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How Did The Russian Marxism Movement Evolve In The Period

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How did the Russian Marxism movement evolve in the period 1880-1905?

Alexandra Los

HIS2501Y
TA: Natalia Zajac
February 1, 2017

Marxism was a social movement that aimed to overcome all forms of domination and exploitation. Roots of Marxism were drawn from the three main sources: German idealist philosophy, British political economy, and French socialism. Adopting ideas of German philosophers such as Kant and Hegel, Marx took a deeper look into the nature of social reality. He researched how social interest, which was expressed in mode of thinking and following actions, connected to real day-to-day life of people. According to Marx, human history was defined by class struggle which was caused by antagonism between the …show more content…

Although the revolt was crashed by Nicholas I, and police control became even tougher, spreading progressive ideas among educated intellectually advances people of the time was the main consequence of Decembrist uprising. Post-selfdom period featured the emergence of critical-minded and enlightened young intellectuals, and who were willing to devote their lives to the transformation of the society. Learning from Decembrists’ failure, they considered the necessity of cooperation with the peasantry. However, the idea of creating the system of village communal land ownership was meaningless for the peasants, who were still loyal to the Tsar and saw him as father of people. The attempt to initiate a peasant self-awakening by “going to people” ended in bitter disappointment. Peasant conservatism and government prosecution drove the Narodniki to underground activity. With industrial development and emergence of urban proletariat in the 1880s, the populists’ attention shifted to workers. Among those who supported a socialist propaganda was Georgi Plekhanov who is considered a “father” of Russian Marxism.
The foundation of Group for the Liberty of Labour in Geneva (1883) manifested the beginning of Russian Marxist movement. It was developing in the interaction with socialist movements in other

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