Father of Russian Marxism

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A review by Clive Hills of "The Materialist Conception of History" and 'The Role of the Individual in History" by Georgei Plekhanov, published by Lawrence and Wishart, 75p each. Plekhanoy (1856-1918) has been justly described as the "Father of Russian Marxism"

He was one of the first generation of Russian Marxists and was one of the founders of the Geneva based Emancipation of Labour Group in 1883 (the Group was one of the organisations that fused together to form the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), the Russian section of the Second International).

AUTHORITY

Plekhanov, who for over two decades was regarded as the world's greatest authority on Marxist philosophy after the death of Engels, was one of "the General's" correspondents and the latter did not hesitate to praise his works with an enthusiasm which he denied to those of Kautsky and Bernstein.

Lenin, too, was "in love" with Plekhanov and continued to value his philosophical writings even after the latter had gone over to the camp of chauvinism.

His famous evaluation of these writings, made during the : 1921 Irade Union struggle within the Bolshevik Party and addressed towards the youth, deserves to be repeated here:

• you cannot hope to mean a study - of all of Plekhanov's writings, because nothing better has been written on Marxism anywhere in the world. (Once Again on the Trade Unions, January 1921).

NARODNIKS

Plekhanov's philosophical struggles against the utopian-socialist Narodniks in the 1880s and 1890s and against the revisionists in the German Social-Democracy at the turn of the century, formed the indispensable bases of the struggle launched by Lenin against those who sought to revise Marxism in the Bolshevik Party from 1908191.0 (to which Plekhanov also contributed), a struggle without which the October Revolution would not have been possible.

That is why our movement, which bases itself upon Lenin's lifelong struggle to defend and develop all the sides of Marxist theory, can only welcome the republication of these seminal works of Plekhanov which are before us.

The The first of these pamphlet The Materialist Conception History (which, like the other, has been out of print since 1969), takes the form of a review of the French edition of the book of the same name by the Italian Marxist Antonio Labriola (Professor of Philosophy at Rome University and the leading propagandist of Marxism in Italy).

Plekhanov, following Labriola, begins by considering the charge of 'economic materialism' that is often levelled at Marxism by the ideologists of the bourgeois class on account of its insistance that. the economic infrastructure of a given society determines (in the last analysis') the ideological superstructure of that society.

INACCURATE

He shows that this charge is inaccurate and that other schools of thought more correctly deserve this title.

He then goes on to consider the 'theory of factors' that is put forward by the 'critics' of Marxism. This theory asserts that, while it is true that the economic factor plays an important role in the historical development of society, it is equally true that other factors" (for example, language) also have a very great influence historically speaking.

Plekhanov shows that Marxism does not in any way deny the influential character of "social factors' other than the economic; historical materialism does, nowever,. insist that these 'factors', , while enjoying a certain limited, relative autonomy from the economic base, are 'in the last instance' reflections of this selfsame base.

He also examines in greater detail the nature of this 'reflection' and of the reciprocal inter-connections which exist between the various so-called 'factors' and the economic foundations upon which they arise.

One of these 'factors' is the system of laws of a given society and the state apparatus which serves to enforce the law.

The final sections of the pamphlet are devoted to an analysis of the way in which the law and state depend on the economic order of society and the way in which they serve as instruments of the domination of the ruling class.

The second pamphlet, The Role of the Individual in History, was written in 1898 for the journal Scientific Review.

It, too, like the first, is concerned with the exposition and defence of the historical materialist worldoutlook of Marxism. In particular, it deals with the question of the role played by 'great men' in historical development.

Marxism is often, even today, accused of failing to grasp the tremendous role played by 'great men' by the ideologists of the bourgeois class and also of the petty-bourgeoisie (a case in point would be JeanPaul Sartre who makes precisely such an accusation in his Search for « Method) and it is this which contrives to make Plehkanov's pamphlet relevant our own to times.

ROLE

Marxism, as Plekhanov explains, does not deny that so-called great men' (such as Napoleon) play a certain role in the evolution of society.

Indeed, it recognises that it is. the effects of these giant figures that constitute one of the elements of the accidental in history.

We are, however, frequently told that history would have been a very • different thing if Napoleon, say, had died at a very young age and had not gone on to become First Consul and Emperor of Marxists do not deny that this is, in a certain sense TaTe It does, however, insist that the role played by the "accidental' is very small, and that it, once again, is historically determined in the last instance'. As Plekhanov explains:

"Accident is relative. It appears only at the point of intersection of inevitable processes.

Thus what is accidental from a certain point of view and in a certain sense, is - from another standpoint and in another, deeper and more general, sense - inevitable.

This means, in the case of those "accidental' phenomena that we call "great men', that:

"every man of talent who actually appears, every man. of talent who becomes a social force, Plekhanoy the product of social relations,"

They are so because they are faemselves conditioned by forces greater than themselves, and can only alter individual aspects of events.

Thus the changes that would have occurred if Napoleon had not lived to carry out his historical role would have been only superficial and would not have fundamentally altered the course of history.

Marxism maintains that while 'great men' do play a role in history the significance of this role must not be exaggerated. This is excellently explained by Plekhanov in this pamphlet.

The republication of these two important pamphlets by Plekhanov must be welcomed by the revolutionary movement as it provides us with additional weapons to direct against the Stalinists and centrists' falsifications of the positions of Marxist philosophy and provides further materials for the study of dialectical materialism.

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