Lenin on the Independent Initiative and Creativity of the Personality in the Moral Sphere

Abstract

V. I. Lenin's formulation of the problem of the moral individual has very great importance for the theory and practice of communist education. Vladimir Il'ich considered activity in the struggle for communist ideals as the most striking feature of such an individual. In seeing communist morality as a powerful transforming force, he taught that the education of the masses in a spirit of devotion to communism, in collectivism, socialist humanism, patriotism, and internationalism, was the major task of ideological work. He demanded that consciousness of the absolute binding nature of communist moral standards be instilled in all members of our society. Lenin considered the Soviet people's moral unity, formed on this basis, as a clear manifestation of the superiority of socialism over capitalism.