175

[introduction.]

The masses are primarily the classes and social strata that set social production in motion and that live by their own labour, that is to say, they are the masses of the working people. Taken as a whole, they comprise the bulk of society, its overwhelming majority. What actual classes and strata go to make up the masses depends on the epoch, on the character of the social formation in question. Consequently, using the concept of "the masses" by no means does away with the need to approach society from the point of view of class, to determine the actual class content of the movement in which the masses are involved.

The Production Activity of the Masses Is the Decisive Factor
in the Life and Development of Society

p The production activity of the masses is of primary importance in the life of society. The masses create the instruments of labour, improve them, accumulate labour skills and hand them down from generation to generation, and produce all the material values without which society could not exist for a single day.

p With the replacement of one socio-economic formation by another the class nature of the producers changed, but their production activity always was and will be a natural necessity, the prime condition of the existence of society. "...Whatever changes took place in the upper, non-producing ranks of society,” Engels stresses, "society could not live without a class of producers. This class, then, is necessary under all circumstances though the time must come, when it will no longer be a class, when it will comprise all society.” "

p The daily labour activity of millions of ordinary people developing production not only provides society with all that is necessary for existence but also creates the material basis for consecutive replacement of socio-economic formations, i.e., for progressive development, for human progress.

The production activity of the masses alone would suffice for them to be acknowledged the real creators of history. But their role in social development does not stop there.

176

The Masses in Politics

p The masses also play a large part in political life. Without their political activity, the very development of society and, above all, social revolutions would be inconceivable. No matter what class comes to power as a result of revolution, its chief driving force has always been the masses of the people.

p In periods of revolution the creative role of the masses becomes particularly apparent. "Revolutions are the festivals of the oppressed and the exploited,” wrote Lenin. "At no other time are the masses of the people in a position to come forward so actively as creators of a new social order as at a time of revolution. At such times the people are capable of performing miracles.”^^83^^

p The role of the masses is equally great in the struggle for national liberation, in defence of the motherland from foreign invaders, in just wars.

p The exploiting classes have always posed as the sole defenders of the national interests. But, as the facts show, at times of great national stress the outcome is decided not by a handful of exploiters, but by the people, the masses, who rise up in arms to defend their country and fight devotedly for its independence.

p The selfless and devoted struggle of the broad masses of the Russian people played a decisive part in the liberation of Russia from the Tatar yoke, and also in ridding the country of Napoleon’s hordes in 1812. Many other countries, too, owe their national independence to the heroism of the working people—Italy, which long suffered under foreign domination; Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and other Balkan countries, which languished under the Turkish yoke, and so on.

p In our own day it was the great masses of the working people who saved Europe from fascist enslavement and defeated fascism. An outstanding part in this historic victory was played by the peoples of the Soviet Union, who bore the chief burden of the anti-fascist war.

p Thanks to the selfless struggle of the mass of the people of the colonial and dependent countries, many of these have freed themselves of colonial oppression, and others are on the way to freedom and national independence.

p During “peaceful” periods of history the role of the masses in the political life of an exploiting society is not so obvious. By using every instrument of physical and spiritual coercion—the police and army, religion and the judiciary, the administrative apparatus and tho schools—the ruling classes strive to reduce the role of the masses in politics to a minimum, to crush their political activity or divert it to a channel that is safe for the exploiting classes. This is an inseparable feature of a social system based on exploitation. The working people can be oppressed and the fruits of their labour appropriated only by subordinating the masses politically and ensuring the 177 domination of the parasitic classes in political life. The masses of the working people can therefore determine policy only when the power ol the exploiters has been overthrown.

p But this does not mean that the masses play no part in political life under conditions of domination by capitalists or other exploiters. Politics are a field of stubborn class conflict, primarily conflict between the exploiters and the exploited. Its final results depend not only on the will of the ruling class but on the persistence and resolution with which the working people defend their interests, on the actual balance of forces in this conflict.

Even under capitalist conditions the masses can exercise a considerable influence on ruling class policy by preventing the execution of the anti-popular plans of the reactionary forces and compelling the ruling circles to make concessions in many important matters of internal and foreign policy. As noted in the preceding chapter, this day-to-day political struggle waged by the working people plays a large part in the development of society.

Role of the Masses in the Development of Culture

p Reactionary ideologists, who deny the creative ability of the working people, of ordinary men and women, show particular zeal in distorting the role of the masses in the development of culture. Culture, they claim, is the work of "the elect”, mankind owes the development of science, literature and art to a small handful of men of genius.

p At first sight such assertions may appear to be correct; Indeed, in almost every field of intellectual creation one can mention a few dozen names, such as Newton, Lomonosov and Einstein in physics, Mendeleyev and Butlerov in chemistry, Darwin and Michurin in biology, Shakespeare and Tolstoi in literature, Beethoven and Chaikovsky in music, without whom it would be hard to imagine culture as we know it today.

p Marxists fully acknowledge the services of the great masters. But they are well aware that an invaluable contribution to culture has been made by the working people, by the masses. It is the masses who have laid the foundations of all man’s spiritual culture, who have created the conditions for its progress.

p We know, for instance, that literature and art developed for a long time exclusively as folk art. Folk epics, folk tales, legends, proverbs and songs were the foundation on which literature was developed by professional writers and poets. In exactly the same way, the fine and applied arts practised by the people, and folk architecture, laid the foundation for the subsequent work of artists and architects. Even today folk art still possesses intrinsic artistic value; it is an inexhaustible treasure-house of imagery and means of expression, a source of inspiration to writers and artists. It is in folk art that the national 178 form of the art and literature of every country is conceived and takes shape.

p The creative genius of the people also laid the foundations of science. We are amazed by the achievements of gifted scientists who discover new sources of energy and miraculous vaccines, who invent wonderful machines and new materials transforming our life. But no less astonishing than these achievements was the creative feat of the masses of the people, who bit by bit in their daily work wrested the first secrets from nature, who discovered fire, evolved ways of cultivating cereals and smelting metals, invented and perfected the first instruments of labour, and stored up our first knowledge of the things and phenomena by which man is surrounded.

p In the early stages of the development of culture, therefore, the working people were the direct creators of all cultural values.

p There was bound to be a change in the situation after the separation of mental labour from physical labour, after activity in the field of literature, art and science, along with state activity, was monopolised by the exploiting ruling classes and the social strata that served their interests. All kinds of measures, economic and political, were used to make every kind of mental work, including work in the sphere of culture, a privilege of the propertied classes. In the hands of the exploiters alienation of the masses of the people from culture, the imposition of ignorance, became one of the guarantees of class supremacy 

p Such conditions, naturally, limited the active participation of the toiling masses in the development of science, art and literature.

p The ideologists of the modern bourgeoisie make great play with this fact. They argue that complex kinds of intellectual work connected with the direction of politics and the economy and with creative activity in the sphere of culture can be understood only by the “elect”, that is to say, representatives of the ruling classes of exploiting society. These bourgeois theoreticians proclaim that the masses, the working people, are intellectually “inferior” and capable only of “crude” physical labour.

p But in reality, brains and talent are not a class privilege. It is only the opportunity for intelligence and talent to show themselves in politics, science, art and literature that becomes such a privilege in an exploiting society. In class society this opportunity is, as a rule, presented to people from the propertied classes.

p One cannot but be amazed by the strength of mind, talent and will-power of the many thousands of working people who even in the conditions of an exploiting society have been able to come to the fore and make considerable contributions to the most diverse fields of intellectual culture, or even to become outstanding figures in political life. History shows many such examples. Newton and Lomonosov, both of them sons of peasants, lived to become the greatest scientists of their age. Abraham Lincoln, a rail-splitter, played an 179 outstanding part in the American Civil War and was elected President. A child of poor townspeople, Maxim Gorky became a great writer. Many other names could be mentioned. But for every one of them Ihcre are hundreds and thousands of gifted sons of the people who died without showing their ability. The history of exploiting society is a veritable graveyard of popular talent.

One of the greatest advantages of socialism is that it puts an end to this senseless waste of the greatest wealth that society possesses— human talent. By abolishing all estate, political and economic privileges socialism creates conditions for the all-round development and rational use of people’s abilities, which in itself leads to an enormous acceleration of progress in all fields of social life.

Significance of the Marxist Thesis of the Decisive Role
of the Masses in History

p In the theory of Marxism-Leninism the thesis of the decisive role of the masses in the development of society occupies an important place. It provides social science with the key to understanding the historical process and removes the basic defect of all preMarxian theories of history, which did not take into account the activity of the masses. The study of society now becomes directed towards investigating the activity of the masses of the people and their conditions of life, without which the course of history cannot be understood.

p For the Marxist-Leninist parties, for every member of these parties, a correct understanding of the role of the masses in history serves as a guide in their practical activity. It helps them to distinguish the most important aspect of their work, viz.,organisational, ideological and educational work among all kinds of working people, and to concentrate their attention and energy on this field. Quite a number of parties in history (including parties created for the purpose of defending the interests of the working people) have disappeared from the political arena precisely because they failed to understand the importance of such work and were unable to rally the support of the masses. Thus, one of the basic causes of the collapse of the Narodnaya Volya (People’s Will)  [179•*  party in Russia was that its leaders under-estimated the masses, relied entirely on the activity of "critically-minded individuals”, and reduced their struggle against the oppressors to individual acts of terrorism.

The Marxist-Leninist thesis of the people as the creators of history is also of great importance to the masses of the working people themselves. By dethroning one of the cherished myths of all exploiters— 180 the myth that human society owes everything to a handful of the elite, without whom it could not live and develop—this thesis awakens the consciousness of the masses, inspires them to fight for emancipation, imbues them with faith in victory, in the feasibility of a society in which the masses themselves will be the full masters. The Marxist thesis of the decisive role of the masses in history at the same time awakens in the working people a profound feeling of responsibility for the fate of society. It shows them that it is no use relying on a “saviour”, that the only hero who can free the peoples from oppression and remould society in accordance with the aspirations of the majority of mankind are the workers themselves.