p The current scientific and technological revolution, its social aspects and prospects, already command world-wide interest. Its problems are of concern not only to scientists but to the public at large. It is actively invading the social, economic and other spheres, affecting all classes, government systems and mass organisations. It is exerting an ever greater influence on the destinies of nations, an influence that will ultimately be felt by every human being on this planet.

p This is in no way surprising, for the current rate of technological advance betokens a qualitative leap in our understanding of the laws of objective reality and in the development and use of the means of production, a leap which is attended by sweeping economic and social change. The progress of science and technology and their practical applications have become a major field of competition between the two world systems. In the course of the scientific and technological revolution the fundamental distinctions between socialism and capitalism stand out yet more clearly and the present age is revealed as one of a world-wide movement from capitalism to communism.

p In the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, the introduction of science in diverse spheres of social life and the increasing utilisation of scientific and technological progress to provide for rapid economic development and a 6 higher standard of living for the people is an objective law of social development. Such harmonious and purposeful use of science and technology in the socialist countries for the sake of general prosperity is in contrast to the acute social conflicts that technological advance breeds in the capitalist world. One cannot but agree with Academician M. Millionshchikov who observes in one of the contributions to this book that “in the final analysis, the scientific and technological revolution is incompatible with social injustice; it will emerge as the crucial test in the great school of human history which, in our profound belief, socialism alone is able to pass" (p. 28).

p Soviet social scientists are deeply involved in the study of various problems advanced by the current scientific and technological revolution. What are the general theoretical and methodological problems that it raises? What are its specific features? Its social aspects? The prospects of its development in the socialist, capitalist and developing countries? From what, and how accurately, is it possible to forecast its direction and results through different social formations? What general and specific social conditions work in its favour? How and with what intensity does it effect the development of social relationships, social progress? What effect does it have on culture, on the development of the individual? What factors determine the increasing social role of science under contemporary conditions? Examination of these and similar problems is a most urgent task for Soviet scientists. And this task has not only theoretical but practical implications, since the building of communist society in the Soviet Union is based on all-round utilisation of the latest achievements of science and technology.

p The present book, prepared jointly by the Soviet Academy of Sciences Editorial Board Social Sciences Today and Progress Publishers, is designed to show how Soviet scientists 7 are going about this task. The articles have been contributed by a representative team of experts, including philosophers, economists, historians and sociologists, thus providing a comprehensive discussion of the issues involved, and presenting a full-scale picture of the social effects of the advance of technology and science as a whole.

p This collection purports to show, above all, how Soviet scholars understand the interrelation between technological and social progress, the social and political headsprings of the scientific and technological revolution. The authors proceed from the fact that this vast process is a natural outcome of the development of the productive forces and international social development in the present historical epoch of transition from capitalism to socialism. The class struggle, the race between the two socio-economic world systems are, as Soviet scientists see it, the social groundwork which has caused, and which explains, the distinctive features of the rapidly developing scientific and technological revolution. It engenders essentially different processes in socialist society, on the one hand, whose social progress is integrally linked with the progress of science and technology, and in capitalist society, on the other, in which such progress results in a polarisation of society, intensification of the class struggle, extension of the social base of the antimonopoly movement and, in the long run, precipitates the necessary and inevitable revolutionary transition to communism.

p For this reason the book includes works of a general theoretical nature, such as “The Crucial Test for Mankind”, by Vice-President of the USSR Academy of Sciences M. Millionshchikov and “Leninism and the Scientific and Technological Revolution" by S. Trapeznikov, D. Sc. (Hist.). The former discloses the basic and specific features of the scientific and technological revolution, throwing light on the interaction between applied and basic research. It 8 stresses the decisive significance of Marxist-Leninist methodology in dealing with acute problems of the development of science and sets forth the outstanding achievements of Soviet scientists and the singularly favourable conditions that socialism provides for advancing science and promoting its role in every sphere of the life of society. The article by S. Trapeznikov describes the fundamental changes in the relation between science and production, the relation between technological and social progress, and the role of progressive social science in the revolutionary transformation of the world. This article substantiates the essential idea that the scientific and technological revolution sharpens all social collisions in bourgeois society, and shows that scientific analysis of the problems advanced by this revolution bears out the conclusions of Marxism-Leninism on the inevitable change from capitalism to socialism.

p Like any other new major development, the scientific and technological revolution, its nature, its social effects and future prospects has become an object of acute ideological struggle. The critics of Marxism strive to use this complex, contradictory phenomenon to indulge in all kinds of theoretical speculations glamourising capitalism, veiling its antagonistic contradictions, belittling the decisive historic role of the working class, and denying the need for a revolutionary remoulding of capitalist society. Trapeznikov emphasises that the heightened activity of the bourgeois theorists charges all Marxists-Leninists with new responsible tasks.

p Professor Y. Chekharin investigates the acute ideological struggle being waged over the vital problems raised by the technological leap forward. In his article “The Scientific and Technological Revolution and Social Progress”, he explains the fundamental idea that the accelerated progress of science and technology is a major objective law of the development of socialist society, the condition and basis of 9 further development of socialist democracy. This article shows the unsoundness of a number of contemporary bourgeois ideological conceptions, such as the theories of “ convergence”, “technological determinism”, and “end of ideology”.

p In a general methodological article “Marxist Dialectics and Scientific Discovery" Academician N. Semyonov takes the example of a discovery in chemicophysics to show the definitive role of dialectical-materialist epistemology in exploring nature and its objective laws, thus demonstrating the part played by Marxist epistemology in the development of the natural sciences which form one of the components of the current scientific and technological revolution. Another such article is “The Scientific and Technological Revolution and Guidance of Social Development" by A. Akhiezer, C. Sc. (Phil.) which throws light on some of the philosophical problems in this field arising from the rapid progress of science and technology.

p The social role of science in the context of the present day is discussed in the article “Specific Features and Social Consequences of the Scientific and Technological Revolution" by V. Marakhov, C. Sc. (Phil.) and Y. Meleshchenko, D. Sc. (Phil.). The authors emphasise that the current revolution embodies two revolutions, one in science and one in technology, taking place concurrently. Is this a “second industrial revolution”, as some people maintain? The authors come to the conclusion that this is the final burst of speed in a process of socialisation of production that began with the industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries. Their article also sheds light on the mounting conflict between the biosphere and technosphere under the onslaught of technological innovation.

p The role of the scientific and technological revolution in socialist society and the prospects of a further impressive economic upswing of the world socialist system are dealt 10 with in the article by State Planning Committee Chairman N. Baibakov, D. Sc. (Techn.), entitled “Socialist Planning and Soviet Economic Development”, and in the articles “Socialist International Division of Labour" by G. Sorokin, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and “New Horizons of Scientific and Technological Progress in the CMEA Countries" by K. Mikulsky, C. Sc. (Econ.). Using varied past and current data, N. Baibakov shows how socialist planning in the Soviet Union has come to be a major factor in accelerating its economic, scientific, technological and social progress. The article supplies detailed information on the Soviet economy, its urgent problems and the ways of handling them, on further improvement of planning and on the role of scientific forecasting. Proceeding from Marx’s definition of the “division of labour”, G. Sorokin considers the current social situation, pointing out the essentially new features of the division of labour that have emerged in the process of building socialism on an international scale. G. Sorokin’s article is supplemented by K. Mikulsky’s article, which turns to the prospects of extending economic, scientific and technological co-operation between the socialist countries.

p The articles “The Scientific and Technological Revolution and Aggravation of the Contradictions of Capitalism" by S. Dalin, D. Sc. (Econ.), and “The Scientific and Technological Revolution and the Social Structure of Capitalist Society" by N. Gausner, D. Sc. (Econ.), deal with the concomitants of the scientific and technological revolution in the capitalist world, demonstrating, among other things, that this revolution runs counter to the very nature of the exploiting system of society. Dalin and Gausner show that, far from being swept away by the scientific and technological progress, social conflicts and class contradictions become sharper under state-monopoly capitalism. They analyse the new forms which such conflicts assume owing to the 11 increasing involvement of diverse sections of society in the anti-monopoly movement.

p In discussing the effect of the scientific and technological revolution on the developing countries V. Kollontai, D. Sc. (Econ.), comes to the conclusion that it tends to aggravate the developing countries’ social and economic problems. He examines the solutions that may be found in the present changed conditions, citing the experience of the socialist countries and showing that the non-capitalist path has every prospect of success because it is consistent with the new revolutionary tempo of scientific and technological progress.

p The three concluding articles take issue with the latest Western bourgeois theories of social development. I. Dvorkin, D. Sc. (Econ.), in his article “The Scientific and Technological Revolution and Bourgeois Economic Theories of Socialism”, shows how bourgeois political economists are using the scientific and technological revolution to justify capitalism. He examines and lays bare the essence of various technological conceptions, dwelling especially on that of the “industrial state" theory. In his article “Two Economic Systems: Theory of Convergence" E. Bregel, D. Sc. (Econ.), demonstrates that this theory reflects some actual features of the modern capitalist economy. Is the capitalist system coming nearer to socialism? Indeed, it is. But not as the proponents of the convergence theory allege. In the situation created by the scientific and technological revolution, capitalism, its technology and organisation of production bring nearer the revolutionary transition to socialism. This does not mean, however, that capitalist society is developing any socialist features within its own framework. The author, facts in hand, successfully refutes assertions to the effect that socialism, in its turn, is moving in the direction of capitalism.

p The concluding article in this collection, “Man in the ‘Industrial Society’ " by Y. Zamoshkin, D. Sc., and N. 12 Motroshilova, C. Sc., deals with H. Marcuse’s conception. The authors come to the conclusion that this conception fails, in effect, to give any scientific substantiation to the future of radical social reform.

p The articles presented here do not claim to be exhaustive. Besides confronting scholars with many new and complicated problems, objective reality calls for reassessment of traditional problems, such as the relation between society and nature, between man and technology, between the individual and the collective, and so on. Soviet scientists study all such problems and phenomena in the context of the cardinal social processes developing in our times, subjecting them to comprehensive examination in co-operation with natural scientists and technologists and drawing on the rich experience of building communism.

The present collection does not claim to be a comprehensive and systematic account of all the social problems of the scientific and technological revolution. Its primary aim is to show the main trends and scope of studies being conducted in the Soviet Union by the combined efforts of practical as well as theoretical workers at all levels. In making their selection the editors have given priority to general comparative studies, discussing the impact of the scientific and technological revolution on the development of socialist society and on the socio-political processes taking place in the capitalist world.