“From Marxism to Idealism” — and to the Spiritual Search: The Trajectory of the Movement of Critical Marxists at the Beginning and the Third Quarter of the 20th Century

Abstract

The article attempts to trace out a line of continuity between the Critical Marxism of the early 20th century and the Critical Marxism of the third quarter of the century. The author shows how representatives of Critical or Legal Marxism (Sergei Bulgakov, Nikolai Berdyaev, Mikhail Tugan-Baranovsky) became fascinated by Marxism, trying to find in it a way out of the socio-political crisis and an answer to the eternal Russian question about what is to be done. Critical Marxists sought to complement Marxism or ‘‘Economic Materialism’’ with a universal, human and Christian ethics. As a result, this led them to idealism, liberalism and even to disappointment in Marxism. Such disillusionment was accompanied by, among other things, a movement towards religious thought. A similar trajectory of movement (from Marxism to idealism, and to religious quest) was repeated in the Critical Marxism of the ‘‘ottepel’’ period. After the dominance of the official party ideology, numerous philosophical circles, different interpretations, discussions, expectations and hopes for the future began to appear again, as at the turn of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Once again, the intelligentsia of these circles, turned to an ethical, moral and religious rethinking of Marxism. For instance, Critical Marxist Evald Ilyenkov and his disciple Genrikh Batishchev emphasized the role of a comprehensively developed, creative and critically-thinking individual. Even dialectical logic in their approach became a kind of struggle for the critically-thinking individual, as well as an optimistic belief in progress and the power of upbringing, culture, and education. Towards the end of the Soviet project, Critical Marxists began to pay increasing attention to ideas of self-culture, interpreting revolutionary practice as a self-improvement practice.