Berdyaev on Russian Marxism

8/13/2019 Berdyaev on Russian Marxism

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N. A. BERDYAEV (BERDIAEV)

Regarding the History and the Psychology

of Russian ar!is"

(#$%& ' #&)

It is of interest for us to trace the fate of the ideas of Marxism, a fate woeful and

strange, since these ideas with their seeming triumph ultimately have gotten lost. Our

Marxism not so long ago was a trend in ideas, full of vigour and youth, it gave an

upsurge to mental inquiries, it prompted a respect for knowledge, it called forth a

social science for deciding the fates of Russia ,and seemingly introduced a certain

cultural aspect into the barbaric norm of our intelligentsia, it fought against the old

stereotypes, all the stuck in a rut aspect. ack then it was a struggle of ideas. ut the

god of historical irony transformed Marxism into a struggle of powers, gave it a grip

on life, when the ideas of Marxism began to decay and unravel, when the two souls,

alive within classical Marxism !! the scientifico!realist and the religio!utopian !!

separated and rose up in revolt each against the other. In this distancing off of

scientific realism from the religious utopianism must be seen the essence of the

crisis of Marxism, its inner decay, whereof Russian social democracy, as a mighty

struggle of powers, attempts to preserve within it the two souls, an inner concord,

completely bereft of the idea of Marxism, forgetful of its cultural conquests.

In the year "#$$, %. %autsky wrote to me& '(he Russians are called to further

develope theoretical Marxism. (hanks to the absolutism, the Russians have time for

this. In Russia the social movement is still all a struggle for cognition, and not forpower'." (hese were welcome words for us, being then Russian Marxists, and they

received unique a commentary in the furthermost developement of Russian thought

and the societal aspect. )ithin Russia were made attempts at the utmost theoretical

developement of Marxism, and without boasting it can be said, that the Russian

critical Marxists displayed great strength of thought and greater an audacity, than the

*erman ernsteinists +duard ernstein, Marxist Revisionism-, but the result as

obtained for %autskys expectations and for Marxism was ruinous. It showed, that

there could not be a furthermost theoretical developement of Marxism, that every

effort of free thought leads to a decisive crisis and dissolution of doctrine. /ritical

Marxism was soon transformed into an already total non!Marxism and even into an

anti!Marxism as regards an insurmountable inner logic and psychology.

(he utmost searchings and creative attempts transpired along two distinct paths

!! the scientific and realistic, and the religious and idealistic, since the system of

classical Marxism was simultaneously both a system scientific and a system religious,

was both a real politics and an eschatological vision.

(hus it was in the realm of ideas, but in life was produced a grievous struggle

with that selfsame absolutism, which according to the paradoxical opinion of

%autsky, gave us time to develope further the ideas of Marxism. (he intelligentsia

began a struggle for power with the ideational capital of the old Marxist apperception.

0nd with social democracy in fatal a manner there ceased all mental life, any critique.(he sacredness of dogma was safeguarded, since with it easily and sweetly one could

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struggle for power, since with it as it were the realism of life could be blended with

religion , and in the irrational mystique of revolution it is not easy to distinguish the

real evil of the day from the eschatological expectations. (he social democratic ideas

began to reign, they took hold the hearts of the masses, although obscured by the

trappings of the widescale revolution happening in Russia. 1ocial democracy became

as it were the expresser of Russian revolution, and the tragedy of the position herein isin this, that from its realistic point in Russia is happening however not a socialistic

revolution, but rather a political liberation of the people, in which the working class

plays a visible, but subordinate role.

0nd herein the realistic and scientific ideas of Marxism are consigned to

oblivion, and there instead triumphs only the mystique of 'the class point of view'

and social revolutionism. In former times the Marxists heatedly and brusquely came

out against populism and the old revolutionary utopianism, they pointed out this truth,

that in Russia is developing and would further develope a capitalistic production, that

there is no overleaping nor skipping the 'bourgeois' order, that the most immediate

political tasks can only be a 'bourgeois' revolution, guaranteeing rights and freedom for the ultimate struggle. In contrast to the populists and the old 'insurgents', the

Marxists were constitutionalists and social evolutionists. (he basic scientifico!realist

idea of Marxism was the principle of the developement of the 'material forces of

production' !! this was the basis of all social developement and all social

arrangement, and from hence was deduced the class struggle and class perspective.

2or scientific Marxism absurd and utopian would be the thought, that amidst whatever

the condition of the productive forces of a land it is possible to get in the # hour

working day, and that the social power of the working class can grow in non!

conformity with the economic position of a land, merely as the result of the political

efforts of the social democrats. (he realist spirit of Marxism !! is in the idea of

productivity, an incessant victory over nature, and thereof is thus to be deduced a

distributive 3ustice. ut in Russian Marxism imperceptibly there has occurred a

populist!utopian regeneration, the realist ideas got choked out under the onrush of

revolutionary emotions. (here appeared instead the inclination to overleap and skip

the 'capitalist' order with its social!political forms, to disdain political freedom, as a

good which is merely 'bourgeois', and imperceptibly to substitute in place of a

revolution 'bourgeois' instead a revolution 'social', to which at present they consider

it possible to enter upon. (he subjectiveclass psychology won out on top of the

objective idea of social evolution. In 'bourgeois' revolution exclusive dominance

would have to belong to the socialistic proletariat, and the 'bourgeoise', to which is

consigned everything not social democratic, ought not however to play any sort ofrole !! herein is the paradoxical deduction from this 'class psychology'. Only

4lekhanov, the most intelligent and cultured of the Russian social democrats, did not

ultimately lose his Marxist head and he appealed to the Marxist conscience. 0ll the

victory!telling arguments of Marxism against 'insurrectionism', against the old

revolutionism, against the ignorance of governing the material culture, were forgotten.

(here remained only the eschatology of Marxism, the faith in a near!off kingdom of

truth upon earth, the proletariat!socialistic righteous 3udgement, a faith, sundered off

from its material basis with social developement. )ho, however, is the culprit of the

mental decadence of Russian social democracy, the forgetting of Marxist ideas in the

struggle of revolutionary forces5 (his culprit is obvious !! the autocracy and its

fanaticism, defining the character of the Russian revolution. (he reactionary outragesby the government systematically have cultivated the idea of a social revolution and

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have fed that psychology, in which passions political pass over into passions religious,

and politicians are transformed into fanatics. 0midst such tenseness, in such

obfuscation it is impossible to hold grip upon human souls without requital. (he idea

of a social revolution is included within the system of Marxism. ut in the Russian

actuality it ultimately became distorted, and the social democrats blindly hold dear

this distortion.

(hat history is full of every sort of 'revolution', this !! is a fact, and it would be

absurd to speak about the possibility or impossibility of suchlike a fact. (he textbooks

of history relate about these 'revolutions', and suchlike a sort of 'revolution' tends to

be happening before our very eyes. (his !! is the traditional understanding of the word

revolution, nowise containing within it any sort of sociological world!view, not

presupposing any sort of theory of social developement.

0ltogether different is the matter of a social revolution within the understanding

of Marxism. (he social revolution, which the social democrats await, rests upon a

definite sociological theory of social developement and outside of this theory itpossesses no sort of meaning. (his Marxist social revolution is not a fact, which can

be wished for or not wished, this !! is a false theory, an optical illusion. 0 'social

revolution' there never was and never will be, although every revolution has its own

social side .(he system of Marxism is to the highest degree a fanciful and uncritical

intertwining of the sociological understanding of the word revolution together with a

police mentality view, and this is rooted down into the basic twofold aspect of

Marxism. (his was shown in the well!known dispute of ernstein and %autsky. 0nd

4. . 1truve has well written about this in the '+7einrich- raun 0rchive'. ut this

problem has remained obscured within the social democrat consciousness.

It is not difficult to define the outward signs of revolution in the traditional sense

of this word, and they are purely negative. )hen the prisons get filled up, when there

are demonstrations on the streets, when one part of the populace is battling against the

soldiers and the other part, when there occur various excited events, prompting

government repression, then ordinarily it is said, that there is a revolutionary

movement in the land. )hat is revolution, and what is not revolution, is set by the

police of the state, as the gauge for determining revolutionism.

0nd it has become an indubitable historical truth, that revolutions are created by

reaction, and independent of reaction they possess no sort of content, as such, i.e. as

revolutions. Revolutions are characterised not by a radical end, not by a profoundregeneration of societal existence and the nature of man, but rather by passion in

reaction against the evil of the past, against oppression, against reaction. (he content

of revolution therefore is very difficult to characterise in creative definitions, in a

forward orientation. (he revolutionary, as a psychological type, always is oriented

backwards, only with his negative attachment rooted in the past, from which his

consciousness cannot tear itself away, only the oppression, stirred up in him by forces

of the past, the old, and they render him a revolutionary.

(he psychology of revolutionism in its essence is negative, oriented backwards,

without upsurge, its pathos fed by the hypnotic grip of the evil of the past, and

creative taking wing is impeded by whatever manner fond hatred towards the past.

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reformatory socialism, by which construct can a social crash be averted. ut the social

democratic faith in a social revolution is an anti!scientific and even anti!Marxist

utopia, it is a religious thirsting and eschatological hoping. 2or the social democrats,

connected with a social turnabout is a faith in the onset of a kingdom of *od upon

earth, as it were the end of history with a struggle of contraries, as it were the

principle of some supra!historical process.

In *ermany the faith in a social :usammenbruch +crash- underlies the

reactionary politics of the government and the reactionary outlook of the bourgeois

classes. 1ocial democracy indeed !! is the sole liberal party in *ermany, and it

happens to wage the struggle for freedom and rights, for which all liberals ought to

be struggling. In this tense, oppressive political atmosphere grow the intimations of

possible political revolutions, and with them in fated a manner gets blended in an

enormous social cataclysm. (here could occur still ten revolutions, but with this

ultimate social revolution, which the believers await, these other revolutions will have

nothing in common with it. 0nd still to a greater degree this can be said for Russia.

)ith us the hopes for a social revolution are fed by a reactionary regime, an unbridleddespotism, by a constant awaiting of a clash with those holding power, of that feverish

atmosphere, by that vexation, which is created by searches, arrests, banishments,

executions, by the inexcusable economic oppression of the people. (he course of

Russian history, characterised by the progressive aspirations of society and by the

stubborn reactionism of the authorities, has raised us into a spirit of extremes. 2or us

everything seems, that it is either sink or swim, either all or nothing, either autocracy

and an utmost degree of economic oppression, or a republic and socialism.

In the elements of revolution the whole historical perspective gets lost sight of.

(he penchant for rights, for the benefits of freedom , have not been worked out

among us. (he aspect of being accustomed to oppression was so great, that the

foundation, the social creativity, they tended to leave out of the building plan, and it

seemed sufficient but to abolish the exploiters, in order to become rich and in order

for social 3ustice to obtain. (hey thought to attain moreso, than what there is in

)estern urope, and everything because that we had so little, we were so miserable

and downcast, so that out of gloom and terror the dreams bla;ed up. 7ere is why the

dreamy side of Marxism won out among us, and its realistic ideas were forgotten.

(he chief service of Russian social democracy has been primarily the cultural

enlightening. It was in the developing of awareness in the working masses,

enlightening them, the implanting of socio!evolutionary ideas. Marxism has beenquite insistent upon this, that the fundamental regeneration of the societal fabric is

dependent upon the developing of the productive powers of the land and of the

awareness of the masses. ut then the brutal tactics of 4leve and the 3acobinism of the

bureaucracy inspired in the intelligentsia a 3acobin mindset of societal change. (he

enlightening of awareness was substituted for by agitation alone, which never indeed

gets down to the depth of things.

0gainst the idea of social revolution can be advanced two sorts of ob3ections,

with various ends. 2irst of all, social revolution is contradictory to the evolutionary

understanding of social developement, is contradictory to the very nature of the

economic process.


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(his is a purely scientific, realist argument, included also within Marxism itself.

ut social revolution is contradictory also to the idea of a constructive societal

creativity. 2aith in creative freedom, in the constructive efforts of people is

incompatible with an elemental sort of constructing a new societal aspect by way of

externalistic and fatal catastrophes, by way of accretal of evil, as somehow passing

over into its opposite= this faith desires to regenerate society by a changing of theconsciousness of people, wants incessantly to renew the societal fabric and by this as

such to render unnecessary a fatal cataclysm. )ithin Marxism indeed there is also a

large anti!3acobin part, there is the teaching about change of consciousness of societal

classes, as the sole path towards freedom. It should not be a bother for us now to

remember both truths& either the realist thought concerning societal evolution, in

which it is impossible to simply overleap entire periods and impossible also to

transform social poverty into social wealth, or the realistic thought concerning the

changing of the consciousness of people, concerning the regeneration of society by

efforts of free a spirit. I am somewhat apart from the ideas of Marxism, but a certain

dose of Marxism I would consider useful for prescribing to our social movement.

(hey will grasp all this, when the socio!economic problems are consciously posited inall their alacrity and thus force back onto a secondary level plane the problems

political, and this will quickly happen, since it will be needful for us to eat.

ut by my critique of 'social revolution' I have not the intent of saying, that not

in any instance and not in any sense is it impossible. 0 totally non!constructive, a

purely destructive 'social revolution' is possible, to it people can be led, but this

would transpire already upon a religio!mystical, and not socio!positivist, plane. I

know only, that a new sociability aspect is never created by a social revolution, but

rather that the mystical side of social democracy inclines it towards a social

revolution, and herein begins a chiliasm, opposite the /hristian, an illusory dream

about a thousand year kingdom upon earth, but already not with /hrist , rather with

another god. 0gainst this are possible neither any scientific, nor political arguments,

this is of an altogether different plane, and to converse here necessitate different a

language.

)e desire a neutral social developement, a neutral social medium,8 the feeding

of mankind and leading it out of a beastly condition, but not the transforming of social

passions and illusory dreams into a religion , since only with a neutral human

medium are we able to concur as regards our own religion.

>. 0. erdyaev

"$?@

A 6?"8 by 2r. 1. Banos

C"$?@ ! "6@C8,"$D ! enD

% I1(ORII I 41I%7OEO*II RF11%O*O M0R%1I:M0. (he article was first

published in weekly socio!political culturo!philosophic 3ournal '4olarnaya ;ve;da',

"$?@, >o. "?, p. @G#!@#@. Eater incorporated by erdyaev within his "$?G book, '1ub

1pecie 0eternitatis', /hapter "$ Cp.96G!98@D in year 6??6 Moscow %anon reprintedition.

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" (he correspondence with %autsky transpired with regard to my articles,

published in '>eue :eit'.

6In the psychological sense.

8 )ith the concept of a neutral social medium is connected for me an entire

socio!religious system. 0gainst purely the human medium and human process, the

transition from a natural and beastly condition, I contrast with the issuing!forth of

supra!human religious principles. In social democracy there are elements human, with

which I am in sympathy, but there is also the underpinnings of a supra!human

religion, with which I cannot sympathise.

G
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Berdyaev on Russian Marxism

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