Georgi Plekhanov
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'''Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov''' (''Георгий Валентинович Плеханов'') (December 11, 1856 – May 30, 1918; ''Julian calendar|Old Style:'' November 29 1856 – May 17 1918) was a Russian revolutionary and a Marxist theoretician. He was a founder of the Social-Democratic movement in Russia. Plekhanov contributed many ideas to Marxism in the area of philosophy and the roles of art and religion in society. In his political activities he adopted the pseudonym|nom de guerre of Volgin, after the Volga River. Some have commented that this name influenced the famous revolutionary Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov adopting the name Lenin to highlight his opposition to Plekhanovs' politics.
Plekhanov was originally a Narodnik, a leader of the organization "Land and Liberty". After emigrating from Russia in 1880, he established connections with the Social-Democratic movement of western Europe and began to study the works of Karl Marx|Marx and Friedrich Engels|Engels. This led him to renounce Narodism and become a Marxist.
In 1883, he founded, in Switzerland, the "Emancipation of Labor" group, which popularized Marxism among Russian revolutionaries. At its dissolution, he joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) and worked with Vladimir Lenin|Lenin.
In 1903, at the second congress of the RSDLP, Plekhanov broke with Lenin and sided with the Mensheviks. During World War I, he took a "nationalist" position (as opposed to Bolshevik's "proletarian internationalism"), calling for the defeat of Germany.
He returned to Russia just before October Revolution. However, he left Russia again because he was hostile toward the Bolsheviks. He died of tuberculosis in Terijoki, Finland (now Zelenogorsk (suburb of Saint Petersburg)|Zelenogorsk, Saint Petersburg, Russia).
Works
''Anarchism & Socialism'' (1894)
''The Development of the Monist View of History'' (1895)
''Essays on the History of Materialism'' (1896)
''The Materialist Conception of History''
''The Role of the Individual in History''
''Fundamental Problems of Marxism'' (1908)
External links
http://www.marxists.org/archive/plekhanov/ http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSplekhanov.htm
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