Work · Socialism, Anarchism, Marxism & Critical Theory
On the Role of the Individual in History
Great individuals can change the course of events only within the limits set by social conditions – a classic Marxist answer to the question of freedom and necessity in history.
Introduction
Plekhanov published “On the Role of the Individual in History” in 1898 in the journal Nauchnoe obozrenie under the pseudonym A. Kirsanov. Against the charge that Marxism leaves no room for human action, and against the populists’ cult of heroes, he argues that individuals can influence the course of events through their gifts and decisions, but only within the limits set by the state of productive forces and social relations. A great man is great not because he makes history but because he sees further than others what his time requires; had there been no Napoleon, another general would have filled his role. The essay became a standard text of Marxist philosophy of history and was widely read in the Soviet Union; critics have seen in it the determinism typical of the Marxism of the Second International.
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