The Plekhanovian Roots of Soviet Philosophy

This a critical study of Georgi Plekhanov's system of thought and its later expression in the Soviet Union's official philosophy of dialectical materialism (diamat). It systematically analyses the development of Plekhanov's conception of dialectical materialism over the course of his revolutionary career and argues that it is a form of neo-Young Hegelianism, as opposed to Marx's dialectical method. It investigates the continuation of Plekhanov's philosophy in the codification of diamat in the Soviet Union, which culminated with the publication of Stalin's 1938 essay "Dialectical and Historical Materialism."