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El Marx tardío y la vía rusa (Talasa)
Explores Marx’s attitude to “developing” societies. Includes translations of Marx’s notes from the 1880s, among the most important finds of the last century.
368 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
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About the author
Teodor Shanin
17 books7 followersOBE Professor Teodor Shanin, president of the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences, is an esteemed sociologist whose long-standing commitment to the study of peasant societies has led to a prolific academic career and has earned him numerous accolades.
Shanin was born in Vilnius, Poland in 1930 and enjoyed a comfortable life until the age of 10 when Stalin’s police imprisoned his father and exiled Shanin and his mother to Siberia.
After the World War II and some stay in Poland where he finalized secondary education at the age of 17 he traveled clandestinely via France to Palestine and joined commando units during the war of independence 1948-1949. After that war he studied and proceeded to work in social work later graduating also in sociology and economics.
In 1963, Shanin began a PhD at Birmingham University, studying the role of peasants in the Russian Revolution and graduated in 1969. This ground-breaking work not only paved the way for his academic career, but also helped to launch in the UK an entirely new research field.
By 1974, Shanin had received his chair at the University of Manchester. He taught sociology and served on and off as the head of the sociology department for many years. In the period of Perestroika he became increasingly involved in effort to transform Russian university education which led to the creation of graduate Russian-British university with him as its first rector. In 2002, Shanin won the Order of British Empire for promoting tertiary education in Russia. In 2007 he became the president of the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences.
Shanin has held more than two dozen research or visiting fellowships and has written or edited more than 100 publications. His second book, The Awkward Class (Clarendon Press, 1972) was particularly admired thanks to its timely connections to the issues related to Third World nations. His exploration of historical sociology reached another peak with Russia 1905 07: Revolution as a Moment of Truth (Macmillan, 1986). Within Russia Shanin contributed majorly to its tradition of rural studies and introducing the issues of qualitative research of rural society and informal economy as a phenomenon the understanding of which changes considerably our understanding of contemporary Russia.
Shanin continues with research interests in late 19th century and early 20th century rural Russia, the role of informal economies in understanding the contemporary social economy of Russia, and educational reform in contemporary Russia.
Shanin was born in Vilnius, Poland in 1930 and enjoyed a comfortable life until the age of 10 when Stalin’s police imprisoned his father and exiled Shanin and his mother to Siberia.
After the World War II and some stay in Poland where he finalized secondary education at the age of 17 he traveled clandestinely via France to Palestine and joined commando units during the war of independence 1948-1949. After that war he studied and proceeded to work in social work later graduating also in sociology and economics.
In 1963, Shanin began a PhD at Birmingham University, studying the role of peasants in the Russian Revolution and graduated in 1969. This ground-breaking work not only paved the way for his academic career, but also helped to launch in the UK an entirely new research field.
By 1974, Shanin had received his chair at the University of Manchester. He taught sociology and served on and off as the head of the sociology department for many years. In the period of Perestroika he became increasingly involved in effort to transform Russian university education which led to the creation of graduate Russian-British university with him as its first rector. In 2002, Shanin won the Order of British Empire for promoting tertiary education in Russia. In 2007 he became the president of the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences.
Shanin has held more than two dozen research or visiting fellowships and has written or edited more than 100 publications. His second book, The Awkward Class (Clarendon Press, 1972) was particularly admired thanks to its timely connections to the issues related to Third World nations. His exploration of historical sociology reached another peak with Russia 1905 07: Revolution as a Moment of Truth (Macmillan, 1986). Within Russia Shanin contributed majorly to its tradition of rural studies and introducing the issues of qualitative research of rural society and informal economy as a phenomenon the understanding of which changes considerably our understanding of contemporary Russia.
Shanin continues with research interests in late 19th century and early 20th century rural Russia, the role of informal economies in understanding the contemporary social economy of Russia, and educational reform in contemporary Russia.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 11, 2022
An overall very good collection that presents Marx’s enthusiasm late in life for Russian Populism and for the possibility of a transition directly from communal peasant life to socialism. Provides primary sources, including the drafts of Marx’s letter to Vera Zasulich, some writings by Chernyshevsky, & significant documents of the People’s Will. Shanin’s *interpretive* mission is to show that Marx broke from the idea of unilinear social evolution & progress, and endorsed the idea of multiple possible paths to communism, and he, Wada, Sayer & Corrigan certainly do that. He also makes some good moves against scientism and the fetish for abstractions at the expense of concrete reality that characterize a lot of the Marxist tradition. Shanin’s *political* mission, however, is to defend cross-class alliances and statist left-wing-of-capital projects like those of Mao and Ho Chi Minh, and this leaves major gaps in his analysis. Sayer and Corrigan give a major corrective to the problems of Shanin’s project, and point towards a more substantively communist analysis of the problems presented in the book. They especially emphasize Marx’s development from his call to centralize production in the hands of the state in the Communist Manifesto to his call to smash the state in The Civil War in France. I would say everything in this book is worth reading; even Shanin’s serious flaws are educational and useful to think through.
June 19, 2024
Will develop thoughts further on this but in short gives a good analysis of Marx's late work and his relationship to Russian Populists. It's important because it helps to tear down the idols constructed for the purposes of state legitimation and dogmatism associated but not attributed to Marx. Even more critically it shows us what makes it more politically potent for socialist revolutionary ends by opening Marx's framework and updating it to meet the social context it's being applied, in this way indigenous social movements make it much more potent than the purity demanded by many of its theorists. And also the failure to do this lead to missed opportunities with peasantry and spectacular failures.
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October 19, 2022 Mixed quality. Some of it is really quite good but a few essays didn't really challenge me or 'add to my knowledge' in any really significant way. This was probably the first time I've read all the drafts of the letter to Zasulich at once though, they were definitely worth reading. The selections from Chernyshevsky and People's Will were also of some interest.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews