ABSTRACT
It is customary to divide the history of the development of socialist doctrine into two periods: the period of Utopian, and the period of scientific, socialism. Such a division is crude, as it is possible to discover scientific elements in the so-called Utopian socialism and unscientific elements in the so-called scientific socialism; yet in principle it is right. The division between the two periods is formed by the works of the greatest of socialist thinkers and politicians, Karl Marx. Taking the idea of evolution as his starting-point, Marx sought in this way to interpret the events of social economic development. The method proved as fruitful in the social sciences as in all other spheres of scientific thought. In the second half of the past century Marxism won for itself a position of absolute domination within the socialist movement, and even to-day it remains the dogma of the revolutionary proletariat. In the same way it is the basis of the Russian communist party’s programme.
