Significance of the Marxist-Leninist position on the cognizability of the world for the practical activities of the Communist Party
The Marxist-Leninist proposition on the cognizability of the world and its laws is of tremendous theoretical, political, and practical significance. Comrade Stalin points out that the extension of this proposition to the study of social life, to the study of the history of society, leads to extremely important conclusions for the practical activity of the party of the proletariat.
“If the world is cognizable,” writes Comrade Stalin, “and our knowledge of the laws of the development of nature is reliable knowledge that has the value of objective truth, then it follows that social life, the development of society, is also cognizable, and the data of science about the laws of the development of society, - are reliable data, having the value of objective truths. (Ibid. p. 544.)
Comrade Stalin drew this conclusion on the basis of a generalization of the entire history of the development of human society. He utterly smashes the fabrications of bourgeois scientists about the unknowability of social phenomena.
Contemporary bourgeois American-British philosophers and sociologists, in carrying out a stubborn and impudent struggle against historical materialism, insist on the impossibility of revealing any regularity whatsoever in social life, trying to prove the powerlessness of people to change the existing capitalist order in their countries.
The class essence of the struggle of the ideologists of imperialism against social science is frankly blurted out by the Italian fascist philosopher Croce. In his book Politics and Morals, he states that if we were to regard history as "an interweaving of forces acting outside of us and according to their own laws, then, along with their nightmarishness, we experience a feeling of helplessness, for there are no means to master these forces. and govern or regulate them as they are outside of us."
A sense of fear of the future, powerlessness in the face of the inexorable approach of the collapse of the imperialist system compels bourgeois politicians and their scientists to hide the laws of social development from the masses of the people, to divert their attention from actively influencing the process of progressive development of history.
The historical materialism created by the classics of Marxism-Leninism irrefutably testifies that "the science of the history of society, despite the complexity of the phenomena of social life, can become as exact a science as, say, biology, capable of using the laws of development of society for practical application." (I. Stalin. Questions of Leninism, p. 544.)
The truth of the provisions of dialectical and historical materialism - the science of the general laws of the development of nature and society - is confirmed not only by the fact that it scientifically explains the social events of the past and present, but also by the fact that it makes it possible to foresee the further course of historical development, helps to penetrate into the future. The scientific prediction of Marx and Engels about the inevitability of the onset of a new, socialist era has been fully confirmed by life, the practice of socialist construction in the USSR and the countries of people's democracy. And this is the clearest proof of the truth of the laws of social development discovered by them, proof that socialism has turned from a dream of a better future of mankind into a science.
“That means that in its practical activity,” Comrade Stalin teaches, “the party of the proletariat must be guided not by any random motives, but by the laws of the development of society, by practical conclusions from these laws.” (Ibid., pp. 544-515.)
Revealing the mistakes of some of our comrades who tried to prove that the Soviet state was supposedly capable of abolishing the laws of social development, the laws of political economy and creating new laws at its own discretion, Comrade Stalin in his work "Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR" comprehensively proved that the revolutionary transformation of social life is the same as the conquest of the forces of nature, is possible only on the basis of a deep study and conscious application of the objective laws of science.
Therefore, the most important task of science is to discover the objective laws of the development of nature and society, tirelessly cognize these laws, gradually reveal one after another the secrets of the objective world and, relying on the open objective laws, taking them into account, give a different direction to the destructive actions of certain laws, limit their sphere of action, to give room to other objective laws that make their way. In other words, the task is to, relying on the discovered and known laws of nature and society, use them in the interests of society, in the interests of the revolutionary transformation of objective reality.
This proposition, which runs like a red thread through JV Stalin's entire work, The Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR, is of exceptional importance for the theory of knowledge. It reveals and enriches one of the basic principles of the Marxist-Leninist theory of knowledge about the inseparable unity of “advanced science and social practice. Knowledge is not for the sake of knowledge, not for the sake of curiosity, as the idealists assure, but in order to consciously apply the known laws in the interests of society, to subordinate them to the task of revolutionary reshaping of nature and social life.
The laws of social development, like the laws of nature, often act destructively. But as soon as a person discovers these laws, cognizes them, he gets the opportunity to control the actions of these laws, to use them in the interests of the progressive development of society.
“When modern productive forces,” wrote Engels, “begin to be treated in accordance with their finally known nature, social anarchy in production will be replaced by socially planned regulation of production, calculated to satisfy the needs of both the whole society and each of its members.” (Friedrich Engels. Anti-Dühring, pp. 263-264.)
The subsequent course of history, and above all the rich experience of Soviet socialist construction, brilliantly confirmed this most important indication of Engels.
That is why the great leaders of the proletariat, Lenin, and Stalin, proceeding from the new historical situation, tirelessly developed and enriched Marxist-Leninist science and mercilessly exposed its enemies.
It was the profound knowledge, all-round development, and creative application of the laws of social development to modern conditions that enabled Comrade Stalin in his work “Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR” to comprehensively study the laws of social production and distribution of material goods in socialist society, to determine the scientific foundations for the development of a socialist economy, to indicate ways to build communist society, outlining three basic preconditions for preparing the transition to communism.
“It is necessary,” said I. V. Stalin, “firstly, to ensure firmly ... the continuous growth of all social production with a predominant increase in the production of means of production. Preferential growth in the production of means of production is necessary not only because it must provide both its own enterprises and the enterprises of all other branches of the national economy with equipment, but also because without it is generally impossible to carry out expanded reproduction.
... It is necessary, secondly, through gradual transitions, carried out to the benefit of the collective farms and, consequently, for the whole of society, to raise collective farm property to the level of public property, and to replace commodity circulation, also through gradual transitions, with a system of product exchange, so that the central government or another any socio-economic center could cover all the products of social production in the interests of society.
... It is necessary, thirdly, to achieve such a cultural growth of society that would provide all members of society with the comprehensive development of their physical and mental abilities, so that members of society have the opportunity to receive an education sufficient to become active agents of social development, so that they had the opportunity to freely choose a profession, and not be chained for life, due to the existing division of labor, to one particular profession. (I. Stalin. Economic problems of socialism in the USSR, pp. 66-67, 68-69.)
However, it should be noted that the fruitful use of the objective laws of nature and society discovered by science and, on this basis, the conscious control of objective processes is fully possible only in countries liberated from capitalist oppression.
Torn apart by internal and external contradictions, capitalism by its nature is not capable of fully using the already discovered objective laws, the achievements of modern science and technology, because the use of many scientific discoveries in the national economy is contrary to the interests of powerful monopoly associations. Monopolies artificially delay the use of many of the most important scientific discoveries and inventions.
The American trust
General Motors, for example, uses only one percent of its patents for
inventions, the rest of the patents are kept under wraps, so long as they are
not used by other capitalists. This is because the goal of private capitalist
associations is not to satisfy the needs of the population, but to produce
goods for sale in order to extract maximum profit.
Only in our country, under the conditions of planned socialist production, have unprecedented opportunities opened up for the full and comprehensive use of the advanced achievements of scientific and technical thought in the interests of improving the material situation of the working people, for the essential features of the basic economic law of socialism, as Comrade Stalin teaches, is to ensure maximum satisfaction at all times the growing material and cultural needs of the whole of society through the continuous development of socialist production on the basis of higher technology.
True knowledge and correct conscious use of the objective laws of science enable us to carry out gigantic measures not only for the transformation of nature, but also for the revolutionary restructuring of social life. The building of socialism and communism in our country has become possible only because we are armed with the most advanced Marxist-Leninist science of the objective laws of the development of human society.
The strength of the ideas of Marxism-Leninism lies precisely in the fact that they, being objective truths, allow us to correctly explain and comprehend the past and present, to foresee the course of the further development of nature and human society, and therefore serve as a powerful weapon for the practical transformation of objective reality.
Comrade Stalin vividly demonstrated the enormous importance of knowing and skillfully applying the laws of social development by the example of the law of the obligatory correspondence of production relations to the nature of the productive forces. Pointing out the exceptional difficulty and complexity of the task that confronted the Soviet government in the matter of creating, in fact, "from scratch", new, socialist forms of economy, I. V. Stalin emphasizes that this task was honorably completed only because the Soviet government relied on the law of the obligatory correspondence of production relations to the nature of the productive forces. Using this law, “Soviet power,” I. V. Stalin points out, “socialized the means of production, made them the property of the whole people, and thereby destroyed the system of exploitation, created socialist forms of economy.(I. Stalin. Economic problems of socialism in the USSR, p. 7.)
Profound knowledge and conscious use of the law of the obligatory correspondence of production relations to the nature of the productive forces enables us to reveal in good time the growing contradictions between lagging production relations and the continuously developing productive forces of socialist society, to prevent these contradictions from turning into their opposites, and to take timely measures to overcome them by means of adaptation. production relations to the growth of productive forces.
Our Party and the Soviet state, armed with a deep knowledge of the laws of social development, the laws of development of socialist society, consciously and skillfully use them, constantly rely on them in their practical activities.
In his report to the 19th Congress of the CPSU, Comrade Malenkov points out that "the Party's plans for the future, which determine the prospects and ways of our advance, are based on knowledge of economic laws, are based on the science of building a communist society developed by Comrade Stalin." (G. Malenkov. Report to the 19th Party Congress on the work of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, p. 81. Pravda ed., 1952). It was precisely on the basis of these laws and, above all, on the basic economic law of socialism, on the law of the obligatory correspondence of production relations to the nature of the productive forces, the law of planned (proportional) development, that the 19th Congress of our Party worked out directives for the five-year plan for the development of the USSR, which provides for a powerful new upsurge of the entire socialist economy, and which is a new major step in the progressive movement of our society towards communism.
The greatest significance of true, correct knowledge of objective laws lies not only in the fact that it illuminates with powerful light the path to building a new, communist society, but also in the fact that it enables us to carry out gigantic measures for the transformation of nature. It is known that modern hydraulic structures are carried out on the basis of the latest achievements of science and social practice, on the basis of the most advanced achievements of technical thought.
On the other hand,
the great successes of the Soviet people in the transformation of nature and
social life are the most reliable and indisputable proof that we have correctly
recognized the objective laws on the basis of which this transformation is
carried out. V. I. Lenin teaches us that “domination over nature, which
manifests itself in the practice of mankind, is the result of an objectively
correct reflection in the head of a person of the phenomena and processes of
nature, there is proof that this reflection (within the limits of what practice
shows us ) is objective, absolute, eternal truth. (V. I. Lenin. Works, vol. 14,
p. 177.)
Therefore, the connection of theory with practice, the creative community of science and production, which is becoming ever larger in our country, are a powerful means of developing both science and the practical activity of people, helping us to carry out gigantic measures to transform nature and social life in the interests of millions of working people.
A brilliant example of the creative development of science on the basis of a generalization of the practical, revolutionary activity of the masses are the immortal works of the great thinker of our era, Comrade I. V. Stalin. Summarizing the experience of the class struggle of the proletariat, the practice of socialist construction in the USSR and the countries of people's democracy, Comrade Stalin in his works further developed Marxism-Leninism, enriched science, armed the communist parties and the working people of all countries with a profound knowledge of the laws of social development.
At the funeral
meeting on the day of I. V. Stalin’s funeral, Comrade Molotov pointed out that
I. V. Stalin “constantly worked on the theoretical problems of building
socialism in our country and on the problems of international development in
general, illuminating the paths of further development of the USSR with the light
of the science of Marxism-Leninism , the laws of development of socialism and
capitalism in modern conditions. He has armed our Party and the entire Soviet
people with new, most important discoveries of Marxist-Leninist science, which
for many years will illuminate our progress towards the victory of socialism.
(V. M. Molotov. Speech at a morning meeting on the day of the funeral of Joseph
Vissarionovich Stalin, pp. 9-10. Gospolitizdat. 1953.)
Relying on these great discoveries and consciously using them in practical activities, the Soviet people, under the leadership of the Communist Party, are successfully building socialism. Relying on Marxist-Leninist science, on knowledge of the laws of the development of society, the Communist Parties of foreign countries are leading the victorious struggle of the working people for peace and democracy, for the triumph of socialism.
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