Volume 1, Number 5 · October 31, 1963
Underground Man
By George Lichtheim
Plekhanov: The Father of Russian Marxism
by Samuel H. Baron
Stanford, 400 pp., $8.50
Students of the Russian Revolution have long been aware that there is a puzzle near the heart of this extraordinary phenomenon. The puzzle—it would perhaps be going too far to call it a mystery—has to do with the manner in which Marxism took hold among the Russian intelligentsia between 1880 and 1900, or thereabouts. Specifically, the question relates to the exact manner in which faith in Marx replaced the earlier home-grown Populist socialism of Herzen and Chernyshevsky, among the remnants of the Narodovoltsi who survived the collapse of their party in the 1880's. Narodnichestvo had seemingly triumphed with the assassination of Alexander II in 1881. Yet it dissolved almost immediately afterward under the blows of police persecution. Lenin's elder brother, executed in 1887, was among the last believers in this lost cause. A few years later the younger Ulianov joined the budding Marxist movement. What had happened in the interval?
Review, 1614 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |