p The steady advance of science and technology is but one side of the matter. The other is that now as before it does not proceed in isolation from social progress but is closely bound up with it. In socialist countries, scientific and technological progress is not an end in itself but is pursued to assert and further optimal social relations, to bring profound social progress which rids man of all forms of class oppression and makes him independent of the spontaneous forces of nature; it is pursued for the benefit of society and the individual.

p Ever since science emerged as a distinctive sphere of social activity, society and science have usually marched shoulder to shoulder, even through conflicts, cataclysms and wars. European capitalism sprang up with the great geographic discoveries and strides in astronomy, celestial and terrestrial mechanics, hydrostatics and hydrodynamics, which made it possible to summarise and comprehend world experience of scientific and technological development. It was then that the foundations of modern natural science were laid and it became solidly linked with production.

p The growth of science in those days went hand in hand with the technical reorganisation of capitalist production 61 and paved the way for rapid development of the productive forces. This was conclusively demonstrated by the industrial revolution in Britain, which finally established the capitalist mode of production. Since then science had advanced much more rapidly because it has become a profitable sphere of investment. Engels observed that Watt’s steam engine alone paid off in fifty years everything the world had ever spent on the development of science. Even so, later on experience was to show that the chief obstacle to scientific progress lay in capitalist social relations.

p Let us now consider some of the characteristic features of the scientific and technological revolution and its connection with the social processes going on in the world at present.

p First, it is developing in the epoch of revolutionary transition from capitalism to socialism. As one of the most significant factors in revolutionising the modern historical process, it ultimately tends to consolidate the positions of socialism and contributes to its triumph on a world scale.

p Second, it is the pivot of the struggle being waged between the two worlds, the two different systems, socialist and capitalist. It thus presents a double-edged weapon which can be used equally by the progressive forces in the name of civilisation and future prosperity, and by the reactionary forces, for the sinister purposes of suppression and destruction. This polarity of results knocks the bottom out of the conjectures of the advocates of the “convergence theory" and the “one industrial society”. The titanic contest of the two systems is sharpened by their rivalry in the sphere of science and technology. It is natural, therefore, that each system and country should be eager to lead and prove the strongest. That is what makes the struggle over questions of the scientific and technological revolution so tense and emphasises the close connection between technological and social progress.

p The third characteristic of the scientific and technological revolution is its universality. Whereas earlier revolutionary changes were effected in individual fields of science or technology, the present revolution is all-inclusive, embracing the entire productive and economic life of society, each fresh discovery speeding the progress of science and 62 technology on its way.  [62•1  And at the same time, the revolution in science organically merges with the revolution in industry and society into one revolutionary process whereby science exerts a mounting influence on every aspect of socio-economic development.

p As the social results of the scientific and technological revolution grow more tangible, the significance of MarxistLeninist theory to all other spheres of knowledge and to people’s practical activities increases accordingly. The need for correct social theory and for a more rapid development of the entire complex of social sciences, including philosophy, has come to be more strongly felt not only in socialist but in capitalist countries as well.

p Which, it may be asked, is the pre-eminent aspect of the phenomenon—technological progress or social progress?

p Marxists-Leninists approach this question dialectically, as interrelated and interacting with other phenomena, and necessarily from a class standpoint. There is only one class in the world, the working class, which, owing to the very conditions of its existence is interested consistently and to the last in making technological progress contribute to social progress, to the cause of the workers’ emancipation from exploitation and oppression. This class remains, as before, the best organised and the most revolutionary class.

p The bourgeoisie is extremely egoistic in this respect. It also favours technological progress but the one that should not entail any deep-going social reforms. Even in its heyday it had the same conservative approach. Today it has not only become still more conservative but is turning more and more reactionary. Witness the behaviour of the imperialist bourgeoisie in Africa and Asia, where it does not want to part with a fraction of its class interest or privileges. And not only there, but everywhere and always, openly or secretly, the imperialist bourgeoisie has been a strangler of freedom, progress and liberation of peoples.

p History shows conclusively that harmonious progress of science is only possible if combined with social progress, and that wherever it is not accompanied by social progress 63 it becomes warped and peters out for want of room. And, conversely, whenever technological and social progress have concurred, science has developed swiftly, and society moved ahead. Just as the progress of science and technology combining with social progress produced the changes in the socio-economic system that resulted in capitalism, so did these phenomena subsequently lead to the breakdown of the old, capitalist relations and the emergence of new, socialist relations which prevail today among a third of the world’s population.

p In the capitalist countries, the scientific and technological revolution is accompanied by a further consolidation of the working class and all the progressive forces as they apply powerful pressure against imperialism and continue to shake its socio-economic foundations. The objective conditions and subjective factors which facilitate the victory of the revolutionary forces are maturing more rapidly. The processes accompanying the scientific and technological revolution in the capitalist world have a marked effect on social patterns and the alignment of class forces in society; on the one hand, certain conditions promote the consolidation of the workers’ anti-imperialist alliance, while, on the other, there appears a certain base for the spread of opportunism and greater ideological influence of the bourgeoisie on the working class.

p Scientific and technological progress leads to a mass change of professions and skills. Modern technology requires knowledgeable, well-trained workers. In the capitalist countries it results in a proportion of workers, particularly of the older age groups, being ousted from production. There appears a section of “redundant” people who find themselves at a dead end. An appreciable proportion of young people, too, have no chance of receiving proper training and so enter life jobless, without any prospects for the future. Chances are equal that they may be drawn into conscious revolutionary activities or will become just rebellious.

p In the Soviet Union the progress of science and technology goes hand in hand with the general social progress that is leading Soviet socialist society to the heights of human civilisation. It contributes to the building of the new, unprecedented type of society that is communism. Socialism 64 gives unlimited scope to science and technology so that they can advance at a faster rate than under any pre-socialist system. This explains how a country but recently among the most backward in Europe in almost every respect has been able under Soviet government to arrive so quickly at forward positions in science and technology, which, in turn, greatly facilitates the advancement of all social relationships.

p But however great the triumphs of Soviet science and technology and however strong their positions in some major fields of modern science, the Soviet Union still has to tackle fresh big problems posed by the scientific and technological revolution. It has to raise standards of labour and management sufficiently to meet its demands. It has to increase the efficiency of socialist production and outstrip capitalism in productivity, which, as Lenin said, is decisive to the triumph of the new social system on a world scale.

It would be an unpardonable mistake to oversimplify the tasks to be tackled in this sphere. One should be fully aware of the extreme complexity of the great scientific and technological revolution now under way. It should be borne in mind that while advance in science and technology may promote social progress and the cause of communism, the imperialist states use this advance to build up their economic and war potential  [64•1  and to accomplish their reactionary anti-humanitarian ends. It is, therefore, vital to progress and communist construction that all branches of natural science and technology should forge ahead even more rapidly and their discoveries be applied more promptly and efficiently for the benefit of the productive forces of socialist society. Hence the need for a clear scientific conception of all aspects and results of scientific and technological advance, for its scientific organisation and management.