Essays in Historical Materialism

by Georgi Plekhanov

1940 International Publishers edition containing two of Plekhanov's essays, The Materialist Conception of History (1897) and The Role of the Individual in History (1898).

Genres: Philosophy, History, Nonfiction, Politics

110 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1897

About the author

Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov (Russian: Георгий Валентинович Плеханов) was a Russian revolutionary and a Marxist theoretician. He was a founder of the Social-Democratic movement in Russia and was one of the first Russians to identify himself as "Marxist." Facing political persecution, Plekhanov emigrated to Switzerland in 1880, where he continued in his political activity attempting to overthrow the Tsarist regime in Russia. During World War I Plekhanov rallied to the cause of the Entente powers against Germany and he returned home to Russia following the 1917 February Revolution. Plekhanov was hostile to the Bolshevik party headed by Vladimir Lenin, however, and was an opponent of the Soviet regime which came to power in the autumn of 1917. He died the following year. Despite his vigorous and outspoken opposition to Lenin's political party in 1917, Plekhanov was held in high esteem by the Russian Communist Party following his death as a founding father of Russian Marxism and a philosophical thinker.

Reviews

[sube · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book containts two articles, 1st "The Material Conception of History" & 2nd "The Role of the Individual in History."

I have very two different opinions about each essay; the first one is a very economistic account of history, as it assumes the dominance of the productive forces over relations of production ("men do not make several distinct histories—the history of law, the history of morals, the history of philosophy, etc.—but only one history, the history of their own social relations, which are determined by the state of the productive forces in each particular period", p. 41).

I think this is wrong, as I take the position of Althusser of the supremacy of relations of production over productive forces (where as Plekhanov, meanwhile, argues the opposite, i.e. the determination of relations of production by productive forces).

However, the critique of the "theory of factors", i.e. historical materialism is the dominance of the economic factor is brilliant and good. As he summarises it quite well (though this quote in particular is from his 2nd essay, it summarises his argument in the 1st essay): "Indeed, the “factors” theory is unsound in itself, for it arbitrarily picks out different sides of social life, hypostasises them, converts them into forces of a special kind, which, from different sides, and with unequal success, draw the social man along the path of progress" (p. 45).

Now, coming to the 2nd essay, it is far better. While I have my disagreements to his theory of the free will, it is non-essential to his argument, that "individual pecularities", i.e. the change enacted by individuals, "could occur only in the given social conditions" (p. 69). This is a brilliant summary of the role of individuals, which are considerable, but only possible to the extent permitted by the social conditions at hand.

In conclusion I found most of the 1st essay not particularly useful, the second essay is far better.

[Kenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't start reading this book with high hopes. My previous encounters with Plekhanov have generally shown him to be a dogmatic and heavy-handed philosopher. He utterly misunderstood Bergson, and if, as Lenin once said, intelligent idealism is closer to intelligent materialism than is crude materialism, given that the 18th century philosophes were most certainly crude materialists in Lenin's sense, what hope could there be of Plekhanov reading them any more charitably than he did Bergson?

I am very happy to have had my apprehensions dispelled. This book, really an anthology of essays Plekhanov wrote on Holbach, Helvetius and Marx, does a great deal of justice to pre-revolutionary French materialism. Unlike Plekhanov's reading of Bergson, his criticisms of the philosophes are always even-handed and balanced by recognitions of the incredible diversity and nuance among them.

I do have some doubts concerning a couple of his ultimate conclusions. For instance, is it really the case that the philosophes' understanding of history was restricted to the realm of the individual when Diderot, in D'Alembert's Dream, attempted to entirely refute the existence of individuals? Still, 18th century French materialism remains little appreciated among Marxists, despite being a crucial stage in the development of Marx's own ideas. It is accordingly a shame that these essays by Plekhanov are so little known, because they harbor in them the possibility of rectifying this.

[Benjamin Curry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great stuff, worth the read, but Plekhanovs not the easiest writer.

[Mauricio · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book collects two essays by Plekhanov, who, outside of historical mentions as the person who introduced Marxism to Russia, is not a widely read or studied figure in modern Marxism: The Materialist Conception of History and On the Role of the Individual in History.

The former is simply an introduction to the Marxist application of dialectical materialism to the study of history, aka “historical materialism”. Taken on its own and not in comparison with any other, more well-known texts on the topic, this essay is clear and concise and offers up the argument for the materialist analysis of history as a defense of it against metaphysical and idealist conceptions. In effect, this not only elucidates on what historical materialism is, but also explains what the alternative analyses are and how they are defective in comparison to historical materialism. As such, I believe it is a handy introduction to the topic, though the question of whether or not it is the best or even strictly necessary is up to someone else to decide.

The latter of the two essays I think is more interesting and notable, since the role of the individual is something not often talked about in Marxism in great depth. An accusation can be levied against historical materialism of being “deterministic” or “fatalistic” due to its emphasis on material conditions and class struggle as drivers of history rather than the whims of individuals, but this essay does a lot in dispelling that notion by showing that the characteristics of individuals help shape the motion of history, but are ultimately molded and limited by the greater social and economic relations these individuals are working within. Plekhanov goes into a lot more detail and talks about other things it wouldn’t make much sense for me to get into here.

In short, this is a highly recommended book, and it’s shorter than 100 pages, so there is almost no excuse not to check it out.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Freedom is the recognition of necessity.