Georgi Plekhanov

Georgi Plekhanov, born on November twenty-ninth, eighteen fifty-six, was a pivotal figure in the development of Marxist thought in Russia. Initially starting his revolutionary journey as a populist, he founded the Emancipation of Labour group in eighteen eighty-three, marking the establishment of the first Russian Marxist political organization. His intellectual contributions earned him the title of the 'father of Russian Marxism,' influencing a generation of revolutionaries, including the notable Vladimir Lenin.

A prominent leader within the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) and the Second International, Plekhanov played a crucial role in the party's activities. In nineteen hundred, he collaborated with Lenin to launch the party newspaper Iskra. Although he initially aligned with Lenin's Bolshevik faction during the party's Second Congress in nineteen oh three, he later diverged from them, criticizing their centralist organizational principles and becoming a leading figure in the Menshevik faction.

During the tumultuous period of the nineteen oh five Russian Revolution, Plekhanov argued that Russia was only prepared for a bourgeois-democratic revolution, opposing what he perceived as premature attempts by the proletariat to seize power. His stance evolved during World War I, where he adopted a nationalist position known as 'defensism,' supporting the Allied cause, which distanced him from many international socialists.

After the February Revolution of nineteen seventeen, Plekhanov returned to Russia and supported the Provisional Government. He vehemently opposed the Bolsheviks, warning that their October Revolution would lead to disaster for the nation. Plekhanov succumbed to tuberculosis in Finland the following year. Despite his opposition to the Bolsheviks, he was respected by Lenin and was later recognized in the Soviet Union as a foundational figure of Russian Marxism. His legacy is complex, with interpretations ranging from viewing him as a democratic Marxist alternative to Leninism to acknowledging his theoretical groundwork that facilitated the Bolshevik movement.