ... t ideas for the future,
This is, indeed. a highly important i..... ue in present-<lay Mlcial
development. The an ... wer has heen provided by the CPSU. Today, the
USSR's experience has been mUltiplied creat ively by the world sOl.:iali ... t
sy ~tem, consisting of the e '( perience of many countries. many peoples of
the globe, and of the whole world \{)ciali\t system.
Today. communi~m is heing huilt on the boundless e\panses of the
USSR as the second phase of the new society. The main task is to hu ild
the material and technical basis of communism. and its ""ucces~es in thi.,
sphere ~xert a great influence on every section of the world
revolutionary proce:,s. Today thi., i'i a sphere in which the struggle has
assu med global proportions. as Lenin put it.
Some theorists say that the USSR's start on communist construclion is
some kind of "subjective" and '"supplemental"' aspect of presenl-day
social development. They fail to understand that this is a necessary stage
ill the "'hole world rel'ollilio/lIlr}' prOcess. The development of the
economic, social and political strength of the world's first ""ociali ..t
country ha'i an influence on the development of the world emancipatio.n
process. Those who ignore the interaction ?f all the elements of t~IS
process and the importance of .the progressive developmen.t of soctal,
ist soc iety distort the whole picture of the world revolutIOnary pro'
cess,
.
.
For the soc ialist countries. the example of commuOI.st.constructlon
shoWS the prospects for further advance along the soc~ahst path,. ThIS
methodological precept of Lenin's ~eco.mes ~ven more Important m the
. d ' n which soc ialist constructIOn IS bemg completed, Today. the
p~~~ope~t s fo r soc ialist construction a~e, being impl~mented as a part of
Ph > . I reality Objective pre reqUISIteS are bemg created for the
Is t o n c a '
. .
.
Th"
b ' ns promoted
IS IS el
. m
f h
onsol idation of the SOC ialist countnes.
burtth~r gCrowing economic potential of the country bu il~in~ commuOls .
'et successes help 10 strengthen t he world socm\lst o,yslem. to
OVI ~.
sti e and its role in world development .
. .
enhanccd~~ef~e megnt and improvement of ~he i~terna.t ional s~c la.h st
. ~h.e of la~oll r is a key historical task m thiS p.en od. c;apllah.s~l
dIVISion f ' d r m completely by creating its own mternallo nal dl\"lo.vercam e eu ;'Is y ' n its fight against soc ial ism, capitalism stil1 tries
Slon o~ labour. bd ane'f:ts from the international division of labour, by
to d,en ve u~~~; t an~ al1ianccs of monopolies like the Comm~n Market.
seiling up
,
. I . tern has bee n condemned by history. The
"nd h'v' bee n show ing. that the
But it s master-a~d. meOla ... ys
Ines have 10 show, ..
.. ..
1
soc ialisl co un, ,. ,'nternational division of labour has fundamenta
emergent socmll st
advantages,

World socialism is fac ~d by ~'o rld ('apita l i~m. an adversary which

kteps manoeuvring on an mtern atl~n a l \(:;'I.lc. and r~\ortlOgto all manner
of tricks and dodges so as to de lay It s dem iSI!, The mtcfmHlonal \oelali\1
division of labour stimulates the. development ,of. pro~ul.:(ive force s of
socialism and brings on th e vic to ry of \oc~ahsm _In its economic
competition with capita li s ~ . To ~ee on ly the pollllcal,.dc of present-day
alliances of monopoly capital. like the Common Murkc!. and to ignore
their economic and social aspect (the juggl ing of resource, in the fight
against the forces of socialis m. with in th e ca pit al ist countries. and in the
world arena) is to forgel the elem ent s o f Marx ism and of materialism ,
and this means ideological. politica l and econo mic disa rmament in face
of capitalism. To suggest that in pre se nt-d ay cond iti ons the socialist
countries can develop their econom y alo ne a nd sepa ra te ly, ignoring the
requirements of the socialist div isio n of la bour is to ignore the
fundamentals of Marxism-Leninis m about soc io-econom ic formations. their succession and triumph in struggle against the old.
The building in the USSR of a society in whic h the social wealth is
owned by the whole people exerts an influ e nce no t o nl y o n t he countries
in the socialist system, but on all the c o untri es o f the capitalist world,
both "rich" and "poor". This makes it no longe r possib le to claim that
wealth is the privilege of the advanced capitali st countri es. It is hard to
exaaerate the imponance of this great turning po int in world history.
For a lona time. the highly developed capitali st countri es boasted of their
wealth. and bourgeOis propagandist s ke pt te lli ng th e technically
underdeveloped countries that capitalis m prov ided t he o nly way to
wealth . They kept telling the working people in th e advanced capital ist
countries that capitalism provided the only wa y out o f pove rt y. Today,
the capitalists are losing their "monopoly of wea lth ". In the socialist
world . ~ealth is being created which in it s proportion s w ill surpass that
of the nchest capitalist countries. because this wealth is in the hands of
the whol~ people . In socialist society there is no room fo r spo nge rs who
seek t? hve at the expense of others. This has had a grea t influ e nce on
the ~tndS of masses of men. the architects of history .
~IS. has also ~ad a strong impact on the working-class s truggle in the
capitali st cou~t~es. But for the existence of the soc iali st Sov ie t U nion,
and o ther soclahst c?untries . the proletariat would h a ve bee n un ab le to
sec ':Jre . even a factIOn of the concessions it ha s wre sted fr o m th e
ca plta hsts. concessions which open up great vi sta s fo r co ntinued
work.mg-clas~ struggle .. But there is more 10 it than that . W ith the
grow mg ~chlevements In communist construction in the USS R , th e
masses will
!lee e ver more clearly for them. e I\les w h at c o mmunis
' m has
.
actu a IIy m
sto re for them.
and will be able t a c h
ie arn
d
to
.
.
oose,
to
a
n
d raw t h elr ow n conclUSions about the futu
f
" I'
Th
..
re 0 capita Ism
e bUlld m~ of c ommunism exens an influence On the w~rking clasS
and ot her sect io ns o f the wo rking people maO I th
h hi "
10 Y roug t e revo utlo n-

<try Iran ... furm<tlinn uf the proces:, of labour itself. Even the rdatively
high wage" in the capitali ... t cuuntrie.-.. cannot conceal the fact that there
the workers are nut ...ati ... fied with their work. which has hecome
monotonuu ... and exhau..,ting, being deprived of any creative elemenl'!.
initiative or innovation. In an effort to find a way to comoat thi .. evil,
mo .. t We..,tern ... ociologi ... ts have blamed technology and .-..cience. whose
very development, they ..ay. has consigned the workingman to thi ... hard
lot. This. they claim. i.. the ine\capable price of progre\s. Sociali .. m deah
a cru\hing blow at thi.-, hourgeois dogma. Thegrave<;t crime of capitalism
is a terrible <;piritual deva<;tation of productive lahour. the key 'Sphere of
human activity.
The liberal US weekly. The Nation, carried a lengthy article in Augu<;t
1957 by a man who had worked in industry for a number of years. It wa.-,
entitled "The Myth of the Happy Worker", and said: "It is not simply
status-hunger that makes a man hate work that is mindle%. end lc.-,s,
stupefy ing. sweaty, filthy, noisy. exhausting, insecure in il\ prospects
and practically without hope of advancement.
"The plain truth is that factory work is degrading ....
"Almost without exception, the men with whom I ~orked o~ the
assembly line last year felt like trapped ani',l'lals. De~endlDg on t~elr age
and personal circumstances. they were either reSigned to their fate,
fu riously angry at themselves for what they wer~ doin~,.or desperately
hunting other work that would pay as well and ID addition offer. some
variety, some prospect of change and betterment. They wer.e. Sick of
be ing pushed around by harried foremen (thems.elves m~re pItied than
hated), sick of working like blinkered donke.ys. Sick of belD~ ~ependent
for their livel ihood on a maniacal production - merchandlslDg. setup.
sick of work ing in a place where there was no spot to relax dunng the
twe lve min ute rest period....
d d f
"Th; worker'S attitude toward his work is generally compoun e 0
h t d shame and res ignation."1l
..
a re,
. . es ts labour with a great creative content . turns It ~ nto a
Comm U ~ I!mdl~n~ellectual value and gives much ideological meamng to
g reat mora ,n b
, " "Y La'bour becomes a moral value because
's whole la our ac IVI .
. .
f the
man
h'
k fo the com mo n good is a key cnterlon 0
r
Labour becomes an inte llectual
man'S att itude. to IS wo r
'j;;;~.
mOfe appl ication of bra ins and know~c
.
I
f reat mo ra l satisfaction because the worker
~edge. Labour I~ \sou:~:t ~o~ia l tasks wit h wh ic h his day-to-day ac tiv i.ty
IS full y aware 0 t e g
k In any sector of commuOIst
y
is connec ted, wherever . he mha wor e~ t of' soc iety and each of its
t'
labour enJOYS t e resp
I .
construe Io n.
h
' the lo ng history of labour. t I ~
membe!'s. This mark~: g~~~~~ i ~;~~ ~~ Isifying Le ninism the ema ncipa
impOSSib le to concea Y IS
II TIlt Nllliull. Augu~1 11. 19.'17. pp. 6.'1. 67.

tOT" importance for all mankind of the procc~ses going on in the USSR'
.
.
0 n Iy t h ose V.:ht1 arc hostile t'"
the, period of communist
construction.
Marxism-Leninism will deny the importance of this . Marxism-Lcnin~
ism i~ the onl~ scientj~ic theo~y which has made a,comprehemive study
of labour and Its role In the hi story of human society, It has shown the
way along which mankind can advance to th e emancipation of laboUT
from the (elters of exploitation . The whole world outlook of scientific
communism is infused with the idea of emancipating social labour and
developing irs vast creative potential. One of the key principles of
scientific communism is to clear the path of huma n labour from all
the obstacles that the exploitative system has erected and to create the
most perfect forms of its organisation so as to erect a perfect social
structure.
Capitalism has directed man's productive labour . equipped with
modern science. largely to the detriment of man him sel f . That is a great
crime. Communism turns to the benefit of man the greatest sc ient ific and
technical achievements going into the equipment of th e productive
labour. Therein lies the greatest historical importance of th e USSR's
example .
A whole generation of bourgeois revolutionarie s joined in th e struggle
bearing in mind the idea that was well formulated in the opening lines of
Jean-Jacques Rousseau's The Social Contract: "Man is born free. yet
everywhere he is in chains." The leaders of the French revolution
of 1789 knew these words by heart and swore to put right this his.
torical i~justice. After about two centuries of capitalism, the French
economist Fran~ois Perroux drew this uncomfortable conclusion:
two-thirds of ~he people suffer from hunger, disease, ignorance and
po~erty. That ~s t~c: lot of the bulk of mankind in an age when technological and sCientific resources make it possible to live in real abundance.

Mode~n socialt~OUght gives a direct reply to this

the c~<u~~ feueflng man, why is he unable to

question: what are

use the available
p~tenhahtJes for economic and technical development? AU men of good
~III and h?nest t~ought must ponder this question and seek an an swe r. It
IS a queshon which scientists in every field in the West ask them selves
ever more frequently, because On the anSwer depend the pro spect s for
th~ d~v.elopment ~f science and technology and mankind' s future.
SCientific commumsm has P
d h'
.
.
soc' I a d
rr I
. ~ove I at sO~lety's erstwhile eco noml,
1 I~ _- n ~I_!$~ .orgaDl$at!o~ h.!s ~)Utli.ved itself and has become....a
. ~tter on. _ ~nklRd s progressive ~elopmenl. Can men of labour
~eaoUrr'SnSRa. sdlTferentllorm
01 social organisation that would be better?
ex amp e says yes.
The Communist parties, says the CPSU P
"
_
strated the vitality of M'"
L ..
rogramme , have demo n
a n d .th'
. nol on Iy I0
propagate the great ideals...ofXlsm. emmsm
..
elr a bIlity
sClenhflc commumsm, but also to put them

intu prar.:tkc" 12 Con,cquently the .,pread of communi\t idea~ now

,I."urne, a new ch;lracter. for it is clo~ely connected with the communi,t
eon<.,truction in the. USSR and other countries of the world ,oei .. li,t
wstern and becomes propag.. nda by fact. by example. The Communi,t
Party j<., the highe<.,t form of the political organi ..ation of the working
cia ..... which leads the other working people. and in the USSR it ha~
awakened the greate..,t social energy of the masses for the performance
of truly fabulou <., advances in the .. ph ere of material production and
intellectual development, and which with the full and final victory of
sociali .. m ha .. become the Party of the whole people.
The attempts to denigrate the Sov iet Union's experience and to reduce
the power of its historical example is the main content of prese?t-day
anti-communism. That i~ why for some time now the propagand l ~ts? f
anti-commu nism have sought to invest social ism wilh capitali st
featu res, to discover class antagonisms in society, ctc .. It v:-as th.e
Right-wing Social Democrats who first. p~t forward the Idea In thCIT.
fight against the Communists t~at SOCialism tends to engender nel\
bourgeois elements. This invention has been. ta~en ..up a~d bourgeOis
theorists came to label soc ialism as "state capitalism . ThiS theory was
invented to fight social ism.
. . h But the soc ialist period differs from the transition p~n~d In t at It
ceases to engender-and cannot in fact engender-c~pltahsm becaus~
-commodity sector and private property I.n the means 0
have been abolished and
re,gnf
P
cou rse, we still have idlers. spo~~e~~. ~~011~~~:sa~r ;:oa deef~nite ~ocial
bou~geois
idle , tbut,~ggO ~~~~~~t th: existence of classes depends on the
sectIOn wou d be 0

~~~d~~!ibn

social.properl~

StUf~~e~e~~~

thinking of ~en. hese lines about the vestiges of the ex~lo!ting classes
All reasOOlng on ~ .
arin to restore capitalism. all the
existing under SOCialism and ~r~r"ne! bourgeois elements" allegedly
inventions abou t the e?",~rgencstem have no grounds. This theory doc:s
engendered by fhe s.ocl lahst SYes gding forw ard in Soviet soc iety and, In
nOI express any SOCia process
f the facts and ac hievements in
effect. contradicts ~hese. . . '
t
Th e st.ruggl e agam.s falslfl~:~I~ng r~at part to play because the po~er
fl ence This struggle, which
commuOlst constructIOn now
d
xerts a Iremen ous m u
.
I
of examp Ie noW e
,
Bolshevism. a struggle against th7 vu .gar
began with the emergence o.f.
f ts great ideas in the new hlstoTlcal
view of soc ial ism and vul~aTlshat lonbo I ht great successes 10 the Soviet
..
t ggle which as roug
.
.
I
n the
condillon s. ~ s ru .
the CPSU in the internatlOna arena.1
people, is belRS earned on by Id evolut ionary process and the tnumph
interests of advancing the wo~ r h e carried on this struggle not only
of com muni sm. The Communists av
!~ Tilt Rmld 10

Oml/lllll!iHI'I. p- 4llS .

with words . but -a nd this ise,specially if!lPlHt<lIlI.,- wilh tked .... \\ilh the
example of building co mmunis m . Th a ~ ,IS why 11 1\ ... afc, 10 .. ay Ih<ll the
whole Soviel peo ple and ever>: SO\'lel c lh ~cn arc now taklll!! part through
their day: tlHtay labour effort In I he great loeo!\lglcall:lall k II f 011 r uay for
communism .
Even some spokesmen of anti-comm u nism have 10 admit thai the

Soviet example ex.erts a powerful influence. One of them, Alec No\e, in

a chapler of his book entitled " Force of Example", say ... : "There i~ a
tendency in some quarters to view the Soviet da nge r 100 c\clll',ivcly in
terms of some specific actions - milit ary. 'eco nom ic penetration' ,
etc .- by the USSR and her allie s. Yet an import ant pari of OUT
difficulties arise from the ps ycho logica l effec ts of Soviet ac hievements
on the climate o f opinion in underde velope d count ries." L1 The objective
conditions in the modern world are ripe for the examp le of communist
construction to yield fruitful re sult s.
The historical situation today . e ven accord ing t o bo u rgeois t heorists,
calls for a wholesale revolution, if technical prog ress is to be realised.
Bou.raeois society cannot cope with s uc h a revol utio n w hich is inexorable. Socialist society puts the most impo rt a nt ac hievements in
science and technology at the service of social develo pm ent , thereby
sett.ina an example of the utmost u se of the scie ntifi c and technical
revolution for the common good .
Ale<: Nove adds : "It is in this context that th e po litical appea l and the
force of Russia's example must be seen . Thi s is w hy g radu alist or
conservative proposals tend to be regarded a s affo rding no solu tion to
the country ' s probLems ." I.
In other words. technical progress, especially the tas k of involv ing the
develo ping countries in it , now requires revolutio nary methods.
rev olutio~ary thinki!ll' and resolute struggle again st con servati sm of
ever~ stnpe. That IS the demand of the times, s uc h a re th e urgent
requirements of society and these have to be fac ed . But how can one, in
that cas~. refu~ to. see the experience gained by the s oc ia li st syst em and
~he SO~let URlon 10 th~ broad application of modern tec hno logy? T o
~gnore II . wo~ld be to 19nore the competilion with capitali s m a nd t he
IRtroduchon mto t~e Soviet national economy of the most ad vanced
meth~d~, technologJe~ and scientific achievement s, all of whic h a mou nt
to bUlldmg th~ matenal and technical basis of communi s m .
...Fo r a I~ng tlm~ . ~rgeois sociologists said that c apilal alo ne t oo k t he
ri s k of mnovat!on ~n~ that it alone had the "spirit o f ente r prise".
Ac (u~lly, la.bo~r In SOCialist society increaSingly include s innovation and
c reall ve thmkmg by the o
.....aniser and wo r k er alme
' d. a Improve
'
.he
1) A. Nove. C()rnmllnist &m.olllic Sll'Qt
. So ' G
.
Nalional
Planning As~oc ial ion 19' 9
y.
~I"
ro
....
th and Capah,/u".{, US.",.
I~
,
. p.JU.
CA

Ibid., p. ~I

'"

..

pnJr.:e ...... of produ~tion and ih organi~alion Thi ...... pirit of iniliativc.

c.:reatlvlty. ratlonah"'atlon and innovation ha\ .. ervcd thc whole of Soviet
society and ha'\ hecome one of the key factors behind the rapid and
... teady development of production. Thi ... ios an indication that Soviet
...ociety holS entered an epoch in which. as Marx put it. "the development
of the .. ocial individual operates as the basic principle of produc.:tion and
wealth",!' It i.. the period of funscale communi ..1 construction, marking
the most resolute moment in the competition between ..ocialism and
capitalism.
Alec Nove gives a fairly authentic picture of the thinking in the
national liheration movement of the countries of Asia and Africa:
" Russ ia. they argue. was one of us, and has become a great industrial
power. ...
"A ll t his does not necessarily lead the reformers to become Commu
nists; but it docs lead to impatience with old ways, a willingnes<; to listen
to ext remists .... The experience of Western countries seems .. imply
irre levant: t heir social and economic situation was and is totally
different, and their experience cannot be applied." 16 What does this
suggest? First, it shows that the objective situation and the course of
historical development tend to enhance for public opinion the role of
Left.wing progressive elements, relying on Soviet experience. Second,
t he expe;ience of Western countries increasi~glY appe~rs to be
irrelevant. because it has failed to show the devel.opm.g countnes the way
to social progress. Such is the tendency of the hlstonca~ prOcess t~day,
The more perspicacious Wester~ observers have. reahsed .that With ~he
Soviet engineers and machinery gOing to the countnes of ASla.anl~f Af~~a
comes Soviet e.'<perience in transforming social. and economic ~ e.
e
US .
I Bllsiness Week in its issue of Apnl 18, 1959,.a~sessed t~e
.
Journa 'of the Soviet Union's construction of t he B~llal W~rks m
Imp.ortan~e 'd thai it was a "real Soviet achievement 10 the field of
India a~ sal
. ' " stress ing that the competit ion has run not only
economl~ compellllon ~ humanist ic lines. It added that the activity of
on t.echmca~ ~~: 3ItS~e~ way of life and their relations wit h their Indian
SovIet specta IS '~'im ressed the Indian steel workers and even so":,e of
coJleague.s have. C P
. ts in the Indian govern ment and busmess
the genu me ani I ommum s
com m~nit y"'W k' a 'ournal whic h does not ordinarily dea l with
B/lsmesS
et! IS., J.
tier' but in that report it went to t he
philoso phical or SOCIological ~abet ;~e n the t wo ideologies. The pow.er
very root of the cU.rrent stru gg . closely bound u p with socialist SOC ial
of soviet econom ic exam ple IS
11 Karl

. (R II 1..... rfj

O
Marx. Gr.. l1drisst dtr Krilik drl' p<Jlilisrllell kQlIomic a til

J/l~711i~:;.
.'

Moskau. 1939. S. ~93. .

'.51 .., '__ SOlie! Gr(lIl'Ih alld Colp,,"ililici. pp. ~l~~.
,. ."'. Noye, Com,numSl Econ<Jnu( ,ol ..
.U~

relations. with sociali st id,eo lo,SY and ~o\' i,et mora~ value ... and idea ... _The
economic competition in ev it ably I m~II~... polltu.:al anJ ideologital
struggle . and the editors o f th e bou rgco l ... Journal ... en ... cd thi ... with their
cla ss instinct.
Over the pa st dec ade s. soc ia l t ho ug ht in t he countries of the East had
painfully probed for an an sw er to th is q u c"tio n : what i ... the way OUI of
the terrible and hopele ss need a nd povert y? The apologi ... !!) of capitali'Sm
kept saying that the bou rgeo is way ,o f d eve lopment was the only way.
that it was inevitable . and that hi story had no ot her ways, Some
bourgeoi s intellectuals in the A sian count ries suggested that their
poverty was better and nobler than th e greedy drive for p rofit. Indeed.
some have started to prai se b ackwardness. " holy indigence" and "noble
poverty" , That wa s a peculiar path fo r socia l th o ug ht to t ake. because it
led nowhere, Today, social thought in th e count ries o f th e East has been
leaving this lonely path to take the highroad lead ing to scientific
communism , and there is no return to the ideas o f " h oly poverty",
however hard the advocates of present-da y pett y-bourgeo is soc ialism
may try , History is moving in quite a different directi o n ,
Whatever the various "advisers" from the Right and the "Left" may
say to the people of the East about So v iet ex pe ri ence in build ing
socialism and communism being irrelevant to the ir countries, the truth
of life cannot be concealed, When Soviet people had to grit t heir teeth to
overcome the tremendous difficultie s of laying the fo undation of
socialism stone by stone in an encirclement by st ro ng e nemies, some
Western theorists gloated over the difficulties of Sov ie t growt h a nd t ried
to scare the backward working people with simila r prospects. A great
many speeches were delivered and reams o f pa pe r w ritten on the
subject. But what can they say now that the S o viet peop le, in a short
historical period , have fundamentally changed the face of t hei r cou nt ry
and the conditions of their own being'? The enginee ring a nd metalworking industry of the Soviet Union now turn s o ut in o ne d ay what
it took a prerevolutionary Russia a year to produce , Be fo re the revolution , 80 per cent of the population in the country was illitera te; by t he
beginning of the sixties 40 per cent of the workers and 23 pe r cent of
the.collec~ive farmers had a secondary and higher educ ation ; the Soviet
UOion tramed three times more engineers than the US A , Th ese facts
exert a revolutionising influence and are material arguments in fa vour of
c ommunist ideas,
The once backward Eastern fringes of tsari st Ru ss ia h ave become
adva nced socialist republics with a modern indu stry and a collectivefarm s ystem , By t~e beginning of the sixties. the output of la rge-scaJe
~ndu stry products In Kazakhstan and the Central Asian re publics had
mc reased by .over 6O-fold , Kazakhstan 's indu strial output pe r head
of, t ~ e po pu latIOn was equal to that of Italy ; it generated a s muc h elect n clty as Japan and more than Italy . In Uzbekistan there were

t~vICC- a'S many pcople with a higher edutation per 10.000 of the popul;ltlon than there were in hante. 7 time~ more than there were in Turkey
and 2M tlmC!) mort: than in Iran.
,I,_cnin \aid that 1,lrge-\Cale indu~try wa~ an important condition for
r<H<,~ng, the va\t and hackward countryside which still ~urrounds the
capltall\t "seat ... of civili\ation". He wrote: "We '>peak of a flourishing
larg~-"cale indu\try, which i~ able to supply all the goods the pea~anlS
are In urgent need of. lind thi$ possibility exists; if we con'Sider the
problem on a world scale. we see that a flourishing large-scale industry
capable of supplying the WOrld with all kinds of goods ex ists. only its
owners do not know how to use it for anything but the manufacture of
gu ns, shell~ and other armaments, employed with such succes~ from
1914 to 1918. Then industry was geared to war and ~upplied mankind
wi th its prod ucts so abundantly that no fewer than 10 mill ion peoph: were
kill ed and no fewer than :!O million maimed:' I' Mankind hao; produced
a not her industrial power, which is social ist and which has been growing
steadi ly. The time is bound to come when this flourishing large-scale
indu st ry will be capable of supplying the peasant countries with all they
need to advance along the socialist way, Meanwhile the growing stre ngth
of the socialist system has been hampering the imperialists in making u~e
of their ind ustry for military purposes, The socialist world ha!> been
pu sh ing capitali~m toward~ disarmament requiring that it should turn Its
resources to industrialising the underdeveloped area" of the globe. S~ch
are the hi!>lorical prospects being opened up by the further strengthenmg
of the soc ialist countries' economic strengt ~..
.
However. it is importan t that t he f~ood o~ IOdustnal g<>?ds dlfect~d to
t he deve loping countrie.!> should set 10 mohon a mechamsm effectively
impell ing these countries alo ng the path of progress. The frag~ented and
.
. h d small (arms cannot make effective use of thiS flood of
Impoven S e
. I
..
d here
s
need
for
a
diffe
rent
sOC
ia
orgamsatlOn.
an
g OO ds. Th er. I
,
. I
.
Of vast
.
k' d I eady has co n ~iderable hlstOfl ca experience.
man 10 a ,r th ., context is the Sov iet example in tac kling the agra ri an
impo rtance 10 I
.
.
A N
s
SOC
ial
develo
pment.
,
ove
say.
key
problems
of
,
. f
II
by
on e 0 f the
Problem.
S ' U ons collectivisa lion of agricultu re IS req uen y seen
"T~e ?vlet c;~als as a model re levant to their needs. In thei r own
ASian .lOlelle ric ~lture i's generally handicapped by socia~. legal, a.nd
countnes,
ag
hIC h u rg. "t
ly require change, and Soviet collecti
ve

I
patterns
w
"
.
tee h OIca
, . oft en regard e d as a progress ive fo rm of rural cooperation
, ....
.
farmmg IS
eform drastically the agricultu re of t.hese count nes IS
The need to r I
egative criticism of the Soviet record would
urgent. and ,:e~~:!ti v~ unless an alt ernati~e r~ad is advocated, which is
probabl~ be I th s ecial needs of farmIng 10 those areas, A fe\\-, toO
more SUitable to e p
II V I Ltn in_ r.,lIrcttu lVorks, Vo l. JJ, p. 151.

few. Western experts arc doin~ ju,'", that"'- Out .th~ point is thaI hi,tory
has nO other ways but the capllnhs! and the socllIhst. There i ... no othe
way out of agrarian poverty bU,t ~hc ,coorefa.lion of agric ultu re.
r
Indu striali sation and collecttvl sn tlOn, which hclpc~ to deve lop a
flourishing socia li st economy. arc the way for the soc ml . c ultural and
economic upswing for nations escapins from bondage . The emanc ipation
of nations involves the building of an economic foundation for their free
development. Economic achievements ha ve a great impact on th e minds
of men because they show how to tackle the national question , to help
nations draw closer t o each othe r . a nd t o establish relation s of sincere
and profound friendship on the basis of th eir common cau se and basic
mutual interest s.
In order to decide which aspect o f communist construction is most
valuable for all countries, let u s recall Ro u sseau 's exce ll ent id ea, which
was quoted in the opening pages o f thi s book: "The better th e
constitution of the state, the more public affairs prevail in the mind s of
citizens. Indeed , there are fewer private a ff ai rs becau se out of the sum
total of common welfare a more con side rable portion is being prov ided
for the welfare of each individual , so that it remai ns for hi m to seek less
in his private concern ." 19 That is the hi storical path along which the
Soviet people are advancing, and there is no doubt that their experience
is of great value for every working person a nd for th e whole of mankind .
Under capitalism the working people can have no socia l g uarantee of
a secure individua1 existence, however ha rd bourgeoi s ideo logists may
boast about individuali sm . In many important areas th e USSR has long
since secured incontestable advantages for the workingman as compared
with the most developed capitalist states. Free e ducatio n , free medical
service and guaranteed employment have become commonplace in the
USSR. The Programme of the CPSU says: "There is now every
possibility to improve rapidly the li ving standard s of the entire
population-the workers, peasant s , and intellectuals. The CPSU sets
forward the hi storically important task of achieving in the Soviet Unioll a
living standard higher than that 0/ any 0/ the capitalist cOlmtries." w The
Programme contains clear-cut indication s of how thi s can be achieved .
Thu s, the idea of the "common good" mu st be attractive for the working
people o~ the capi~alist countries , including the " ric hest" among these,
because 10 th.e society dominated by the blind force s of ca pital , masses
of people dally experience a sense of in security . The working people s'
~rg~ .to sav~ all they can is an expression of the insec urity of an
m~lvldual eX istence. The prominent US soc iologist , Robe rt K . Merton,
writes: "To say that the goal of monetary success is entrenched in Ame-

CommuniSI ECOllomic Slraugy: SOI'itl Gro wlII and Capabilitits, p. 52 .

"20"AJ. JNove,
. Rousseau, Lt ContrOl sodaJ, Par is. Livre Ill, C h. XV, .305.
Tht Road 10 CommunISm, p. 537.

rit: an c ultu re i... on ly to ~ay tho

t A
.
a
hy precept ... whic h ' ff '
h . mencan') a re bombarded on every .. ide
a Irm I e nght or often th d
f
,.
gnul even in the face f
' . ' e uty 0 retaining the
.
0 repeated fru .,tratlon ,,21 This prin . I
fb
geol ~ c ulture a nd (;ivili ... ation is be in t. d-I'
C1P eo our
g s ea I y o vercome , and the workin" p -.,pl ' w' lI I '
. eo. , e e l . u tlmate ly r,eali se that wealth is being created in the
... OCI.II1 ... t countne., which Will surpass thai of th d
I
"
c ountrie ... 'Lnd wi ll
b
e eve oped capltah~t
. ,
mean a undance of material and spiritual goods for
everyone .
,, ~owe v e r, th: capitali ..t world does not consist only of rich impe[I ,lll st po wers. like Ihe USA, but also of countrie s which have failed
to reac h ~he highest level o f capitalist development. In these countries,
the working peopl e are being constantly told that they must rise to the
same lev~l a s the USA , for that is allegedly the only way to prosperity
and h appl ~ ess, For th ~t purpose they are frequently pushed into colon ial
wars, their democratIC right s are curtailed , and they are offe red the
pro spect of a strong government to take control of all things and carry
the country onto the way of capitalist pro sperity.
The working people in these countries now increasingly realise that
there is another way , the way to sociali sm and communism. which helps
to tap mighty and inexhau stible sources of social wealth and popular
welfare and to establi Sh an international brotherhood of nations free
from oppre ssion . ThaI is a perfectly realistic way. It is an expression of
the revolution ising influence of the Soviet economic successes in
building communism. Soviet experience has a great message for the
working people in other countries. because the world capitalist system.
the CPSU Programme stresses, is on the whole ripe for a substitution of
cap it alism by the higher. communist system.
For long decades, various ideologists and politicians. in. the W~SI. ha~e
distorted the way along which the USSR advanced, bUIld 109 SOC ialism 10
the most complicated condi tions of a hostile capitalist encirc.lem:nt.
wa s and dislocation. Today, it is clear to everyone that the hlstor.lcal
cOI~di;ions have changed. The unparallele~ difficulties and vast. p~lva,
are behind us. The seeds sown ill those extremely diffIcult
tlons
' SOC1'I'
conditions
have yielded abundant f rU11.
a Ism 'b
IS .ecom 'ill g ever ~ore
v, ,ven for those masses of people who are stLlI far from havLOg a
aUrac
1
. I'Ism WI'II
, I' , 'd,ology The time is at hand whe n the way to sOCia
socm 1"S I
' .
.
become the highroad o~ SOCial develo.pment for .all cou ntne,'h' "dea of
rgeo is theo rt sts whose maiO concern IS to rescue e 1
bou
Even
'.
..
between cap1ta
' I 'Ism an d
, I' " in the histoncal
competlt10n
capIt
. examp Ie an d expenence.
'
0 n , of
. ar Ism have to ponder the Soviet
sOC1a IS~;y~ond W. Miller. has reached this conclusion: "It is
th em, unism that is gaining .... In many of t~e ~ewlr developing countries
co mnl .
A ia and South America-cap1talism IS looked upon alm ost
of Afnca. ~"
K MerlOIl. Sofial Thro,)' and SOfial SrruClurt . The Free Prc~ s . Glencoe.
r1
IllinoiS. 1957. pp. [)637.
:1 Robt

",

,,'

with scorn." ~~ In analysing the causc!i. of the ~uccc ... s of communi ... m
Miller makes an important point : "The word 'we' ha ... l1ecome th~

keystone of the success of the com munist world."!l He draw ... atlention J
to socialist collectivism and the soc iali <;t system of social property,
Miller's speech appears in a popular edit ion which has the highly
characteristic subtitle: "The Best Th ought of the Be ... ' Minds on Current
National Questions". Miller's reaso ning seems to he of interest to
readers at large. Here is what he says: "The whole idea of capitalism is
lost when we get so busy trying to ma ke money and to gain economic
security that we can think of nothing else," ~4 But suc h is th e essence of
capitalism. so that Miller's reasoning is no more than a peculiar
confirmation of the fact. The USSR's economic s uccesses really show
the great importance of the national inte~est , which s pring s from social
property. The power of this concept of "we" lies in the fact that it
emerges in production and labour, and that relati on s between men in
production do not divide but unite the whole people. The influ ence of
Soviet economic successes is at the same time the Influence of collective
labour.
When we think of what Lenin said about the importance of the
example in the successful construction of socialism it becomes clear that
the progressive development of mankind today largely depends on the
power and depth of the influence of this example and it s assimilation by
the rest of mankind. Therein lies the most important aspect of the
historical process today.
Modern man has been impressed by two objective lines of world
development: the socialist and the capitalist way. Thi s leaves a n imprint
on the ideological struggle as a whole. That is the light in which social
events. are now regarded by men, so acquiring a political impo rtance.
~emn taught us to see the great political importance of every ton of
gram, every ton of coal produced against the background of the struggle
between the newly emergent social system and the force s of the o ld .
obsolet~ and reactionary system. Today there are no longer any "purely
economic" or "purely technical" successes in the socialist countries:
their ev~ry success. go.es to their credit in the competition between
communism and capl~ahsm, and each has a political significance, helping
to enhan~e the pre~h~e of communist ideas, increasing the role of the
comm~mty of soclaitst countries in the world arena, and raising the
authOrity of the MarxistLeninist parties.
So long as two opposite and competing social systems exist men are
bound to compare them and their results. A comparison of 'the facts
n Vilal Sptt~hts
21 Ibid.
2' Ibid .
420

0/

Iht DaJ. Ot(ober 15 196\

2'
. p ..

Ic:~~'1 ::t\g~~e;~~'Iation and conclu~ions. and to consideration of the

p . p .. ' . ,', I development of the two systems. That is an inevitable
process m .so~la thought today. The Communists have been carrying on
an Ideological s~r~~I~ 1o..help. m.m9lil~J.h~r:i~h~conclusions from the
~Ctts. lOMhelp tlih"m see th1Og\ 10 a clearer li&bt and boldly to look into the
IU ure .
canw Ile , b. oUrgeols
. propaganda has been trying- to cover up
the contour!;. of ~eahty, to distort the facts or to misinterpret them. in
order .to n:*amtam or even to increase the influence of the old and
effective Views, so as to lead men away from a correct understanding of
the phenomena ~nd processes in social life. The ideology of communism
has been sp reading across the globe, being accepted by more and more
men. and ,",:,omen, because it is backed up by the achievements of the
Sov iet Vmon and other social ist countries, and by the great ideas of
Marxism-Leninism.
Mankind is now crossing the great historical divide between the ages
dominated by private property , privateproperty notions of what is
"mine", that is, more important than anyth ing else, and the dominat ion
of social property and the ideas of collectivism. the common good and
happine ss for all. In the Soviet Union, the forms of social property are
being steadily improved as the country advances to communism. In the
world socialist system as a whole. social property has been established
and has continued to develop. History has posed the question of the
ways of transition to socia! property in all the ot_her ~_qyn~ries of the
world. In these conditions, the growing economic. political and
ideological influence exerted by the su~ces~es in developing ~ocial
propert y is a key feature of the world hlstonc~1 process. Such IS the
inevitable conclusion drawn by present-day SOCial thought.

a~ the hi,her pha~e of develop-

ment 121. 1"19, 161,263.369

- eaalit;lrian-38, 41, 43, "13'''16
- utopian_)"I, 38.40-42. 49"Il, $4.
1i4. 69, 83, 84. 98, 108, 1H17, 119, 226
Communi,t morality-292
Culture-229. 266. 3S8-.61
bourgeois_345. 3"19-.62. 419
- of antiquity_259, 260, 3B. 354,
362, 363
- sociali\l-360, 408
- spiri tual-161, 346, 349, 3"10

SUBJECT INDEX
A
Aposticism in sociology-70. 314, 317,

Anarchism - 206
Arlti-communism-138, 141,231,232,265,
US, 332-33, 335, 337, 347, 372, 398,
413,414
Art-391
- abstract-345, 346

- Malthusia nism-334. 369

conceptions-203.
- neo-Kantian
321,323
- positivist schemes_1I8, 243, 113.
315,319,321,322.327,384.385
- psychosociological theories-380,
381,382,383. 385
- social Darwinism_318, 370

Dialectical method-IO I. 383

Dialectics- 16, 97, 99, 204. 210
"ascendant dialectics" -16
- dialectical process of the development of societY-16. 70, 117, 168,224,
31"1.3"14,3"1"1
- materialist- 12 , 16, 120. 122, 220,
224. 291
Dictatorship
- of the bourgeoisie-51, 274
- of the proletariat-13, 111-14, 118.
122. l"I2. 156, 163. 165.210.220.225.
227,254.274. 3SS, 397
_ revolutionary-107, 115, 125

B
Boufleoisie-119, 125, 136, 154, 168, 175,
186.204,214,215,217,219,224,242.
2"".260,293,303,307,310,311,316,
338, 340, 342-44, 355, 403
Bourgeois mdividuali5Jll_139, 265, 272,
345, 378, 419
Boufleois liberalism_90, 307, 309-13, 316,
319, 320,333, 337, 338, 339, 342-45, 347
- ncobberalism-337, 339-41, 34446. 370
Bourgeois soeio!oay (conceptions 00-16,
134. 169, 186, 19S, 257, 265, 282, 312,
349,350,351,357,358,161,362,372,
383, 384, 386, 387, 390
- "cyclic" theories: Fourier_70, 71
- modem_32; 317, 363-11
Pythagoreans_32; Vico_"", 45
- "economic ....owth.. tbeory-375-

351
422

"empirical socioioJy"_lg4 86
"industrial socioloaY"-I98. 3~.

Capitalism-13, 14, 18,67, 131 , 135, 167.

168, 174-76, 178. 180, 181 , 206, 217,
221,226,230,23 1. 235, 243, 249, 258.
265.267,272,273 ,281,282,326,333,
338,~.343 ,3_,347 ,~,3~,3~,

390,391,395,398 , 409,410, 411 ,417,

418, 419
- capitali~n way of development-64.
129, 364, 365, 366. 367
- criticism of-15, 47, 48, 64, 69, 70,
72-75,83, 101, 115, 123
Clanes, class struggle_I8, 24, 25, 27-29,
]436,47,64,67,69,82,83,84,102,
103, 126, 132, 181. 184,206,217,311,
318.323,327,340,341,356, 360. 3~.
377,381,384,388,393,413
CoUcctivisation_167, 417, 418
Colonial system of imperialism- J 28, 250
Communism (as a theory)-96, 109, 110,
116, 120, 121, 122, 125, 133, 149,
158-60.234,239,240,254_56,261 ,263,
271, 273. 275, 276, 278. 327.30, 332,
33), ))4, 337, )52. )92, 409, 410- 12,
413, 414, 416, 418, 419, 420

Epooh
_ historical-I68, 176.238,266,354.

3"18. )64, 368

67 69 72
Exploitation-37, 46-48. 49, 65, .
89 92 94 lOl 102.112 ,117, 14"1, m.
194 :zOO '256 '259, 261. 263. 287, 289,
343: 348: 371. 374. 375, 392, 40"1,
406. 413

198:

F
Fascism-182. 252. 331:34, 371
_ ideology of fasclsm-347
H

Humanism-38, 39, 48 .56.57.95,97,98

16 27 94 95 97 98 100.203,

348.

Idealism-:::.~;.".
320-21
394. 395
204: ~;rvv"

"""
the conceptions of
the En"ll-"-

-"

teners-46

76
Ideology
- bourgeoi!-13-U. 132. 140. 198.
202. 204. 244. 255. 2"17. 263, 321-33,
336. 342, 34"1, 346. 35J. 382, 397.
399-402
- Marxist-leninist_19S. 392, 400.
403. 404. 421
- the struggle of ideologies-13, 20.
139-40, 145, 176. 198, 24"1, 2S5. 256,
2.S7, 329, 337, 390-93, 39"1-97, 39798.
403, 404, 413, 41"1. 421
Imperialism_I32, 148, 154. 16B. 17"1. 181.
193, 204, 211, 216. 221-24. 227. 231,
232-35,239,244.247-49.252.356,377,

384
- final stage of the development of
upitalism-20"I
- the eve of the socialist revolution-I"IO. lSI. 182
Individualism. bourgeois
See Bourgeois individualism
Intelligentsia
_ bourgeois-15, 182. ISS. 196. 202.
246, 403, 416
- national-137
_ technical intelligentsia-181. 344
international
working-<:lass
movement-liS, 326. 331
Internationalism. proletarian
See Proletarian internationalism
L

Labour-69-72. 74. 7"1, 99. lOl. 262, 263.

268,269. m. 281. 292, 295, 296. 376.
380, 381
_ communistlabour-277-82. 284-87,
".
distinctions between mental and
manuallabour-t62. 286, 296. 297. 300
_ division of labour-323, 409
_ instruments of labour-266, 267,

283

i65'

- in the philo,ophy. Kience. and

culture of the early 20th centl.lry_3~R.
360, 362. 378
- in the social thOUght of antiqul'
ty-JO, 31
- in utopian theories_66. 69. 71. 7~,

_ organisation of Jabour-161. 162.

.,
163. 165,273.275,351,389
_ productivity of laboUr-159. 16~.
164, m. 2"\5, 266-71. 283. 323. 375,
389. 395

_ social-165, 180, 192. 193, 194,

264,269-71. 273, 2n. 412. 420
_ utopian theories of emancipation of
labour-48, 49. 64. 66. 68
Liberalism. boUrgeois
See Bourgeois liberalism
M

Marxism-Leninism-II, 12, 16, 63, 89,

105-08,110,111,112, \14-16. 120, 123,
124, 13234. 136, 140, 141, 145, 146,
171, 174, 188, 197,200,201,202.225,
228,230,234,237.255,260,261,265,
266, 277, 291-93. 319, 320. 322, 362,
364.365,371,373,388,392,397,402,
412
Marxist sociology-356
MassC5 of people-19, 20
- their role In social development-II, 48, SO, IG4, 108, 140, 145,
184, 185. 188, 189, 190, 196, 248, 249.
255, 258, 260, 372, 373, 406, 409
Materialism-94, 100. 149, 204, 224, 348
- dj'Jectical-16, n, 95, 152, 230,
291,312,352,357
- hiuorical-19, 26, n, 99, 291, 312,

,..

mechanistic, metaphy~cal-I98, 203

- phoolOphical-94, 95, 101, 103,
391. 392
- spontaneoUs-26, 27
Metaphysies_46, 70, 168, 224, 256, 265,
314,366
Militarism_lSI, 233, 243, 247, 248, 251,
252, 253, 392
Mode of production-25, 109. III, 124,
168, 169, 171. 172, 174-76. 266, 321,
349, 358, 375, 383, 392
Morality, communist
See Communist morality
N

National liberation movemenl_I36, 137,

141, 154, 157, 167,222,223,227,228,
249,251-504,256,371,41S
Neopo~itivism_16, 18, 371
Noncapitalist way of development_87. 91
P

Paris Commune-II. 112-14, 328, 329, 363

Pony
424

- Man:i~t-Lcnini~t_12, 19. 10-1, 141

152, I~J, I~S. 165. 166, 167, 185 189'
191, 192, 194-97, 209, 219, 228: :!29'
256. 2.~8. 260, 261. 275, 292, 299, 302'
304,327,390. 399. 403, 413
'
:- political organisation of the work.
Ing class-104-oS. 113, 114, 196, 209
307. 346, 347
'
Peace-15, 231, 233, 234, 236-41,248,249
251. 253. 255-57. 25S, 332, 334, 395'
396. 39R
'
vision
of
lasting
- utopian
peace-55, 57-63
Peaceful coexistence-234. 23639. 255,
256-5S, 393
Peasantry-78, 79.113, 121,137,175,188,
201,225, 226. 22S, 253, 260, 408
- peasant wars-I06. 175
Philosophy-II, 103, 112. 146, 186,201.
203-05, 313, 349, 358
Philosophy of history-16, 349. 364, 372
Political organisation of society-I46, 163,
173,211,288,310.313,331. 412
- bourgeois-186, 224, 344, 346, 347
- socialist-405
Politics, political struggle-12, 19, 104,
lOS, 116, 120, 141. 175, 183, 196.232,
136, 238, 239-44, 247-SO, 252. 254. 255,
311,330,335,343.344, ]46, 392. 394
Positivism-344. 348, 358, 375, 376, 379,

384,
Power
- of the bourgeoisie-93, 94, 34 1-42
- revolutionary-49
- state-I 15, 172-74.217,347
Production_14, 53. 60, 64, 71, 100, 101 ,
120. 121, 132, 133, ISO52, 174, 180,
192, 193, 194. 195, 226, 237, 265-67,
268-70, 274, 279. 288, 293, 348, 359.
362,375,380-82,395,415
Productive forces-I09, 11921. 123, 124,
126,127,132,133,161,203,210,211,
216. 227, 229-31. 247. 255, 258, 261,
266-M. 278-80, 283, 349, 350. 363, 365,
368,376.383.405,410
Prolress, social
See Social progress
Proletarian internationalism_107. 125,
141,142,403
Proletariat_69. 114, 136. 137, 148, 153.
154, ISS, 184, 188, 264, 207, 210,
2121S. 222-24, 232, 233, 253, 254, 269,
319,344, 356, 366, 370, 411
Property

private-37, ~8, 41.42, SO, 53, 55.

64,15.76,85,102, III, 120, 135, 140,
191,193.265.
316, 328, 329, 338,
345, 362, 371, 396, 413, 415
- public-SO, 51, 5355, 1S, 76, 81.
86, 131, 140, 118, ISO, 191. 261. 262.
268,272,316,328.348.311,396,413,
420.421

m,

R
Reformism -12,204
Regularitie~ (uniformities) of social development-114, 16911, 192. 238,215
Relations of production-98, 104, 110, ISO,
21O,211,216,267,297 ,307,349,3SO,
363,365.368,371,382
Religion
_ religious ideology-23, 24, 32-34,
60,66,94,103,307,308,32 4.361,370,
391, 394, 395
Revotution-I02, 108, 120, 124. 210, 211,
228.229,230,231. 264. 391, 404, 405,

40'

_ bourgeois-48, 53, 54. 61. 6], 78.

114,174,175, m, 211, 224. 225, 227.
145. 308, 309. 310, 370. -lOS, 406. 412
_ cultural-IS?, 164, 167,402
_ myth ahout the exported revolu
tion-228, 329. 330
_ revolutionary initiative-II, 14,
113, 114
_ social-110, 126, 127, 128.223,365
_ socialist- 76. 87, 88.113.125,126,
127-30 141, 148, 151, 154, ISS. 167,
198 z05, 2I1-IS, 218-23. 225-28. 231,
233: 234, 239. 248, 253, 263, 327, 328.
332 352 397 405. 406. 407
Revolutiona~ sit~ation-211.14, 217. 218,
221,222

s
. .'
d echnical progress-In,
SCienuflc an .. 258 259 267,293.307,
178, 183, 10-0,
'

41.4.
d technical revolution-149,
ScienUflc all
414
[~I:81. 182, ~!;"_12, 13. 18.9597,
Scienliflc c~m~~ 106, 110. 114-16, 135.
100. 10 '''''') '271 292 293.)04, 367,
2O.t 258, ~u,
'
'
374. 396. 412 of social devdop
Scientific theory
ment- llS

Social progress-log, 138, 148. 149, ZS5,

256. 259-64. 269, 215, 289, 290, 303,
313.316,318.319,374.391. 39:!, 408.
409, oilS
- bourgeois conceptions of-43, 45
48.64,84,85.118,)11,311,314,319.
320. 327, 328. 366
- historical-I06. 191 368. 369, 373
- intellectual-29092
- MarJlistLeninisttcaching of -Itl.
II)

- moral-290-92
- scientific and technical-284. 322,
414
- theory of-148, 149,259.260,351,
354, 357, 374
_ utopian theories of-38, 40, 41, 64,
65,66,71,72,15,76,370,371
Social thought-II, 12. 14, 15, 17, 18. 19.
20. 25, 26
_ bourgeois- 13, 20, 83, 178, 199.
200.,201, 202. 204, 210. 269. 307. 308,
)09, 326, 327, 332, 336, 337. 344, 347,
348. 349. 353. 394
_ connection ..... ith the development
of dialccticalthought-28. 98.100,101
_ connection with the development
of natural sciencc-31, 32, 37, 45, 93.
In, 178.205,258, m. 294, 312, 325
_ connection with the development
of philosophical thought-96. 101,
169_connection with the develop
ment of political thought-B, 58,
61. 62
_ connection with the development
of the social sciences-25, 27, 43, 64,
91. 94, 97, 10-1, 115,217,293,322
_ emergence of-II. 12, 23, 25
_ main stagcs of developmcnt-24.
25 28 1934 35.42,43,46,47,48, SO,
52: 56:
59. 64. 70, 72, 74, 7618. 82,
83,92,94.96. Ill. 120, 121, 124. ~31.
t45, 148. 150, lSI, 153, 198-;Ot.
2()3 204 205 222. 258. 259. .62.
293: 304: 307: 308, 312, 348, 352,
390, 416
Socialism (as a theory)-16, 18, 1)3, 135.
149, 157, ISS, 160, 161. 165. 167, ~~.
ISO, 182.214,215.219.222.227, 8.
231. 233, 234, 235, 249. 257, 273, 292,
329,330.338,)92, 39S, 397, 398. 399,
400, 404, 405. 408, -I()911. 413, 416.

Ss,

_418.420
boUrgeois conceptions of - \) , "
425

_ doctrinaire-I 19, 120

_ utopian-49, 55, 56, 6-Hi5, 69, 70,
71 _77,79,83,87,96,98,108,115.116,
117, 122, 133,274,291. 292
_ vulgar-124, 125.
Society
- and the individual-40, 50, 51, 66,
276, 288, 289, 297, 298, 316, 344. 345,
380.38 1
- and naturc:-66, 69, 94, 95, 145,
146,204,294,317,350,352
- deve lopme nt of-I I , 12, 15,63,64,
90,91,92, 109, 120, 14648, 149, 153,
229,23 1,260,272,273,288,289,295,
3211,323,336,344,351,352,356,358.
380, 388, 389, 406, 408, 4 16.
- history of -I46, 316
- social organisation of-64, 65, 66,
68,70,7 1,72,75,125,261,273,274,
376,377,417
- social structure: of -46, 47, 64, 65,
70,102,103,132,135-37,140,32 1,3.50,
352, 353, 362, 376, 377, 3SI-S3, 404,
408,412
Society
- capilalist-176, 275, 344, 348, 349,
350, 375, 376, 391
- communist-122, 255, 285, 286
- slave-holding-I68, 353-55
- socialist-122, 123, 129, 133, 157,
160, 167, 194,231,268,269,270,272,
n3, n5, m, 288, 293, 302, 395, 4OS,
410, 414
Socio-economic formation-I66-6S, 173_
266, 2f.7, no, 32 1, 322, 353, 354-57,
368, 397
Socioloay, bourttc:ois
See Bourttc:ois sociology
Socioloay, Manisl
See Marxist sociology
Stale
- OOurttC:OiS_43, 60, 117, li S, 242,
33S, 340
- slave-holding_ 171, 173
- socialist- 151, 152, 1.56, 167, 184,
235, 239, 240, 242, 269, 274, 287
Siruggle

anliimperialist 140
revolutionary-77, 105, 107, 11 2,
1l8, m, 201, 237

Surplu~-lllbour-IOI

Surplu~-product- 10 I
Surplu~-value-I01,

19.1

T
Transitional period from capitalism to
socialism-122. 123, 138, 1.59, 162,
163.209,220,225,227,230,254,397

U
Utop ia- 14, 18,20,84, 11.5, 119, 274, 371

w
War-56, 132, 1.54, 171, 176, 214, 223,
228-36, 24043, 246-49, 25 1, 253, 255,
331,334,369,371,417
- possibility of preventing-55-57,

"

Working class (See also Proletariat)

- grave-digger of capitalism-13
- historical mission-76, 93, 101,
104, 106, lOS, 120, 126, 153,209,211,
223, 304, 328, 344
- its role in social development-16,
M, 76, 87,104,106,112.136,137,138,
148, 155, 163, 181, 184, 185, 188, 196,
198, 200, 211, 215. 2 16, 219, 223-26,
227,231,250,251,254,256,258,260,
292,316,331,332,339,346,347,356,
3S8, 402, 403, 408, 410
World communist movement-113, 158,
196,2 19,224,228,229,25 1,252,304,

39'1
World revolutio nary process-77, 79, 80,
9 1, 124, 125, 126, 128, 130, 137-40, 148,
154-59,222,226-28,238,251,252,254,
405, 409
World socialist system- 127, 128, 148, 157,
15S, 167,219,232,244,246,249,2.50,
252,255,256,333 , 334,356,397,409,
410,417,421

NAME INDEX

Aeschylus-353
Adenauer, Konrad-347
Albrecht, Karl-I09
Aquinas, Thomas-34
Aristotle-31, 325, 353
Aron, Raymond-2.57
SI. Augustine-H. 56, 309

Babeuf, FranIOois Noel (Gract,hus)-.52,

53 107, 12.5, )]0
Baile Robert 8 .-372, 373. 374
Baku~in, Mikhail Aknndrovic;h-1I8-20.
134, 205, 226
Bardet. Gaston-370
Elmet-31, 37. 349
Sa mes, H
Barruel,I'AbW-30S
B ker Howard-3l, 37
36
B:~inSk'y, Vissarion Grisoryevich-35,
Be
d Luther Lee-371
Bc:~~ei~, Eduard-It I, 202
Blanc, Louis-lOS
Blanqui, ~uguste-tl~!~el~~ M.-nS, 329
Bochenskl, Innacen
Bodin, Jean-:44 Gabriel Ambroise deDonald, LoUIS

,rr,

308 I Gaslon-59, 378

Boulhou,
2"'8
Bowles, (:he.ster-,s, 353 355, 359
.
Emlle,
'
20 234
Br~h,er., N'kolai Ivanovich-2 .
Bukhan n , I
378
BurgeSS, ETTleSI-

Cabel. Etienne-I 16
Campanella. Tommazo-4044. 45, 47, 49.

"

CbcTTlyshevsky, Nikolai Gavrilovic;h-77.

78, 82-91. I2S
Churchill, Winston-334
Clausc:witz. Karl von-247
Coleman, James S.-387
.,
Comte, Auguste-66. 68, 70, 118. 31.15,
319,320,323,324,327,344,)52,376,
31'
Condorcet, Jean Antoine de-46, 66. 308
Constant, Benjamin-31O
Copernicus, Nicolaus-36, 93
Corneillc. Pierre-l69
Coulange, Fustel de-l70
Cousins, Norman-340
Cromwell, Oliver-51, 52
Cruc~, Emeric-58
C\Jsline, Astolphc dc-82

o
Dardel, Eric-357
Darwin, Charles-93. 352
Dc:mocritus-26
~zamy lModore-95, 107, 116.
Dobroly~bov, Nikolai AlexandrovlCh-n,
82, 83, 89--91
Dodd, Thomas J._336
Dokino, Fra-35
Doni Anton Francesco- 40
Dop~h. Alfons-I70, 174

I)lI l'ooj ,. l'il"rrl"

~6

Dulles, John Fosler-244, 248, 334

Durkbetm, Emile_ 323, 324. 376

Mar~,hal.

E
Engels. Frederick _ II. 25. 35, 53, 56. 69.
87. 89. 92, on, 98. 99, 100, 102, 104 .
10711. 114. 117. 119-22 . 126-30. 13639.148.149, ISO , 157, 159. 168-70 , 173.
188.210.219.230.247.263, 265, 291 .
310. 328. 329, 332. 383
Epicurus_26, 353
Erasmus ROlerodamUS_57
Erhard, Ludwig_339, 340
EUripides-353

F
Feuerbach. Ludwig_79, 83 , 96-97. 198
Fisher, Herbert A. Laurens_372
Fourier, CharleS_55, 56, 69, 70, 71-77. 79.
83, 85, 90, 95, 99, 104, 108, 274. 307
G

Galilei , Galileo-93
GaJliffet, Gaston-233
Gibbon, Edward_169
Giddings, Franklin H.-38O
Gobineau, Joseph Arthur de-346
Goebbels, Joseph Paul-333
Cioeol, Nikolai VassiJyevich_36

Gooch, George PeabodY_364

Gouldner, Alvin_17
Gramsci, Anlonio_19, 384
Guerry. Emile-396
GUizot, Frant;ois Pierre Guillaume_103
169
'
Gurvitch. GeorgeS_15, 16, 17

H
Halpern, Ben-386
Haxthausen, August von-82
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich_24 78
83~ fJ7 , 98-100, 102, 103. 314. 357.'359'
Heracbtus _26
Herder, Johann Goufried von_46, 308
Herzen , Alexander Ivanovich_63 77.82
88, 91 , 125
"
Hess , Moses _98
Heyerdahl, Thor- 360
Hobbes, Thomas- 43
Huxley. Aldous - 369

428

J
Jasper~, Karl-257

JeHeno n . ThoOlas_245. 310, 342

John XX IfI -3-17. 396
Justi nian_17 1

K
Ka nt, Im ma nuel_61. 62. 200
KaulSk y, Ka rl- 128, 130
Kennedy. Jo hn F .-246
Komensky . Jan Amos-58. 59, 61,146
Kovn l ev~ k y. Maxi m M31dmovic h_43, 288
Kuhlm a nn, Gco rg_ 109
Kuzn ets. $ imon_4 14

L
Lafargue, Paul -3 11 , 316, 317
Landheer, 8 a rt - 360
Laski . Harold_367
Lassalle . Ferdinand _79
Lavau . Georges E. - 341
Leibnitz . Goufried Wilhelm von -59
Lenin, Vladimir Uyich_ll , 12. 35, 36, 53.
77, 83 . 92, 94, 95, 97 , 100, 103_14, 121,
122, 127-31, 133, 135-38 . 147. 148.07,
172, 173, 174, 175, 176. 178, 179, 184,
188 , 189-91 , 197 , 2Q().(l2, 204, 205,
206-10. 211 25, 227, 228-43, 253, 254,
262. 263, 267, 270-74. 275, 277-78,
280-82,284-87, 289,291,292 , 295, 299,
300. 301. 318 20, 326. 329, 332, 336.
338, 339, 343, 354-56. 368, 377 . 383,
384,385,388,389,90,397,401 , 404-08.
409,417,420
Lessing, Gouhold Ephraim_83, 308
LOCke, 10hn_43, 101
Lowell, Abbott Lawrence_343
Lucretius Titus Carus-26 31 32
Luther, Martin_4O
"

Mab~,

Gabriel Bonnot de-35, 54, 55-56.

Machiavelli Niccolo_37, 38, 45

MacIver, Robert Morrison_380
MCKenzie, RObert_343
MacLeish. Archibald_335

Pierre-Sylvain- 52
Marcu~e, Hcrhert- 136, 182
Marini-57
Marx, Karl-IS, 16.23,24, S3, 70, 73, 87.
89, 92.95-\04.108-32.131-41,146.148.
\4951, 154-55. 159. m. 173. 174. 177.
188. 193. 193, 199. 200, 202, 203. 206.
210. 211. 219. 223. 226, 227, 228.
230, 256, 259. 260, 262. 263-66, 282,
285,291. 328. 329, 330, m. 367. 387.
41 '
Maurois, A ndr~-315
Maxey, Chester C.-325
Mayhew, Cri stopher-393
Mayo, Elton-325
Meh ri ng, Franz-76
Merton , Robert K.-419
Meslier , Jea n-51. 52
Mignel. Fran~ois A. ~.- ~ 03
Konstan
Mikhailovsky,
NIkolaI
tinovich-206
Miller, Raymond W._420
Montesquieu, Charles de-45, ~. ~ 49
More, Thomas-38-40. 41-44, 4,
Sl , 146
Morelly-35. 49. 50, 51. 56
MUnzer , Thomas-35

N
North rop. Filmer Stuart-35!18
Nove. Alec_414. 415. 417.

Riesman. David_).4~
RitChie, Arthur Oavid-350
Roosevelt, Franklin 0 __ 340
Rapke. Wilhelm_370
Ros~iter. Ointon-J.41
Rostow, Walt Whitman_241. J75.71
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques_n, 47, 48, ~.
55,61. 412. 418
Ruge. Arnold-98. I IS
Russel. Btnlllnd_247. 318. 350

s
SainI-Pierre, Charles Ir~nec de-59, 60
Saint-Simon. Oaude- Henry de Rouvroy-56, 65-7 1. 74. 83. 85. 89, n, 100.
103. 108. 118, 274. 307, 313-15. 323
Schurtz. Heinrich-25
Simon. Pierrt-Henry-33S
Skazkin. Sergei Oanilovich-35
Sombart, Wemer-l99
Smith Adam-83. 84. 101
Spenc~r Hcrben-243. 312. 313, 315-18,
320: m-25, 328. 34-1. 350, 352. m
Spengler. Osw~d-328 .,
S inoza. Benedlct-45, 37~
.
Siasyuk\,ich. Mikhail Matveye~lCh-34
Stemberg. Lev YakovkvlCh-.4
Stlllusz-HupC. Roben-384
Suarez. Francisco- 57
SuUy, MlIJlimilien ~t h une de_10

o
Ogburn . Wi IHam-349-.'i1
Ovid-30
69 74_76.90.95, 102,274
,
Owen . Robe rt p

Parsons. Talcott-3n, 379

Penn, WI'I"Il'Im- " 41"'
PerroUX . Frant;0US- ~
Petty. Willia~ -;110~2i!
Plato- 30 3, '9
poppe r, Karl -;-3hodorovich-5 1. 52
Porshnev. ~ns J seph-SO. 1l7. t18
Proudho n, Pierre- 0
R

. Nicholas-J87
R(lS hevsky. _334
Read, Herb~n _32 1
Ricken, Helnnc h

Tarde, Gabriel-216
Tay lo r Carl C.-385
ThicrrY. Augustin-103
TOnnies, Fcrdinand-3 SO
Toynbee. A mold-:-32~, 26568
Trotsky. Lev Bonsovlch-225
!'urgat . Anne Roben Jacques- 45

v
Vantn;, Lucil;o.-40 . _ 44 , 45. 71
h 308 31'
Vico GiovannI y9alllst8.
.....
e
v
lc-'
Vipper, Robert u.,
Virgil-33
r>
. . Francisco de-.>'
." 49
Vlton a.
, P ttrovich-JO. J , ,
Volgin . Vyaches av
53. 74
. Marie Moud de_44,
Voltaire. Franl;ols

"'~ I

w
Ward. Lester-380
Weber. Alfred-343
Weber. Max-HI, 322
Weitling, Wilhelm-76, 108. 109. 116

Welter. (;1,1'1"'" A. 2~1, 2~1I

Wd,on. WooJrow
1~2
Windclhaml. Wilhelm _ ~21
Win,tanley. GcrraHI_~l
Wright, Quincy_167, 3()8

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