CLASS OR COMMUNITY? MARX, THE RUSSIAN COMMUNE, AND CONTEMPORARY CRITICAL THEORY

ABSTRACT This article explores the relationship between class and community through a discussion of peasant struggles and the commune during the Russian Revolution. Doing so, we show how Marx's class‐oriented reflections on community can help us to understand the role that the peasantry plays (...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:History and theory :Studies in the philosophy of history 2021-03, Vol.60 (1), p.50-74
Main Authors: MACÍAS VÁZQUEZ, ALFREDO, ALONSO GONZÁLEZ, PABLO, PARGA DANS, EVA
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
capitalism
class
Classical theory
Communes
Community
Critical theory
Culture
Decolonization
Epistemology
Marx
Marxism
peasantry
Peasants
Phenomenology
Postcolonialism
Power
Russia
Russian Revolution
Social change
Social classes
Social dynamics
Social systems
Social theories
Subordination
Transformation
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Summary:ABSTRACT This article explores the relationship between class and community through a discussion of peasant struggles and the commune during the Russian Revolution. Doing so, we show how Marx's class‐oriented reflections on community can help us to understand the role that the peasantry plays (or should play) in processes of social transformation. This enables us, first, to understand the relevance of communal forms for Marx, who believed that communitarian ways of life were crucial for overcoming a value‐based society. It is, in fact, a mistake to divide Marx's intellectual trajectory into two periods: a categorical Marx, who authored Capital and critically analyzed the classical theory of value, and a phenomenological, empirical Marx, who in the last years of his life abandoned writing Capital and focused instead on studying the Russian peasantry. Second, it enables us to discuss new externalist visions, such as postcolonial and decolonial theories, which postulate that the subordination of contemporary peasant communities is rooted in epistemology, culture, and local power relations. These theories are related to the old social‐democratic canon, which conceives of social classes as preconstituted entities and of capital as a parasitic externality that is incommensurable with social dynamics. The experience of the Russian peasantry calls into question all externalist and ontological perspectives.
ISSN:0018-2656
1468-2303
DOI:10.1111/hith.12192