Marxism in Russia: The Origin, Development and Decline of a Doctrine, Volume I (1861-1907) traces the origin and Development of scientific socialism in a backward country like Russia since the abolition of serfdom(1861) and in the process, examines various contending schools of thought such as Narodism, Legal Marxism, Economism, etc. it also deals with the contributions of Plekhanov, the father of Russian Marxism, particularly his critical analyses of eighteenth century materialism, French, English and German Utopian Socialism, nineteenth century German idealism, evaluation of Hegel’s concept of dialectics and its limitations. Feuerbach’s materialism highlighting the indebtedness of Marx and Engels to Hegel and Feuerbach. The volume ends with a thorough study of the ideological conflict within the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) leading to its split into two factions (Bolsheviks and Mensheviks), the first Russian Revolution (1905-1907), and the long polemics on tactics of proletarian struggle for its emancipation from the shackles of Tsarist autocracy. Volume II (1907-1917) continues the elaborate examination of the ideological development of Marxism and in the process deals with empirio-criticism and empiriomonism, dialectical materialism, and subjective, idealism. If also dwells upon the overthrow of the provisional government and assumption of power by the Bolsheviks, Lenin’s views on war, peace and imperialism and his criticism of national charnism. A major portion of the volume is devoted to a narrative account of the nation-wide Russian Revolution of October 1917. Volume III (1917-1922) is devoted to the study of Lenin’s debate with the anti-Bolshevik Russian political leaders and ideologues on the nature of state in the bourgeois and communist societies, the dictatorship of the proletariat, state capitalism, and the role of trade unions in a socialist society. Apart from the views of Lenin on these issues, due place is given to the divergent opinion of prominent Marxists like Trotsky, Bukharins and Kollantai. Volume IV (1922-1939) covers the years following Lenin’s death and Stalin’s emergence as a supreme authority in the Bolshevik Party. In This period, Marxism was distorted under the pressure of various objective and subjective factors. The Russian society still being feudal in character, there was dearth of competent parsons in the prletariat cadre who could have taken up the rein of administration in their hands. Therefore the Bolsheviks had to recruit foreign experts and the civil servants of the old Tsarist regime. Besides, the Communist Part suffered from three diseases: Excessive bureaucratization, self-seeking habits of the dishonest Party leaders, and consolidation of a powerful centralized dictatorial regime under the leadership of Stalin. Now Stalin began t distort Marxism and exterminate his opponents for maintaining himself in power. Therefore an attempt has been made to examine the views of Stalin and other Marxists such as Trotsky, Bukharin, Rykov, Zinoviev, Kamenev and Deborin. The Controversy around Stalin’s “Socialism in One Country†and Trotsky’s “Permanent Revolution†has been thoroughly reviewed. This is the fifth and last volume (1939-1991) of Marxism in Russia: The Origin, Development and Declone of a Doctrine, which deals with the most crucial phase of Marxism between the Second World War and the collapse of the Soviet regime in 1991. It examines the Western countries antagonistic policy towards Russia and the rise of Nazism and Fascism the Soviet-Nazi Pact and Stalin’s distortion of Marxism for maintaining his dictatorial regime. This phase of Russian Marxism (the Zhdanor Era) has been put to severe criticism because Stalin and has handimen resorted to all sorts of tactics to repress those whom they felt to be their adversaries. The volume also dwells upon the signs of revolt against Stalinism after the dictator’s death (criticism of Stalin’s personality cult) and Gorbachov’s policy of Perestroika and Glasnoss and critically evaluates the proceedings of Soviet-Bulgarian Symposium on socialism in which socialism in practice was thoroughly examined and the validity of some of the basic principles of Marxism were questioned.
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