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p There was a time when the bourgeoisie advanced to power under the banner of the progress of reason and knowledge. But bourgeois social relations created a gulf between the people and science. These two most powerful forces of progress were divided. Their unification must be started in the process of labour itself. The progressive development of modern society requires that the powerful forces of science and the people should be blended into a single whole, and that can be done only by the new society. It is the hallmark of the new society that the CPSU Programme indicates the main lines of development in the key fields of natural and social science.

p Capitalism has deprived labour of its spiritual content, converting the workingman into an appendage of the machine. That was the arrangement in the age of steam, and such it is today in this age of automation and remote control. Communism restores to labour its spiritual content and enriches it manyfold. Social relations require that every working person should have knowledge, while science should have close contacts with life and should satisfy the requirements of social development. That is the main line of intellectual progress in modern society. And today we have already left the capitalist world far behind in this respect.

p For centuries the best minds pondered the problems of man’s moral improvement, but all the wisdom of the moralists was unable to secure mankind’s moral progress. Capitalism pulled men down into the morass of greed, envy, wild egoism, and social injustice.

p Thinkers of the past, contemplating mankind’s intellectual and moral progress, produced a great many theories for improving the individual and developing all his spiritual potential, but all these doctrines preached moral and intellectual improvement for the individual alone. That was the wrong way. Moralists are apologists of bourgeois individualism and in their reasoning about the defects and vices of “human nature" they did not say that it is capitalist bondage that tends to distort man’s moral consciousness. The preaching of moral self-improvement for the individual served to promote the interests of the ruling classes, for it was used by the bourgeoisie in an effort to divert the working people from the struggle for a radiant future for all mankind. Forward-looking thinkers in the 18th century noticed the connection between moral progress and the 291 development of education, science and culture, but they reduced the question of moral consciousness to enlightenment. Of course, there is a connection between the development of the mind and moral consciousness, but the acquisition of knowledge does not in itself amount to a development of moral consciousness.

p Capitalism has in fact converted the working man into a mere appendage of the machine, and knowledge into an instrument of greed, distorting men’s moral consciousness and inscribing anti-intellectualism and amoralism on its banner a long time ago.

p Pre-Marxian socialism was likewise unable to show the real way for mankind’s moral and intellectual progress. Utopian socialism believed that the new man would emerge from special test tubes and hothouses, in the cells of the new society that would germinate within the entrails of the old. That was a metaphysical and idealistic view, which was a far cry from the truth.

p Marxism alone, taking the material dialectical approach, showed the way to recast man’s consciousness in the struggle for the triumph of the new social system. Marx and Engels said that the consciousness of man who was to build the new society would initially be burdened with survivals of the old world outlook and that there would be need for a fundamental remoulding of man’s spiritual cast. On this key question, Marxism produced a totally new answer which resolutely broke with the old Utopian views. Lenin wrote: “What distinguishes Marxism from the old, Utopian socialism is that the latter wanted to build the new society not from the mass human material produced by bloodstained, sordid, rapacious, shopkeeping capitalism, but from very virtuous men and women reared in special hothouses and cucumber frames. Everyone now sees that this absurd idea really is absurd and everyone has discarded it, but not everyone is willing or able to give thought to the opposite doctrine of Marxism and to think out how communism can (and should) be built from the mass human material which has been corrupted by hundreds and thousands of years of slavery, serfdom, capitalism, by small individual enterprise, and by the war of every man against his neighbour to obtain a place in the market, or a higher price for his product or his labour."  [291•29 

p Marxism resolutely rejected the idealism and metaphysics of Utopian socialism and showed how the new society was to be built from massive human material instead of artificially created men with special virtues, and explained how man was to be led onto the path of boundless intellectual and moral progress. This answer was provided in the light of dialectical and historical materialism, which had established the importance of social practice for the development of knowledge and human consciousness.

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p Subsequently, various opportunists, revisionists and Mensheviks, abandoning revolutionary Marxism, including the idea of remoulding the mass consciousness in the course of revolutionary struggle, claimed that the socialist revolution in Russia was impossible because on the whole the general educational and cultural standards of the people in the country were lower than those of the capitalist states in Western Europe. That was a rehash of old metaphysical views, and in the light of revolutionary Marxism Lenin rejected this false opportunistic thesis and said: “If a definite level of culture is required for the building of socialism (although nobody can say just what that definite ’level of culture’ is, for it differs in every West-European country), why cannot we begin by first achieving the prerequisites for that definite level of culture in a revolutionary way, and then, with the aid of the workers’ and peasants’ government and the Soviet system, proceed to overtake the other nations?"  [292•30  At the same time, Lenin remarked on the difficulties of tackling this task. He said: “Of all the socialists who have written about this, I cannot recall the work of a single socialist or the opinion of a single prominent socialist on future socialist society, which pointed to this concrete, practical difficulty that would confront the working class when it took power, when it set itself the task of turning the sum total of the very rich, historically inevitable and necessary for us store of culture and knowledge and technique accumulated by capitalism from an instrument of capitalism into an instrument of socialism."  [292•31  This kind of transformation of the whole store of knowledge, culture and technology into an instrument of socialism is a key task of socialist society as it creates its own basis for further development.

p The Communist Party of the Soviet Union has worked out among the key problems of scientific communism the problem of mankind’s intellectual and moral progress. The Party has carried on re-education of the masses in the course of communist construction. “The Communists reject the class morality of the exploiters; in contrast to the perverse, selfish views and morals of the old world, they promote communist morality, which is the noblest and most just morality, for it expresses the interests and ideals of the whole of working mankind.”  [292•32  Indication of the ways to mould man’s new spiritual makeup is closely bound up with the scientific theory of social development.

p The education and upbringing of Soviet man are inseparable from his activity, from the labour process, because Marxism denies the possibility of the new man’s outlook and mental makeup being shaped in any kind of test tube or hothouse. Only in labour, on the basis of social activity, can man develop the right habits, skills and notions.

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p Production in socialist society today requires much scientific knowledge of everyone. On the one hand, the labour process requires that this knowledge should be formed into a system, and on the other, helps to bring it into a system and provides the pivot for knowledge, cementing it with practice. The acquisition of scientific knowledge in connection with the labour process helps not only to raise technical skills but also to shape the scientific world outlook of men in socialist society. If education is organised on the right lines, man learns to go to the root of things and phenomena, to separate the important from the secondary and accidental, to show the causes of phenomena, to discern the physical, chemical and mechanical laws in diverse phenomena and to apply these in practice in accordance with known laws. This kind of education gives a sound foundation for the scientific world outlook. Of course, the scientific world outlook is not shaped spontaneously, but calls for much educational effort to make men take an active attitude to the knowledge they receive, seeking to comprehend it instead of merely storing up in their heads. It is also necessary that men should not extract from the system of knowledge that which they need at the moment, regarding the rest as useless. This kind of approach is a survival of the bourgeois attitude to knowledge. The bourgeoisie has always held that knowledge is good only insofar as it helps to make money. The bourgeoisie has always feared that knowledge acquired by its servitors—the workers—would one day blend together in their minds into a coherent and integrated world outlook. The Soviet people equally reject the aristocratic attitude to knowledge as a pastime, and the distorted and self-seeking bourgeois attitude. That is an important wartershed in the development of social thought which was crossed only with the emergence and development of Marxism, of scientific communism. The working people, who are masters of the new life in the USSR, seek to have the knowledge they obtain to be constituted in a system and, what is most important, in tackling practical problems try to learn to think and to reason on scientific and principled lines.

p Moreover, scientific knowledge in this period of tempestuous technical progress has to keep growing and being replenished. The knowledge in science and technology considered satisfactory for a worker or an engineer 10 years ago is now clearly inadequate. The same applies to the social sciences. Life requires that every member of society should gain an ever deeper understanding of the Party’s line, of the vital tasks of social development, and growing and well-grounded economic knowledge. That is not a mechanical process leading to a mere accumulation of knowledge but a process in which man’s outlook is developed in close connection with the extension and deepening of his life and work experience.

p The combination of knowledge and labour not only makes this knowledge, backed up by practice, much clearer and less abstract, but 294 also enriches and deepens it. This produces not only individual new ideas, but leads to the raising and tackling of great production problems by whole collectives.

p The selection of the tasks and the undertaking of commitments by a team or an individual worker requires not only breadth of technical vision, but also knowledge in the economics and organisation of production, the ability to discover untapped reserves to achieve the key task of the enterprise, which is closely bound up with the overall tasks of the state in the given industry and with the state plan as a whole.

p In Soviet society, knowledge implies the formation among the masses of correct notions about the forces of nature, notions which rule out any faith in the supernatural and the unknowable. Knowledge also implies a correct and profound understanding by the masses of the role of social forces, an understanding that is equally alien to superstition, blind admiration of these forces or attempts to ignore them by means of various subjective idealistic dodges and illusions. Communist education also implies a correct understanding of man’s role, of his strength and potentialities, an understanding which rules out any spirit of servility, debasement and downtroddenness, or the spirit of wild and inflated individualism. These scientific notions become the basis for man’s whole activity and behaviour. Notions brought together in a system of views and strongly influencing human activity develop into convictions and induce people to take correct action. Convictions help to steel man’s character and shape his whole mental makeup.

p In Soviet society the study of the laws of nature and of the natural sciences runs in close connection with a study of the social forces whose instrument is science, in close connection with a study of society’s economic and social life and the tasks which the Soviet people have to tackle in the sphere of production and the economy making use of scientific data. In other words, the science of society, the theory of social development, is an important theoretical basis for the shaping of all of man’s convictions. When man comes to see the great ideals of communism and realise the ultimate and immediate goals in his day-to-day labour activity, the high level of communist consciousness then awakens his creative initiative and activity in labour, and produces collective rationalisation experience and bold novel approaches. All of this works a fundamental change in man’s spiritual makeup.

p At every new stage of communist construction there is a growth and change in the criteria of political maturity and communist consciousness in the various spheres of activity involving Soviet people. This process shows best how socialist society bridges the gap, created by the centuries of domination by the exploiters, between the “lofty” vision and the “low” day-to-day activity. This gap was constantly used to justify bourgeois duplicity, hypocrisy and phrase-mongering, and explain the contradictions between word and deed.

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p The new criteria require a deeper political education, an understanding of economic processes in Soviet society and more profound and all-round knowledge. There is need not only for an urge to work for the benefit of society, but also the ability increasingly to produce such benefit. This ability also implies self-restraint, sufficient steadfastness of character, a mentality that rules out sudden switches from elan to depression or idleness. We say that rush-work methods have long since outlived themselves. That is not to say, of course, that elan, enthusiasm and revolutionary romanticism are ruled out in the activity of Soviet people. On the contrary, in the period of communist construction Soviet people have produced remarkable examples of labour heroism and great feats for the benefit of their country.

p But the point is that in the present-day conditions, great feats require more than determination. They call for skill and considerable knowledge. The achievements of Soviet cosmonauts are the best confirmation of this changing character of exploit in the society building communism. That is why the development of the virgin lands has become a school of political and cultural education for millions of Soviet people.

p Education in labour for the common good implies the development of respect for the common wealth, an understanding that man can satisfy his material requirements and derive a high moral satisfaction by multiplying this wealth, instead of wasting it. The fostering of the new attitude to work is a necessary condition for moving on to the higher phase of communism. The advance of socialist society towards communism implies a development of labour and fundamental changes in the working people’s consciousness.

p In this context, Lenin stressed the importance of initiative which develops at the grass roots as a condition for growing labour productivity. The vast creative initiative of the masses has been awakened by the Soviet system and the growth of this initiative is a law governing the development of socialist society.

p The point is that in socialist society labour helps to show every aspect of human personality and its diverse capabilities. Labour helps to develop the human mind, keen wit, the ability to think fast, to grasp and understand the main thing and to keep so-called minor details within one’s field of vision. The requirement in socialist society that everyone should work according to his ability implies, first, the need to develop these capabilities in the process of labour for the common good, because capabilities will dull and dim unless they are developed. Second, it implies the ability to apply one’s capabilities in labour, the requirement to learn to put one’s all into the labour process, Consequently, it implies the shaping of man who gives his all to society voluntarily, developing and displaying his capabilities to the full in working for the common good.

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p In our day, the high moral appreciation by society of human labour and also the high level of scientific and technical equipment of labour, the advance of mechanisation and automation tend to create a situation in which the old distinction between the “high” and “low” types of labour activity tends to disappear. That is a very important and characteristic feature of communist labour and society’s moral consciousness in the period of communist construction. In these conditions, the attitude to any type of work depends on how earnestly, skilfully and devotedly man serves society by his work, and how much of his capabilities he dedicates to his endeavour.

p For a long time in the history of Marxist thought it was suggested that communist labour would mean an end to the trades and to professional training, for labour would become universalised. It is now fairly safe to say that in the period of communist construction every trade, including the new ones and the old ones which are still necessary and are filled with a great content, requires broad vision and much diverse knowledge. In the USSR, some shepherds have a full secondary education and continue to study to become specialists in animal husbandry.

p As communist labour is filled with great spiritual content and develops into a social activity, with mechanisation and automation increasingly eliminating the most arduous operations, the essential distinctions between mental and manual labour and between labour in town and country are obliterated.

p An indication of the growing requirements made by society on the individual, requirements which promote the development and enrichment of his personality is the fact that men taking part in the movement for communist labour in all its diverse forms undertake commitments to learn to live and work the communist way, and meet these commitments step by step. This formula, in effect, ranges over all the main spheres of the individual’s activity, his outlook, mentality and character. This formula requires that the principles of communism should be at the basis of the working people’s whole activity.

p At the same time, this formula expresses in concrete terms in the new conditions the propostion put forward by revolutionary Marxism that the new man is moulded in struggle and labour in building the new society. A key principle of communist education of man is set forth in the CPSU Programme, which says: “Communist ideas and communist deeds should blend organically in the behaviour of every person and in the activities of all collectives and organisations."  [296•33 

p In fulfilling the requirement to work the communist way, the Soviet people has advanced from the early expressions of the communist attitude to labour in the form of subbotniks to the great collectives which 297 practise the principle of communist attitude to labour in their day-to-day work. This great way traversed by the Soviet people is characterised by the fact that the idea of working for the common good tends increasingly to penetrate into the minds of the masses and becomes the overriding idea.

p As for the requirement to learn, to raise one’s educational level, this initially meant with respect to the whole mass of working people no more than a requirement of general and political literacy. This requirement also expressed the historical need to build up a Soviet intelligentsia that originated from the working class and the peasantry. Today, the requirement to learn, addressed to the whole mass of working people, to the whole people, is a requirement to assimilate high culture, great general and special knowledge, and have political education. Fulfilment of this requirement is an important link in the process of abolishing the essential distinctions between mental and manual labour.

p The requirement to live the communist way means the final remoulding of men’s mentality, character and way of life, the ultimate rooting in man’s behaviour of the principles of communism, the new outlook, and new relations between men in every sphere of life.

p The sphere of so-called private life under the system based on private property is regarded as being the broadest sphere. The order established by the capitalist at his enterprise is considered to be his private business, one’s attitude to one’s wife, children, fellow-workers, etc., is considered to be one’s private affair. With the restructuring of social relations on socialist lines, the so-called sphere of private life has naturally been subjected to change as well. The elimination of the rule of greed in social relations between men has also exerted an influence on such purely personal relations as friendship, love, etc. But the introduction of the new principles into these relations between men, has, of course, inevitably been much slower than in the sphere of politics or production. The further development of socialist relations of production, including friendship and mutual assistance, increasingly requires a change in all the attitudes and habits of human behaviour with respect to other men. Even such purely personal qualities as impatience and lack of self-restraint in this or that member of the collective could become a drag on the development of the activity of the whole group. If man displays various features of the old outlook in his personal relations, for instance, egoism and individualism, such features of character and outlook are bound to be expressed in one form or another and in varying degree in his social activity as well. The requirement for the reshaping of the individual’s outlook and character tend to grow with the development of socialist society.

p In the period of communist construction, the whole of man’s personality is increasingly involved in social life, which becomes a sphere in which his multifaceted capabilities and qualities are expressed. 298 There is ever broader growth of the creative initiative of the masses in every aspect of social life, and the importance of labour collectives and mass organisations is on the increase.

p That is not to say that the sphere of personal life is impoverished. On the contrary, man’s personal life is enriched, because the vibrant social life helps to purify man’s personal life as well. In socialist society, there is no gulf between social and personal life. In bourgeois society, it is characteristic for men to doff his social personality after office hours and to don his lounging clothes in which he enters his “private life" that is no business of society’s. In Soviet society, man remains a member of communist society in every sphere and circumstance of life.

p For man in communist society regards his social endeavour as a personal one, which has an immediate bearing on his own life. On the other hand, everyone’s personal life adds up to various expressions of social relations based on friendship and comradeship, because in his personal life man also inevitably enters into various relations with other members of society.

p The private-property outlook, which makes man “mind his own business”, gives way in the minds of masses of people to a profound interest in social affairs and a sense of public duty, which is not confined to the sphere of production but extends to various other spheres of man’s diverse activity. Of course, not everyone displays this sense of public duty in every sphere of life, on every occasion or is always guided by the rules of communist relations between men in his attitude to all things. Some work well in production but are still variously burdened with the old rules of morality and behaviour in the family. Others have not yet shed their individualism, and for that reason equate moral incentives to work and ambition, love of glory and honours. Some have gained various scientific knowledge, but have stopped short of carrying the process of cognition to drawing the conclusions concerning their world outlook, which remains hazy, so that various old prejudices live side by side with scientific facts. Consequently, the assimilation by the masses of the fundamentals of the new world outlook and rules of morality and behaviour cannot be seen as a process which equally embraces the whole consciousness of every individual with mechanical precision and absolute regularity. There are still many men with contradictions between their habits and skills inherited from the old days, and their world outlook has a new basis but is yet to be fully recast.

p Defects in men’s mental makeup, survivals of the habits and customs cultivated by exploitative society for centuries under social relations which distorted the personality are now a serious obstacle in the fostering of the new man. Changes in ideology must go hand in hand with changes in mass mentality. Defects in human mentality are a drag on communist education and provide the soil for a revival of various preconceptions, incorrect notions and alien ideas.

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p Men’s mentality is inevitably reshaped by a high sense of consciousness which penetrates into every sphere of human thinking and practice. This kind of remoulding of man’s mentality and character is of tremendous importance in communist education. It is not right for man to reason correctly on general issues but to remain a philistine in his mental makeup on various particular points. Lenin used to stress, for instance, the importance of the struggle against such phenomena in men’s mental makeup and their behaviour as “relapses into petty-bourgeois spinelessness, disunity, individualism, and alternating moods of exaltation and dejection".  [299•34 

p Spinelessness is a trait that may convert even a capable man into a virtually useless member of society. The same applies to lack of restraint, when man’s behaviour keeps alternating between enthusiasm and dejection. Individualism, isolation and a refusal to mix with other men are indications of inadequate development of the collectivist outlook and adoption of the corresponding rules of behaviour. These are features inherited from the past, when man’s mental makeup was distorted. Bourgeois psychologists insist that various features of man’s mental makeup are properties of man’s abstract nature. That is, of course, quite wrong. There will always be those who are more sociable, more excitable, etc. But that is not the point. Individualism means the mental makeup and character fostered through the centuries in which the world was distorted by private-property relations,

p Consequently, ideological and educational work calls for a raising of the level of communist consciousness to exert a decisive influence on the whole of man’s mental makeup and his behaviour. Ideological and educational work, correctly organised, results not only in a growth of positive knowledge, including political knowledge among masses of people, but also exerts a great influence on man’s mental makeup, his habits and character. In their educational work, Soviet society and the Leninist Party rely on the positive experience of a great number of working people who have already done much to adopt the coherent communist world outlook. In Soviet society, much importance is attached to the education of men on the positive examples set by thousands upon thousands of working people, who display models of high communist consciousness and remarkable mental qualities, which have come to be known as the “Soviet character”.

p Feelings and emotions and the ability to control these are a part of man’s character. There can be no real or the whole man without feelings and emotions, without his service to the great cause and his enthusiasm for high ideals. Lenin said that “...there has never been, nor can there be, any human search for the truth without ‘human emotions’~".  [299•35  All this 300 needs for human emotions and feelings to be given the right direction and the right outlets, so as not to obscure the mind, but to help, instead of hampering, man, to find the truth and advance without erring. Feelings, emotions and various traits of character, like will, persistence, and the urge to overcome difficulties, cannot be fostered without the development of a coherent communist outlook and moral consciousness.

p Of course, society cannot be indifferent to the various expressions of human feelings. These expressions of feeling become distorted when man seeks to vent his joys or sorrows in drink. Now and again some men seek to fill up with drinking their “empty” time in a period of leisure, which gives one a sense of emptiness. Educational work helps man to discover other ways of expressing his feelings of joy or sorrow, his sense of dissatisfaction or fatigue.

p But the right expression of emotions and feelings implies some education of such emotions and feelings that have an influence on human behaviour. Education and self-education help man to refrain from these feelings to be vented as rudeness to other men, drunkenness, wild behaviour, etc. Of course, example has much importance in the correct fostering of emotions, feelings and their expression.

p We now have many people in society who in moments of joy or sorrow turn to music, with its great spiritual depth or to the theatre, or reread their favourite poems, seeking to find an expression for their mood. The working out of the right reactions, including emotional reactions, to various situations in life is a great task in education and self-education.

p Here, exceptional importance attaches to fiction, which contains a profound and truthful description of many situations in life and men’s negative and positive attitudes in complicated situations. In Soviet conditions, fiction is of growing importance in transforming man’s mentality, character, emotions and behaviour in various situations, for in a sense it is a reflection of mankind’s collective experience of life. In fiction, the power of example is expressed in imagery, which acts on man’s feelings and thoughts.

p Among the negative features of man’s mentality and character are still those which Lenin designated as “this slovenliness, this carelessness, untidiness, unpunctuality, nervous haste, the inclination to substitute discussion for action, talk for work, the inclination to undertake everything under the sun without finishing anything".  [300•36  All these harmful features of man’s mentality and character, these habits and attitudes are a legacy from the centuries dominated by exploitative society. For centuries mental labour was separated from manual labour, and this explains the gap between such notions as “to think”, “to say" and “to do”, when the main thing was to think or to say, while doing was 301 considered to be of minor importance. That is the origin of the inclination, which Lenin noted, to substitute talk for action. Each of these negative qualities can become highly dangerous for society and the collective. A man burdened with such negative qualities can be a serious handicap to the collective, even in the absence of ill will or alien bourgeois views.

p Lenin pointed to the true way of eliminating these negative traits of character and mentality in Soviet conditions. He stressed the need for “exercising practical control over the translation of words into deeds".  [301•37  There must be no discrepancy between word and deed, and that is one of the remarkable traits of man’s character and mental makeup in communist society. This calls for control, which can and must be ex-ercised by the individual himself and the collective.

p In Soviet conditions, the collective has a growing role to play in shaping man’s outlook, mentality and behaviour. The more attention the collective gives to the material and spiritual requirements of each of its members, the greater the spirit of collectivism and the less ground there is for any individual in the collective to display the lone-wolf mentality. The activity of hundreds of thousands of front-ranking workers enhances the moral power of the collective, creating exceptionally favourable conditions for the morally strong and well-knit collective exercising an influence on its less reliable members.

p Where concern is shown to meet the spiritual requirements of individuals (organisation of libraries, theatre outings, etc.) and where the necessary conditions are created for continued education, a sizable part of the individual’s spiritual requirements at enterprises is met by the collective and this helps individuals to live in the collective and with it. There are any number of examples illustrating this concern of the collective for satisfying the spiritual needs of its members.

p Where an individual can expect to receive help from the collective even when he is in a tight spot or has personal troubles, the collectivist outlook carries the day and the individual has no reason to feel that he is alone in the whole wide world.

p But if as a result of incorrect educational efforts the influence of the collective on the individual is reduced, the ground is created for relapses into the individual outlook and mentality. Let us bear in mind that there are no innate ideas or innate ideas of collectivism. The revival of the individual mentality in the absence of vibrant ties with the collective may result in an excessive inflation of a man’s ego in contrast to the collective and society. This leads straight to neglect of a man’s duty to society, to anarchic individualism, whose motto is “I’m all right, Jack”. This produces anti-social acts and the attitudes of the turncoat.

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p A man out of touch with the collective fails to feel the great power of the collective and society. The lone individual will experience moods of dejection, will seek illusory ways out of his loneliness and artificial solace. Some hope to find this in alcohol, others in the stupefying effect of prayer, the chanting of hymns and sermons about some supernatural force.

p In other words, less than adequate educational influence by the collective on the individual creates favourable soil for a revival of diverse relicts of capitalism in the minds of some individuals. There is no social section in the country all of whose members are infected with the survivals of capitalism, but those who still carry these survivals in their mind belong to different sections, some being among the workers, others among the intellectuals and the collective farmers. The soil for a return of the survivals of capitalism is always created as a result of poorly organised educational work at enterprises or collectives. The way to eliminate all the survivals of capitalism in the minds of men is to eliminate the shortcomings in educational work in every collective and take a differentiated approach to each individual and group of men.

p The Party organisation is the core of every collective and is its guiding and directing force. In the period of communist construction, all mass organisations and all collectives of working people have a growing role to play. This applies above all to the role of Party organisations, which unite the activity of all the collectives, and muster, direct and organise the great energy of the masses. Where the Party organisation takes a creative approach to the instructions of the Leninist Central Committee of the CPSU concerning educational work, its successes in this work are truly tremendous.

p The Party has worked out in theory and practice the complex problem of developing the human personality. It now has a coherent doctrine for raising cultural standards in socialist society, for shaping a coherent world outlook, which does not tolerate any discrepancy between word and deed, and for the shaping of a highly exacting moral consciousness and the moulding of man’s mentality along consistent collectivist and humanist lines.

p The Party determines the interaction between various aspects of culture in fostering the new man. It has addressed itself to Soviet writers, emphasising the educational importance of literature. In this sphere, the mighty power of public opinion has also made itself felt, for it brings out everything that is progressive, and all those who have succeeded in boldly advancing and helping others to advance. The power of social influence is also expressed in scientific achievements by stimulating the solution of the fundamental problems and turning the development of knowledge into a state and nationwide endeavour. Concern for developing man’s spiritual potential is expressed in a system 303 of state measures and Party decisions, and has become part and parcel of Soviet social life.

p In this epoch, the exploiters pin their hopes on the tenacity of old conceptions, ideas and prejudices, produced by the centuries of private-property domination. These preconceptions may blind some men and prevent them from seeing the correct contours of reality, thereby fettering their will and their revolutionary activity. Leninism combats these schemes with the full power of its political and ideological weapons. The brilliant light of scientific communism cuts through the darkness of bourgeois and petty-bourgeois preconceptions all over the globe, causing deep changes in the minds of the working people, awakening social thought everywhere, showing it the right way and equipping the masses with an understanding of the urgent historical tasks of this epoch.

p A powerful factor in the ideological education of all mankind is the real development of social property where it has won out and the examples testifying to the nature of the relations between men which have been developing on its basis.

p Soviet society is now building the material and technical basis of communism. This foundation for the future society is being laid by the labour effort of millions of men and women, who have been tackling the key historical task, as indicated by Lenin, the task of raising labour productivity to a level that is beyond the reach of capitalism. Only those theorists whose thinking is limited by the bourgeois outlook will claim that this is a purely economic task. Naturally, they fail to see that communism contrasts the bourgeois ideology of parasitism with the ideology of labour, and that the latter ideology is winning out.

p The ideas set forth in the CPSU Programme and the Leninist Party’s messages of progress and construction of the future have spread all over the globe. Everyone has heard these words, both friends and enemies. The grandeur of the communist ideology is becoming ever more visible. There was a time when Lenin wrote in his work What Is To Be Done’! about the struggle between the socialist and the bourgeois ideologies and stressed that “bourgeois ideology is far older in origin than socialist ideology, that it is more fully developed, and that it has at its disposal immeasurably more means of dissemination".  [303•38 

p This is a period of senile decay and decrepitude for bourgeois ideology and the system that has engendered it, despite the fact that the bourgeoisie still wields powerful technical instruments for its dissemination. The Party Programme says: “Bourgeois doctrines and schools have failed in the test of history. They have been and still are unable to furnish scientific answers to the questions posed by life. The bourgeoisie is no 304 longer in a position to put forward ideas that will induce the masses to follow it."  [304•39  Meanwhile, socialist ideology has already won out over vast expanses of the globe, its influence on mankind is tremendous, and it has been formulated in all its aspects. It has been winning out because it is an expression of the vital interests of the working class and of the vast majority of mankind, which yearns for peace and progress.

p Today, success of the revolutionary cause depends on a clear-cut understanding by the working class and all the other working people of the tasks put forward by historical reality, on consideration and utmost use of the prospects which it opens up for massive activity, on the knowledge of ways which lead to the solution of these problems and on the correct organisation of the masses to tackle these problems. The world communist movement has indicated these ways—both peaceful and nonpeaceful—for the victory of the communist cause. The Communist parties have been working to rally the masses round the banner of struggle. The Soviet Union, building communism, has its Party Programme, which gives the masses a clear historical prospect for their activity, organising and fostering them for this historical activity for the sake of building the best society on earth. For the first time in history, the principles of scientific communism are being accepted by the whole people, by every member of society. That is an earnest of our successes in further developing scientific communism.

Now that the masses create history, establishing the principles of scientific communism in their day-to-day effort, and taking part through their struggle and labour effort in advancing communist social thought, theory blends directly with the working people’s great historical activity and is closely bound up with the cause of the people building the new society. That is the greatest force in modern progress and modern social thought.