Contradictions of progress and regress are the driving forces of history

The historical process is very heterogeneous, sometimes spasmodically, at times evolutionarily, at times, and at all falls into stagnation. However, the eternal question is what are the driving forces of history. The posing of the question of the orientation of these forces gave a multitude of answers, and very different in its meaning, from uncontrollably optimistic to gloomily doomed, with elements of utopianism.

In antiquity, and not only antique, it was very popular opinion that humanity is moving from the "golden" century to its decline. The progressiveness and driving forces of progress led people to an extreme degree of physical labor relief, the appearance of computers deprived the person of the development of thought research and stopped the vertical direction of development. This, of course, is an extreme point of view on the consequences of progress, but there is a certain amount of truth here. In history, the productive forces are considered to be the driving forces of development , and accordingly, their improvement leads to the further successful development of mankind with some nuances of geographical and national character. In other words, the mode of production implies some degree of progress. The driving forces are different factors, but mostly it is scientific and technological progress in all spheres of society.

In the ancient world, the main mode of production was slave labor, until a certain time it was sufficiently productive and provided the satisfaction of the needs of those societies. However, gradually the axiom that the slave can not work fruitfully, because he is not interested in the results of his work, prevailed, and the more progressive feudal mode of production came to replace slavery. Of course, it was more productive at the first stages of its existence, but due to personal lack of freedom the peasants also become unproductive at their flight. Then the capitalist mode of production comes into effect, here the free producer is already personally interested in the result of his labor, and hence there is a need to consolidate its right to the means of production, which would further strengthen this effect.

In general, progress is a two-way process and acts selectively. Universal development does not mean that all societies progress simultaneously. On the contrary, some archaic societies seem to have frozen in the Stone Age, it is enough to recall the Indians of the Amazon.

So, the driving force of progress affects only a part of societies, and even in them it is elementary, not systemic, especially until the 17th-18th centuries. It is during this period that the most important changes occur in the methods of production. Along with great changes in military affairs, state administration, technical and technological process in other areas, they could be very modest and even backward. Suffice it to recall the widespread industrial development of Russia in the middle of the 19th century, along with the existing serfdom. In the most complex global process, the driving forces of history were summed up and poured out into general development. The driving forces of progress, therefore, are the contradictions of progressive development.