Labor liberation group. Social and political movements of the 19th century Plekhanov founded a group in Geneva

Group Liberation of Labor (Group “Liberation of Labor”,)

the first Russian Marxist organization; existed from September 1883 to August 1903. Created in Geneva by G. V. Plekhanov and his like-minded people V. I. Zasulich, P. B. Axelrod, L. G. Deich, V. N. Ignatov. In 1884, due to arrest, Deitch left, in 1885 Ignatov died, in 1888 S. M. Ingerman was hired, who worked actively until moving to America in 1891. Until 1883, members of the G. “O. T." were revolutionary populists (Black Peredelites). The emergence of the Russian labor movement and the failures of the populist movement forced us to look for a new revolutionary theory. In exile, Plekhanov and his associates became acquainted with the experience of the Western European labor movement and studied the theory of scientific socialism. This led to a radical revision of their own revolutionary practice. In the announcement of the publication of the “Library of Modern Socialism” on September 13 (25), 1883, “O. T." proclaimed its main goals and objectives:

1) translation into Russian of the most important works of K. Marx and F. Engels, as well as the works of their followers to disseminate the ideas of scientific socialism;

2) criticism of populism and development of problems of Russian social life from the point of view of the theory of Marxism. Back in 1882, Plekhanov translated the “Manifesto of the Communist Party” into Russian. Subsequently, the group translated and published the works of K. Marx and F. Engels: “Wage Labor and Capital” (1883), “Development of Scientific Socialism” (1884), “Speech on Free Trade” (1885), “The Poverty of Philosophy” (1886 ), “Ludwig Feuerbach” (1892), “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte” (1894), “F. Engels about Russia" (1894). These works are from the 80s - early 90s. were studied in the first social democratic organizations of Russia and played a big role in the turn of revolutionary youth to Marxism. Plekhanov's works, which expounded the ideas of Marxism as applied to Russia, were important. In his works “Socialism and Political Struggle” (1883), “Our Differences” (1885), a detailed criticism of the theory and tactics of populism is given, the conclusion that Russia has entered the path of capitalism is substantiated, and it is proved that the leading decisive force of the coming revolution is not the peasantry, but proletariat, the task of creating a workers' socialist party in Russia is put forward. Two projects of the G. “O.” program were also of great importance for the founding of Russian Social Democracy. t.”, written by Plekhanov. The first of them (1883) contained some concessions to populism. After discussing it in circles of Social Democrats, Plekhanov wrote a second one - “Draft Program of Russian Social Democrats” (1885). Its theoretical part contained the main elements of the program of the Marxist party. Practical - consisted of requirements: 1) general democratic transformations; 2) measures in the interests of workers; 3) measures in the interests of peasants. Lenin made a detailed analysis of the second of them (see “The Draft Program of Our Party,” in the book: Complete collected works, 5th ed., vol. 4, pp. 211-39). This document G. “O. T." was the only published program of Russian social democracy before the program of the RSDLP developed by Lenin's Iskra. In 1835, Plekhanov’s new work “On the Question of the Development of a Monistic View of History” was published. It criticizes the “subjective sociology” of populism and proves the inconsistency of populist views on issues of the role of ideas, personality and the masses in history.

All members of the group participated in the spread of Marxism. In addition to the “Library of Modern Socialism” series, the group released the “Workers’ Library” series (S. Dickstein, “Who Lives on What?”, preface by Plekhanov, 1885; P. Axelrod, “The Labor Movement and Social Democracy,” 1884; “Speech by P. A. Alekseev on trial", with a preface by Plekhanov, 1889; V. Zasulich, "Varlen before the court of the correctional police", 1890, etc.). In 1888 “O. T." published the collection “Social Democrat”, and in 1890-92 - the literary and political review “Social Democrat” (4 books), which promoted the revolutionary ideas of Marxism, criticized populism and covered the activities of Russian and international social democrats.

Along with the theoretical and propaganda activities of G. “O. T." She did a lot of work abroad to unite the forces of Russian Social Democracy. In the fall of 1888, the group founded the Russian Social Democratic Union; at the end of 1894, the Union of Russian Social Democrats Abroad was created, the editors of which belonged to G. “O. T.". Despite enormous difficulties, the group had connections with social democratic organizations in Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, Kharkov, Vilnius, Riga, Minsk, Odessa, Nizhny Novgorod, etc.). In May 1895 in Switzerland, Lenin met with Plekhanov and agreed to jointly publish the collection “The Worker” in 1896 in Geneva. The St. Petersburg Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class, created by Lenin in 1895, establishes a close connection with the city of O. T."; The "Union" elected Plekhanov as its representative to the International Socialist Congress (1896, London). The connection between them weakened after the arrest of Lenin and his closest comrades and the rise of “economists” to the leadership of the Union. In November 1898, the group refused to edit the publications of the foreign “Union of Russian Social Democrats”, since opportunists began to dominate in it, and in May 1900 it finally broke with it and founded the independent publishing house “Social Democrat”. G. “Oh.” T." maintained contacts with social democratic parties and organizations in Germany, France, England, Poland, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Austria, and Hungary. The group had connections with prominent figures of the socialist movement in the West: E. Aveling, Eleanor Marx, D. Blagoev, A. Labriola, A. Bebel, V. Liebknecht, K. Zetkin, K. Kautsky and others. Its representatives participated in international workers' socialist congresses: in 1889 in Paris, in 1893 in Zurich, in 1896 in London, etc. F. Engels highly appreciated the activities of G. “O. T." “...I am proud of the fact,” he wrote in 1885 to V.I. Zasulich, “that among Russian youth there is a party that sincerely and without reservations accepted the great economic and historical theories of Marx and decisively broke with all the anarchic and somewhat Slavophile traditions of its predecessors. And Marx himself would have been just as proud of it if he had lived a little longer. This is progress that will be of great importance for the development of the revolutionary movement in Russia” (K. Marx and F. Engels, Works, 2nd building, vol. 36, p. 260). Ideologist of the Plekhanov group at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. led an active struggle against revisionism, mainly Bernsteinism . G. “Oh.” T." played a significant role in the fight against Economism. In a special collection “Vademekum”, a protest of 17 Social Democrats against the “creed” of economists, compiled by V. I. Lenin in exile, was published. The most important stage of the activities of G. “O. T." (1901-03) took place within the framework of the Foreign League of Russian Revolutionary Social Democracy (See Foreign League of Russian Revolutionary Social Democracy) , when the group merged with Lenin's Iskra. At first, this was a period of fruitful cooperation between Lenin and Plekhanov, then ideological differences emerged between them (1901-03), which finally worsened after the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP, which led to the split of Russian Social Democracy into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. Lenin noted the shortcomings of G. “O. t.”, which he mainly saw in the fact that the group was not connected with the labor movement, that its members lacked a specific analysis of the features of the development of capitalism in Russia and recognition of the ensuing special tasks of Russian Social Democracy in the struggle for the creation of a new type of party, different from the parties of the 2nd International. The group members did not understand that the era of imperialism and proletarian revolutions had arrived, did not have a clear view of the relationship between the working class and the peasantry, the working class and the liberal bourgeoisie, and did not take into account the role of the proletariat as the hegemon in the bourgeois-democratic revolution. Historical significance of G. “O. T." Lenin saw that she ideologically and theoretically founded Russian Social Democracy and took the first step towards the labor movement. The merit of G. “O. T." and above all Plekhanov, Lenin considered the struggle against the populists, the “economists,” international revisionism and anarchism, its justification of the importance of revolutionary theory in the liberation movement, the fact that it revealed Russian. revolutionaries the essence of scientific socialism. He pointed out the continuity of views of the leaders of the St. Petersburg “Union of Struggle” and members of the G. “O. T." on many fundamental issues, called her a representative of the revolutionary Marxist movement in Russia. social democracy. Lenin led the history of Marxism in Russia, starting from the formation of the G. “O. T.".

Georgy Plekhanov

This December marks the 160th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding Russian thinker and public figure Georgy Valentinovich Plekhanov. The emergence of Russian social democracy is associated with his name. Plekhanov went down in history as an outstanding political figure, a prominent theorist of Marxism, philosopher, historian, and publicist. Plekhanov was one of the founders of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. He enjoyed great authority in the RSDLP and for many years had a significant influence on the development of the party.

From populism to Marxism

He was born in 1856 into a noble family (his father was a retired staff captain) in the village of Gudalovka, Tambov province. He enters a military gymnasium in Lipetsk, then goes to St. Petersburg to study at an artillery school, then goes to the Mining Institute and is immersed in the social and spiritual life of the capital of the empire, gets acquainted with the difficult life of workers, but spends most of his time in underground activities among participants in the populist movement .

He began his socio-political activities under the influence of the ideas of revolutionary democrats such as Belinsky, Herzen, Chernyshevsky, Dobrolyubov.

In 1876, during the first political demonstration of workers and students in Russia at the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg, he made an anti-monarchist speech in defense of Nikolai Chernyshevsky, exiled to Siberia, after which he went underground.

G. V. Plekhanov took part in “going to the people” and gained fame as a theorist, publicist and one of the leaders of the populist organization “Land and Freedom”. In 1879, after the split of the organization, he spoke out against the tactics of conspiracies and terrorist methods of struggle, leading the propaganda “Black Redistribution”. However, under the influence of the ideas of European social democracy, which then took a Marxist position, he revised his populist views. As you know, Russian populists saw in the peasant community that existed in Russia the basis for the future socialist society in Russia. Theorists of populism believed that Russia could, thanks to the community and the absence of private ownership of land by peasants, move to socialism, bypassing the capitalist stage of development.

After several years of revolutionary underground and police persecution through illegal channels, he left Russia and in January 1880 found himself in the Swiss city of Geneva. In this city, Plekhanov had a conflict with a group of Ukrainian political emigrants led by M. Drahomanov, who adhered to national isolationist views. Speaking about the significance for Plekhanov of his polemical speeches against Drahomanov, Plekhanov’s colleague in the Emancipation of Labor group Lev Deitch wrote: “Approximately from this time and partly under the influence of clashes with Drahomanov, Plekhanov began a turn from Bakunism, anarchism and federalism to statehood and centralism.” . Deutsch noted that this shift occurred as a result of a deeper study of the works of Marx and Engels, as well as familiarity with the European labor movement.

In Russian social thought, he was the first to give a critical analysis of populist ideology from the perspective of Marxism (“Socialism and Political Struggle,” 1883; “Our Differences,” 1885). At the same time, the paradox of the situation was that the views of Marx himself in relation to the Russian populists were not so clear.

In a letter to Plekhanov’s comrade-in-arms Vera Zasulich, Karl Marx assessed the prospects for the Russian rural community much more optimistically than his follower Plekhanov.

In 1883, in Geneva, together with like-minded people, he founded the “Emancipation of Labor” group, which distributed the works of Marx and Engels in Russia. Over the 20 years of the existence of the “Emancipation of Labor” group, G. V. Plekhanov wrote and published hundreds of works that contributed to the widespread dissemination of socialist ideas in Russia. An entire generation of Russian Social Democrats was brought up on Plekhanov’s theoretical works. Plekhanov met and was well acquainted with Friedrich Engels, who highly appreciated his early Marxist works.

Party creation

Since the beginning of the 90s. he is one of the leaders of the 2nd International, an active participant in its congresses. At the end of 1894 - beginning of 1895, on the initiative of Plekhanov, the “Union of Russian Social Democrats Abroad” was created. In 1900-1903, he participated, along with V. Lenin, in the creation and management of the Iskra newspaper. In 1901, Plekhanov was one of the organizers of the “Foreign League of Russian Social Democracy.” He took a direct part in the preparation and work of the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP (1903), and the development of the draft party program. For several years he represented the RSDLP in the International Socialist Bureau of the 2nd International. Plekhanov was very critical of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, which acted as the ideological heir to the traditions of revolutionary populism, ironically calling it the party of reactionary socialists in the German Social Democratic press.

Georgy Plekhanov was an adherent of revolutionary rather than reformist methods of political struggle.

At the same time, he warned against ill-considered, hasty actions during the revolution of 1905, assessing the December armed uprising in Moscow as premature, saying that “there was no need to take up arms.” Plekhanov actively advocated cooperation between socialists and liberals (cadets) in the struggle for democracy in Russia. The significance of Plekhanov as a public and political figure lies primarily in the fact that he substantiated the strategy of the Russian Social Democrats in the struggle against the tsarist autocracy (the conquest of democratic freedoms, allowing the working class and all workers to fight for their social rights). Plekhanov was an ardent supporter of party unity and considered the split into Mensheviks and Bolsheviks to be its tragedy.

On the positions of defencism

When the First World War began, Plekhanov, unlike the Bolsheviks, who advocated the defeat of tsarism, and the Menshevik internationalists, believed that Russian workers, together with the entire people, must stand up to defend their fatherland from the aggression of German militarism. He opposed the anti-war international-revolutionary Manifesto of European Socialists, adopted at a conference in Zimmerwald (Switzerland) in 1915, which was signed by representatives of the Bolsheviks, Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries. Plekhanov's differences with the majority of Russian socialist parties were associated with different understandings of the causes of the First World War.

Plekhanov, unlike many of his comrades, who assessed it as imperialist and reactionary on both sides, considered the German and Austro-Hungarian monarchies to be responsible for the outbreak of the war.

At the same time, he was not completely alone among the socialists. The anarchist ideologist Prince Pyotr Kropotkin and the prominent Socialist Revolutionary, writer, and former participant in terrorist attacks Boris Savinkov acted as “defencists.” In his assessment of the First World War, as they said then, his social-patriotic position came closer to the views of the Cadets - supporters of war to a victorious end in an alliance with the Entente countries (France and Great Britain). G. V. Plekhanov greeted the February Revolution with satisfaction and after its victory, despite his serious health condition (he suffered from tuberculosis), he hurried to return to his homeland from forced emigration. Speaking at the Tauride Palace, Plekhanov explained his views as follows:

“They call me a social patriot,” he said. – What does social patriot mean? A man who has well-known socialist views and at the same time loves his country. No, comrades, you will not tear this feeling of love for long-suffering Russia out of my heart!”

Plekhanov and the October Revolution

Plekhanov led the social democratic group Unity, which joined neither the Mensheviks nor the Bolsheviks. Despite requests from many political figures, including Prince Lvov and Kerensky, he refused to join the Provisional Government. In August 1917, he spoke at the State Conference (Pre-Parliament) with a call for cooperation between socialists and bourgeois democrats in the context of the ongoing world war.

As is known, Plekhanov viewed the 1917 revolution in Russia as bourgeois. He warned against the premature seizure of power by the working class, referring to the opinion of Friedrich Engels, and called Lenin’s famous “April Theses” nonsense.

Plekhanov considered it absurd to call on workers and peasants to overthrow capitalism if it had not reached the highest level in a given country, at which it becomes an obstacle to the development of the productive forces. However, the question arises of how to determine this highest level, because Plekhanov himself believed that in the most developed countries of Europe the material prerequisites for social revolution had already matured at the beginning of the twentieth century. He perceived the October Revolution as a “violation of all historical laws,” nevertheless, he considered it impossible for himself to fight against the working class, even if he was mistaken.

On October 28, 1917, he published an “Open Letter to the Petrograd Workers” in the newspaper “Unity,” in which he wrote that “the socialist revolution in Russia is premature, and our working class is still far from being able, with benefit for itself and for the country, to take hands all the fullness of political power." However, to B. Savinkov’s offer to take part in the anti-Bolshevik struggle, he replied: “I gave forty years of my life to the proletariat, and I will not shoot it even when it is on the wrong path.” According to the memoirs of his wife Rosalia Plekhanova, being already seriously ill, he expressed critical thoughts about the Soviet government. He considered the Bolshevik policy as a departure from Marxism, accusing them of Blanquism, populism, and dictatorial methods of government.

Georgy Valentinovich Plekhanov died on May 30, 1918. He was buried at the Volkov cemetery in Petrograd. People of various political persuasions came to see him off on his final journey.

Plekhanov's legacy

Plekhanov made a major contribution to the development of Marxist philosophy. His three-volume work “History of Russian Social Thought” is a generalizing scientific work. In it, Plekhanov, in particular, showed the connection between the emergence of Russian social democracy and its historical predecessors - the revolutionary democrats. Studying his political and theoretical heritage allows us to better understand the complex political and socio-economic processes taking place in our time.

Georgy Plekhanov, relying on the fundamental principles of Marxist theory, saw the future of European countries in the transition to a socialist social system as its material and cultural prerequisites matured.

He remained a consistent supporter of the formational approach to socialism and, in this regard, sharply criticized the revisionist views of the German social democrat Eduard Bernstein, who revised many of the provisions of Marxism, advocated the gradual reform of capitalism and put forward the thesis “the ultimate goal is nothing - the movement is everything.”

Georgy Plekhanov considered himself an orthodox follower of Marxist theory; his works were recognized in the USSR and were published many times. Plekhanov, despite fundamental differences and harsh criticism of Bolshevism, was highly valued by Lenin. Plekhanov's name was mentioned in Stalin's historical report at the ceremonial meeting of the Moscow Council of Workers' Deputies, dedicated to the 24th anniversary of the October Revolution in Moscow on November 6, 1941, among the most outstanding figures of the Russian nation.

Dec 16, 2016 Boris Romanov

In 1883, Plekhanov and his like-minded people (V.I. Zasulich, L.G. Deich and others) founded the “Emancipation of Labor” group. Its main business is the propaganda of Marxism. The group organized the publication of Marx’s works in Russian, creating the “Library of Modern Socialism.”

In his work “Our Differences” (1885), Plekhanov gave an analysis of what divided the Narodnaya Volya members from the former Black Peredelites, p.

came to Marxism. The essence of the disagreement was in understanding the nature and driving forces of the Russian revolution. Plekhanov showed the illusory nature of hopes for seizing power through a conspiracy. The Narodnaya Volya were a “headquarters without an army” and even if they seized power, they would not have been able to retain it. Challenging Blanquist ideas, Plekhanov, following K. Marx, excluded the possibility of non-revolutionary development of Russia. Only the main role in the socialist revolution was no longer assigned to the “revolutionary minority”, but to the proletariat.

Conclusion

As a result of the reforms of the 60-70s. XIX century, to which it responded under the threat of a political catastrophe, Russia began a large-scale transition to an industrial society in general of the same type that existed in the advanced countries of the West and was based on a market economy and parliamentary democracy. However, the burden of reforms turned out to be too heavy for the authorities and society. Interruption of the process of social transformations in the 80-90s. and even attempts to turn back history retained in Russia a huge burden of feudal-serfdom remnants, which not only alienated the country from states that successfully continued modernization, but also sharply narrowed the possibility of its peaceful evolution to a full-fledged industrial society.

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The world historical process objectively spurred the economic and socio-political modernization of Russia. Thus, she was placed within a strict time frame.

Russia failed to effectively use the time allotted to it to implement the necessary reforms. The liberal movement, which was a supporter of the reformist path of development, was unable to implement it. Russia emerged from the revolution divided into a traditionalist-monarchist, liberal and strengthened revolutionary-socialist camp. Stolypin's reforms were thwarted by fluctuations in the supreme power and a polarized society.

As a result, in 1914 Russia was drawn into a world war for which it was not prepared. In the wake of the economic and socio-political crisis caused by the war, the autocracy fell in February 1917. Liberals and socialists were in power, and the further development of the country was already unpredictable.

List of used literature

1. Alexandrova T.M. Russian history; XIX century. – M., 2006

2. Antonov V.F. Revolutionary populism. – M., 1995

3. History of Russia from ancient times to the end of the 20th century. – M., 2001

4. Pavlenko D.I. Russian history. – M., 2004

5. Pantin I.K., Plimak E.G. Revolutionary tradition in Russia. – M., 1986

6. Shatsiklo K.F. Russian liberalism on the eve of the revolution of 1905 - 1907. – M., 1985

Plekhanov Georgy Valentinovich (1856-1918), politician, philosopher, Marxist theorist. Since 1875, a populist, one of the leaders of “Land and Freedom” and “Black Redistribution”. In exile since 1880, founder of the Marxist group “Emancipation of Labor”. One of the founders of the RSDLP, gas. "Spark". After the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP, one of the leaders of the Mensheviks. During the revolution of 1905-07 he opposed the armed struggle against tsarism. During World War I, he was a defencist, one of the leaders of the Unity group. In 1917 he returned to Russia and supported the Provisional Government. He reacted negatively to the October Revolution (he believed that, in terms of the degree of socio-economic development, Russia was not ready for a socialist revolution). Fundamental works on philosophy, sociology, aesthetics, ethics, history of Russian social thought.

Georgy Valentinovich Plekhanov was one of the founders of the Social Democratic movement in Russia and the RSDLP.

Georgy Plekhanov was born on November 29 (December 11), 1856, into a small-estate family of a hereditary nobleman, retired staff captain Valentin Petrovich Plekhanov and Maria Fedorovna, the great-niece of the famous critic Belinsky. This happened in the village of Gudalovka, Lipetsk district, Voronezh province. Valentin Petrovich was married to Maria Fedorovna for the second marriage, and therefore Georgy had many brothers and sisters. From his first marriage, Valentin Petrovich had five sons and three daughters, from his second - four sons and three daughters. Georgy was the first-born of Maria Feodorovna. The brothers died very early, and Georgy Plekhanov’s relationship with his sisters was difficult. And he was friendly only with his younger sister Claudia.

Like many old-timers of the Voronezh province, Tatar blood flowed in Georgy Plekhanov’s veins.

The development of Georgy Plekhanov's character was greatly influenced by his mother, Maria Fedorovna, an educated, well-mannered and kind woman. She did a lot of homework with her beloved firstborn in Russian and French, and music.

Georgy Plekhanov studied rather mediocrely at the Voronezh military gymnasium, where he was already noticed reading illegal literature.

In August 1873, Plekhanov entered the Konstantinovsky Artillery School. But he realized in time that military service was not for him. Plekhanov decisively and irrevocably left the school after 4 months of study and returned to his mother in Gudalovka.

The next year he entered the St. Petersburg Mining Institute, where, in addition to his studies, he studied philosophy and was interested in political literature.

From the end of 1875 he began to take part in the underground populist movement. It was at this time that he met his future long-term associates - Pavel Axelrod and Lev Deitch.

Since 1876, Georgy Plekhanov, on behalf of the populists, taught classes in workers' circles, for which he was first arrested. He became so seriously interested in populism that he pushed his studies at the institute into the background. In 1876, Plekhanov, together with a group of like-minded people, took part in the re-establishment of the illegal organization “Land and Freedom” in St. Petersburg. Georgy Plekhanov and his associates set as their goals settlement among the people, educational propaganda among peasants, workers and intelligentsia, a peasant revolution, and nationalization of the land. The created organization published the underground newspaper “Land and Freedom”.

In December 1876, Plekhanov gave a speech at a rally in St. Petersburg to workers and students in memory of Chernyshevsky. The police tried to arrest him. But Plekhanov was surrounded by workers, and he disappeared. From that time on, he had to go illegal, and at the beginning of 1877 he went abroad. He had already been expelled from the Mining Institute in his second year for not attending lectures.

In the summer of 1877, Plekhanov returned to Russia illegally and became a professional revolutionary.

In October 1876, the noble and ardent Plekhanov unsuccessfully married Natalya Smirnova. She was a friend of one of the revolutionaries, who was under arrest at that time. After her former lover was released from prison, Smirnova left Plekhanov. However, she bore the surname Plekhanov until the end of her life and agreed to divorce him only thirty years after the wedding.

After a short time, Georgy Plekhanov met “his” woman - Rosalia Markovna Bograd, with whom he lived his entire life confidently and happily in family life.

In the period from 1877 to 1879. many of Plekhanov’s comrades in “Land and Freedom” switched to positions of terrorism. Georgy Plekhanov at this time was engaged in self-education a lot in search of answers to the questions that concerned him. He did not share the new extremist, or rather the old populist, views of his comrades. He became increasingly attracted to the more fashionable Marxism.

In 1879, ideological differences led to the split of “Land and Freedom” into two organizations: “People’s Will” and “Black Redistribution”. Georgy Plekhanov, together with Vera Zasulich, Axelrod and other populists, became part of the “Black Redistribution”. This organization opposed terror as a method of political struggle. Plekhanov and his comrades advocated the gradual enlightenment of the workers.

In Russia, after another attempt on the life of Tsar Alexander III, police activity increased. Mass arrests were made. In 1880, by decision of his comrades, in order to avoid arrest, Plekhanov went abroad to Switzerland, to Geneva. Here he published the second issue of the magazine “Black Redistribution”.

Plekhanov gradually moved from populism and Bakunism to the position of Marxism. However, he carefully applied every point of Marx’s works to Russia and passed it through himself. He had his own views on many issues. By this time, Plekhanov had already discovered his extraordinary talents as a scientist-philosopher, thinker and politician. He approached any idea, any conclusion creatively and sensibly.

In 1882, Plekhanov translated and published the Manifesto of the Communist Party into Russian. In 1883, Plekhanov, instead of the “Black Redistribution”, founded the “Emancipation of Labor” group, which included, besides him, Vera Zasulich, Axelrod, Deitch, Ignatov. The group was mainly engaged in educational work: translating and publishing the works of Marx and Engels for Russia. Plekhanov regularly published his own works, which made him a leading social democrat in Russia.

In 1883, he published the brochure “Socialism and Political Struggle”, where he examined perhaps the most controversial issue of Marxism - the problem of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Plekhanov, however, talked in his work about the dictatorship of the enlightened working class, about the democratic dictatorship, and not about the dictatorship of revolutionaries proposed and implemented by Lenin. Plekhanov specifically emphasized in his work that the dictatorship of the proletariat has nothing in common with the dictatorship of revolutionaries.

In his subsequent works, Georgy Plekhanov examined the prospects for the development of Russia. He warned Narodnaya Volya and other ultra-revolutionaries against violent violent actions (coups, uprisings, revolutions, riots) to speed up the revolutionary process. Essentially, Georgy Plekhanov advocated the evolutionary development of Russia, accelerated by educational work.

The first meeting of Georgy Plekhanov with the young Vladimir Ulyanov-Lenin took place in Geneva in 1895, where Lenin came from Russia especially for this meeting. In the very first long conversations, some fundamental ideological differences emerged between Plekhanov and Lenin. Young Ulyanov-Lenin believed that the leading revolutionary force of society is the working class and only it. Plekhanov believed that society in Russia could only be improved by its most educated part, its elite - the liberal bourgeoisie and intelligentsia. The time of the working class, due to its lack of enlightenment and low culture, has not yet come and will not come for a long time.

Plekhanov has not yet attached much importance to Lenin’s overflowing conviction that he was right. The young Marxist was only 25 years old at this time. But he has already confidently brought to the forefront Karl Marx's vague assertion about the progressiveness of the working class over all other sections of the population. This ultimately led Lenin to put forward his own idea - the idea of ​​the dictatorship of the proletariat through the dictatorship of the party.

In 1900, five years later, Plekhanov again met in Geneva with Lenin, who arrived after serving exile to discuss the publication of a joint Social Democratic newspaper and magazine. After rather difficult negotiations, it turned out that there were several people in the Social Democratic movement who aspired to the role of leader. And among them were Lenin and Plekhanov. With difficulty, Plekhanov, Lenin, Axelrod, Martov, Zasulich and Potresov agreed to publish a joint newspaper.

The first issue of the new newspaper Iskra was published in January 1891. It was published in Munich, where Lenin and Krupskaya settled, taking editorial and publishing activities largely into their own hands.

Georgy Plekhanov's ideological differences with Lenin intensified. The well-mannered and intelligent Plekhanov was irritated by the overflowing self-confidence of the young Lenin. Plekhanov was repulsed by Lenin’s irrepressible uncompromisingness and intemperance in disputes, his crude unceremoniousness in assessing people, his unshakable confidence in his own rightness.

Plekhanov, Axelrod, Zasulich, as co-editors, opposed the harsh and derogatory tone of Lenin's articles. The future leader of the Bolsheviks fiercely opposed all his ideological opponents: liberals and liberalism in general, the Socialist Revolutionaries, right-wing Social Democrats, other ideological trends and their representatives. Lenin did not accept the comradely criticism of his comrades. He refused to change the offensive tone of his articles towards ideological opponents. From the very beginning of his political activity, the future leader of the Bolsheviks set himself only one goal: the armed seizure of power in Russia and the construction of only the kind of society that he himself imagined. Fanatically believing in himself, he did not need anyone's advice or teachings.

“You will go so far, young man,” that’s all Plekhanov, wise from experience, once said to Lenin with a bitter smile in response to yet another unceremonious Leninist pressure on him.

At the Second Congress of the RSDLP in 1903, a struggle broke out on several points of the party charter and program between Julius Martov and his supporters and Lenin. Plekhanov was elected chairman of the congress, Lenin and P.A. Krasikov as deputy chairmen. The main rejection of the future Mensheviks, and Plekhanov too, was caused by the point of the party program proposed by Lenin on the dictatorship of the proletariat. Martov, Axelrod, Zasulich opposed this provision. They considered it fundamentally wrong. Martov and his supporters also advocated a more liberal admission of new members to the party than Lenin proposed. The latter sought to turn the party into a kind of closed “order of the swordsmen.” Lenin sought to create a militant, united and disciplined revolutionary party. It was precisely this kind of Bolshevik party that Lenin created in the end. Plekhanov, as the patriarch of the Social Democratic movement, as the chairman of the congress, adhered to the centrist line in order to avoid a split. However, it was not possible to do this. Lenin's supporters, who received the majority of seats in the governing bodies, began to be called Bolsheviks from that time on. And Martov’s supporters are Mensheviks.

Plekhanov basically supported Lenin at the Second Congress. He was elected chairman of the party council, its governing body, which included five people.

After the congress, Plekhanov, having discovered Lenin’s extreme intolerance towards the Mensheviks and his dictatorial habits, demanded the return of former members of the editorial board to Iskra. In response, the unbending Lenin resigned from the editorial board.

Already by 1905, the complete ideological incompatibility of Plekhanov with Lenin was determined. Therefore, it is not surprising that Plekhanov assessed the revolution of 1905-07. as a tragic adventure of Lenin and the Bolsheviks. That’s exactly how it was. The revolution ended with the defeat of the rebels, executions, prisons, hard labor, exile, and the curtailment of liberal reforms in the country. Cruelty and robbery only gave rise to retaliatory cruelty and repression. Unfortunately, this revolution, these riots did not teach Emperor Nicholas II anything. And he led Russia with his uncertain and weak hand straight towards civil war.

During the First World War, Georgy Plekhanov took a patriotic position. He called for the defense of the fatherland, for victory over Germany and its allies. Lenin and the Bolsheviks called for Russia's defeat in the war, for which the public dubbed them German spies and traitors.

The February Revolution took place, and Georgy Plekhanov returned on March 31, 1917 after a long emigration to Russia. The homeland greeted the patriarch of the Russian Social Democratic movement rather coolly. Plekhanov by this time was almost alone. He did not create and did not create a party for himself. He had no one to organize a crowded and enthusiastic meeting. Georgy Plekhanov called Lenin’s “April Theses” nonsense. He published an article “On Lenin’s Theses and Why Nonsense is Sometimes Interesting.” In this article, Georgy Plekhanov sharply opposed the plans for an armed seizure of power by the Bolsheviks.

Plekhanov continued throughout the turbulent year of 1917 to take a tough patriotic position of “war until victory.” Many of his long-term comrades in the Social Democratic movement, such as the Menshevik Yuli Martov, did not share his firm and clear position. They advocated an illusory, unrealistic solution to the problem of war and peace. The Menshevik internationalists, including Martov, proposed that socialists of all countries unite and seek an end to the war by all countries at the same time. The idea was perhaps good, but it was not implemented in practice.

In June - July 1917, the threat of a seizure of power by the Bolsheviks and Left Socialist Revolutionaries quickly grew in Petrograd. The Bolsheviks, under the leadership of Lenin, purposefully and professionally prepared for an armed coup.

Plekhanov, as a patriot, a great thinker and philosopher, the oldest social democrat, was often visited by socialists, representatives of right-wing parties, military men and simply patriots. He was visited by the Chairman of the State Duma Rodzianko, Admiral Kolchak and even the Black Hundred member Purishkevich, who killed Grigory Rasputin. All of them were testing the waters about the possibility of appointing the moderate and pragmatic Georgy Plekhanov as chairman of the Provisional Government. And the energetic and decisive former Socialist-Revolutionary militant, and now Minister of War, Boris Savinkov, directly made this proposal to Plekhanov in October. But Plekhanov refused, declaring: “I have given forty years to the proletariat and will not shoot it even when it follows the wrong path.”

After the October Revolution, Georgy Plekhanov, together with Zasulich and Deitch, addressed an “Open Letter to the Petrograd Workers.” They prophetically predicted civil war, devastation, and innumerable troubles that soon fell on the country and its citizens.

The very next day after the publication of this letter, armed sailors came to the apartment where Plekhanov and his wife Rosalia Markovna were staying. They searched and threatened to shoot. The purpose of this brazen, intimidating action of the Bolsheviks, sanctioned by Lenin, was obvious: to intimidate and suppress the oldest Social Democrat in Russia. Force him to leave his homeland again. Vladimir Lenin taught an object lesson to one of his most capable students, Joseph Stalin, how to mercilessly deal with his ideological opponents.

Plekhanov was forced to go underground, then he left for Finland. Finding himself again in a foreign land, Georgy Plekhanov fell seriously ill. He was shocked by what happened. Soon he was gone.

Georgy Plekhanov prophetically foresaw the outcome of the historical adventure of Ulyanov-Lenin. The liberals, whom Lenin so mocked in his works, all over the world managed to build democratic societies with developed systems of social protection for their citizens. The Social Democrats, whom Lenin hated and persecuted, managed to create state systems that were close in implementation to the best plans of the classics of socialism. Lenin, with the help of his pseudoscientific ideas and “teachings” about the dictatorship of the proletariat and the development of the bourgeois revolution into the proletarian revolution, forcibly turned down

G.V. Plekhanov

Georgy Valentinovich Plekhanov is a philosopher, a famous figure in the Russian and international socialist movement, theorist and propagandist of the theory of Marxism.

Biography

G.V. Plekhanov was born into the family of a retired military man in December 1856 in the village of Gudalovka, Lipetsk district, Tambov province (now Lipetsk region). He was a capable young man: he graduated from the military gymnasium in Voronezh with a gold medal. Then he also successfully graduated from the cadet school in St. Petersburg and entered the St. Petersburg Mining Institute, where he received the Catherine Scholarship for special academic success, but was expelled from the institute for non-payment of tuition.

Activity

In 1876 he joined the Land and Freedom organization. " Land and Freedom" is a secret revolutionary society that existed in Russia from 1861 to 1864, and from 1876 to 1879 it was restored as a populist organization. The inspirers of the first society were Herzen and Chernyshevsky. Their goal was to prepare a peasant revolution. The second composition of “Land and Freedom” included A. D. Mikhailov, G. V. Plekhanov, later S. M. Kravchinsky, N. A. Morozov, S. L. Perovskaya and others. In total, the organization consisted of about 200 people.

Logo of the organization "Land and Freedom"

The organization’s propaganda was based not on the old socialist principles, incomprehensible to the people, but on slogans emanating directly from the peasantry, that is, the demands of “land and freedom.” In their program they proclaimed “anarchy and collectivism” as the goal of their activities. The specific requirements were as follows:

• transfer of all land to peasants;
• introduction of full community self-government;
• introduction of religious freedom;
• granting nations the right to self-determination.

Their activities involved: propaganda, agitation among peasants and other classes and groups, individual terror against the most objectionable government officials and secret police agents. The organization had its own charter. G.V. Plekhanov was a theorist, publicist and one of the leaders of the organization.

In 1879 the organization disbanded. A new organization “People's Will” was formed with terrorist methods of action and “Black Redistribution”. Populist tendencies have been preserved in this organization. The organizer and leader of the “Black Redistribution” was G.V. Plekhanov. "Black redistribution"- This is a secret society, which included no more than 100 people. In addition to Plekhanov, it also included V. Zasulich, Axelrod, Stefanovich. The organization published a magazine of the same name. Their ideology was directed towards the peasant question: in the Russian community they saw the starting point of socialist development; they believed that, thanks to the community, the “expropriation of large landowners” would lead Russia “to the replacement of individual ownership with collective ownership, that is, it will determine the triumph of the highest principle of property relations. This is precisely the meaning of the expectations of a black redistribution living among the Russian people.”. The Black Peredel residents treated terror with strong condemnation.

G.V. Plekhanov

In 1879, Plekhanov emigrated to Switzerland, where he began translating the book of K. Marx and F. Engels “Manifesto of the Communist Party” into Russian. In 1883 he created the first Russian Marxist organization in Geneva "Liberation of Labor". Plekhanov believed that Russia had already taken the path of capitalist development, so the theory of Marxism was quite suitable for it. He wrote a number of books expounding Marxist ideas in relation to Russia: “Socialism and Political Struggle” (1883), “Our Differences” (1885), where he gives a detailed criticism of the theory and tactics of populism, substantiates the conclusion that Russia has entered the path of capitalism, proves that the leading decisive force of the coming revolution is not the peasantry, but proletariat, puts forward the task of creating a workers' socialist party in Russia. Of great importance for the founding of Russian Social Democracy were two draft programs of the “Emancipation of Labor” group written by Plekhanov: the first of them (1883) contained some concessions to populism, and the second (1885) contained the main elements of the program of the Marxist party:

• general democratic transformations;
• measures in the interests of workers;
• measures in the interests of peasants.

Later he created the “Union of Russian Social Democrats Abroad”.

Creation of the newspaper "Iskra"

Editorial office of the newspaper "Iskra"

“Iskra is a revolutionary illegal newspaper founded by Lenin in 1900. Plekhanov collaborated with it until 1903.

The goal of the newspaper was to unite the fragmented revolutionary movement in Russia on the basis of Marxism. The editorial office of Iskra was located in Munich. Members of the editorial board, besides Plekhanov, were Lenin, Martov, Axelrod, Zasulich, Parvus and Potresov. After some time, Lenin left his membership in the editorial board. Until 1902, the newspaper was published monthly, and since 1902 - every two weeks. Circulation is about 8 thousand. In 1902, the German government banned the publication of the newspaper on its territory, so the editorial office moved to London, and then to Geneva for the same reason.

Participation inII Congress of the RSDLP

The Second Congress of the RSDLP took place in 1903 in Brussels, then, due to persecution by the Belgian police, it was moved to London. 57 delegates attended. The congress opened with an opening speech by Plekhanov. At the congress there was a split between the Iskra-ists, the Economists and the Bundists. A split also arose among the Iskra-ists. Since there were 6 editorial members, sometimes there was a deadlock with voting, when the voting result was 3:3. They decided to introduce a seventh member of the editorial board - Trotsky. But Plekhanov was categorically against it. Then Lenin decides to expel those members of the editorial board who wrote fewer articles (Zasulich, Potresov, Axelrod).

But differences emerged between Lenin and Plekhanov. As a result, Plekhanov became the leader of the Menshevik faction of the RSDLP. Later this faction became the independent Russian Social Democratic Party (Mensheviks).

Plekhanov's activities between revolutions

In 1905-1907 Plekhanov was in exile, so he actually did not take any part in the revolutionary events in Russia. But in one of the articles in the Iskra newspaper, he called for an armed uprising in Russia, for careful preparation of this uprising, and paid special attention to the need for agitation in the army.

G.V. Plekhanov

With the outbreak of the First World War, disagreements between G. V. Plekhanov and the Bolshevik leader Lenin over the attitude to the war became so acute that Plekhanov formed his own Social Democratic group, which included mainly Menshevik defencists. The group was able to take organizational form after the victory of the February Revolution. Branches of the group worked in Moscow, Petrograd, Baku and other cities. From the beginning of 1917 until January 1918, the group published the newspaper “Unity” in Petrograd.

Political views boiled down to denying the possibility of building socialism in such a capitalistically undeveloped country as Russia; supported the war “to the bitter end”; demanded the establishment of firm state power.

The group met the October coup with hostility. He believed that " Russian history has not yet ground the flour from which the wheat pie of socialism will eventually be baked.” He published in Unity an “Open Letter to the Petrograd Workers,” in which he pointed out that the socialist revolution in Russia was premature, because The proletariat is a minority in the country and is not ready for such a mission: “our working class is still far from being able, with benefit for itself and for the country, to take into its own hands the fullness of political power. To impose such power on him means to push him onto the path of the greatest historical misfortune, which would at the same time be the greatest misfortune for all of Russia.” Plekhanov warned that the peasantry, having received land, would not develop towards socialism, and the hope for a quick revolution in Germany was unrealistic. B.V. Savinkov invited him to head the anti-Bolshevik government, but he replied: “I gave forty years of my life to the proletariat, and I will not shoot them even when they are on the wrong path.” The group broke up by the summer of 1918.

After 37 years of exile, Plekhanov finally returned to Russia in 1917 as a result of the February Revolution. But since he was on the side of the allied countries, against Germany, and called for a fight against German imperialism, he did not join the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet, and was not allowed there by figures with an anti-war position. During this period of time, he was only engaged in editing his newspaper “Unity”, where he published articles with responses to the most important political events, and argued with opponents and ideological opponents. Plekhanov supported the Provisional Government, was against V.I. Lenin’s “April Theses”, calling them "delusional" » . He believed that the seizure of power “one class or - even worse - one party” can have dire consequences. He sharply condemned the Bolsheviks' desire to take political power into their own hands. He believed that Russia was not yet ripe for a social revolution and for the transition to socialism. I was afraid that if V.I. Lenin will take the place of A.F. Kerensky, “this will be the beginning of the end of our revolution. The triumph of Lenin’s tactics will bring with it such disastrous, such terrible economic devastation that a very significant majority of the country’s population will turn their backs on the revolutionaries.”

G. V. Plekhanov died as a result of illness on May 30, 1918 in Yalkala (Finland) and was buried on the “Literary Bridge” of the Volkovsky cemetery in St. Petersburg.

Monument at the grave of G.V. Plekhanov in St. Petersburg at the Volkov cemetery. Sculpture by I.Ya. Ginsburg

The most famous works of G.V. Plekhanov:

• "Socialism and political struggle"
• “On the question of the development of a monistic view of history”
• "On the materialistic understanding of history"
• “On the question of the role of personality in history”
• "Basic questions of Marxism"
• "Our differences"
• "Skepticism in Philosophy"
• "Anarchism and Socialism"
• “Basic questions of Marxism” and others.

In his work “On the Question of the Role of Personality in History” he wrote: “Social relations have their own logic: as long as people are in these mutual relationships, they will certainly feel, think and act this way and not otherwise. A public figure would also fight in vain against this logic: the natural course of things (i.e., the same logic of social relations) would turn all his efforts into nothing. But if I know in which direction social relations are changing, thanks to these changes in the socio-economic process of production, then I also know in which direction the social psyche will change; therefore, I have the opportunity to influence it. To influence the social psyche means to influence historical events. Therefore, in a certain sense, I can still make history, and I do not need to wait until it is “done.”

Books by G.V. Plekhanov

And further: “And not only for “beginners”, not only for “great” people, a wide field of action is open. It is open to all who have eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to love their neighbors. The concept of great is a relative concept. In the moral sense, everyone is great who, according to the Gospel expression, “lays down his life for his friends.”

This is exactly how Plekhanov lived.