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The
theoretical struggle between Narodnichestvo and Marxism was
intense. Throughout the 1880s Narodniks fiercely defended their
ideological system trying to maintain its dominant position
within Russian social thought. However, the post-reform
capitalist development, the disintegration of the village
commune, the conservatism and apathy of the peasantry compelled
a growing number of intellectuals to give up old dogmas and turn
to the study of Marxism instead. Life increasingly seemed to
give more substance to the theoretical inquiries made by Russian
Marxists, such as Plekhanov, Lenin and others, who argued that
the future Russian revolution would be a proletarian one. The
proletariat in the alliance with the peasantry and leading it
was to carry through the socialist transformation. Marxism
seemed to show the way forward for Russia in the new
circumstances. |
The growing
popularity of Marxism cannot be attributed simply to the crisis of
the rival socialist ideology of Narodnichestvo. The spread of
Marxism in Russia must be seen in the wider context of the
modernizing processes that were beginning to affect the post-reform
Russia. The development of capitalism, the appearance of the
elements of civil society, the government-sponsored
industrialization of the 1890s seemed to indicate that Russia,
after all, took the road followed by the leading group of
industrialized nations. The Western model of development appeared to
display certain major advantages manifested in an accelerated
cultural, economic and technological progress, the establishment of
a parliamentary system, the expansion of democratic freedoms. All
this gave credibility to the arguments of the Russian advocates of
‘Westernism’.
However, the
new generation of the socialist-minded opposition saw the process of
‘Westernisation’ and ‘Europeanisation’ of Russia through the prism
of the Marxist theory - as the struggle for the ultimate victory of
the ideal of social justice. The conversion of Russian radicals to
Marxism was, to a great extent, influenced by the successes of the
West European social-democratic movement, which in those days
adhered to the theoretical tenets of Marxism. The appearance of
labor legislation, trade unions, social and political rights of
workers represented real achievements in the struggle for social
equality in the West. Russian radicals were convinced that the
European social-democratic movement was an influential force that
helped to bring about these progressive developments, making a
significant contribution to the democratization of Western European
society. These achievements were proof enough for them of the
scientific correctness of Marxism.
But the
growing preoccupation of more and more radical intellectuals with
the revolutionary theories of Karl Marx did not mean that the
tradition of Narodnichestvo died out. In the 1890s the popularity of
Narodnichestvo reached its lowest point, but at the start of the
twentieth century the movement overcame its crisis and revived.
Representing two different currents within the general tradition of
socialist thought, Marxism and Narodnichestvo continued to develop
side by side influencing each other and stimulating the common quest
for a socialist alternative to capitalist development. Russian
peasant socialism and proletarian socialism were, as one writer has
put it, ‘two skeins entangled’. And it was not just the socialist
goal that they had in common. Both Russian Marxists and Narodniks
also agreed about the special role of the intelligentsia in the
liberation movement and both sought to identify and mobilize a
social class (the peasantry or the proletariat) that could become
the main agent of revolutionary change.
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