ATTITUDES TO MARX AND ENGELS IN RUSSIA BEFORE THE 1880s

While for Populists of all complexions the prospect of revolution receded after the assassination of Alexander II and their notions as to how revolution might come about in Russia seemed increasingly untenable, there began to appear a few groups which found fresh inspiration in the works of Western socialists, particularly, though not exclusively, those of Marx and Engels. The first revolutionaries seriously to examine the possibility of applying Western Social Democratic theory to Russian conditions were émigré Populists, whose dwindling hope that revolution might be carried out from below was undoubtedly revived by the emphasis placed in that theory on the revolutionary potential of the urban masses. Inside Russia the growth, concentration and increasing discontent of these masses, combined with the relatively favourable impression they made on propagandists who worked among them, lent plausibility to claims that Social Democracy might have a revolutionary significance even in such a backward country. At first, it is true, groups which may more or less accurately be described as Social Democratic in character were not only few, small and isolated, but also sometimes rather difficult to distinguish from other groups of Populist or indeterminate complexion. Moreover, like most revolutionary groups of the time, they devoted themselves for the most part to activity that was so cautious and thorough that their role was often almost as much pedagogical as revolutionary. Nevertheless, their significance was very considerable, for they at least demonstrated the possibility of an alternative to Populism and laid foundations for a new movement which was to develop with great vigour from the early 1890s.