Evolution of materialistic understanding of labor (classical and Soviet Marxism)

For the first time, labor was materialistically understood in the works of K. Marx and F. Engels. It was understood as a social material process, as a substantial property producing human life in all the diversity of its properties and relationships. This understanding of labor made it possible to overcome the difficulties of classical philosophy and political economy, which tended to reduce labor activity to its physiological foundations or spiritual expression. In Soviet Marxism, the materialist understanding of labor was deepened, but found difficulties in describing concrete historical forms of practical activity. Describing labor in general as a social material process, Soviet thinkers allowed the reduction of labor activity to its manifestations - consciousness, means of production, production relations in the description of its specific forms, thus restoring the difficulties of classical science in the analysis of labor.