The History of Technology in Soviet Russia and Marxist Doctrine

Abstract

Soviet Marxists. It is of central importance both to the general philosophy and to the theory of history by which they defend their political program; it has long been used in the ideological education of specialists; and in the past few years study of the subject has been urged, as Professor Zvorikine points out in the preceding article, as a method of humanizing technical specialists, of saving them from the stultifying narrowness of their competence. The first two aspects of this attraction stem directly from Marx and have been felt by his spiritual descendants on both sides of the Russian frontier. To understand the peculiarities of Soviet Marxist work in the history of technology, one must see it in its specifically Soviet context.