p Historical necessity is that which naturally follows from the internal connection of social phenomena and therefore, is bound to take place. Material production, for example, necessarily determines all aspects of social life. Social revolutions or the succession of one social order by another also take place of necessity. Today capitalism is necessarily being replaced by communism.

p The proponents of religious ideology do not recognise historical necessity. They claim that the entire historical process is predetermined by divine will, and that people are mere playthings in the hands of providence. The Bible says that without God’s will not a single hair will fall 186 from man’s head.

p In distorting the essence of social development and rejecting historical necessity, many sociologists go to the other extreme and advocate subjectivism, the reign of arbitrary will in social activity. In their opinion, the behaviour or actions of people are determined by their subjective wishes and concepts. At the same time bourgeois sociologists accuse Marxists of fatalism, of worshipping historical necessity and claiming that man is impotent in the face of social laws.

p The ideologists of the bourgeoisie will not agree that historical necessity, far from precluding, presupposes people’s conscious activity. Men are unable to abolish the laws of social development or to create new laws, but they are capable of understanding these laws and historical necessity, and, through being aware of necessity, to actively intervene in the sGCio-histoncal process. Practical experience has conclusively shown that, by understanding objective necessity, people subordinate not only the laws of nature to their will, as witnessed by the achievements of modern science and technology, but also the course of social events. It is knowledge of objective necessity and its employment in the interest of man that’ constitute human freedom.

p Freedom does not abolish objective necessity, it signifies that man understands necessity and exploits it for his own ends. Man’s activity is only free when it corresponds to objective necessity and his freedom consists not in imaginary independence from the laws of nature and society, but in knowledge of these laws and the ability to make them serve human needs.

p Freedom is the result of prolonged historical development. As science and production progressed man began to bring nature under his control, learned its objective laws and thereby gradually subordinated necessity operating in nature to his will and became free in relation of nature. Man’s domination over nature, however, does not give him control over social processes. Historical necessity, the law-governed development of pre-socialist societies, acted as a spontaneous force which people were unable to control. Under capitalism, for example, the law of anarchy and competition makes man a pawn in the hands of chance and dooms to 187 failure his attempts to plan his activity in advance.

p It is only socialism that for the first time creates the possibility of mastering historical necessity and achieving genuine freedom. The socialist revolution makes public ownership predominant and removes class antagonisms, as a result of which people become able to consciously direct the economic, political, and cultural life of society. With the victory of socialism society makes a tremendous leap from the kingdom of necessity into the kingdom of freedom. Moreover, as socialist society advances to communism,man’s freedom becomes wider and more diverse, his domination over nature and the social processes grows, and he learns voluntarily and consciously to combine his personal interests and aspirations with the lofty ideals of society.

p An indispensable condition for the growth of genuine freedom in society is the conscious productive and political activities of the people, based on the knowledge and competent application of Marxist-Leninist theory.

p The Marxist-Leninist theory of necessity and freedom has been applied in the Soviet Union. Real freedom—-mankind’s age-old dream—has struck root here finally and irrevocably. It has been attained as a result of the triumphant socialist revolution, the heroic labour and selfless effort of the Soviet people headed by the Communist Party. Having become masters of their country, having understood historical necessity, the Soviet people gained an opportunity to make their own history consciously and purposively.

The attainment of freedom under socialism, however, does not rule out the operation of historical necessity, of objective laws. Under socialism, too, necessity constitutes the objective basis for man’s free activity, and objective laws operate, but these laws are consciously used by the Soviet people, who under the guidance of the Party and the Government are fulfilling the greatest historical necessity and are building communist society.