ABSTRACT
The more closely one examines Soviet accounts on research methods and techniques, the more one becomes aware that Soviet sociologists were as anxious as others to find those methods and techniques which would best serve to analyze social phenomena. Once the method had been at least partially accepted as valid for Marxist research, the sociologists pleaded for and indicated ways for its improvement. Historical materialism should have acted in the research process as method and principle for determining subject matter, formulating hypotheses, compiling a plan of investigation and explaining results. Sociological research is to be based on a materialist, rather than an idealist, understanding of social phenomena; laws and interrelations are objective and determined by material circumstances. Sociological research is to be intrinsically objective and scientific because historical materialism is said to be the first scientific system for understanding and then directing the development of society.
