The Development of the Monist View of History
Editorial Notes
21*. K. Marx and F. Engels, Selected Works , Vol.1, Moscow 1955, p.272.
22*. Quotation from Marx’s The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte . Cf. K. Marx and F. Engels, Selected Works , Vol.I, Moscow 1958, p.272.
23*. The reference is to the tragedies of Sumarokov, Knyazhnin, Kherkasov and other Russian dramatists of the 18th century.
24*. The Glorious Revolution – the English revolution of 1688-1689; the Great Rebellion – the French revolution at the end of the 18th century.
25*. All editions contain the mistake: “Pseudo-classical English literature.”
26*. This sentence is to be found only in the first Russian edition.
27*. The New Christianity was written by Saint-Simon.
28*. Quotation from the Introduction to the Criticism of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right .
29*. Meshchersky, Vladimir Petrovich (1839-1914), conservative publicist and writer, extreme monarchist.
30*. N.G. Chernyshevsky.
31*. Quoted from Nekrasov’s poem New Year .
32*. Quotation from Marx’s First Thesis on Feuerbach . Cf. K. Marx and F. Engels, Selected Works , Vol.II, Moscow 1958, S.403.
33*. Chatsky – a character in Griboyedov’s comedy Wit Works Woe . Chatsky personifies the progressive section of Russian noble youth in the first quarter of the 19th century. He is a man of lofty ideals and advanced views.
34*. Skalozub – a character in Griboyedov’s comedy Wit Works Woe , an ignorant and presumptuous officer, enemy of free thinking.
35*. In the new edition Plekhanov intended to make clear this passage, which had been intentionally obscured because of the censorship. Among the additions preserved in the archives which he did not make use of, the following remark applies to this passage: “Skalozub is the censorship. Make clear from the history of Beltov himself, Sbornik , Novoye Slovo and Nachalo .” This list includes editions which suffered from persecution by the censorship: the book of Beltov (Plekhanov) The Development of the Monist View of History , the first edition of which was quickly sold out and besides confiscated from libraries, could not be republished for ten years, until 1905; the Marxist symposium Material for a Characterization of Our Economic Development , printed in 1895, was held up for a year and a half by the censorship and then the whole edition was burned, except for a few copies which were fortuitously preserved; the magazine Novoye Slovo ( New Word ) was suppressed in December 1897; the magazine Nachalo ( Beginning ), its successor in 1899, was prohibited at the fifth issue. Thus, Marxists were almost without any legal publication while the Narodniks enjoyed almost entire liberty in this respect.
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Last updated on 23.12.2004
Modern Materialism. Part Four
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