Nihilism may be analysed by an internal and external critique of various systematised theories containing nihilistic views. Here the analysis would cover the substance of the criticised theories and their cognitive and social roots, and its purpose would be to show their untenability. We see our task in something quite different—in bringing to light nihilism’s designation and place in the modern battle of ideas. We therefore had to lay bare why and how nihilistic views and feelings have become a factor of the bourgeois mass consciousness, to show how this factor, sometimes called the sense of wretchedness (a term widely used by Hegel in The Phenomenology of Mind), took shape and functions, and also the social context of its mythology. On top of everything, it was necessary to go into the actual meaning of this conception, which the bourgeois theorists have tried hard to obscure.

Since we have placed the accent on an examination of how nihilistic ideas undergo modifications and operate on the level of the bourgeois mass consciousness, on their evolution on this level, we do not mention the names, schools and orientations that would have had to be given in an academic analysis of the theoretical genealogy of nihilism and pessimism. We have reduced the number of quotations, literary footnotes, statistical and other data to a minimum. The circumstance that we have had to note or somehow

touch upon many aspects of modern social and spiritual life compelled us to draw upon the most diverse sources (documents, articles in the press, philosophical, ethical, sociological and socio-psychological studies, works of art). With the exception of cases where this was required by gratitude, we did not refer the reader to the host of books and papers, on whose basis this book was conceived. This method of exposition, which did not require us to dwell on minutiae, enabled us to concentrate on a general outline of the dynamics of the bourgeois mass consciousness. Lastly, a few words on the compositional character of this book, which sprang from the following considerations. The notion that nihilism died away long ago has some foundation and is based on the fact that overlying the sense of wretchedness are views and feelings that may be regarded as optimistic and which arc usually designated as a sense of contentedness. The impression that this sense of contentedness predominates is what creates the illusion that pessimistic views and emotions arc peripheral. But the contented consciousness is no more than false optimism. The sense of contentedness and wretchedness complement rather than exclude each other.

A parallel examination of these forms of bourgeois mass consciousness makes it possible to review its political and moral conflicts and prescribed stereotype behaviour patterns. It opens the way to comprehending the mutations of the bourgeois consciousness, its movement from contentedness to wretchedness, and helps to give a better understanding of the revolutionary character of the dialectical materialistic world outlook, which is the foundation of historical optimism.

Translated from the Russian by David Skvirsky