Belinsky Between Populism and Marxism
Abstract
Belinsky was one of the most significant Russian thinkers of the nineteenth century and influenced almost all ideologies of pre-revolutionary Russia. Contradictions within his views are well-known but not fully explained. The article focuses on a part of Belinsky’s heritage which can be classified as his thought on politics and interpret contradictions within his works as the outcome of the fact that his works reflected the genesis of and the beginning of discrepancy between Russian populism (narodnichestvo) and Russian Marxism which later split into bolshevism and menshevism. Georgii Plekhanov and Vladimir Lenin considered Belinsky as their own predecessor. However, some populists (narodniki) were also inspired by him. The examination of Belinsky’s works is relevant today as populist ideologies, a specific form of which was populism in Russia, are widespread across the globe while the organized working class is absent as it was in Belinsky’s time. Therefore, contradictions within Belinsky’s works can contribute to a better understanding of the formation of Marxism and populism when significant popular movements are absent. The article demonstrates how discussions on conditions of the people, bourgeoisie, people’s immanent emancipatory capacity, subjectivism, laws of historic development and positivism in Belinsky’s texts reflected the formation of populism and Russian Marxism.
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Review
For citations:
Kulaev M. Belinsky Between Populism and Marxism. Versus. 2023;3(6):28-59. (In Russ.)
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