p For a deeper understanding of the role and significance of scientific and technological progress it is important to know what it rests upon, what that magic power is that has been propelling society forward for so many centuries. Undoubtedly, this motive force lies in the development of the productive forces and the relations of production among people. At the same time the role of chief judge in the great transformative processes belongs now as before to advanced social thought. Itself the product of social development, it has at the same time elevated, inspired and speeded up its movement, opening up for it new paths and new vistas.

p Scientific and technological discoveries have an immediate impact upon the social processes through the gradual modification of the social consciousness of people as regards their views on nature and society, and upon the development 34 of the productive forces. History shows that in this historical progressive process social thought holds key positions. It acts, as it were, as a battering ram in the development of society, prepares the ground for and promotes scientific, technological and social progress. The transition from capitalism to socialism is organically bound up with the social, the ideological revolution as well as with the scientific and technological revolution. Out of the conflict between the growing productive forces and capitalist relations of production which have outlived their day, there are emerging new, advanced ideas mobilising people for the struggle against these moribund relations.

p Lenin, in his day, observed that "large-scale machine industry, by concentrating large masses of workers, transforming the methods of production, and destroying all the traditional, patriarchal cloaks and screens that have obscured the relations between classes, always leads to the directing of public attention towards these relations, to attempts at public control and regulation”.  [34•*  The scientific and technological revolution is breaking up all that is old and conservative in people’s way of life throughout the capitalist world, and at the same time it is setting into motion their way of thinking, their psychology and culture, and preparing the ground for the social revolution.

p New social ideas and theories precede social change and constitute one of its conditions. Consequently, the emergence of new social theories and their fertilisation of people’s minds, the realisation of science in the material sphere of production and the remodelling of social relations—all these are merely different aspects of a single process expediting society’s progress. An important role in all profound transformations, including scientific and technological, especially in processes of great social upheavals, has always been played by progressive social thought, by people’s social consciousness. That is only natural. Progressive social ideas mobilise and organise people for revolutionary action, and it is people who make history, including that of science. The ideological revolution speeds up, facilitates and promotes scientific, technological and social progress.

p Let us take, for example, 18th-century feudal France, 35 which had been in a state of stagnation for many years. What impelled it forward towards progress and civilisation? Undoubtedly, progressive social thought, chiefly the Encyclopaedists-materialists; they largely supplied the answers to the difficult questions posed by the country’s historical development. Soaring social thought promoted the development of the natural sciences and stimulated the political activity of the masses. It prepared the soil for technical progress and the great social revolution. In the course of several decades France became one of the most powerful and influential countries in Europe.

p Germany at the beginning of the 19th century was a disunited feudal state. What gave her a forward impetus? Again, progressive social thought. German enlightenment of the late 18th century, German classical philosophy, which was progressive for its time, stimulated social activity in Germany, and this, too, helped to eliminate feudal disunity and effect an economic upsurge.

p And what awakened the revolutionary forces of Russia? That same progressive social thought: the first revolutionary democrats, the whole brilliant group of 19th-century enlighteners followed by the great party of Leninist Bolsheviks—the vanguard of the class that was called upon to carry out the social reconstruction of the world. The spread of Marxism, the ideas of Lenin roused to the struggle that most powerful of Russia’s socio-political forces slumbering in the fetters of tsarism—the working class. It was they who started Russia along the road of technical and social progress. Gave her such a send-off as made Russia the homeland of socialism, the embodiment of world progress in the modern epoch.

p Supported by the incontrovertible facts of history we can say that at all times, in all ages, social thought, reflecting the social contradictions of the epoch, has been the motive force of society’s progress. History likewise testifies that the development of the natural sciences and scientific and technological progress have always interacted in the closest manner with the development of the social sciences, have received the fruitful impact of progressive social thought, of progressive philosophy. Without a doubt, the great discoveries of Copernicus and Galileo had a direct bearing on the humanistic ideas of the Renaissance as well as on the theories of social development, the appearance of which was 36 an important landmark in the development of progressive social thought.

p At the end of the 18th and throughout the 19th century science won more and more tremendous new victories. Natural science and engineering made gigantic strides forward. Steam yielded to the dominion of a new revolutionary power—electricity. This, too, was connected with progressive social thought, philosophical materialism above all. Subsequently Lenin wrote of this period: "Throughout the modern history of Europe, and especially at the end of the eighteenth century in France, where a resolute struggle was conducted against every kind of medieval rubbish, against serfdom in institutions and ideas, materialism has proved to be the only philosophy that is consistent, true to all the teachings of natural science and hostile to superstition, cant and so forth.”  [36•*  Lenin thus revealed the great revolutionary significance of materialism for the development of the natural sciences, for society’s scientific, technological and social progress.

p The victorious bourgeoisie afterwards discarded the banner of philosophical materialism. To safeguard its rule it resorted to various forms of idealism. But the philosophical materialism which the bourgeoisie had renounced continued to develop and improve. Growing more and more consistent, it increased its revolutionary impact on the progress of science and social development.

p The acme of advanced social thought and the natural result of all preceding and contemporary development of the science of nature and society is the Marxist-Leninist outlook, a theory which has summarised and critically reviewed the great progressive heritage of human culture, science and knowledge attained by past generations. Ever since the emergence of dialectical and historical materialism all the social and natural sciences have been developing under its increasingly fruitful impact.

p Dialectical and historical materialism are that strong and brilliant searchlight which illumines the complex and still unexplored distances and depths of the material world. Obviously, modern natural science, as heretofore, cannot do without materialist, philosophical conclusions. If the natural sciences are to develop further, Marxist-Leninist philosophy 37 must strengthen its leading methodological role in their development. ". . .It must be realised," Lenin wrote, "that no natural science and no materialism can hold its own in the struggle against the onslaught of bourgeois ideas and the restoration of the bourgeois world outlook unless it stands on solid philosophical ground. In order to hold his own in this struggle and carry it to a victorious finish, the natural scientist must be a modern materialist, a conscious adherent of the materialism represented by Marx, i.e., he must be a dialectical materialist.”  [37•* 

p For over a century now Marxist science, based on dialectical and historical materialism, has been opening up to mankind more and more new horizons of the most perfect, the most humane social life upon Earth. Over a century’s experience has confirmed that the history of societal development is steadily following the scientific laws discovered by the classics of Marxism-Leninism. Those ideologues who fly in the face of facts to prove that Marxism-Leninism no longer holds good for our day look ridiculous in the extreme. No wonder this kind of theoreticians find themselves in the state of blind men who do not see the light and those grandiose achievements which are taking place in our complex and exciting age so rich in promise.

p One cannot but rejoice at the superb successes which mankind has achieved in the sphere of cognition of the world around us. Soviet scientists in many fields are in the van of world science, of world scientific, technological and social progress. One of the splendid traditions of Soviet science is that its members take an active part in the country’s public and political life, in the education of the people, and the shaping of a correct materialist world outlook among them. In the words of Engels, true science has always been thoroughly revolutionary, thoroughly ennobling. It is these admirable qualities that are most strongly in evidence in Soviet science and its valiant scientists.

p Of course, as long as imperialism exists, mankind is in danger of being plunged into a catastrophe of war. Imperialism is still exercising its malign influence on many of the world’s distinguished scientists. Imperialism is out to keep the peoples in a state of terror and uses scientific and technological progress for its own class ends. None but the 38 bourgeoisie sustains the spirit of amorality, decadence and want of faith in man’s powers and capabilities. The bourgeoisie uses the scientific and technological revolution against man, condemning him to slavish homage and spiritual desolation.

p With the appearance of the atomic and hydrogen weapon bourgeois propaganda tried to scare people into believing the inevitability of a nuclear war in which all would perish. Hence the intimidation, bluster, blackmail and the debauching of people’s minds. Mankind, however, has already weathered this cyclone and recovered faith in its own powers. Now the bourgeoisie has trotted out another bugbear. It is trying to put into people’s heads, especially those of the young, the idea that science itself will destroy man, make him unwanted, with machines taking his place. Therefore, there is only one way for him—not to engage in science, not to engage in public activities, but sit still and wait for his natural doom.

p Such pessimistic prognoses, shifting responsibility for the antagonisms and social ills of "Western civilisation" from the capitalist system onto technology and science, are to be found in abundance not only in the gloom-ridden Utopias of the sci-fic writers, but in the works of many bourgeois sociologists. Here are some examples. Professor Kurt Schilling of Munich University writes: "Technology at its third stage transcends technology in general.... It contains, at the least, the danger of technology transcending man instead of man mastering technology.”  [38•* 

p Of course, when such forecasts are made not by professional specialists in bourgeois propaganda, but by scientists, it simply goes to show how narrow their outlook is within the rigid framework of bourgeois social life. It testifies also to the need for large-scale ideological work, for a proper Marxist-Leninist reinterpretation of all important new phenomena engendered by the modern scientific and technological revolution. All these circumstances place an added burden of responsibility upon scientists. It is the job of progressive social elements to save man from corruption by bourgeois ideology, to elevate him spiritually, morally and ideologically. Naturally, bourgeois amorality can only be done away with on the basis of a materialist interpretation 39 of societal development, on the basis of a Marxist-Leninist outlook.

p In our day the call for social progress rings out on all continents with tocsin-like urgency. And it meets with a warm response in the hearts of millions and millions of workers, peasants and members of all sections of the oppressed people. The urge towards social progress on the part of broad social circles signifies, on the one hand, that the bourgeois order is unacceptable to the millions, that its economic and political systems are discredited in their eyes, that they are dissatisfied with the mendacious and hypocritical promises of bourgeois democratism, and, on the other, that ways are being sought towards a more equitable social system founded on the ideas of socialism.

In other words, a situation has been objectively created in the world when all its progressive forces, albeit by different ways and with different notions, consciously or spontaneously, are drawn towards socialism. This objective factor cannot be overestimated. The thing now is for advanced scientific social thought to assist in finding a correct answer to the clamorous question as to how, in what direction and by what means and methods the luminous goal— that of building socialism on a worldwide scale—can be achieved.

And so, history has clearly demonstrated that all major scientific and technological revolutions were active levers of social revolutions. Social revolutions, in their turn, were the greatest boosters of scientific and technological progress and of profound changes in society. The first scientific and technological revolution effected on the basis of steam power speeded up the development of bourgeois revolutions, which ended with the collapse of the feudal system and the establishment of the rule of the bourgeoisie. At the same time this upheaval of the economic basis tended towards the formation of a new and most powerful class—the proletariat, the grave-digger of the bourgeoisie. The second scientific and technological revolution effected on the basis of electric energy resulted in a social revolution of a socialist type, which toppled the rule of the bourgeoisie first in one country 40 and then in a number of others, where the proletariat fulfilled its liberative mission with credit. Today mankind is in its third, most powerful scientific and technological revolution, which is taking place on the basis of intra-atomic energy. This brings in its wake colossal social upheavals in all the world’s continents and is bound to lead to the complete and assured victory of socialism on an international scale. The day is not far off when the working class of all continents, rising to full stature of organisation and consciousness, together with the freedom-loving peoples, together with all the progressive forces of society, will deal such a smashing blow to imperialist transmissions as will leave only an ugly memory of capitalism with its oppression and violence. Such is the inescapable law of historical development.