The Materialist Conception of History

by Georgi Plekhanov

Socialist essay.

Genres: Philosophy, History, Politics, Russia, Nonfiction

48 pages, Paperback

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

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very short and simple.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful examination of Marxist materialism, delivered through a critical (but not profoundly negative) interaction with the ideas of Antonio Labriola. Essential reading for anyone developing an interest in Marxism, and a tool of invaluable direction for Marxists who find themselves in the trap of "economic materialism" and who overemphasize the importance of the economic base to the point of neglecting the tremendous importance of the superstructure in the analysis of social relations, as has become so common.

[Keith · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hunted this down as part of my reading in the extremes of governance because Plekhanov is mentioned or quoted by everyone from Averich in The Russian Anarchists to Solzhenitsyn in GULAG I, because I wasn't familiar with him at all, because I wanted to know what "historical materialism" looked like before Lenin got his grubby mitts on it, and because Pomper suggests, in Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin if I recall correctly, that this particular essay was somehow clever enough to have snuck past the Russian censors and gotten published where people could read it without going into exile. So now I'm familiar with Plekhanov, but I still couldn't really tell you what historical materialism is, as differentiated from any other Marxian approach.

Now I'm reading in translation, of course, so I can't really draw too many accurate conclusions about the original, but my guess is that this got past the censors because it never mentions Marx or socialism, and is everywhere and always written in the most oblique and obscure manner: always alluding, rarely naming. The sole exception to that—perhaps as a cover story—is the extended critique of Labriola, and presumably his Essays on the Materialistic Conception of History in particular. Plekhanov, in what I take to be his characteristic style, goes on at length about how the Italian continually, but not utterly, fails to grasp historical materialism properly, and offers some correctives, which I found difficult to follow without the context of the original. Perhaps I could have had a job in the Czar's censorship office; I certainly would fail to get a position in the Supreme Soviet.

I still found it all quite interesting, and though I still reject Marx and his heirs (and, for the most part, their forerunners in Hegelian dialectics, old or young) as the failures the imperative of history has demonstrated them to be, there remain those stooped-clock moments of insight worth retaining, such as Plekhanov's contentions that "All positive law is a defence of some definite interest" and that the general characteristics of race or "human nature" (if there is such a thing beyond mere chemistry) can offer no explanation of history.

[Alyosha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing short read (I finished it in a month :) ) I've been a materialist for so long and only after reading this that my beliefs are finally untangled. Plekhanov mostly took inspiration from Labriola to explain historical materialism in this pamphlet, with a few of Labriola's faulty arguments straightened by himself.

The basics of how materialism is applied to the analysis of history starts by identifying the most fundamental component of society, i.e. a person, which is an entity with needs and who lives to satisfy their needs. Then from there we can start analyzing how we interact with nature, and with each other, which from there eventually creates a new artificial environment (human society). This human society transforms by undergoing internal conflicts (e.g. between the development of productive forces and the economic system, which also involves psychology). The pamphlet also touches on race (Plekhanov believes race has very little to do with the development of society), psychology of society in relation to its economic relation, morality, and the nature of law.

The pamphlet is perfectly concise, coherent, and informative without abandoning rigorousness.

[Jack]

Sassy Plekhanov

[Ali Ziraoui · Rating 4 out of 5]

ممتاز ، في وقته طبعا : بأسلوب علمي زمانه و سجالي أحيانا يبسط بليخانوف المفهوم الماركسي للتاريخ مموقعا إياه بين المفاهيم السابقة على غرار المثالية محاولا إبراز سمته الثورية المتمثلة في المادية ، غير ان النهر الماركسي جرت فيه مياه كثيرة بأعمال لوكاش و التوسير و ترونتي تم تقويض الحتمية الماركسية التي تعتبر نقطة من نقاط ضعف طرحه

[Matt Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of the most significant Marxist works.If you want to understand the history of historical materialism and socialism,then you must read this work-It is required reading.

[Juan Pablo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a concise but thorough read. It seems as if it was written as a brief polemic against competing trends, at least one of which the materialist conception of history was confused with or intentionally conflated with so as to make a straw man to attack in support of competing philosophical idealist ideologies. The other against theoretical mistakes of a contemporary socialist, Antonio Labriola.

Plekhanov lays out just what history is comprised of, what makes it come about, careful to explain what it is not & what distinguishes the difference.

Each chapter is anywhere from 3-5 pages & the writing is accessible without diluting the ideas. It’s a shame that Plekhanov later strayed from Marxism in support of the imperialist World War 1 & helped with acts against the Bolsheviks.

I’ve read that “Development of the Monist View of History” is where he really lays out the materialist conception of history. This text can serve as a primer. Overall a good book if you’re pressed for time as it’s only 40 pages.

[Abel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Een heldere uiteenzetting van wat het historisch materialisme genoemd kan worden. Een prettige uiteenzetting van de geschiedenis van de geschiedschrijving vanuit marxistisch oogpunt. Onvermijdelijk voor de marxistisch georiënteerde student geschiedenis.

[Feargal McGovern · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read as it was part of the Lutte Ouvrier list, but nothing really struck me that I didn't already know from reading Marx and Engels.

[Solal Gomez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Il mériterait le triple de page mais reste intéressant

[Moaz Elshinawy · Rating 4 out of 5]

على الرغم من قدم الكتاب (1891) وصغر حجمه إلا أنه من أفضل الكتب التى توضح النظرة المادية للتاريخ .

[علاء ابوغليون · Rating 4 out of 5]

يوضح الكتاب النظرة المادية للتاريخ وسبب حركة التاريخ من منظور ماركسي او شيوعي
وان الاقتصاد هو محرك الرئيسي للتاريخ

[Roberto Yoed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Abstraction of social complexity as the means to understand historical processes, nice.

Economic structure -> Social relations -> All social manifestations

[nailik Winter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Je comprends mieux ce que les marxistes entendent par la conception matérialiste et marxiste de l'histoire.