Synopses & Reviews
Baron brings together eleven articles published between 1958 and 1986 with a new introduction and an autobiographical essay that serves as a coda to the collection. The essays examine Georgi V. Plekhanov's ideas about history and their relationship to Soviet historiography, most especially his concept of poet-primitive Russia not as a Western feudal society but rather an Oriental despotism, and his views on the prospect for socialism in the United States. Baron also includes two pieces that revise his earlier thinking about Plekhanov, retracing his steps and exploring paths he neglected in his earlier research for his major biography, Plekhanov: The Father of Russian Marxism (1963).
Review
“A sensitive portrayal of Russia's first Marxist and a lucid analysis of the vicissitudes of his fortunes as theoretician and historian. . . . a discerning view of Plekhanov's historical thought and the fortunes of Marxist theory in pre-revolutionary Russia and its successor Soviet state.”
—The Historian
Review
“Baron is as he has always been—an excellent analyst, meticulous researcher, and a writer of scholarly distinction.”
—EastWest Education
Synopsis
Known as the “father of Russian Marxism”, Plekhanov’s writings were relegated to oblivion during the Stalin era. Samuel H. Baron assembles a number of Plekhanov’s essays and views his place in the history of Russia’s revolutionary movement, and his theoretical differences with Lenin, Stalin and later Soviet ideologies.
About the Author
Samuel H. Baron is Alumni Distinguished Professor Emeritus of history, University of North Carolina.