p Historical experience has shown that relaxed attention to the social sciences inevitably leads, not only to lack of principles or ideals and attitudes of indifference to politics, but to stagnation of all social development. Lenin repeatedly pointed out that if Communists wanted to move with the times they had to keep advancing Marxist social science in all directions in accordance with the new conditions and the new tasks. Guided by its Programme of Communist Construction our Party is doing a big job in educating the people, especially the youth, and cultivating in them communist patterns of thought and attitudes. Education of the rising generation is a primary task of the Party. An 285 important role in this belongs to the social sciences. We are living in a world in which a struggle of classes is going on; we are living at a time when the reactionary forces of imperialism are trying their hardest to turn back the wheel of history. Under these conditions education of the youth should be orientated on a better understanding of the objective laws of social development, on a better knowledge of our class interests and the interests of our class opponents.

p Marxists-Leninists have always stated frankly that the social sciences are of a profoundly partisan nature. Bourgeois ideologues, as we know, try to conceal the fact that their science is class-committed. They would have us believe that it stands above parties and classes. But that is pure humbug. Our Party proceeds from the assumption that the more consistently the principle of science’s partisanship is applied the more exact, comprehensive and profound will the acquired knowledge be. At the same time, the more perfect and copious the acquired knowledge, the more will it be in keeping with the interests of the Party, with the interests of the working classes. The principle of partisanship is of deep scientific significance. We must fight our ideological opponents with the full force and power of Marxism-Leninism. "To participate actively in the struggle for the triumph of the ideals of communism, for the minds and hearts of people is the honourable duty of all our country’s scholars.

p As already stated above, the Communist Party has always attached supreme importance to the creative development of Marxist-Leninist theory and given constant care to the development of the social sciences. At different periods the Central Committee of the Party repeatedly passed decisions affecting various fields of social science (philosophy, political economy, history of the Party, science of law, etc.). The ruling of the C.C. C.P.S.U. of August 14, 1967 "On Measures for Developing the Social Sciences and Enhancing Their Role in Communist Construction" holds a special place among them. It was the first decision in the Party’s history to cover the development of all the social sciences as a whole. In fact, it is a programmatic document which charts the path of development for the social sciences for a long time ahead.

p The decision of the C.C. C.P.S.U. establishes a clear interdependence between the development of society and the 286 development of the social sciences. The tasks confronting the social sciences and assessment of their achievements and shortcomings are thus determined by life itself. This is conditioned by the need for a profound and comprehensive study of reality and follows from the Marxist-Leninist assessment of the role of advanced theory in the revolutionary transformation of society. Theoretical work follows the line of continuity of advanced revolutionary experience. Special emphasis is made on the need for fundamental research on problems of the day, the need for linking theoretical analysis with a careful and concrete study of the facts, for linking theory with social practice and with the practice of scientific knowledge itself.

p The decision of the C.C. C.P.S.U. gives special attention to the union between the social and natural sciences, based primarily on unity of world outlook and methodology, on the unity of aims pursued by Soviet science. The Central Committee calls upon scholars to develop all the component parts of Marxist-Leninist teaching: philosophy, political economy, the history, theory and practice of scientific communism. For each of these fields of knowledge the Party’s decision formulates concrete tasks and indicates the ways they are to be applied in the practice of building communism.

p Such a landmark in the life of the Party and the people, as the 24th Congress of the Party calls for an attempt, at least in brief outline, to trace certain results and prospects in the development of the social sciences and to examine to what extent their scientific practice is in keeping with the demands of the new stage in our society’s development.

p In recent years the overall picture of Soviet social science has become more multiform and complex. Present-day socio-historical practice and the growth of scientific knowledge have posed new problems to social scientists. The ideological and theoretical standard of research on the whole has undoubtedly advanced. Entire trends of social science have taken shape anew and there has been a considerable increase in the number of scientific institutions. The ranks of social scientists have been reinforced with new skilled specialists. Quite a few major researches have been published.

p There are other indicators, however, besides these direct ones, which enable us to form a judgement of the achievements and possibilities of the social sciences. The 287 development of theoretical thought, as history bears witness, is always closely allied with the general tone of social life, with the spiritual atmosphere of society, with the dynamics of the social movement, with the temper and aspirations of the masses.

p Our society is surmounting sheer and difficult ascents and scaling ever new heights of socio-economic progress. Characteristic features of its spiritual life in general and of social theory in particular are clarity and grandeur of aim, a realistic thoughtful approach to reality, confidence in the future, and daring creative quest. It can be said without exaggeration that social thought has never known more favourable conditions for its development than those it enjoys in our day in socialist society.

p The party spirit and class principles of Marxist-Leninist science concerning society enable researchers to keep a finger constantly on the pulse of social life, to collate their researches with the general problems of social development, to detect new phenomena and processes, evaluate them correctly in the context of the general pattern of world history and its most progressive tendencies, and to discover new ways and means of achieving the great goal—the victory of communism.

p The profoundly scientific foundation on which MarxistLeninist theory is built ensures to it a vanguard role in the general movement of human knowledge, enables it to absorb and master ever new discoveries of science, to improve the cognitive apparatus of materialist dialectics and on this basis to widen the horizons of human thought projected towards the revolutionary transformation of the world.

p The organic unity of Marxist-Leninist social science and socialist ideology, which has become the property of the whole Soviet people, provides an extra powerful impulse to the creative development of theory. The growth of culture, education, political alertness and social activity of the masses who are solving problems of worldwide historic significance under the leadership of the Communist Party, the purposive atmosphere of creative effort, efficiency and realism inspired by lofty aims and ideals—all this has a highly stimulating effect on the social sciences and encourages constant creative quest on the part of scholars.

p Fruitfulness of research in the field of the social sciences and the practical significance of their results depend on the 288 correctness of the Marxist-Leninist methodology, on concrete and purposeful scientific analysis, and on how deep these social problems probe. Success is guaranteed by the further strengthening of the Leninist standards of Party life in the activities of the scientific bodies and by the guidance given to the development of the social sciences by the Communist Party and its Central Committee.

p Conditions for the development of the social sciences are quite favourable. The tasks confronting them, however, have become more intricate and important. In the first place, this is due to the profoundly contradictory nature of the modern epoch with its great diversity of class forces involved in the socio-economic and political struggle in the world arena, with its swiftly changing situations which pose new problems. The ideological struggle between socialism and capitalism is becoming more acute and intense and the methods of bourgeois and revisionist ideological subversion against socialism are growing more subtle and crafty.

p Furthermore, two counter processes are to be observed in the social sciences, as in all contemporary knowledge. On the one hand, there is the differentiation of scientific knowledge, the appearance of new lines of research; on the other, the integration of knowledge, the need for solving complex problems by the efforts of members of several sciences, and hence the interaction and interpenetration of methods and techniques. Both these tendencies are of an objective nature, but their effect is anything but synonymous.

p In a number of cases, for instance, the tendency towards differentiation engenders a one-sided, narrowly empirical approach to the analysis of living social reality leading to a loss of general perspective on the part of researchers, to attempts to substitute limited schemata for a whole living picture of life’s processes. Similarly, the tendency towards integration of knowledge is liable to lead to extremes expressed in a mechanical application of the methods of one science to other sciences, in unwarranted simplification of complex social phenomena and processes for the sake of following the “scientific” fashion. In either case, neglect of the demands of dialectical-materialist methodology may cause great damage and impair the value of research results, and sometimes even create a danger of alien views and concepts invading the sphere of Marxist-Leninist social theory.

p Thus, the existing favourable situation does not in itself 289 eliminate the difficulties that face social science. If anything, it makes them more evident and stresses the urgent need for overcoming them in order that the scope and standard of theoretical work in the sphere of the social sciences conform more fully to the demands of life.

p Obviously, these tendencies towards differentiation and integration of scientific knowledge in our scientifically controlled society should not be allowed to drift and take their own course. The development of new lines of research, at the back of which stand large communities of scientific workers, should always have a definite pattern and purpose. In one case scientific work may be necessitated by pressing needs of the day, having primarily propagandist, popularising, or, as they say, practical aims. In another case scientific work may require profound, long-range fundamental research. This balance is what social science work often lacks.

p The social sciences, like the natural sciences, have ( relatively) two aspects of research—the fundamental and the applied. Of course, no line can be drawn between them, but neither can they be identified with each other. In speaking of a balance between these two sides of a single whole we wanted to emphasise that in their enthusiasm for popularising, propagandist literature our social scientists sometimes lose sight of or minimise the need for solving fundamental problems of social theory.

p To describe the unfailing importance of fundamental research we could do no better than refer to the outstanding works of the classics of Marxism-Leninism. Indeed, the history of progressive social thought knows of no scientific works which had such an appeal to and powerful impact upon the minds of millions as Marx’s Capital, Engels’s AntiDuhring and Lenin’s Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism and Materialism and Empirio-Criticism, to mention only a few.

p Siffice it to mention the tremendous significance which the founders of our world outlook attached to the development of fundamental research and their warnings against narrow-minded empiricism and one-sided practicalism, against mindless yielding to the spontaneous current of events, and against irresponsible subjectivism and voluntarism. "Anybody who tackles partial problems without having previously settled general problems, will inevitably and at 290 every step ’come up against’ those general problems without himself realising it. To come up against them blindly in every individual case means to doom one’s politics to the worst vacillation and lack of principle.”  [290•*  This warning of Lenin’s specially applies to those advocates of pluralism who attempt to substitute for general theory such a particular concept as the "national model of socialism", the disastrous role and wretched fate of which are obvious.

p The importance of fundamental researches in the natural and technical sciences is well known. Without them it is impossible in the age of the scientific and technological revolution to achieve front-rank positions in the sphere of material production. In the social sciences the need for giving priority to the solution of fundamental problems is dictated by the need for ensuring a fruitful link between science and practice, for providing the applied sciences with a reliable methodological basis. It is in the course of fundamental social science research that new ideas of larger import can be discovered and conclusions of long-range significance arrived at. All this will undoubtedly augment and widen the arsenal of advanced social ideas put over by propaganda and the system of education, thereby giving a new impulse towards people’s conscious attitude to labour and social alertness.

p In our day, when speaking of the close link between science and practice, people more often than not cite examples from the realm of the natural and technical sciences and adduce figures confirming the effectiveness of knowledge applied in technical systems. But by what figures, by what criteria can we measure the influence which the social sciences exercise on political and social life, on the course of the struggle of ideologies, on the education of the masses?

p Is there such a criterion? Yes, there is. The most valid criterion defining the role of the social sciences in our socialist society is their high ideological content, the purity of the Marxist-Leninist world-view, intolerance to the slightest signs of shilly-shallying, vacillation and an attitude of compromise towards bourgeois and Right- reformist ideology. This brings into high focus the question of social science workers’ responsibility and exactingness, 291 bearing in mind that this is a special, high responsibility in which ideological and political aspects are always present.

Without doubt the social sciences hold a place of honour among all the gains that have been won and achieved on the front of communist construction. Every branch of social theory, even when dealing with the most abstract problems, is compelled essentially to give answers to questions which have a larger social appeal. In the final analysis, true fundamentality of one or another theoretical problem exercises a salutary influence on the formation of a socialist consciousness and conviction of both the individual and of society as a whole.