Nikolai Valentinov
Encyclopedia
Nikolai Valentinov was a Russian socialist, journalist, philosopher and economist, a member of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party (RSDRP). He was an exponent of empirio-criticism. He was also known as Nikolai Valentinov-Volski and, later, as E. Yurevski.
, in 1879. His family was of Lithuanian origin.
As a student at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic, Volski became involved in the revolutionary movement. At first he sympathised with the Narodniki
(populists) and became affiliated with some of the early Socialist-Revolutionary
circles. Later he discovered Marxism
and became involved in the Social-Democratic party.
In 1898, Volski was arrested and banished to Ufa
. In 1900, after his release, he moved to Kiev
, where he attended the Polytechnic and resumed his revolutionary activities. He also met his future wife Valentina there; in her honour he came to use the pseudonym 'Nikolai Valentinov'. During these years, Valentinov-Volski undertook a thorough study of Marxism, reading Karl Marx'
magnum opus Capital and writings by Georgi Plekhanov
and V.I. Lenin. He also took an interest in contemporary philosophy of science, especially in the empirio-criticist and empirio-monist theories of Ernst Mach
and Richard Avenarius
.
. In Geneva
, he associated with Lenin. Under Lenin's influence, Valentinov joined the Bolshevik
wing of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party (RSDRP) after the party's split at its second congress in 1903. Valentinov later recounted his time with Lenin in his 1953 book entitled My Encounters with Lenin.
Valentinov had been attracted to Lenin because of the latter's pamphlet What Is To Be Done? (1902), whose vision of a conspiratorial vanguard party appealed to the former sympathizer of Narodnaya Volya
. However, Valentinov soon came into conflict with Lenin, particularly with respect to philosophical issues. Valentinov tried to combine Marxism with the empirio-criticist philosophy of Mach and Avenarius. He was not unique in this; Machism was a popular current in the Russian, German and Austrian socialist movements of the period.
Lenin, as an orthodox Marxist, was a materialist and utterly rejected empirio-criticism as a form of subjective idealism. Valentinov objected to this critique, since in his view empirio-criticism was designed to overcome the metaphysical dichotomy of idealism and realism. For Lenin, the dispute had not merely philosophical but political implications: empirio-criticism was a form of petty bourgeois ideology that not only threatened the philosophical purity of Marxism but would also, in time, reveal its objectively counterrevolutionary political consequences.
Valentinov considered Lenin's position dogmatic, unscientific and based on an inadequate understanding of philosophy. Relations soon deteriorated. In 1905, Valentinov returned illegally to Russia and defected to the Menshevik
faction of the RSDRP. Valentinov had laid out his philosophy in the book Ernst Mach and Marxism (1907). Lenin wrote a long polemic, Marxism and Empirio-Criticism (1908), against what he considered the baleful influence of empirio-criticism on the revolutionary movement. Valentinov, along with Bogdanov and Lunacharski, was one of his targets.
Valentinov countered with the book The Philosophical Conceptions of Marxism (1908). In this work he rejected the charge of idealism and, in his various philosophical writings, went out of his way to criticise former Marxists like Sergei Bulgakov
and Petr Struve, who had embraced idealist philosophies.
was one of his colleagues). Valentinov published his articles under various pseudonyms. He adopted a moderate Internationalist
position during the First World War. He welcomed the Revolution of 1917 but gradually grew disillusioned with Kerenski's
provisional government and the Menshevik/SR leaders of the soviets.
After the October Revolution
, Valentinov left the Menshevik party. He was appointed as a 'non-party specialist' to the Supreme Economic Council of Soviet Russia (Vesenkha), and was one of the architects of the New Economic Policy
(NEP) after the Russian Civil War
. He also founded the journal Torgovo-Promyshlennaya Gazeta (Commercial-Industrial Gazette). During those years he collaborated closely with Nikolai Bukharin
.
After Lenin's death in 1924, Valentinov found his position in Soviet Russia increasingly precarious. He watched the rise of Joseph Stalin
with alarm and firmly opposed moves to abandon the NEP in favour of a programme of rapid industrialisation and collectivisation of agriculture.
As one of the most ardent defenders of the NEP, Valentinov felt that his life was in danger when Stalin decided definitively to abandon the NEP. In 1928, he fled from the Soviet Union and settled in Paris. He contributed to various émigré journals, now generally using the pseudonym 'E. Yurevski', and reconnected with the Menshevik exiles. Valentinov survived the Second World War in Paris. After the war he was associated with various Cold War
organisations, such as the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia, and corresponded with Menshevik veterans like Rafail Abramovich
.
Valentinov was frequently consulted by scholars (e.g., Leopold Haimson) on the early history of the Russian revolutionary movement and the Soviet Union. In the 1950s and '60s, Valentinov authored and edited various books on historical, philosophical, literary and economic subjects, including: My Encounters with Lenin (1953), Two Years with the Symbolists (1969), The Early Years of Lenin (1969) and The New Economic Policy and the Party Crisis after the Death of Lenin (1971). Several of these works appeared posthumously, as Nikolai Valentinov died in Paris on August 26, 1964.
Early years
Nikolai Vladislavovich Volski was born in Morshensk, in the Tambov province of the Russian empireRussian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, in 1879. His family was of Lithuanian origin.
As a student at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic, Volski became involved in the revolutionary movement. At first he sympathised with the Narodniki
Narodnik
Narodniks was the name for Russian socially conscious members of the middle class in the 1860s and 1870s. Their ideas and actions were known as Narodnichestvo which can be translated as "Peopleism", though is more commonly rendered "populism"...
(populists) and became affiliated with some of the early Socialist-Revolutionary
Socialist-Revolutionary Party
thumb|right|200px|Socialist-Revolutionary election poster, 1917. The caption in red reads "партия соц-рев" , short for Party of the Socialist Revolutionaries...
circles. Later he discovered Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
and became involved in the Social-Democratic party.
In 1898, Volski was arrested and banished to Ufa
Ufa
-Demographics:Nationally, dominated by Russian , Bashkirs and Tatars . In addition, numerous are Ukrainians , Chuvash , Mari , Belarusians , Mordovians , Armenian , Germans , Jews , Azeris .-Government and administration:Local...
. In 1900, after his release, he moved to Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
, where he attended the Polytechnic and resumed his revolutionary activities. He also met his future wife Valentina there; in her honour he came to use the pseudonym 'Nikolai Valentinov'. During these years, Valentinov-Volski undertook a thorough study of Marxism, reading Karl Marx'
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
magnum opus Capital and writings by Georgi Plekhanov
Georgi Plekhanov
Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov was a Russian revolutionary and a Marxist theoretician. He was a founder of the Social-Democratic movement in Russia and was one of the first Russians to identify himself as "Marxist." Facing political persecution, Plekhanov emigrated to Switzerland in 1880, where...
and V.I. Lenin. He also took an interest in contemporary philosophy of science, especially in the empirio-criticist and empirio-monist theories of Ernst Mach
Ernst Mach
Ernst Mach was an Austrian physicist and philosopher, noted for his contributions to physics such as the Mach number and the study of shock waves...
and Richard Avenarius
Richard Avenarius
Richard Heinrich Ludwig Avenarius was a German-Swiss philosopher. He formulated the radical positivist doctrine of "empirical criticism" or empirio-criticism....
.
Bolshevik activist
Valentinov played an active part in the student revolutionary movement and was arrested several times. In 1902, he received a serious head wound, which almost killed him, during a demonstration. In 1903, after his release from yet another term of imprisonment, he went into exile to SwitzerlandSwitzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. In Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
, he associated with Lenin. Under Lenin's influence, Valentinov joined the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
wing of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party (RSDRP) after the party's split at its second congress in 1903. Valentinov later recounted his time with Lenin in his 1953 book entitled My Encounters with Lenin.
Valentinov had been attracted to Lenin because of the latter's pamphlet What Is To Be Done? (1902), whose vision of a conspiratorial vanguard party appealed to the former sympathizer of Narodnaya Volya
Narodnaya Volya
Narodnaya Volya was aRussian left-wing terrorist organization, best known for the successful assassination of Tsar Alexander II of Russia. It created a centralized and well disguised organization in a time of diverse liberation movements in Russia...
. However, Valentinov soon came into conflict with Lenin, particularly with respect to philosophical issues. Valentinov tried to combine Marxism with the empirio-criticist philosophy of Mach and Avenarius. He was not unique in this; Machism was a popular current in the Russian, German and Austrian socialist movements of the period.
Lenin, as an orthodox Marxist, was a materialist and utterly rejected empirio-criticism as a form of subjective idealism. Valentinov objected to this critique, since in his view empirio-criticism was designed to overcome the metaphysical dichotomy of idealism and realism. For Lenin, the dispute had not merely philosophical but political implications: empirio-criticism was a form of petty bourgeois ideology that not only threatened the philosophical purity of Marxism but would also, in time, reveal its objectively counterrevolutionary political consequences.
Valentinov considered Lenin's position dogmatic, unscientific and based on an inadequate understanding of philosophy. Relations soon deteriorated. In 1905, Valentinov returned illegally to Russia and defected to the Menshevik
Menshevik
The Mensheviks were a faction of the Russian revolutionary movement that emerged in 1904 after a dispute between Vladimir Lenin and Julius Martov, both members of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party. The dispute originated at the Second Congress of that party, ostensibly over minor issues...
faction of the RSDRP. Valentinov had laid out his philosophy in the book Ernst Mach and Marxism (1907). Lenin wrote a long polemic, Marxism and Empirio-Criticism (1908), against what he considered the baleful influence of empirio-criticism on the revolutionary movement. Valentinov, along with Bogdanov and Lunacharski, was one of his targets.
Valentinov countered with the book The Philosophical Conceptions of Marxism (1908). In this work he rejected the charge of idealism and, in his various philosophical writings, went out of his way to criticise former Marxists like Sergei Bulgakov
Sergei Bulgakov
Fr. Sergei Nikolaevich Bulgakov was a Russian Orthodox Christian theologian, philosopher and economist. Until 1922 he worked in Russia; afterwards in Paris.-Early life:...
and Petr Struve, who had embraced idealist philosophies.
Post-Bolshevik activities
During the abortive Revolution of 1905, Valentinov worked for the Ukrainian Menshevik party in various capacities but played a minor role in the political events of the day. He concentrated primarily on journalism, contributing to such papers as Russkoe Slovo (Russian Word) and Kievskaya Mysl (where Leon TrotskyLeon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
was one of his colleagues). Valentinov published his articles under various pseudonyms. He adopted a moderate Internationalist
Internationalist/Defencist Schism
The terms 'Internationalist' and 'Defencist' were commonly used to describe the broad opposing camps in the international socialist movement during and shortly after the First World War. Prior to 1914, anti-militarism had been an article of faith among most European socialist parties...
position during the First World War. He welcomed the Revolution of 1917 but gradually grew disillusioned with Kerenski's
Alexander Kerensky
Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky was a major political leader before and during the Russian Revolutions of 1917.Kerensky served as the second Prime Minister of the Russian Provisional Government until Vladimir Lenin was elected by the All-Russian Congress of Soviets following the October Revolution...
provisional government and the Menshevik/SR leaders of the soviets.
After the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
, Valentinov left the Menshevik party. He was appointed as a 'non-party specialist' to the Supreme Economic Council of Soviet Russia (Vesenkha), and was one of the architects of the New Economic Policy
New Economic Policy
The New Economic Policy was an economic policy proposed by Vladimir Lenin, who called it state capitalism. Allowing some private ventures, the NEP allowed small animal businesses or smoke shops, for instance, to reopen for private profit while the state continued to control banks, foreign trade,...
(NEP) after the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
. He also founded the journal Torgovo-Promyshlennaya Gazeta (Commercial-Industrial Gazette). During those years he collaborated closely with Nikolai Bukharin
Nikolai Bukharin
Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin , was a Russian Marxist, Bolshevik revolutionary, and Soviet politician. He was a member of the Politburo and Central Committee , chairman of the Communist International , and the editor in chief of Pravda , the journal Bolshevik , Izvestia , and the Great Soviet...
.
After Lenin's death in 1924, Valentinov found his position in Soviet Russia increasingly precarious. He watched the rise of Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
with alarm and firmly opposed moves to abandon the NEP in favour of a programme of rapid industrialisation and collectivisation of agriculture.
As one of the most ardent defenders of the NEP, Valentinov felt that his life was in danger when Stalin decided definitively to abandon the NEP. In 1928, he fled from the Soviet Union and settled in Paris. He contributed to various émigré journals, now generally using the pseudonym 'E. Yurevski', and reconnected with the Menshevik exiles. Valentinov survived the Second World War in Paris. After the war he was associated with various Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
organisations, such as the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia, and corresponded with Menshevik veterans like Rafail Abramovich
Raphael Abramovitch
Raphael Rein Abramovich was a Russian socialist, a member of the General Jewish Workers' Union in Lithuania, Poland and Russia and a leader of the Menshevik wing of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party .-Life:...
.
Valentinov was frequently consulted by scholars (e.g., Leopold Haimson) on the early history of the Russian revolutionary movement and the Soviet Union. In the 1950s and '60s, Valentinov authored and edited various books on historical, philosophical, literary and economic subjects, including: My Encounters with Lenin (1953), Two Years with the Symbolists (1969), The Early Years of Lenin (1969) and The New Economic Policy and the Party Crisis after the Death of Lenin (1971). Several of these works appeared posthumously, as Nikolai Valentinov died in Paris on August 26, 1964.
Further reading
- Valentinov, N., R. Magee and G. Guroff, 'Non-Party Specialists and the Coming of the NEP.' Russian Review. Vol. 30, No. 2 (April, 1971), pp. 154-163
- Register of the Nikolai Valentinov Papers, 1912-1964. http://cdn.calisphere.org/data/13030/j6/tf300002j6/files/tf300002j6.pdf.
- 'Валентинов (Вольский), Николай Владиславлевич (1879–1964).' http://antology.igrunov.ru/authors/valentinov/.
- Kołakowski, L.Leszek KolakowskiLeszek Kołakowski was a Polish philosopher and historian of ideas. He is best known for his critical analyses of Marxist thought, especially his acclaimed three-volume history, Main Currents of Marxism, which is "considered by some to be one of the most important books on political theory of the...
, Main Currents of Marxism. Vol. 2: The Golden Age. Oxford, 1978. - Ulam, A.B., The Bolsheviks: The Intellectual and Political History of the Triumph of Communism in Russia. New York, 1965.