It has been assumed by the author that behind any activity (regarded as a social phenomenon) one would find two sets of correlated motives-those of the society and those of individual actors. The latter are divided into two groups. The first comprises values which particular activities immediately pass to those who participate in them and to the society. The second comprises the most distant goals which in the long run determine personal and social aspects of man's activity. The paper shows how all these motives transform their structure and content under different social-historical conditions and how they motivate not only practical activities with objects but communication between those engaged in common activity as well. Communication is discussed as a specific motivational phenomenon which, on the one hand, unites individual participants into a collective subject of the activity and, on the other hand, takes them beyond the goals of the particular activity they are engaged in and introduces them into a wider context of the social life.