 | |
| Author | Joseph Stalin |
|---|---|
| Original title | Анархизм или социализм? |
| Language | Russian |
| Genre | Political philosophy |
Publication date | 1906 |
| Publication place | Soviet Union |
| Media type | |
Anarchism or Socialism? is a 1906/1907 work by Soviet leaderJoseph Stalin inGeorgian, first published inRussian in 1946.[1][2] The work sought to analyzeanarchism using Marxist methods.[3][4]
The composition of this work was developed in the years followingthe failed 1905 Russian Revolution; Stalin at this period of time adopted a strongMarxist ideology. The philosophy of anarchism played a significant role in Russian history, with numerous notable Russian anarchists, such asMikhail Bakunin,Emma Goldman,Peter Kropotkin, andLeo Tolstoy. At the timeanarchists in Georgia were engaged in an ideological campaign against Marxists in theCaucasus, and Stalin was made responsible for Bolshevik operations in the Caucasus region.[5]
The articles that becameAnarchism or Socialism began as a series of newspaper articles written inGeorgian. The first four articles were published in their original form in the daily Bolshevik newspaperახალი ცხოვრება ("New Life") published inTbilisi, under the direction of Stalin,[6] in June–July 1906. The series continued to be published inჩვენი ცხოვრება ("Our Life") from February 1907 to its closure on 6 March 1907, and then inდრო ("Time") in April 1907. In 1946, it was republished in Russian in the first volume of Stalin's Collected Works.[7]Stephen Kotkin claims that Stalin plagiarized the work from Giorgi Teliya, a Georgian railway worker.[8]
The work focuses on Stalin's criticism of the philosophy ofanarchism and responses to anarchist criticisms of Marxists.[2] According to Stalin, anarchists had no support among theworking class, but they had some success outside the workers and amongpetite bourgeoisie groups.[2]
In the work Stalin refutes the Georgian anarchists who argued that dialectics denied people the ability to "jump out of oneself"[a] by arguing that "jumping out of oneself"[b] is a task for wild goats while dialectics serves humans.[1]
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