Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Chapter 1 Max Weber Invents Himself
- Chapter 2 Weber's Dissertation and Habilitation
- Chapter 3 Max Weber and the “Agrarian Crisis” 1892– 1902
- Chapter 4 Charisma and the Spirit of Capitalism
- Chapter 5 Max Weber's Sociology of Civilizations: A Preliminary Investigation into Its Major Methodological Concepts
- Chapter 6 Weber's Foray into Geopolitics
- Chapter 7 Max Weber in the United States
- Chapter 8 Max Weber on Russia's Long Road to Modernity
- Chapter 9 The Religion of China and the Prospects of Chinese
- Chapter 10 Politics without Magic: Max Weber in Weimar Germany
- Chapter 11 The Relevance of Max Weber for Political Theory Today
- Notes on Contributors
- Index
Chapter 8 - Max Weber on Russia's Long Road to Modernity
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 July 2017
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Chapter 1 Max Weber Invents Himself
- Chapter 2 Weber's Dissertation and Habilitation
- Chapter 3 Max Weber and the “Agrarian Crisis” 1892– 1902
- Chapter 4 Charisma and the Spirit of Capitalism
- Chapter 5 Max Weber's Sociology of Civilizations: A Preliminary Investigation into Its Major Methodological Concepts
- Chapter 6 Weber's Foray into Geopolitics
- Chapter 7 Max Weber in the United States
- Chapter 8 Max Weber on Russia's Long Road to Modernity
- Chapter 9 The Religion of China and the Prospects of Chinese
- Chapter 10 Politics without Magic: Max Weber in Weimar Germany
- Chapter 11 The Relevance of Max Weber for Political Theory Today
- Notes on Contributors
- Index
Summary
Max Weber's writings on Russia have not the reputation of being the peak of his scholarship. Nevertheless they are regarded as a still basically true representation of the Russian predicament, with its obstacles for a normal route to modernity, although Weber's characterization of the Russian Revolution as conducted by “a local sect” might appear as an exaggeration even after die Wende and the implosion of the Soviet Empire. Seventy years is a short period in history. Weber dealt with Russian affairs both 1905– 6 and 1917– 18. His main concern was Germany's security policy but he also felt that constitutional issues were crucial. In fact Wilhelmine Germany and Czarist Russia had a common problem of pseudo- constitutionalism and transformation. According to, among others, Wolfgang J. Mommsen, outmoded forms of state were a main cause for the outbreak of World War I, a tragedy out of control, like a downhill rolling snowball, both Germany and Russia as nonrational actors,
Weber's interests were thus both geostrategic and domestic. Germany experienced itself as encircled by enemies. The eastern border was a soft one, due to a lack of ethnic homogeneity (see Weber 1895).
In an ad hoc speech at the Weber centennial in Heidelberg in 1964, Max Horkheimer recalled how disappointed he was over Weber lecturing on the Russian Revolution, without any indications about what he would advise students to do in their search for policy orientation in turbulent days:
Max Weber lectured on the Soviet system. The auditorium was crowded to its doors, but great disappointment followed. Instead of theoretical reflection and analysis, which, not only in posting the problem, but in every single step of thinking would have led to a reasoned structuring of the future, we listened for two or three hours to finely balanced definitions of the Russian system, shrewdly formulated ideal types, by which it was possible to define the Soviet order. It was all so precise, so scientifically exact, so value- free that we all went sadly home. (Here quoted from Uta Gerhardt 2011: 181)
Reactions from students in search of guidance were like this when Weber delivered his “Politik als Beruf ” in early 1919. In this popular lecture Weber touched upon the Russian situation. Those in search for “total reason” were not satisfied by the Weberian distinction between science and politics.
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- Information
- The Anthem Companion to Max Weber , pp. 195 - 206Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2016