Foreword |
1. Introduction. The theories of revolutions in the development of society's productive forces |
2. Economic development during the period of formation of man and society |
| 1. Periodization of pre-class society |
| 2. The development of primitive society's productive forces |
| 3. Ownership and exchange |
3. The first, hunting-technical, revolution in the development of the society's productive forces |
| 1. The origin of hunting-technical revolution |
| 2. Rise of the hunting-technical revolution. Technological overturn |
| 3. Maturity of the hunting-technical revolution. Technical overturn in hunting (and fishing) |
| 4. Completion of the hunting-technical revolution. Structural-branch revolution |
| 5. Main characteristic features of the hunting-technical revolution |
4. The first, communal, social revolution |
| 1. Economic law of correspondence between labour productivity and the level of people's needs |
| 2. The rise of labour productivity and standard of living |
| 3. Population upsurge |
| 4. The origin of community-communal ownership of the main means of production |
| 5. The consequences of the communal-social revolution |
5. Economic development of the primitive-communal society. Productive phase |
| 1. Development of productive forces of the society |
| 2. Ownership and socio-productive relations |
| 3. Exchange. The law of value |
| 4. The law of correspondence of the size of commodity market to the level of social division of labour |
| 5. The law of correspondence of degree of centralization of production (economy) to the level of operational division of labour |
6. Economic development of the primitive-communal society. Usurious phase |
| 1. Development of productive forces of the society. Origin and development of agriculture and cattle breeding |
| 2. Ownership of land and land tenure |
| 3. Social division of labour |
| 4. Community evolution |
| 5. Origin of taxation |
| 6. Remuneration of labour and kinds of it |
| 7. Socio-productive relations |
| 8. Origin of exploitation of man by man. Historical forms of exploitation. Usurious exploitation |
7. The second, agrarian-technical, revolution in the development of the society's productive forces |
| 1. The origin of agrarian-technical revolution |
| 2. Rise of the agrarian-technical revolution. Technological overturn |
| 3. Maturity of the agrarian-technical revolution. Technical overturn in agriculture |
| 4. Completion of the agrarian-technical revolution. Structural-branch overturn |
| 5. Main characteristic features of the agrarian-technical revolution |
8. The second, slave-holding, social revolution |
| 1. Economic laws and economic contradictions |
| 2. The origin of conflict between society's productive forces and socio-productive relations |
| 3. Agrarian-technical and slave-holding social revolutions |
| 4. Slave-holding social revolution as a consequence of economic (pre-class) struggle of debtors and the poor against usurers and aristocracy |
| 5. Consequences of the slave-holding social revolution |
9. Economic development of slave-holding-serfdom society. Trade phase |
| 1. Development of productive forces of society |
| 2. Socio-productive relations |
| 3. Trade profit |
| 3. Kinds of trade profit |
| 5. Trade profit rate. The law of reduction of trade profit rate |
| 6. Economic laws |
10. Economic development of slave-holding-serf society. Productive phase |
| 1. Socio-productive relations |
| 2. Exploitation of slaves in production sphere. Production profit |
| 3. Rate of trade profit. The law of lowering of the rate of production profit |
| 4. Economic laws and economic contradictions |
11. Economic development of slave-holding-serfdom society. Usurious phase |
| 1. Development of productive forces of society |
| 2. About so-called feudalism |
| | 2.1. Slaves hadn't got their households, their means of production, but dependent peasants in feudal society had |
| | 2.2. Slaves hadn't got their families, but dependent peasants had |
| | 2.3. Slave was in complete ownership of slave-holder, but serf (dependent) peasant was in partial ownership of feudal lord |
| | 2.4. Slave was not interested in the results of his labour, but dependent peasant, on the contrary, was |
| 3. Socio-productive relations |
| 4. Usurious exploitation. Usurious profit |
| 5. Economic laws and economic contradictions |
12. The third, industrial-technical, revolution the development of the society's productive forces |
| 1. The origin of industrial-technical revolution |
| 2. Uprise of industrial-technical revolution. Technological overturn |
| 3. Maturity of industrial-technical revolution. Technical overturn in industry |
| 4. Completion of industrial-technical revolution. Structural-branch overturn |
| 5. The main characteristic features of industrial-technical revolution |
13. The third, bourgeois, social revolution |
| 1. The origin of conflict between society's productive forces and socio-productive relations |
| 2. Industrial-technical and bourgeois social revolutions |
| 3. Bourgeois-social revolution as а consequence of class struggle |
| 4. Consequences of bourgeois social revolution |
14. Economic development of bourgeois-capitalist society. Trade phase (trade capitalism) |
| 1. Socio-productive relations |
| 2. Trade profit, its kinds. Rate of trade profit. The law of lowering rate of trade profit |
| 3. Economic laws and economic contradictions |
15. Economic development of capitalist society. Productive phase (industrial capitalism) |
| 1. Socio-productive relations |
| 2. Exploitation of hired workers in the sphere of production. Production (employers') profit |
| 3. Economic laws and economic contradictions |
16. Economic development of capitalist society. Usurious phase (joint-stock or monopoly capitalism) |
| 1. Socio-productive relations |
| 2. Usurious exploitation. Usurious profit |
| 3. Economic laws and economic contradictions |
17. The fourth, scientific and technological, revolution the development of the society's productive forces |
| 1. The origin of scientific and technological revolution |
| 2. Uprise of scientific and technological revolution. Technological overturn |
| 3. Maturity of scientific and technological revolution. Technical overturn in scientific production |
| 4. Completion of scientific and technological revolution. Structural-branch overturn |
| 5. The main characteristic features and consequences of scientific and technological revolution |
Bibliography |
Extract from the Introduction
The theories of revolutions in the development of society's productive forces
According to Marxist--Leninist doctrine, the most mobile, active and
determining role in the development of society is played by its productive
forces.
Society's productive forces play the same role in the development of production
relations, and by means of them also in the development of other social
relations, as the natural conditions or the environment play in the development
of biological organisms or in the development of flora and fauna. Productive
forces are "the environment" for production relations, changes in which
inevitably result in changes of the latter. In some cases production relations
alter, remaining within the framework of one and the same socio-economic
structure, in other cases one specific form of production relations is replaced
by another form -- a social revolution takes place.
When production relations are in conformity with the level and
nature of the society's productive forces, the society is prospering and
progressing and the rate of economic growth is high. When productive forces
outstrip the existing production relations, that have already become narrow for
them and, in consequence of it, enter into ever growing contradiction with
them, the society gradually turns from prosperity to stagnation, from high to
low rate of growth of social production. Obsolete production relations impede
the development of productive forces more and more. This contradiction between
society's new productive forces and its old production relations eventually
develops into conflict and is being settled in the course of a social
revolution, which eliminates production relations that hamper the development
of productive forces, replaces them with new, progressive production relations,
which give a wide scope for the further development of the society's productive
forces. "At a certain stage of development, the society's material and
productive forces enter into contradiction with existing production relations
or -- that is just a legal expression of the latter -- with relations of
ownership, inside which they developed until that time. These relations turn
from the forms of development of productive forces into their fetters. Then the
epoch of social revolution comes" (Marx, Engels vol.13, p.7).
It shows what an important and decisive role is played by productive forces in
the development of society, first of all by production equipment, which being
a component of productive forces plays such an important role in their
development as production relations do in the development of social relations,
a component of which they are. "The difference between economic epochs is not
in the things produced, but in the ways and means of labour by which they are
produced. Means of labour are not just a criterion of the development of human
labour, they are an index of those social relations, under which the labour
takes place." (Marx, Engels vol.22, p.191).
But if productive forces and especially production equipment as the totality of
instruments of production play such an important role in the development of
society, then both their study and the research of objective laws of their
development should be especially careful. The scientists instead do not give
due attention to the objective laws of the development of productive forces.
Before the modern scientific and technological revolution it was impossible to
reveal all the objective laws of the development of productive forces, but in
the course of it, the revelation of these objective laws becomes not only
possibility, but social necessity as well. "Objective logic of the scientific
and technological progress could not be revealed, for example, during the
period of spreading the machine tools or steam engines. Technology had to reach
a high standard, which made possible to reveal the objective laws of its
development. It is proceeding from the analysis of automatic machines that Marx
develops the theoretical principles of scientific and technological progress.
Modern scientific and technological revolution, the core of which is
automation, uncovers the inner logic of technological expansion and makes it
entirely accessible to the researchers".
How do the society's productive forces develop? Does it happen in such a way
that with the development of productive forces only quantitative changes take
place, which in the process of their evolutionary development cause
qualitative, revolutionary changes in the development of productive relations
and, by means of them, also in the development of other social relations? But
how can such objective phenomena in the development of society as the
industrial revolution, which took place in Europe and North America from XVIII
to XIX centuries, and the scientific and technological revolution, which
nowadays takes place in most countries of the world, both socialist and
bourgeois, developed and developing, large and small, be explained?
Do the society's productive forces develop in such a way that the periods of
evolution in the development of productive forces periodically change into
revolutionary periods, i.e. such qualitative changes in the development of
productive forces that the whole technical, technological and structural-branch
foundations of the society radically change? How many and what revolutions have
then taken place in the development of productive forces during the history of
society and what is their essence?
The periodization of the history of technics is of great interest for us
thereupon. How many periods can or, rather, should the history of technological
expansion be divided into? And what are qualitative differences between
technics of different periods?
The majority of Soviet authors of transactions on the history of technics take
the periodization of the development of social relations as the basis of the
periodization of the history of technics. L.D.Bel'kind,
I.Y.Konfederatov and Y.A.Shneiberg write in their "The History of
technics": "Periodization of the history of technics on the whole coincides
with periodization of history of the development of human society, which is
based on the change of socio-economic formations. That is why it is expedient
to discuss technological expansion in accordance with the established
periodization of society".
P.S.Kudryavtsev and I.Y.Konfederatov in "The History of physics and
technics" suggest the same periodization. They divide the history of technics
into the following periods: " of the primitive society, technics
of the slave-holding society, technics of the feudal society, technics of the
period of origin and consolidation of capitalism and imperialism, technics in
the time of socialism".
The authors of these transactions do not write about the very qualitative
difference between technics of the periods indicated by them. They cannot do it
since the basis of periodization of technological expansion for them is not the
process of technological expansion in itself, but the periodization according
to socio-economic structures, which should be explained as well, that is to say
they see not the initial but the derivative as the basis of periodization of
technics, they interchange cause and effect.
The authors of corporate "The History of technics" A.A.Zvorynin,
N.I.Os'mova, V.I.Chernyshev and S.V.Shukhardin accept a bit
different periodization of the history of technics. They point at "
following stages of technological expansion:
The origin and expansion of simple instruments of labour under conditions
of primitive communal mode of production.
The development and expansion of complex instruments of labour under
conditions of slave-holding mode of production.
The expansion of complex instruments of labour, operated by man, under
conditions of feudal mode of production.
The origin of prerequisites for the creation of machine technics
(machinery) under conditions of manufactory period.
The expansion of machine tools on the basis of steam engine during the
period of victory and establishment of capitalism in advanced countries.
The development of machines on the basis of electric drive during the
period of monopoly capital.
Transition to automatic system of machines during the period after the
Great October Socialist Revolution".
G.N.Volkov writes about this periodization, criticizing it quite fairly:
" the development of productive forces, as well as technics, is the
decisive factor in one or another social structure and also in the development
of society, it is natural first to clear up the inner logic of the development
of productive forces, the inner logic of technological expansion and not to
determine this logic with the help of phenomena which require analysis of the
peculiarities of technological progress for their own explanation.
The authors of "The History of technics" unfortunately have not taken this view
into consideration. They try to find the "own" period of technological
expansion for each formation.
The authors write about technics of feudalism as about complex instruments
operated by man in contrast to complex instruments of slave-holding
societyThe authors, apparently to satisfy their preconceived scheme and
having failed to find essential distinctions between instruments of labour, did
not go beyond verbal differenceBut only one variant is possible: either
there is a proper logic of technological expansion and periodization should
then proceed from this logic, or technological expansion is entirely determined
by production relations and then it is necessary to accept "periodization
according to socio-economic formations as the basis of the history of technics"
[p.37, 38]5.
In fact, the authors of "The History of technics" write about simple
instruments of labour in primitive communal society in contrast to complex
instruments of labour of slave-holding and feudal society. Hence, if we follow
their point of view, then a bow with an arrow, a drilling machine, a potter's
wheel with a foot drive (fly-wheel) and a fire drill with bow-shaped drive,
which were widely used in primitive communal society, are simple and not
mechanical instruments of labour. Or, as G.Volkov pointed, the authors of
"The History of technics" distinguish complex instruments of labour of feudal
society from complex instruments of labour of slave-holding society by the fact
that the former are man-operated. Two questions arise here. First, what is the
qualitative difference herein if, as the authors think, both are complex
instruments of labour and both are man-operated? Second, in East Asian, ancient
and medieval societies, the source of motion for the majority of instruments of
labour in the key branch of social production -- agriculture was draught force
(muscular energy) of animals, not the force of.
The point of view, according to which periodization of the development of
productive forces as well as technological expansion coincides with
periodization of the society's development, i.e. in accordance with the
change of socio-economic formations, was developed most completely and
consistently by the group of authors of the book "The Modern Scientific and
Technological Revolution".
We shall dwell upon this theory of the development of the society's productive
forces in some more detail.
Depending on the necessity of accomplishing of some or other tasks people in
the process of their activity impart different forms to technics (man-made
means of activity, which are created and used to generate, transmit and convert
energy, to affect the objects of work during the creation of material and
cultural welfare, to gather, to store, to process and to transfer information,
to study the laws and phenomena of nature and society, to travel and to govern
the society, to wage war and to defend, for service and life as well). Technics
may be in form of instruments of labour (tooling), machines, automatic
machines, devices. It can also be in machineless form (p.10).
Each socio-economic structure (or, rather, each of its phases) is conformed by
a certain historically developed mode of technics, which embraces main forms of
man-made technical means, forms of energy that are used and the technological
mode of production, which is understood as the totality of three factors:
organization of use of technical means, technical mode of joining producers
with technical means and a division of labour (p.11).
During certain historical periods, revolutionary shifts in technical mode of
social production -- technical revolutions -- take place, which result in the
creation of new, higher mode of technics, which is characteristic of a new
social mode of production, for the final victory of which "the production
revolution" that is a result and at the same time a sequel to the technological
revolution is required as well (p.17).
If, according to the theory of the authors of "The Modern Scientific and
Technological Revolution", a certain technological mode of production is
a constituent ("is embraced"), together with the main forms of technical means
and forms of energy, of a corresponding mode of technics, then, during the
change from one mode of technics to another, i.e. during technological
revolution, one (old) technological mode of production should automatically
change into another (new). However, further we will see something different and
contradictory to the aforesaid.
During certain historical periods, society's productive forces experience
technical revolution, the essence of which is the appearance and introduction
of inventions causing revolution in means of labour, forms of energy,
production techniques and general material conditions of manufacturing process.
Technical revolution is a process of creation and introduction of technical
means, "which prepare (!) the transition to a new technological mode of
production" (p.27).
Technical revolution under appropriate (new) production relations causes the
production revolution, i.e. a process, under which a new technological mode
of production is created on the basis of new technical means, which is
characterized by a new division of labour, new position of producers and new
social relations in production (!), new social structure of the society
(p.27).
So, according to the theory of the authors of "The Modern Scientific and
Technological Revolution", when one technological mode changes into another
(production revolution), the replacement of old production relations with the
new ("new social relations in production") takes place as well. But this
principle contradicts the doctrine of the founders of Marxism--Leninism
according to which the replacement of certain production relations with the
other, new, takes place during the social revolution. If the authors spoke not
about "the new social relations in production", but about consolidation, final
victory or alteration of the present production relations, there would be no
contradiction. However, the authors of this theory speak differently on this
subject further.
"If social revolution results in the establishment of new production relations,
the liberation of productive forces, then technical revolution transforms means
of production, and production revolution, grown from it, leads to total
victory, domination of the new mode of production" (p.27).
Technical revolution is a precursor of production revolution; the latter cannot
begin without preliminary implementation of the former. Production revolution
is a gradual process, the beginning of which can be hardly dated precisely.
There cannot be a sharp distinction between technical and production
revolutions, the production revolution seems to grow smoothly from the
technical one and does not begin when the latter ends (p.27).
Implementation of technical and, growing from it, production revolution takes
place in each socio-economic structure, that is why in the development of
society and its productive forces the authors of this theory discover five
technical and five production revolutions. Since the number of technical
revolutions is five, the number of modes of technics, which are divided by
technological revolutions, is six, and since the number of production
revolutions is five as well, the number of technological modes of production,
which are divided by production revolutions, is also.
Now we shall proceed to studying these revolutions (technical and production)
taken separately, according to socio-economic structures.
The process of the formation of human society ended about 40--30
thousand years ago. The use of fire and making of crude, not grinded and simple
stone tools resulted by that time in the creation of the first mode of
technics. Technological mode of production consisted in gathering natural food
products, collective hunting and making instruments of labour and weapons from
stone. In the process of production, only a natural division of labour
(according to sex and age) was.
"In order that a primitive communal mode of production would become the
prevailing one, a radical change in the mode of technics was required. Such
a change took place owing to the invention of bow and arrows, and then to
mastering of drilling, grinding, sawing that made the creation of a stone axe
and a stone mattock with helves possible. It was the first technical
revolution, which resulted in the creation of a new mode of technics. It took
place during the period from about 13 to 4 thousand years BC" (p.29).
Here we see a new contradiction. As it was mentioned above, the production
revolution finally establishes the existing mode of production. Now we see that
this role has passed on to technical revolution.
According to the authors' theory, the first technical revolution went through
two stages. The first stage was bound up with the invention and use of bow and
arrows, which became a decisive weapon for man and made it possible to pass on
from hunting by big collectives to hunting by small groups, which resulted in
increase of the amount of food being obtained. The second stage of technical
revolution was bound up with making stone axe at first without lugs, and then
with lugs and helve. The inventions of revolutionizing nature, which made it
possible to create complex compound instruments of labour, were drilling,
grinding, sawing; drilling was the most important at that stage, and due to it
an axe with a helve became the most important and effective instrument of
labour. The invention and use of stone mattock with handle, which made the
cultivation of the soil and the increase of labour productivity in agriculture
possible, was also very important (p.30).
"Though the first stage of technological revolution took place in Mesolithic
period (13--7 thousand years BC) and the second -- in the Neolithic one
(7--4 thousand years BC), i.e. several thousand years elapsed between
these periods, they are two stages of one and the same process -- the creation
of mode of technics of primitive communal mode of production"
(pp.30--31).
The first technical revolution was followed by fundamental change in the
material production as a whole -- the first large-scale social division of
labour took place: the first to emerge were shepherd tribes, then agriculture
became an independent branch of production. As a result of it, the material and
technical basis of primitive-communal system was formed. These changes were the
first industrial revolution, which led to the worldwide domination of primitive
communal mode of production (p.30).
So, the first technical revolution was required for the "primitive-communal
mode of production to become prevailing", the first production revolution in
its turn results "in the worldwide domination of primitive communal mode", the
essence of the first production revolution is the first large-scale social
division of labour -- the emergence of shepherd tribes and the creation of
agriculture as an independent branch of production. Thus, the first production
revolution comes to the division of labour only, though first it was claimed
that the production revolution replaces one technological mode of production
with another one, which is understood as the totality of three factors:
organization of use of technical means, technical mode of joining producers
with technical means and division of labour (pp.11, 26, 27).
In primitive-communal society, various new technical means continue to be
created, a great number of them being the elements of the new (third) mode of
technics, which is typical to slave-holding mode of production, revolutionize
productive forces. Pottery, weaving, smelting and processing of metal belong to
such inventions and technical means. Taming and then breeding the animals,
which not only yielded milk, meat, pelts, fur and other products, but gradually
became a draught power, are typical of this period. People learned to use new
kind of energy -- the force of animals (p.31).
It might seem that this process is indeed (to some extent) the content of the
second revolution in the development of the society's productive forces, but,
according to the theory of the authors of "The Modern Scientific and
Technological Revolution", revolutions in the development of productive forces
should take place only after social revolutions. That is why they name this
process neither a revolution in the development of the society's productive
forces nor even its beginning, they call it just the origin of the elements of
new mode of technics in the depths of old society. The revolution (second) in
the development of the society's productive forces begins only several thousand
years later.
According to this theory, for the slave-holding mode of production, which won
by that time in many countries, to become dominant on a world-historical scale,
new technical revolution and new production revolution should take place, which
should create new mode of technics, material and technical basis and
technological mode of production.
<...>
The XX century is the century when a new phenomenon appeared on the Earth.
This phenomenon arose at the turn of XIX century and since then it strides
imperiously over the planet not reckoning with the state boundaries,
national and language differences, social and political systems. This
phenomenon is the scientific and technological revolution.
What is the scientific and technological revolution? There are a lot of
definitions, but most researchers hold the opinion that the modern
scientific and technological revolution is a revolution in the development
of the society's productive forces. However, this simple answer raises at
least two new questions.
Question one: if the scientific and technological revolution is a revolution
in the development of modern society's productive forces, is there
cause-effect relation between it and the socialist revolution, which takes
place in the development of modern society's social relations?
Question two: if the scientific and technological revolution is a revolution
in the development of modern society's productive forces, were there any
other revolutions in the development of the productive forces at different
stages of the society's historical development? If there were, what did they
represent?
The author's long-term research has resulted in the affirmative answer to
both these questions. First, modern scientific and technological revolution
is in the very direct cause-effect relation with modern socialist
revolution. If before the scientific and technological revolution the
socialist revolution was just a possibility, then, with its origin and
beginning, the socialist revolution becomes a socio-historical necessity, it
is an essential consequence of the scientific and technological revolution.
Second, a thorough study of the objective laws governing the historical
development of the society's productive forces makes it possible to reveal
three more revolutions in their development: the first revolution in the
development of the society's productive forces, in this research called
"the hunting-technical revolution", took place approximately from 40--35
to 20--15 thousand years ago; the second revolution in the development of
the society's productive forces, which we call "the agrarian-technical
revolution", happened approximately from 7 to 4--3 thousand years ago; the
third revolution in the development of the society's productive forces,
which we call "the industrial-technical revolution", took place
approximately in XI to XIX centuries AD.
Thus, both in the development of the society's productive forces and in the
social relations development, there are four revolutions. In the development
of productive forces, they are the hunting-technical, the
agrarian-technical, the industrial-technical and the scientific and
technological revolutions. In the development of socio-productive relations,
they are slave-holding, feudal, bourgeois and socialist revolutions.
It might seem that only one simple conclusion should be drawn. Since the
fourth revolution in the development of the society's productive forces is
in cause-effect relation with the fourth social revolution and there's
a dialectical interrelation between the society's productive forces and the
productive relations, we should draw a conclusion that each of the four
social revolutions is in cause-effect relation with corresponding revolution
in the development of the society's productive forces, their number being
also four. But it's the point where the main difficulties arise.
If we compare chronological bounds when social revolutions and revolutions
in the development of the society's productive forces took place, it turns
out that in historical development they do not stand in such order that the
first social revolution conforms to the first revolution in the development
of productive forces, etc., they stand a different and a bit unexpected way.
Chronological coincidence is found only for the third and the fourth
revolutions in the development of productive forces and productive
relations, i.e. the industrial-technical revolution coincides with the
bourgeois-social revolution, and the scientific and technological revolution
coincides with the socialist revolution. The first revolutions in the
history of society correlate a different way. Thus, it is the second, not
the first revolution in the development of productive forces, i.e. the
agrarian-technical, not the hunting-technical revolution that conforms to
the first social, i.e. slave-holding revolution. And the feudal-social and
the hunting-technical revolutions have no "pairs" at all. What is the
reason?
The study of socio-economic history of medieval society led us to the
conclusion that feudalism did not exist as an independent socio-economic
structure at all. So-called feudalism of V--XVII centuries is an artificial
combination of the last phase of the development of slave-holding
(slave-holding-serf) society and the first phase of the development of
bourgeois-capitalist society. If we assume this principle, then it turns out
that two generally accepted phases of capitalist society (pre-monopolistic
and monopolistic capitalism) are preceded by one more phase -- the phase of
trade capitalism. Thus we should think that capitalist society has three
phases of its development: the phase of trade capitalism, the phase of
industrial capitalism and the phase of monopolistic, or joint-stock
capitalism; or trade, productive and usurious phases, if we proceed from the
forms of exploitation of the labour by the capital prevailing in.
If we take up the economic development of slave-holding society, time bounds
of which being shifted from V to XIV--XV centuries, in Eastern Europe even
up to XIX century, it turns out that it has three phases in its development
as well: trade, productive and usurious. Thus, both class socio-economic
formations (slave-holding-serf and bourgeois-capitalist) have the same
phases in their development; they seem to copy one another. The historic
bound dividing these formations is the abolition of serfdom, which is the
essence of bourgeois-social revolution that took place in Western Europe in
XIV--XV centuries, and in Eastern Europe in XIX century.
"Having got rid" of "feudal-social" revolution, for which there's no
corresponding revolution in the development of the society's productive
forces, we should look to the primitive-communal society, in the depths of
which the first revolution in the development of productive forces, i.e. the
hunting-technical revolution takes place. Close analysis of socio-economic
development of primitive-communal society led us to the conclusion that
primitive-communal society, as well as feudal one, is also an artificial
combination of two different societies: primitive (primitive-tribal) and
communal (communal-clan). If communal society is the first socio-economic
structure in the development of the formed and highly developed society, the
primitive society is then a society being formed, it is the period of
transition from biological to social form of development of matter, period
of formation of society, which precedes the first, communal socio-economic
structure. Besides, primitive society is separated from communal-clan
society by the hunting-technical and, interconnected with it,
communal-social revolution being the first social revolution in the
development of society.
Taking all the aforesaid into consideration one can see a well-balanced
scheme of the development of society's productive forces and
socio-productive relations: the first, communal-social revolution in the
development of socio-productive relations conforms to the first,
hunting-technical revolution in the development of productive forces;
slave-holding-social revolution (the second) conforms to the
agrarian-technical revolution (the second); bourgeois-social revolution (the
third) conforms to industrial-technical revolution (the third); the
socialist revolution, which is the fourth revolution in the development of
society conforms to the scientific and technological revolution (the
fourth). At that, the revolutions in the development of the society's
productive forces are the reason (the first cause) of the social revolutions
conforming to them, and it is under their direct influence that social
revolutions take place, because the new productive forces, becoming such as
a result of just another revolution in their development, require new
socio-productive relations and new social system for their further
progressive development.
We will not dwell here upon the conception suggested to the reader, which is
stated in more detail further in this research. We should only note, that it
has some rather significant deviations from views generally accepted in
Marxist literature, as the readers have already noticed. But we think, that
it is erroneous to consider these deviations as a refutation of Marxist
doctrine. Our conception is not a refutation of Marxist doctrine; it is its
creative development.
Marxism--Leninism is not a dogma -- it's a guide to action. In the course of
further development of the society, the revelation of its new features,
phenomena and laws, getting and accumulation of new and unknown before
historical facts, a further development of Marxist--Leninist doctrine, its
improvement, refusal of some obsolete or erroneous principles and an
addition of new principles to it should also inevitably take place, for
Marxist--Leninist theory is a reflection of an objective development of
society and matter, and since the society develops and changes, social
science should develop as.
If any creative development of Marxism is identified with revisionism, then
the greatest "revisionists" are considered to be Marx, Engels and Lenin,
who during all their lives developed, changed, refined, improved and
supplemented their doctrine, many principles of which were rejected by them
without any hesitation the moment their fallacy was understood.
The guiding principle of this research is in the following remarkable words
by V.I.Lenin: "We never regard Marx's theory as something finished and
inviolable; on the contrary, we are sure that it put only the corner-stone
of the science, which should be moved by socialists further in all
directions, if they do not want to fall behind the times." (Lenin V.I.
Works vol.4, p.184).
The author set himself a rather limited aim, i.e. to study the historical
development of the society's productive forces and socio-productive
relations in their dialectical unity and interrelation. Besides, the author
tried not to reiterate in his research all that well-known verities, which
had already been covered explicitly enough in social literature.
Author