“People Make Their Own History”

General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that “the people are the creators of history and the fundamental force determining the future and destiny of the Party and the country” and that “we must rely on the people to create historic achievements.” This not only manifests a people-first value orientation and governing philosophy but also profoundly elucidates that the people are the subjects who create history. In their co-authored work *The Holy Family*, by criticizing the idealist view of history held by the Young Hegelians, who were hostile to the masses, and by absorbing the positive factors and reasonable components of earlier thinkers, Marx and Engels arrived at a profound summation of what “history” actually is: “History does nothing; it ‘possesses no immense wealth,’ it ‘wages no battles.’ It is man, real, living man who does all that, who possesses and fights; ‘history’ is not, as it were, a person apart, using man as a means to achieve its own aims; history is nothing but the activity of man pursuing his aims.” [1]1 This is a paraphrase of a passage from *The Holy Family* (1845). The standard English translation reads: “History does nothing; it ‘possesses no immense wealth,’ it ‘wages no battles.’ It is man, real, living man who does all that, who possesses and fights; ‘history’ is not, as it were, a person apart, using man as a means to achieve its own aims; history is nothing but the activity of man pursuing his aims.” (Marx/Engels Collected Works, vol. 4, p. 93) This classic formulation provides a worldview and methodology for grasping the direction and path of historical development.

习近平总书记指出，“人民是历史的创造者，是决定党和国家前途命运的根本力量”，“依靠人民创造历史伟业”。这不仅彰显着人民至上的价值取向和执政理念，也深刻阐明了人民是创造历史的主体。马克思恩格斯在其合著的《神圣家族》中，通过批判青年黑格尔派敌视人民群众的唯心史观，吸收前人思想中的积极因素和合理成分，对“历史”究竟是什么作出了深邃总结，即“历史不过是追求着自己目的的人的活动而已”。这一经典论述，为我们把握历史发展方向和道路提供了世界观和方法论指南。

The masses are the creators of history

人民群众是历史的创造者

Throughout their theoretical and practical careers, Marx and Engels repeatedly emphasized the role of “man” in historical development. Marx pointed out that “men make their own history.” [2]2 From *The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte* (1852). Engels stressed: “Men make their own history, whatever its outcome may be, in that each person follows his own consciously desired end, and it is precisely the resultant of these many wills operating in different directions and of their manifold effects upon the outer world that constitutes history.” [3]3 From *Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy* (1886). On the basis of an in-depth investigation of the historical role of both individuals and groups, Marx and Engels scientifically explained the role of man in creating history.

马克思恩格斯在自己的理论和实践生涯中一再强调“人”在历史发展中的作用。马克思指出，“人们自己创造自己的历史”。恩格斯强调：“人们总是通过每一个人追求他自己的、自觉预期的目的来创造他们的历史，而这许多按不同方向活动的愿望及其对外部世界的各种各样作用的合力，就是历史。”马克思恩格斯在深入考察人类个体与群体的历史作用的基础上，科学阐释了人在创造历史中的作用。

Before the emergence of Marxist philosophy, the idealist view of history had long held sway. On the question of who creates history, the idealist view belittles the role of the masses, holding that history is made by emperors, kings, generals, ministers, and heroes. The root of this error lies, epistemologically, in taking human thoughts and motives as the cause of historical development, without seeing the material driving forces hidden behind thought; and, in terms of class origin, it stems from the need of the ruling exploiting classes to maintain their own economic interests and political domination. In contrast, the materialist conception of history, proceeding from the principle that social being determines social consciousness, makes an in-depth investigation of “real individuals” and their essence, and, based on the overall historical “resultant of forces,” [4]4 A reference to Engels’s concept of the “resultant” (or “parallelogram of forces”) in history, developed in his letter to Joseph Bloch (1890), where he argues that history is the product of the interaction of many individual wills, producing a collective outcome unintended by any single actor. explains that the masses are the creators of history: the masses are the creators of society’s material wealth, the creators of society’s spiritual wealth, and the decisive force in social change.

在马克思主义哲学产生以前，唯心史观一直占据统治地位。在历史创造者问题上，唯心史观贬低人民群众的作用，认为历史是由帝王将相、英雄豪杰创造的。其错误根源在于，从认识论上，把人的思想和动机当作推动历史发展的原因，没有看到隐藏在思想背后的物质动因；从阶级根源上，则是出于占统治地位的剥削阶级维护自身经济利益和政治统治的需要。与之相反，唯物史观从社会存在决定社会意识的原则出发，深入考察“现实的个人”及其本质，立足整体的历史“合力”阐释人民群众是历史的创造者：人民群众是社会物质财富的创造者，是社会精神财富的创造者和社会变革的决定力量。

The proposition that “history is nothing but the activity of man pursuing his aims” can be regarded as the realization of a Copernican revolution [5]5 A metaphor comparing the shift from idealist to materialist conceptions of history to the Copernican revolution in astronomy, which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe. in the field of historical outlook by the materialist conception of history. It fully affirms the historical status and role of man. It is both a logical extension of the decisive role of material production in social development and a theoretical exposure and critique of the phenomena, essence, and roots of the idealist view of history, laying a solid theoretical foundation for later Marxists to study the laws of historical development.

“历史不过是追求着自己目的的人的活动而已”观点的提出，可谓唯物史观在历史观领域哥白尼式革命的实现，其充分肯定了人的历史地位和作用，既是物质生产在社会发展中具有决定作用的逻辑延伸，也在理论上有力揭露和批判了唯心史观现象、本质及根源，为后来的马克思主义者研究历史发展规律奠定了坚实理论基础。

Historical development has a clear setting and direction of purpose

历史发展有着明确的目的设定及指向

To accurately grasp the Marxist materialist conception of history, one must correctly understand its core category—history. Unlike the previous idealist and old materialist understandings of history and its essence, Marx applied materialism to the field of social history, starting from the practical activity of human material production to understand and grasp the essence of human social history. He held that history is the history of man’s social practical activity; the so-called “activity or behavior” of man that is divorced from real individuals and manifested in the form of fictitious, abstract entities can have no actual effect on the existence and development of history. On this basis, Marx emphasized that the existence and development of history are inseparable from the setting and direction of purpose by the true subject of history—man. This setting and direction are constructed by man on the basis of his own needs and the possibilities provided by reality, through conscious and purposeful practice.

准确把握马克思主义唯物史观，必须正确认识其核心范畴——历史。不同于以往唯心主义、旧唯物主义对历史和历史本质的理解，马克思将唯物主义贯彻于社会历史领域，从人类物质生产实践活动出发去认识和把握人类社会历史的本质，认为历史是人的社会实践活动的历史，那种脱离现实的人，以虚构的、抽象的实体形式表现出来的所谓人的“活动或行为”，不可能对历史的存在与发展产生任何实际效果。在此基础上，马克思强调历史的存在与发展离不开历史的真正主体——人的自觉目的的设定和指向，这种设定和指向都是人立足于自身需要和现实提供的可能，在有意识有目的的实践基础上构筑起来的。

From the perspective of the materialist conception of history, Marx revealed that “social life is essentially *practical*,” [6]6 From Marx’s *Theses on Feuerbach* (1845), Thesis VIII. that is, the essence of history is man’s practical activity. Previous idealist philosophers regarded history as the externalization of man’s spiritual activity, while old materialists mechanically understood history from the perspective of the object or in an intuitive form. The emergence of materialism put an end to these problems of falling into idealism when examining the field of social history, understanding and explaining history from the starting point of material production practice. In Marx’s view, the practical activity of “real individuals” in producing the means of subsistence is the basis of the existence of life and of human history. As man’s object-oriented activity, practice runs through the entire process of social historical development, endowing practice with a foundational status for the existence and development of social history. In the course of human social history, practice, as an endogenous driving force for social historical development, continuously pushes productive forces forward. When relations of production hinder the development of practice, people must, through practice, enable the productive forces to break free from the shackles of old relations of production and continuously release the driving force for social development.

基于唯物史观的视野，马克思揭示出“社会生活在本质上是实践的”，即历史的本质就是人的实践活动。以往的唯心主义哲学家们将历史看作是人的精神活动的外化，旧唯物主义者则机械地从客体的或者直观的形式去理解历史。唯物主义的诞生终结了这些在考察社会历史领域时陷入唯心主义的问题，从物质生产实践出发理解历史、解释历史。在马克思看来，“现实的个人”的物质生活资料生产实践，是生命存在和人类历史存在的基础，作为人的对象性活动的实践贯穿于社会历史发展始终，赋予了实践对于社会历史存在和发展的基础性地位。在人类社会历史进程中，实践作为推动社会历史发展的内生性动力，促使生产力不断向前发展，当生产关系阻碍实践发展时，人们必须通过实践使生产力冲破旧的生产关系束缚而不断释放社会向前发展的动力。

On the basis of this understanding of social history endowed with practice, Marx emphasized that history, as the history of man, has both a clear setting of purpose and a clear direction of purpose, i.e., historical intention: “The history of humanity differs from the history of nature in that the history of humanity is made by us, whereas the history of nature is not made by us.” [7]7 From Marx’s *Capital*, vol. 1, footnote to the Preface to the First German Edition (1867). When discussing the history of humanity, Engels also pointed out: “In the history of society, however, the actors are all endowed with consciousness, are men acting with deliberation or passion, working towards definite goals; nothing happens without a conscious purpose, without an intended aim.” [8]8 From Engels, *Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy* (1886). This purpose is by no means predetermined or preordained by abstract entities such as “Reason” or “Absolute Spirit” as in traditional teleological views of history; rather, it is established by man, as the subject of history, based on his own needs and the possibilities provided by reality. Moreover, the setting of historical purpose is not blind or directionless; it is closely related to how man understands and perfects himself. That is to say, regarding historical purpose as a conception through which man understands and grasps history, this conception ultimately aims to realize man’s understanding of himself. Because history is the history of man, and man is the man of history, only by linking man and history together in thought, and through correct cognition and reflection on history, can we grasp the forward direction and path of human existence and development.

在对社会历史赋予实践的理解基础上，马克思强调，历史作为人的历史，既有着明确的目的设定，又有着明确的目的指向即历史预期，“人类史同自然史的区别在于，人类史是我们自己创造的，而自然史不是我们自己创造的”。恩格斯在谈到人类史时也指出：“在社会历史领域内进行活动的，是具有意识的、经过思虑或凭激情行动的、追求某种目的的人；任何事情的发生都不是没有自觉的意图，没有预期的目的的。”这种目的决不是传统历史目的论中所谓的“理性”“绝对精神”等抽象实体先定或预定的，而是作为历史主体的人立足于自己的需要和现实提供的可能加以确立的。不仅如此，历史目的的设定不是盲目的和无所指向的，而是与人如何认识自我、完善自己密切相关的。也就是说，把历史目的看作是人认识和把握历史的一种观念，这种观念最终也是要实现人对自己的认识。因为，历史是人的历史，人是历史的人，只有将人与历史关联起来一并思考，从对历史的正确认知和反思中才能把握人类自身生存与发展的前行方向与道路。

Give full play to the initiative, enthusiasm, and creativity of the masses in the historical process

在历史进程中发挥人民群众的积极性主动性创造性

The view that “history is nothing but the activity of man pursuing his aims” centrally demonstrates the affirmation by the materialist conception of history of the status and role of the masses as the subject of history. It not only runs through the entire development of Marxist theory but also spurred the emergence of a number of new working-class political parties, stimulated the initiative and revolutionary spirit of the proletariat in striving for their own rights and interests, greatly changed the future and destiny of the broad masses, and provided scientific theoretical guidance and correct action guidelines for the development of the international workers’ movement.

“历史不过是追求着自己目的的人的活动”的观点，集中展现了唯物史观对人民群众历史主体地位和作用的肯定，不仅贯穿马克思主义理论发展的始终，而且推动产生了一批新兴的工人阶级政党，激发出无产阶级争取个人权益的主动性与革命性，极大改变了广大人民群众的前途命运，为国际工人运动的发展提供了科学理论指导和正确行动指南。

As a steadfast defender and executor of Marxism, the Communist Party of China has always adhered to the mass view of history and opposed all forms of idealist views of history. From the day of the Party’s founding, Comrade Mao Zedong emphasized: “The people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history.” [9]9 From Mao Zedong, *On Coalition Government* (1945). Since reform and opening up, the Chinese Communists, with Comrade Deng Xiaoping as their chief representative, have taken whether the people support, approve, are happy with, or agree with the Party’s policies as the starting point and ultimate goal for formulating the Party’s line, principles, and policies. Entering the New Era, General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: “History is created by the people; China’s development achievements were created by the Chinese people with their own hands, and were created through the tenacious struggle and relayed efforts of generation after generation of Chinese people.” [10]10 From Xi Jinping’s speech at the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up (2018). “History is written by the people, and all achievements are attributed to the people. As long as we are deeply rooted in the people and closely rely on the people, we can gain infinite strength and forge ahead bravely, undaunted by wind and rain.” [11]11 From Xi Jinping’s speech at the first session of the 13th National People’s Congress (2018). Looking back on the century-long struggle, the Party has always upheld the concept that “the people are the creators of history and the fundamental force determining the future and destiny of the Party and the country,” continuously enriching and developing the materialist conception of history and the mass view of history in both theory and practice.

作为马克思主义的坚定捍卫者和执行者，中国共产党始终坚持群众史观，反对形形色色的唯心史观。从党成立之日起，毛泽东同志就强调，“人民，只有人民，才是创造世界历史的动力”。改革开放以来，以邓小平同志为主要代表的中国共产党人将人民拥护不拥护、赞成不赞成、高兴不高兴、答应不答应作为党制定路线方针政策的出发点和落脚点。进入新时代，习近平总书记指出，“历史是人民创造的，中国的发展成就是中国人民用自己的双手创造的，是一代又一代中国人顽强拼搏、接力奋斗创造的”，“历史是人民书写的，一切成就归功于人民。只要我们深深扎根人民、紧紧依靠人民，就可以获得无穷的力量，风雨无阻，奋勇向前”。回望百年奋斗历程，党始终秉持“人民是历史的创造者，是决定党和国家前途命运的根本力量”的理念，不断从理论和实践上丰富和发展唯物史观和群众史观。

Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has consistently adhered to the people-centered development thinking, integrating the nation’s struggle goals, the people’s aspirations, and the people’s fine expectations into one, empowering the people with rights and capabilities, meeting the people’s needs in the economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological fields, and continuously raising the people’s quality and capacity, truly realizing that the people are the masters of the country. At the same time, our Party has always respected the principal position of the people and closely relied on the people to make history. When planning development, it is the people who best understand the actual situation; when advancing reform, it is also the people who constitute the greatest force to rely on. The elimination of absolute poverty and the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects were achieved by relying on the people; the solid line of defense against the COVID-19 pandemic was built by relying on the people’s concerted efforts; achieving common prosperity requires everyone to proceed steadily and step by step… Overcoming difficulties and challenges and accomplishing great undertakings all require drawing wisdom and strength from the people. To realize the second centenary goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects, it is necessary to better unleash the initiative and creativity of the people in undertaking endeavors and making innovations.

党的十八大以来，以习近平同志为核心的党中央始终坚持以人民为中心的发展思想，把国家的奋斗目标、民族的向往追求、人民的美好期盼融为一体，赋权于人民、赋能于人民，满足人民群众在经济、政治、文化、社会、生态等各领域的需要，不断提高人民的素质和能力，真正实现人民当家作主。同时，我们党始终尊重人民的主体地位，紧紧依靠人民创造历史。谋划发展，最了解实际情况的是人民群众；推动改革，最大的依靠力量也是人民群众。消除绝对贫困、全面建成小康社会是依靠人民实现的，抗击新冠肺炎疫情的坚固防线是依靠人民齐心协力筑建的，实现共同富裕需要每个人稳扎稳打、步步为营……克服困难挑战、成就伟大事业，无不需要从人民中汲取智慧力量。实现全面建成社会主义现代化强国的第二个百年奋斗目标，必须更好发挥人民群众干事创业的主动性和创造性。

Online editor: Paul

网络编辑：保罗