ABSTRACT
G. V. Plekhanov was generally recognized as a major figure, almost nothing had been written on him outside the Soviet Union, and the sources available for a study of him were apparently more than ample. A related characteristic—a need to find order in the world—perhaps deserves special consideration. This may have derived from an early involvement in science, with its belief in a fundamentally orderly universe and man’s capacity to apprehend it by way of rational analysis. Plekhanov enjoyed great prestige for having laid the foundations of Russian Marxism in his theoretical work and for having launched Russian Social Democracy. Plekhanov was occasionally accused of being so hypercritical that he stunted the growth of fresh literary forces in the movement. Something of Plekhanov’s style communicated itself to Lenin and others, and may at least partly account for the endless sniping, abuse, and organizational splitting so characteristic of the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party.
