Marxism Is the Product of a Struggle for Political Freedom
It’s important to place the leading figures of Marxism in the context that shaped them. That context has to include the repressive state structures and extreme inequalities of Europe in the early 20th century, which made revolution seem inevitable.
Philosopher Karl Marx circa 1875. (Wikimedia Commons)
Christina Morina’s The Invention of Marxism contains a wealth of material on nine socialist intellectuals who Morina characterizes as key figures in the foundation of Marxism. The most recent trends in historical method inform the book, and it is based on considerable research in a wealth of printed sources in several languages as well as the archival treasures of the International Institute of Social History (IISH) in Amsterdam — if there is a heaven for historians of socialism, it is the IISH.
The book is also highly readable and accessible, perhaps surprisingly so for a work that started life as a German professorial dissertation (credit also to the translator, Elizabeth Janik). The book’s German edition originally appeared in 2017.
Morina has selected nine individuals from four countries: Germany, Austria (or rather the Austro-Hungarian Empire), France, and Russia. The socialist intellectuals whose lives and pathways to embracing Marxism she reconstructs are Karl Kautsky, Eduard Bernstein, Rosa Luxemburg, Victor Adler, Jean Jaurès, Jules Guesde, Georgi Plekhanov, Vladimir Lenin, and Peter Struve.
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