Re-actualising Marxism in Russia: The dialectic of transformations and social creativity

This article analyses the differentia specifica (specific difference) of the Post-Soviet School of Critical Marxism in the areas of the methodology and philosophy of history and of the socio-political process. Among the main characteristics of the school, the authors stress the importance assigned to the ‘new’ dialectic of the ‘sunset’, genesis and transformation of socio-economic systems. Typical of this process are (1) non-linear evolution (or involution), including the dialectical unity of reforms and counter-reforms, revolutions and counter-revolutions; (2) the decline of objective basic determination and growth of the role of subjective factors; (3) the multi-scenario character of transformations, and so on. Also analysed are the contradictions, limits and potential of the social creativity of free association, in contrast to ‘activism’. The authors also provide a detailed account of Marxist studies in post-Soviet Russia, and show the place occupied by their school within this area.