Russian Machism (//) was a term applied to a variety political/philosophical viewpoints which emerged in
Imperial Russia
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...
in the beginning of the twentieth century before the
Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...
. They shared an interest in the scientific and philosophical insights of
Ernst Mach
Ernst Waldfried Josef Wenzel Mach ( , ; 18 February 1838 – 19 February 1916) was a Moravian-born Austrian physicist and philosopher, who contributed to the physics of shock waves. The ratio of one's speed to that of sound is named the Mach ...
. Many, but not all, of the Russian Machists were Marxists, and some viewed Machism as an essential ingredient of a materialist outlook on the world. The term came into use around 1905, primarily as a polemical expression used by
Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...
and
Georgi Plekhanov
Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov (; rus, Гео́ргий Валенти́нович Плеха́нов, p=ɡʲɪˈorɡʲɪj vəlʲɪnˈtʲinəvʲɪtɕ plʲɪˈxanəf, a=Ru-Georgi Plekhanov-JermyRei.ogg; – 30 May 1918) was a Russian revoluti ...
. With a shared desire to defend an "orthodox" account of Marxism, from their differing perspective they both divided the opponents of this putative orthodoxy into the "idealists" and the "Machists".
The term remained a signifier of
Marxist-Leninist opprobrium from the 1920s through into the 1970s. This was shown by
Alexander Maximov use of the term to criticise
Boris Hessen
Boris Mikhailovich Hessen (russian: Бори́с Миха́йлович Ге́ссен), also Gessen (16 August 1893, Elisavetgrad – 20 December 1936, Moscow),The date of death is given incorrectly in most sources, including the Russian Acad ...
in 1928.
It can also be seen in
Evald Ilyenkov
Evald Vassilievich Ilyenkov (russian: link=no, Э́вальд Васи́льевич Илье́нков; 18 February 1924 – 21 March 1979) was a Marxist author and Soviet philosopher.
Biography
Evald Ilyenkov did original work on the materi ...
's chapter on "Marxism against Machism as the Philosophy of Lifeless Reaction" in ''Leninist Dialectics and the Metaphysics of Positivism'' (1979).
Confrontation with idealism
In 1902
Pavel Ivanovich Novgorodtsev edited the book ''
Problems of Idealism
A problem is a difficulty which may be resolved by problem solving.
Problem(s) or The Problem may also refer to:
People
* Problem (rapper), (born 1985) American rapper Books
* ''Problems'' (Aristotle), an Aristotelian (or pseudo-Aristotelian) co ...
'' (''Problemy Idealizma'') which included contributions from
Sergei Bulgakov
Sergei Nikolaevich Bulgakov (; russian: Серге́й Никола́евич Булга́ков; – 13 July 1944) was a Russian Eastern Orthodox Church, Orthodox theologian, priest, philosopher, and economist.
Biography
Early life: 1871–18 ...
,
Evgenii Nikolaevitch Troubetzkoy
Prince Evgenii Nikolaevitch Troubetzkoy (russian: Евге́ний Никола́евич Трубецко́й; 5 October 1863 – 5 February 1920) was a Russian philosopher and a follower of Vladimir Solovyov. He was the son of Prince Nikolai P ...
,
,
Peter Berngardovich Struve
Peter (or Pyotr or Petr) Berngardovich Struve (russian: Пётр Бернга́рдович Стру́ве; pronounced ; 26 January 1870 in Perm – 22 February 1944 in Paris) was a Russian political economist, philosopher, historian and editor ...
,
Nikolai Berdyaev
Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev (; russian: Никола́й Алекса́ндрович Бердя́ев; – 24 March 1948) was a Russian Empire, Russian philosopher, theologian, and Christian existentialism, Christian existentialist who e ...
,
Semyon Frank
Semyon Lyudvigovich Frank (russian: Семён Лю́двигович Франк; 28 January 1877 – 10 December 1950) was a Russian philosopher. Born into a Jewish family, he became a Christian in 1912. Early life and studies
Semyon Lyudvigov ...
,
Sergei Askol'dov
Sergius is a male given name of Ancient Roman origin after the name of the Latin ''gens'' Sergia or Sergii of regal and republican ages. It is a common Christian name, in honor of Saint Sergius, or in Russia, of Saint Sergius of Radonezh, and ...
,
Bogdan Kistyakovski,
Alexander Sergeyevich Lappo-Danilevsky,
Sergey Oldenburg
Sergey Fyodorovich Oldenburg (russian: Серге́й Фёдорович Ольденбу́рг; 26 September 1863, in Byankino, Transbaikal Oblast – 28 February 1934, in Leningrad) was a Russian orientalist who specialized in Buddhist stud ...
, and Zhukovsky.
In proclaiming the advent of a new idealist movement he also derided
positivism
Positivism is an empiricist philosophical theory that holds that all genuine knowledge is either true by definition or positive—meaning ''a posteriori'' facts derived by reason and logic from sensory experience.John J. Macionis, Linda M. G ...
as being narrow and dogmatic.
[Soboleva M.E. ]
Soboleva Critical positivism” versus “new idealism
in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. Vestnik SPbSU. Philosophy and Conflict Studies, 2018, vol. 34, issue 1, pp. 46–56.
https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu17.2018.105
Confrontation with Lenin
The publication of ''
Studies in the Philosophy of Marxism
''Studies in the Philosophy of Marxism'' (russian: Очерки по философии марксизма) was an account of a seminar held by Vladimir Bazarov, Alexander Bogdanov, Anatoly Lunacharsky, Jakov Berman, Osip Gelfond, Pavel Yushkevic ...
'' (Russian: Очерки по философии Марксизма) in 1908 marked a key moment in the emergence of this viewpoint. However whilst many of the proponents of Russian Machism saw it as adding important insights to what a materialist view of the world would look like,
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...
was a consistent opponent; he cited as such: Bazasov, Bogdanov, Lunacharski, Berman, Gelfond, Yushkevich, Sergei Suvorov and
Nikolai Valentinov
Nikolai Vladislavovich Valentinov (Rusaian: Николай Владиславович Валентинов; 18 May, 1880 – 26 July, 1964) was a Russian philosopher, journalist and economist. A member of the Russian Social Democratic Workers' P ...
.
Prominent Russian "Machists"
This list includes people who at one time or other have been described as Russian Machists:
*
Vladimir Bazarov
Vladimir Alexandrovich Bazarov (Russian: Влади́мир Алекса́ндрович База́ров; 8 August Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O._S._27_July.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and Ne ...
*
Jakov Berman Jakov Alexandrovich Berman (Russian: Я́ков Алекса́ндрович Берма́н; 15 January 1868 – 1933) was a Russian people, Russian philosopher and political theorist linked to Russian Machism and pragmatism.
In 1908 he published ' ...
*
Alexander Bogdanov
Alexander Aleksandrovich Bogdanov (russian: Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Богда́нов; – 7 April 1928), born Alexander Malinovsky, was a Russian and later Soviet physician, philosopher, science fiction writer, and B ...
*
Osip Gelfond Osip Isaakovich Gelfond (russian: link=no, Осип Ге́льфонд) (1868–1942) was a Russian physician and Marxist philosopher.
Osip studied at the University of Sorbonne, gaining a medical degree in 1896. He married Musia Gershevna in 1899, ...
*
Boris Hessen
Boris Mikhailovich Hessen (russian: Бори́с Миха́йлович Ге́ссен), also Gessen (16 August 1893, Elisavetgrad – 20 December 1936, Moscow), was a USSR, Soviet physicist, philosophy, philosopher and History of science, h ...
*
Sergei Suvorov Sergei Alexandrovich Suvorov (russian: Сергей Александрович Суворов; 1869 – 15 June 1918) was a Russian statistician, philosopher and revolutionary.
Suvorov was attracted to the revolutionary movement in the 1890s and h ...
*
Nikolai Valentinov
Nikolai Vladislavovich Valentinov (Rusaian: Николай Владиславович Валентинов; 18 May, 1880 – 26 July, 1964) was a Russian philosopher, journalist and economist. A member of the Russian Social Democratic Workers' P ...
*
Pavel Yushkevich
Pavel Solomonovich Yushkevich (russian: Павел Соломонович Юшкевич; 29 June 1873, in Odessa – December 6, 1945, in Moscow) was a Russian people, Russian philosopher. He was a Menshevik activist and participated as one of the ...
See also
* ''
Materialism and Empirio-criticism
''Materialism and Empirio-criticism'' (Russian: ''Материализм и эмпириокритицизм, Materializm i empiriokrititsizm'') is a philosophical work by Vladimir Lenin, published in 1909. It was an obligatory subject of study i ...
''
*
Positivism in Poland
Polish Positivism was a social, literary and philosophical movement that became dominant in late-19th-century partitioned Poland following the suppression of the January 1863 Uprising against the Russian Empire. The Positivist period lasted unti ...
Further reading
* Steila, Daniela. ''Nauka i revoljucija. Recepciia empiriokriticizma v russkoi kul'ture (1877-1910 gg.).'' Moscow: Akademicheskii Proekt, 2013. Originally published in Italian
References
{{Positivism
Russian philosophy