On the Misappropriation of Marx's Late Writings on Russia: A Critique of Marx at the Margins

• Autores: Christophe de Aranjo
• Localización: Science and society, ISSN 0036-8237, Vol. 82, Nº. 1, 2018, págs. 67-93
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • In his late writings, Marx speculated that Russia could bypass the “necessary” stages that had defined the economic history of Western Europe. By appropriating the positive results of capitalism without traversing through the phase of negativity which produced them, the Russian commune, he claimed, could transition directly into communism. Kevin Anderson's Marx at the Margins (Anderson, 2010) defends the mistaken interpretation that Marx extended this possibility to all precapitalist societies that he studied at the time. This sort of “multilinearity” universalizes the path of development open to Russia, understating the historical context and specific social relations which, Marx argued, enabled such a transformation. Aside from its European context, the distinguishing mark of this commune was its “dualism” — a feature that endowed it with greater “historical initiative.