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A Forerunner of Lenin: P. N. Tkachev

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Michael Karpovich
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Extract

The name of Peter Tkachev is virtually unknown outside of Russia. Even in Russia his importance in the history of the Russian revolutionary movement received but belated recognition. During his lifetime, he met with strong opposition on the part of the majority of Russian revolutionaries. A hostile attitude towards his personality and his ideas remained predominant in revolutionary circles for a long time after his death (1886). It was only after the revolution that he began to attract more sympathetic attention.

Type
Articles
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 6 , Issue 3 , July 1944 , pp. 336 - 350
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1944

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References

1 See in particular Kozmin's, B.P. N. Tkachev i revoliutsonnoe dvizhenie 1860-khgodov. (Moscow, 1922)Google Scholar and Pokrovsky's, M.Ocherki po istorii revoliutsionnogo dvizheniia v Rossii 19 i 20 vekov (Moscow 1924)Google Scholar. Under Mr, Kozmin's editorship, six volumes of Tkachev's selected writings (Izbrannye sochmeniia, subsequently cited as Soch.) were published in 1932–1937Google Scholar.

2 Tkachev had in view the members of the People's Will party. Substantially, the validity of Tkachev's claim has been recognized by both Lenin, (Sochineniia, 3d ed., IV, p. 494)Google Scholar and Plekhanov, (Sochineniia, II, pp. 147–48)Google Scholar.

3 Text published in IStoriko-revolutsionnaia khrestomatiia, I, (Moscow, 1923)Google Scholar. For the activities of the society see Svatikov, S., “Studencheskoe dvizhenie 1869 goda” in Nasha Strana (St. Petersburg, 1907)Google Scholar.

4 The German original appeared in 1868 under the title of Die Arbeiterfrage in ihrer gegenwartigen Gestaltung und die Versuche zu ihrer Lösung. All of Tkachev's caution was not sufficient to allay the suspicion of the censor. The whole Russian edition of the book was seized by the authorities, and the objectionable editorial comment was ordered to be omitted.

5 Soch., I, pp. 410–411.

6 For facts Tkachev relied on Zimmerman's, WilhelmAllgemeine Geschichte des Grossen Bauern Krieges (1841–1843)Google Scholar and on Johannes Scherr's studies in German cultural history, but the interpretation was his own. According to Pokrovsky, M., Kautsky added nothing new to it in his study of the Reformation period (Istorik Marksist, 1926, I, p. 4)Google Scholar. It can be added that Tkachev anticipated Max Weber in pointing out the intimate connection between Protestantism and Capitalism.

7 Soch., I, p. 261.

8 Ibid.. I, pp. 326–327.

9 In his article “Fluechtlingsliteraten” published in the Volksstaat in October, 1874, Engels subjected Tkachev's pamphlet against Lavrov to a severe criticism. This called forth Tkachev's, Offener Briefe an Herrn Fr. Engels (Zurich, 1874)Google Scholar, to which Engels in his turn replied in a series of articles in the Volksstaal for 1875 (later republished separately as Soziales aus Russland).

10 Tkachev's participation in the Nabat continued until March, 1879. The periodical was published (very irregularly) until 1881.

11 There can be little doubt that Tkachev elaborated his tactical views under the strong influence of Blanqui. In 1880 he contributed a few articles to the Blanquist periodical Ni Dieu ni Maitre, and in January, 1881, he delivered an oration at Blanqui's funeral, in which he called the deceased French revolutionary “our inspiration and our guide in the great art of conspiracy” (Dommanget, Maurice, Blanqui, Paris, 1924, p. 93)Google Scholar. Dommanget describes Tkachev and his faction as representing “un blanquisme russe, à la verité plus blanquiste que le Vieux lui-même” (Ibid., p. 92).

12 Soch., III. p. 274.

13 Here Tkachev was at one with Bakunin and his followers.

14 One might well question the historical correctness of this interpretation of Jacobinism. Somewhat later a similar use was made of the term “Blanquist” (as in Plekhanov's polemics against Lenin, for instance).

15 Subsequently, Tkachev introduced an important reservation in this assertion. See below.

16 There are also some obvious points of contact with Bakunin. such as the assertion that the Russian peasant is a “communist by instinct and tradition,” or the reference to the “mechanical” nature of state power in Russia. The letter to Engels contains a spirited defense of Bakunin against the attacks of the Marxists.

17 Ibid., III, pp. 219–221. See also ibid., III, p. 238 “To-day we are holding in our hands Russia's historical fate. We can change it if we will.”

18 ibid., III. p. 267.

19 Cf. B. Kozmin's introduction to Vol. I of Tkacliev's Sochineniia, his P. N. Tkachev i revoliutsonnoe dvizhenie 1860-kh godov. ch. III. andPokrovsky's, M.Ocherki po istorii revoliutsionnogo dvizheniia V Rossii, p. 62Google Scholar.

20 Zheliabov was one of the leaders of the People's Will party.

21 Lenin, , Toward the Seizure of Power (New York, 1932), II, 145. Italics are mineGoogle Scholar.

22 Ibid., II, 112.

23 Ibid., II, 327; 144. I do not think that anyone ever has pointed out the striking similarity between the last of these statements and the famous “blood and iron policy” pronouncement of Bismarck.