ABSTRACT
Vera Dunham’s work in interpreting Soviet society testifies eloquently to the close relationship between history and literature. Her image of the “Iskra complex” in Soviet literature—the official belief in the role of the printed word as the instrument for organizing right thought—emphasizes the prerevolutionary foundations of Soviet thought. In 1981 Petr Lavrov joined the pantheon Lives of Remarkable People, and A. Volodin and Boris Itenberg suggested that although Lavrov respected Karl Marx and listened to him, he was perhaps simply too old to accept the new teachings. In the case of Mikhail Bakunin, the historiographical questions vexing Soviet specialists have been quite different. Lavrov offers an example of a man who disagreed with Marx and Friedrich Engels on ideological questions but who remained a personal friend. The Russian Marxists complained endlessly both about Lavrov’s efforts to unify the revolutionary forces and also about his obscure style of writing.
