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p Having defined the history of mankind as people’s activity, historical materialism poses and solves yet another question, that of the driving forces behind socio- historical development.

p As noted in the preceding chapters the development of economy, of socio-political structures, and intellectual phenomena occurs through the clash of inner contradictions, first and foremost in the mode of production, i. e. between the productive forces and production relations, and also between society and nature, the basis of society and its superstructure, the objective conditions and the subjective factor, etc.

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p Though objective contradictions are the source of development, they do not resolve themselves spontaneously but by the efforts of the masses, of classes, nations, and parties headed by outstanding personalities. The social forces that tackle the problems and tasks posed by the objective course of history are the driving forces of historical development. The concept of driving forces covers the totality of reasons, stimuli, and motives that prompt the mass of the people, classes, and parties to engage in historical activity. They include social requirements, interests, goals, and ideals. Engels wrote that the real ultimate driving forces oi history, the driving causes, are "those motives which set in motion great masses, whole peoples, and again whole classes of the people in each people; and this, too, not momentarily, for the transient flaring up of a straw-fire which quickly dies down, but for a lasting action resulting in a great historical transformation".  [216•1  The driving force of modern history Engels defined as "the fight of ... classes and ... the conflict of their interests".  [216•2 

p Consequently, the concept of the driving forces of history includes subjects of historical activity as 217 well as factors motivating people’s actions and social activity.

p Unlike bourgeois sociology, historical materialism identifies the driving forces of history from the standpoint of its fundamental principle that material economic life is primary and intellectual phenomena are secondary. Historical materialism dismisses the assertions of idealist thinkers who assume that the driving forces of history are intellectual phenomena like "the evolution of ideas”, "the power of the historical spirit”, "scientific progress”, and the like. Inasmuch as the basis of every society consists of the mode of production of material benefits, the popular masses and their activity as the main productive force of society constitute the chief driving force of history.

p The material requirements and interests of the mass of the people, of classes and nations are the principal social causes behind the demands of the objective laws of history. Requirements and interests are shaped by the obtaining level of development of society and the existing system of social relations. Men’s cardinal interests reflect the character of economic relations. Material interests are the form in which economic relations express themselves. An antagonism of interests is inevitable in a society based on private ownership of the means of production. With the abolition of exploiter classes and the establishment of com- 218 mon ownership of the means of production arises a unity of the interests of different social groups.

p Whatever people do is done to satisfy their requirements and interests. This social activity is prompted by social requirements and social interests. A social requirement manifests a social being’s need in a definite material or other condition pertaining to man’s life: good labour conditions, collective appropriation of the products of labour, participation in the management of enterprises, etc. The significance of intellectual requirements grows in present-day society. As the saying goes, man lives not by bread alone.

p The diverse social and individual requirements are not isolated from one another. They are intrinsically connected and form a single natural system. Man’s requirements are the more diverse the higher the level of society’s development. The rise of human requirements is a universal historical law of development. This law operates to the fullest extent when the exploitation of man by man is ended. Socialist society broadens the scope of the socially relevant requirements, while the sphere of irrelevant requirements, those that hold down the creative element of the personality and that impede its physical and intellectual development is restricted.

p The constantly growing material and intellectual requirements of the people, above all in creative activity, the necessity to satisfy these require- 219 ments, arc a powerful stimulus for economic and cultural development.

p Requirements are indissolubly linked with interests, which express the orientation of an activity towards the realisation of certain needs. Interest is not a pure act of the consciousness, but also has an objective side. A common interest, for example, exists not only in the consciousness of the members of society, but "first of all in reality, as the mutual interdependence of the individuals among whom the labour is divided".  [219•1  Common interest blends the infinite multitude of diverse desires and actions of thousands and millions into a single activity, and is the foundation for common aims, tasks, and motives. In a class society, the common interests of the exploiters, the rich, oppose the common interests of the exploited, the poor.

p As a rule, the ruling classes try to pass off their own interests for the interests of the entire nation. From this bourgeois ideologists draw the conclusion that the contemporary bourgeois state is a “welfare” state.

As the workers fight the exploiters, they become increasingly aware of their own interests and the incompatibility of their interests with the

220 interests of "the rich and famous" of this world. This process of class self-education proceeds in the complex conditions of fighting the bourgeois mentality and attitudes which capitalist propaganda tries to impress upon the minds of the workers.

p Only under socialism is a close interlacement of social, group, and individual interests possible, and the antagonism of interests gradually disappears.

p A real unity of society takes shape and is consolidated. Nevertheless, the state of the new society should not be idealised. Past experience shows that it takes a people that has accomplished a socialist revolution quite a long time to learn to be the sole owner of the entire social wealth-to learn this economically, and also politically and psychologically, developing a collectivist consciousness and behaviour. That is why, even after the socialist production relations are established, some preserve, even develop, individualist ways, the desire to make good at the others’ expense, at the expense of society. The essential feature, however, is clear: under socialism the social interests are held in common by the entire nation; they are a powerful driving force of economic, social, and intellectual development.

“Everything which sets men in motion must go through their minds, but what form it will take in the mind will depend very much upon the cir- 221 cumstances.”   [221•1  These words of Engels’s help understand the role of the intellectual driving forces of historical development. Social relations, requir<-nents, and interests are realised in the form of ideological values, i. e. views, ideals, principles and goals. As the masses assimilate the revolutionary ideology, it becomes a material force and a powerful stimulator of revolutionary action. One example is the role of the MarxistLeninist ideology, which was the intellectual foundation of building a socialist society. Ideological unity of the people shaped by the revolutionary ideology is a driving force of unheard of power.