V. I. Lenin and the case of P. N. Tkachev’s thought impact

Abstract

One of the theses proposed in the article is that the very nature of philosophical thinking, morality, ethics, and even any cultural activity can be used both to provoke a dramatic situation, a confrontation in the society etc., and at the same time to stimulate a continual cooperation which may pave the way for more or less original so-cial and cultural initiatives. As examples, the author analyzes various types of philosophical thinking of the Russian provincial intelligentsia, mainly referring to the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The ideas formulated during this period largely determined the further development of Russian thought and later were differently interpreted and used by the Russian philosophers of younger generations. In this period, there should be found the origins of the tragic events, which are often considered as the largest historical trauma not only of Russian, but also of the world history, and the Russian revo-lution of 1917 was not yet the most terrible of them. The author focuses on studying the revolutionary branch of Russian philosophical thought, in particular Narodnism as it was pre-sented in the works by Petr Tkachev. Tkachev’s concept, the problems he raised are analyzed to stress his influence on the thinking and political practice of one of the most controversial figures in both Russian and the world history – Vladimir Lenin. The article also touches upon some topics dealt with the polemics between Lenin and Narodniks. When considering all this, the author took into account the interpretations given by Andrzej Walicki and Leszek Kolakowski in their research works on the history of Russian phi-losophy.