Plenkhanov in War and Revolution, 1914–17

Abstract

Despite the fact that the views of Georgii Valentinovich Plekhanov (1856–1918) on the World War cannot be studied in his voluminous collected works – the editor abruptly terminated the edition with an article Plekhanov published on the eve of the war's outbreak – his position is broadly familiar to students of Russian and international socialism. Thanks to his substantial published writings from September 1914 to March 1917 scattered through the press of at least five countries, a two volume collection of his articles and speeches for the remainder of 1917, and several brief secondary accounts, it is possible to trace Plekhanov's wartime outlook. By contrast, little is known of his political initiatives, associations and conflicts during the war years. A considerable share of his correspondence and other personal papers – the kind of material likely to illuminate these aspects – has been printed by the Dom Plekhanova, the Leningrad repository that holds almost all of them.