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Anarchism and Socialism
An important work by the Russian Marxist theoretician who founded the Social-Democrat movement in Russia. This English translation by Eleanor Marx Aveling first published in 1895.
72 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
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About the author
Georgi Plekhanov
124 books68 followersGeorgi 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.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 20, 2017
This is a short book, a pamphlet really, written in Russian and translated by Marx's daughter. Mainly concerned with refuting the notion that anarchism is an advance on Marxist "scientific" socialism.
It is not dry, in fact it is very sarcastic, but I had just finished reading Swift's sarcastic pamphlets, and so I coined a paradox that the 'churchmen" of the 18th C. wrote with more passion than the materialists of the 19th, because they had their livelihoods at stake, whereas Plekhanov's socialism was pie in the sky.
Certainly his insistence that the anarchist dream of a world without coercion was foolish, and that the class which oppressed the workers would not yield power without force should chill the reader. Eleanor Marx Aveling and Georgi Plekhanov are upholding orthodoxy against heresy, and justifying the (future) death of millions.
It is not dry, in fact it is very sarcastic, but I had just finished reading Swift's sarcastic pamphlets, and so I coined a paradox that the 'churchmen" of the 18th C. wrote with more passion than the materialists of the 19th, because they had their livelihoods at stake, whereas Plekhanov's socialism was pie in the sky.
Certainly his insistence that the anarchist dream of a world without coercion was foolish, and that the class which oppressed the workers would not yield power without force should chill the reader. Eleanor Marx Aveling and Georgi Plekhanov are upholding orthodoxy against heresy, and justifying the (future) death of millions.
July 22, 2012
Although this book is written as anti-anarchist propaganda it actually explains anarchism's issues well and in doing so tends to make the argument for it.
March 8, 2021
Atrociously bad.
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October 4, 2015''Ve burjuvazinin Anarşistlerle savaşacak teorik silahları yok, hem de onların gençleri Anarşist doktrine hayrandırlar. Tüm inançların uzun zaman önce öldüğü, tüm samimi düşüncelerin komik göründüğü, insanların tüm eğlence türlerini denedikten sonra artık son moda neyin olduğunu, yeni duyumlar elde etmek için hangi aşırılıkları yapmaları gerektiğini bilmediği doymuş ve iliklerine kadar çürük bu toplumda Anarşist sirene kulak verecek insanlar vardır.''
June 1, 2019
QUOTES
"It is often expressed somewhat as follows: "After capitalism comes socialism and then comes anarchism." Plechanoff very ably explodes such notions. The author shows not only the reactionary character of anarchism, but he exposes its class bias and its empty philosophic idealism and utopian program. He shows anarchism to be just the opposite of scientific socialism or communism. It aims at a society dominated by individualism, which is simply a capitalist ideal.
The anarchist desire to abolish the State at one blow, and to abolish money, etc., in much the same way, springs from their inability to understand the institutions of capitalist society.
Communists also want a society without a State but realize that such can only come about when society is without classes.
The State is not abolished. Only its capitalist form is abolished. The State dies out in the hands of the workers when there is no longer an opposing class to coerce.
The best of all possible legislation is that which best harmonises with human nature.
"man may abandon the True, but the True can never be annihilated!"
The Utopian is one who, starting from an abstract principle, seeks for a perfect social organisation.
The scheme of equality especially is one that seems most repugnant to the nature of man; they are born to command or to serve, a middle term is a burden to them."
Thus it is not human nature which explains the historical movement; it is the historical movement which fashions diversely human nature.
The Anarchists are Utopians. Their point of view has nothing in common with that of modern scientific Socialism. But there are Utopias and Utopias."
"It is often expressed somewhat as follows: "After capitalism comes socialism and then comes anarchism." Plechanoff very ably explodes such notions. The author shows not only the reactionary character of anarchism, but he exposes its class bias and its empty philosophic idealism and utopian program. He shows anarchism to be just the opposite of scientific socialism or communism. It aims at a society dominated by individualism, which is simply a capitalist ideal.
The anarchist desire to abolish the State at one blow, and to abolish money, etc., in much the same way, springs from their inability to understand the institutions of capitalist society.
Communists also want a society without a State but realize that such can only come about when society is without classes.
The State is not abolished. Only its capitalist form is abolished. The State dies out in the hands of the workers when there is no longer an opposing class to coerce.
The best of all possible legislation is that which best harmonises with human nature.
"man may abandon the True, but the True can never be annihilated!"
The Utopian is one who, starting from an abstract principle, seeks for a perfect social organisation.
The scheme of equality especially is one that seems most repugnant to the nature of man; they are born to command or to serve, a middle term is a burden to them."
Thus it is not human nature which explains the historical movement; it is the historical movement which fashions diversely human nature.
The Anarchists are Utopians. Their point of view has nothing in common with that of modern scientific Socialism. But there are Utopias and Utopias."
August 25, 2024
Plekhanov, who was one of the first to identified themselves “Marxist” in Russian intelligentsia, delivers a quick overview of “utopian socialism” and anarchism while criticizing each.
By Plekhanov, P.J. Proudhon and Max Stirner are handled as “egoist anarchists” who prioritize individual before commune. According to their point of view, liberation of people can be possible if all sorts of authorities, including state, property, religion etc., were abolished. When there is no authorities existing, a free and fair society is possible on the basis of “free convention”. In such a social state, there will not be surplus as every product equals the labor inserted in it.
Mihail Bakunin and Pyotr Kropotkin, on the other hand, are classified under the term “collectivist anarchists” which tends to suggest that human beings can be freed from alienation only if they get rid of all metaphysical, authority-made principles including property, right and even individuality. A man can rescue himself from alienation and realize his freedom only among his own species. Thus, Bakunin states, any anarchist-socialist movement that desires creating a new “free” and “equal” society is still under the domination of the bourgeoisie. As it still is being inside the principles of the bourgeois thinking.
Overviewing and criticizing both, Plekhanov sides himself with Marxian view of economy politic in which a proletarian dictatorship is required to reach the free, communal “utopia”.
By Plekhanov, P.J. Proudhon and Max Stirner are handled as “egoist anarchists” who prioritize individual before commune. According to their point of view, liberation of people can be possible if all sorts of authorities, including state, property, religion etc., were abolished. When there is no authorities existing, a free and fair society is possible on the basis of “free convention”. In such a social state, there will not be surplus as every product equals the labor inserted in it.
Mihail Bakunin and Pyotr Kropotkin, on the other hand, are classified under the term “collectivist anarchists” which tends to suggest that human beings can be freed from alienation only if they get rid of all metaphysical, authority-made principles including property, right and even individuality. A man can rescue himself from alienation and realize his freedom only among his own species. Thus, Bakunin states, any anarchist-socialist movement that desires creating a new “free” and “equal” society is still under the domination of the bourgeoisie. As it still is being inside the principles of the bourgeois thinking.
Overviewing and criticizing both, Plekhanov sides himself with Marxian view of economy politic in which a proletarian dictatorship is required to reach the free, communal “utopia”.
November 1, 2025
Superb short essay, published in 1895 but still astonishingly relevant, in which the "father of Russian Marxism", Georgi Plekhanov, uses scathing sarcasm and humor to critique the anarchist philosophies of Stirner, Proudhon, Bakunin and Kropotkin. Each is shown to be rooted in bourgeois idealism, utopianism, logical contradictions and metaphysics in contrast to the materialist foundation of Marxism.
Additionally Plekhanov criticizes the anarchist tactic of "propaganda of the deed" i.e. terrorism, demonstrating that it invariably invites repression against the proletariat.
“An Anarchist is a man who—when he is not a police agent—is fated always and everywhere to attain the opposite of that which he attempts to achieve.”—Georgi Plekhanov
Additionally Plekhanov criticizes the anarchist tactic of "propaganda of the deed" i.e. terrorism, demonstrating that it invariably invites repression against the proletariat.
“An Anarchist is a man who—when he is not a police agent—is fated always and everywhere to attain the opposite of that which he attempts to achieve.”—Georgi Plekhanov
October 14, 2021
Audiobook edition in the Dakki Reads channel on Youtube.
A critical overview of the Anarchist political philosophers from a Marxist perspective. This (and one of the similar books by Anarchists criticizing Marxists) should be required reading for anyone with an interest in politics outside of the currently dominant liberal paradigm.
A critical overview of the Anarchist political philosophers from a Marxist perspective. This (and one of the similar books by Anarchists criticizing Marxists) should be required reading for anyone with an interest in politics outside of the currently dominant liberal paradigm.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews