p Marx and Engels rejected an abstract approach to man. They showed that man is always a concrete individual, and belongs to an historically determined social formation, class, nation, a working collective, etc.

p In addition to qualities common to all people such as the ability to work, think, communicate with other people by means of language, etc., the concrete man, or individual possesses the qualities of the collective to which he belongs (nation, class, party, a production collective). Besides, a concrete individual has personal qualities which together with the qualities mentioned above make him what he is, namely a concrete individual Individual qualities disclose his personality from all sides—education, occupation, skill, cultural level, family status, etc.

p Numerous manifestations of life, and qualities of an individual are formed under the influence of social relations. Concrete social production and economic relations give rise to such social types of individual as slave or slave-owner, peasant or feudal lord, worker or capitalist and so forth.

p Through their vehicles (class, nation, etc.) class, national and other relations inherent in society give rise to class, national and other .peculiarities of the individual which are in fact a manifestation of his social life. For instance, the working class moulds such qualities as consciousness, organisation, discipline, integrity, intolerance of capitalism and bourgeois ideology, revolutionary spirit and so on in the individual that belongs to it.

p The economic and social relations predominant in society and its spiritual culture, particularly its dominating ideas form manifestations of the individual’s intellectual life—his thoughts and emotions, character, interests and aims.

p In their unity an individual’s qualities, i. e., his diverse vital manifestations—economic, social and spiritual—are a product and an expression of the totality of diverse social relations. “The essence of man,” wrote Marx, “is no abstraction inherent in each single individual. In its reality it 233 is the ensemble of the social relations.”  [233•* 

p A concrete man, an individual, as we have seen, is a product of the social .environment, of the society in which he lives and develops. At the same time one may well ask: why are there so many different individuals in one and the same society and why does one or another individual embody only some of the features of the given society, and not in equal measure at that?

p The fact of the matter is that any society’is heterogeneous. It includes vestiges of the old, the foundations of the present and the embryos of future social relations. For instance, under socialism there are vestiges of the old, capitalist division of labour and the survivals of the past in the consciousness of people. Since the given society is heterogeneous it is natural that man is influenced by its different qualities. And though the decisive role in the formation of the individual is played by the relations which are predominant in society, man may also come under the influence of the survivals of the old socio-economic relations which breed in him feelings that are incompatible with the demands of the given society.

p The society in which an individual lives and develops does not exist in isolation from societies of a different socio-economic and spiritual character. For instance, capitalism exists alongside socialism in the present epoch. And, obviously enough, in view of the very extensive development of the mass media and intensive inter-state relations alien ideas of bourgeois society penetrate the socialist world. This is yet another reason why there are individuals whose deeds and thoughts do not fully conform to social demands.

p An important reason for the existence of a multitude of different individuals is that each of them lives and develops both in the given social environment (society in general) and in a micro-environment, i. e., in his direct environment, which includes the family, school, production collective, street, and so forth. The micro-environment is the prism through which the influence of the general social environment—economic and social relations, spiritual culture—is 234 refracted. Thanks to the infinite diversity of concrete conditions making up the micro-environment, there is an endless number of variations and gradations in the make-up of the individual who comes from a common social environment, which can be explained only on the basis of an all-round investigation of these conditions.

p Finally, another reason for the existence of numerous individuals in one and the same society is that an individual is an active being. The measure of his activity depends on the nature of the society in general and of the micro-environment in which he acts, and also on his personal qualities, experience, cultural level and his specific anatomical, physiological and psychic qualities (willpower, character, etc.). A -concrete individual does not passively assimilate the influence of the social environment, but does so actively and selectively, in keeping with his specific personal qualities, interests, requirements and aims.

p Being a product of the social environment the individual does not dissolve in society; he is not merely a cog in the social mechanism. He forms society to the same extent as social conditions form him. It should not be forgotten that it is people who change conditions.

Let us now see how people -change conditions or, in other words, what role the individual plays in history.