Abstract
This paper aims to point out the limits of the historical determinism thesis in Marx’s thought by analyzing his writings on the Russian issue and the possibility of a “Russian road” to socialism. The perspective of historical determinism implies that Marx’s thought is supported by a unilinear view of social evolution, i.e. history is understood as a succession of modes of production and their internal relations inexorably leading to a classless society. We argue that in letters and drafts on the Russian issue, Marx opposes to any attempt associate his thought with a deterministic conception of history. It is pointed out that Marx’s contact with the Russian populists in the 1880s provides textual elements allowing to impose limits on the idea of historical determinism and the unilinear perspective in the historical process.
Highlights
Even after the bicentenary of Karl Marx’s birth, his work, which impacts so many fields of knowledge, is still subject to many different interpretations and generates much debate
From the point of view of society in general, teleology is at work in history and social development: there is an inexorable passage from different modes of production in direction of a known end, socialism
This implies a philosophy of history or a universal theory of history based on a unilinear view of social formations
Summary
Even after the bicentenary of Karl Marx’s birth, his work, which impacts so many fields of knowledge, is still subject to many different interpretations and generates much debate. According to De Paula (2015), humanity is inserted in a great evolutionary line, inexorably going through the different modes of production and their internal relations towards a more evolved form of society: socialism/communism This implies a philosophy of history or a universal theory of history based on a unilinear view of social formations. This view favored a series of wrong decisions in the workers’ movements across the 20th Century, but our aim is to present Marx’s opposition of this view in the light of his contact with the Russian issue at the end of 1870 and the beginning of 1880 This contact deal directly with the idea of historical determinism and the unilinear scheme of historical development and gives us a good example of how Marx was against historical determinism and a philosophy of history with supra-historical elements
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