Western Marxism refers to the broad current of theoretical innovation by a number of Marxist-oriented political theorists and activists, beginning in the period immediately following the end of World War I and the 1918 Russian Revolution, enduring through the rise of European fascism in the early 1930s, and continuing in multiple versions to the present day. With a remarkable range of theoretical creativity, Western Marxists effectively recreated Marxism as an object of philosophical analysis, and rededicated themselves to the idea of Marx’s thought as worthy of theoretical reconstruction. In the process, they broke sharply from the rigid and simplified vision of Marxist theory and practice espoused by the official Party hierarchies.