p In their analysis of man’s diverse cultural activities, bourgeois sociologists proceed from the wholly incorrect principle of "man as consumer”.

p This principle is the cornerstone of the so-called mass culture theory. According to bourgeois sociologists, the culture of the masses, as distinct from a restricted "high culture" for the elite, is designed for the "average man in the street" whose cultural consumption is completely governed by the standards and cliches of industrial cultural output.

p Mass culture not only serves the tastes of mediocre people, but it is designed (and that is precisely its main purport) to breed mediocre, one-dimension consumer man, bereft of creative potency and social activity, and is therefore welcomed by the ruling bourgeois circles.

p Mass culture is an instrument for governing people, for conditioning them. Through it the bourgeoisie controls the thoughts and actions of millions of people; the “ consumerman” formula has spread throughout the spheres of ideology and politics. Election candidates, political platforms and views are thrust upon people in the same manner as advertisements for merchandise.

p All this is alien to the scientific socialist ideology, which affirms that man is primarily a creator. Karl Marx said, "history is nothing but the activity of man pursuing his aims".  [86•1 

p The main purpose of the socialist cultural revolution is to enable first the majority of and then all the people to play an independent creative part in the development of socialist culture.

p Ideally the spiritually endowed individual not only absorbs spiritual values, but also takes an active part in creating them.

p Creative work requires knowledge. However, one must also be capable of mastering the laws that govern the given kind of creative effort and of putting one’s plans into effect.

p In this age of scientific and technological revolution, the creative work of young people in the fields of science and engineering is acquiring particular importance. Today the results of this work are mainly to be seen in innovations and inventions, but there are also ample opportunities in research and development, and preparation of lectures, articles and booklets on urgent scientific and engineering problems.

p Amateur engineering pursuits are of great importance. In designing and making radio and TV sets, motorcycles, electronic devices, etc., young people improve their knowledge of engineering, learn the principles of invention-work and familiarise themselves with scientific and technical literature. This explains why public design bureaus mushroomed all over the country in the 1960s. In these bureaus workers and engineers tackled many complicated engineering problems in their spare time.

p Young people are increasingly contributing to the country’s spiritual values. The average age of Soviet scientists is continually dropping and young people make up a significant portion of brain workers.

p The number of people engaged in creative scientific and engineering work is growing. The number of innovators and inventors, for instance, went up from 555,000 in 1950 to 3,457,000 in 1969.

p The spiritual world of young people is enriched by regular creative pursuits in science and engineering. Young innovators are distinguished for their higher cultural level. A poll conducted among young innovators at three enterprises in Chelyabinsk revealed that only 10.8 per cent of them had incomplete secondary education, 47.3 per cent had complete secondary education, 28.4 per cent had special secondary education, and 13.5 per cent complete or incomplete higher education; 91.9 per cent of them were involved in some form of education, 63.5 per cent subscribed to technical 88 magazines, 89.2 per cent read scientific and technical literature, 60.8 per cent were regular readers in technical libraries; only 27 per cent had a work record of less than 3 years.

p A few years ago the YCLers of the Likhachev Car Plant in Moscow and the Urals Machinery Plant initiated a campaign for higher technical knowledge. One of the principal aims was to recruit more young people into active and independent creative work in science and engineering.

p There are many other ways available for popularising creative technical work both in town and country. For though young people have a higher level of education, their share in innovations is smaller than that of other contingents of the work force. We investigated 61 enterprises in Chelyabinsk Region and found that though 7 to 9 per cent of the employees were involved in rationalisation work, only 3.9 to 5 per cent of the young workers (i.e., under 30) were so occupied. This can be put down to their lack of practical experience on the job.

p Addressing the "24th Congress of the CPSU, the First Secretary of the YCL Central Committee Y. M. Tyazhelnikov said: "The task today is to work out a harmonious system of creative scientific and engineering pursuits for all ages and professional categories of young people. Every enterprise, every collective farm and state farm, every research and educational institution must provide adequate opportunities for creative pursuits for young workers and students.”  [88•1 

p This requires a whole network of amateur circles and associations in all fields of science and engineering in all urban and rural enterprises, clubs and cultural centres. The mobilisation of hundreds of thousands of young people for creative scientific and engineering pursuits will greatly contribute to the development of socialist culture.

p Amateur art groups are the most popular form of creative activity. Some 13 million adults and 10 million schoolchildren are involved in them and their numbers are constantly increasing. In Sverdlovsk Region, for instance, they went up from 124,000 in 1965 to 275,500 in 1970, and this was accompanied by a rise in standards as well. There has been 89 a marked increase in the number of people’s theatres (drama, opera and ballet), circuses, film studios, amateur associations of writers and poets, artists, composers, and ornamentalists, and even people’s conservatoires. Some of them have reached professional standards. The People’s Opera Theatre at the Metallurgists’ Palace of Culture of the VerkhIset Plant in Sverdlovsk has successfully produced a number of Soviet and classical operas; the Ballet Theatre at the Palace of Culture of the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant has won fame throughout the Soviet Union; the student ensemble from vocational schools in Sverdlovsk Region even made a tour abroad.

p However, not all art fans are yet involved in amateur associations. There are boundless opportunities for encouraging amateur arts. For instance, a poll conducted among young workers of the Urals Machinery Plant and the Medicines Factory in Sverdlovsk revealed that some 40 or 62 per cent wanted to play a musical instrument, 18-20 per cent, to learn to sing, 14 per cent, to act on the stage, and 11-21 per cent, to learn to recite verse.

p At the dawn of the revolution Lenin pointed out the importance of amateur creative work. "It’s wonderful,” he said, "when our workers write plays ... act on the stages of their own clubs, when they exhibit their own creative work and make progress in all arts.”  [89•1 

p The founder of the Communist Party drew no dividing line between artistic performance and script writing; he viewed them as an integral whole, but accentuated "creative work" in all forms of art.

p To these two forms of creative amateur work on the part of young people we should add the voluntary work done by hundreds of thousands of young men and women as cultural organisers, editors and members of editorial boards of wall and factory newspapers, propagandists, canvassers, lecturers, directors of amateur circles and sports sections. The majority of higher educational establishments have opened departments of social professions where future specialists—engineers, doctors, teachers, agronomists—are trained as culture propagandists.

p The army of culture propagandists is swelling, and its contribution to the general development of the socialist culture is increasing. They play a particularly great role in raising cultural standards in the countryside.

The further development of socialist culture is tied up with the constant expansion of creative activities for the people in the sphere of culture. In the Central Committee’s Report to the 24th Congress of the CPSU Leonid Brezhnev said that "in addition to giving the working masses broad access to cultural values, socialism has made them the direct makers of culture".  [90•1