ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the theory developed by the Agrarian-Marxists, focusing first on the heritage they denied and later on the tradition they embraced. It explores the way in which these young scholars reaffirmed their roots and suggest some of the long-range implications for the group of this concession to tradition. Pursuing this strand in Karl Marx's thought, the populists envisaged a socialist Russia whose core would be the traditional rural institutions and whose economy would be primarily agricultural, with industry playing the role of an appendage. The Russian Marxists objected strenuously to the populist vision of a rural-based socialism. Illness prevented V. I. Lenin from addressing himself again to the question of Russia's transition to socialism. As a result, the 1923 articles on cooperation became Lenin's final bequest to the Russian people. The statement implied that the Russian peasantry might avoid the agonies of the capitalist stage of development.