Radio, Science, Technique, and Society¶
Core Argument¶
In his 1926 lecture Radio, Science, Technique, and Society, Leon Trotsky presents a sweeping dialectical materialist analysis of technology’s role in the construction of socialism, using radio as his central case study. The core argument is that the Soviet Union’s extreme technical backwardness—measured objectively against capitalist states—can only be overcome through planned socialist organisation, which alone can harness science and technique for human emancipation rather than militarism and superstition.
Trotsky grounds his argument in a materialist conception of history, rejecting liberal notions of continuous progress. Culture zigzags, he insists, but scientific and technical thought marches forward. He defends dialectical materialism against idealist philosophy, arguing that science aims to subject matter, space, and time to human will. The discovery that atoms are complex systems and that chemical elements can be transformed is not a defeat for materialism but a triumph of dialectics. The task of physics is to release intra-atomic energy, opening unbounded technical possibilities.
The chapter’s key evidence is comparative: US railway ton-kilometres are ten times Germany’s and twenty times Britain’s; US postal expenditure is 9.40 rubles per head against 33 kopecks in the USSR; the US has 130 times more telephones per capita. Radio, as the cheapest form of communication, is essential for a vast peasant country lacking roads. Socialism demands transforming the USSR into a single economic and cultural whole, dissolving the contradictions between town and country through electrification and widespread radio introduction.
Trotsky’s polemics are sharp. He dismisses Marconi’s pacifist claim that transmitting pictures by radio will end war: technique develops in a class society, and the ruling class controls it for militarism. Under socialism, science will combat superstition, whereas in America, radio broadcasts church sermons. He criticises the Society of Friends of Radio for its disproportionate membership of office workers and Nepmen; workers and peasants must become the overwhelming majority. Radio must conquer the countryside, enabling illiterate peasants to access culture and feel themselves citizens of the Union and the world. Increased Soviet grain and raw material exports reduce Europe’s dependence on capitalist America, aiding European revolution. A radio network must allow peasants to participate daily in the life of Europe’s working people, preparing for a Soviet Union of Socialist Peoples uniting Europe and Asia.