The "World Revolution" in Russian Anarchism

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to identify the specifics of the theory of the "world revolution" in the ideological and political heritage of Russian anarchism. Historical, comparative, hermeneutic methods of scientific research were actively used to write the article. The ideologists of Russian anarchism in their interpretation of the "world revolution" competed with Marxist doctrine, with its popular dialectical theory of socio-economic formations and class struggle, where the final stage of historical progress was to be the achievement of global communism. Rejecting the Marxist concept of "dictatorship of the proletariat", the Russian anarchists proceeded from an alternative methodology that emphasizes the primacy of natural, biological factors of social processes. According to anarchists, the basic factor of progress is the natural inclination of people to solidarity and mutual assistance. Hence the Russian anarchists opposed the natural nature of the evolution of mankind to any "forced" forms of social organization. This applied, first of all, to the institution of the state, regardless of its external form – communist, liberal-democratic, despotic. The basic parameters of the social ideal in the theory of Russian anarchism were the principles of anarchy and freedom, the building of social existence on the basis of self-organization, self-government and a global decentralized confederation structured "from the bottom up". The former territorial and political borders were abolished, nations were abolished. The anarchists saw the achievement of this ideal as an exclusively revolutionary way, gradually embracing all new countries, regions, continents. The article emphasizes the constant appeal of Russian anarchists to the arguments of universal morality - "freedom", "justice", "brotherhood", "justice", "equality" in justifying the need for a world anarchist revolution, which in practice turned into political abstractions with destructive consequences for societies. At the same time, the "secondary" ideology of Russian anarchism as an intellectual product is noted in relation to Marxism and natural science theories of the XVIII-XIX centuries, as well as the tendency of anarchists to utopian thinking, to speculative building of their global social ideal.