Nikolai Vladislavovich Valentinov (Rusaian: Николай Владиславович Валентинов; 18 May 1880 – 26 July 1964) was a Russian philosopher, journalist and economist. A member of the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party (RSDRP), he was an exponent of

empirio-criticism Ernst Waldfried Josef Wenzel Mach ( ; ; 18 February 1838 – 19 February 1916) was an Austrian Empire, Austrian physicist and philosopher, who contributed to the understanding of the physics of shock waves. The ratio of the speed of a flow or ob ...

. He was also known as Nikolai Valentinov-Volski and, later, as E. Yurevski.

Biography

Early years

Nikolai Vladislavovich Volski was born in Morshansk, in the

Tambov Governorate Tambov Governorate () was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, the Russian Republic, and the Russian SFSR, with its capital in Tambov. It was located between 51°14' and 55°6' north latitude, north and betwee ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, in 1879. His family was of Lithuanian origin. As a student at the St. Petersburg Technological Institute, Volski became involved in the revolutionary movement. At first he sympathised with the

Narodnik The Narodniks were members of a movement of the Russian Empire intelligentsia in the 1860s and 1870s, some of whom became involved in revolutionary agitation against tsarism. Their ideology, known as Narodism, Narodnism or ,; , similar to the ...

i (populists) and became affiliated with some of the early Socialist-Revolutionary circles. Later he discovered

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

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 Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

, where he attended the

Polytechnic A polytechnic is an educational institution that primarily focuses on vocational education, applied sciences, and career pathways. They are sometimes referred to as ''institutes of technology'', ''vocational institutes'', or ''universities of app ...

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 Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

'' and writings by

Georgi Plekhanov Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov ( rus, Георгий Валентинович Плеханов, p=ɡʲɪˈorɡʲɪj vəlʲɪnʲˈtʲinəvʲɪtɕ plʲɪˈxanəf, a=Ru-Georgi Plekhanov-JermyRei.ogg; – 30 May 1918) was a Russian revolutionary, ...

and

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

. He also took an interest in contemporary philosophy of science, especially in the empirio-criticism and empirio-monist theories of

Ernst Mach Ernst Waldfried Josef Wenzel Mach ( ; ; 18 February 1838 – 19 February 1916) was an Austrian physicist and philosopher, who contributed to the understanding of the physics of shock waves. The ratio of the speed of a flow or object to that of ...

and Richard Avenarius.

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

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. In

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

, he associated with Lenin. Under Lenin's influence, Valentinov joined the

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

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 network of working-class activists, skilled at the art of evading police, appealed to the former sympathizer of

Narodnaya Volya Narodnaya Volya () was a late 19th-century revolutionary socialist political organization operating in the Russian Empire, which conducted assassinations of government officials in an attempt to overthrow the autocratic Tsarist system. The org ...

. However, Valentinov soon came into conflict with Lenin, particularly with respect to philosophical issues. Valentinov set out to combine Marxism with the

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: The Russian Bolsheviks

Alexander Bogdanov Alexander Aleksandrovich Bogdanov (; – 7 April 1928), born Alexander Malinovsky, was a Russian and later Soviet physician, philosopher, science fiction writer and Bolshevik revolutionary. He was a polymath who pioneered blood transfusion, a ...

and

Anatoly Lunacharsky Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky (, born ''Anatoly Aleksandrovich Antonov''; – 26 December 1933) was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and the first Soviet People's Commissariat for Education, People's Commissar (minister) of Education, as well ...

, the Socialist-Revolutionaries Viktor Chernov and Nikolai Avksentiev and the Austro-Marxist Friedrich Adler were Russian machists strongly influenced by empirio-criticism. Valentinov claimed Lenin was not so much an orthodox Marxist as a materialist influenced by Nikolay Chernyshevsky. This, Valentinov maintained, was behind Lenin's utter rejection 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 The Mensheviks ('the Minority') were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903. Mensheviks held more moderate and reformist ...

faction of the RSDRP. Valentinov had laid out his philosophy in the book ''Ernst Mach and Marxism'' (1907). Lenin wrote a long polemic, '' Materialism 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.

Post-Bolshevik activities

During the abortive

Revolution of 1905 The Russian Revolution of 1905, also known as the First Russian Revolution, was a revolution in the Russian Empire which began on 22 January 1905 and led to the establishment of a constitutional monarchy under the Russian Constitution of 1906, t ...

, 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 Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky,; ; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky'' was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist. He was a key figure ...

was one of his colleagues). Valentinov published his articles under various pseudonyms. He adopted a moderate Internationalist position during the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. 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 The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

, 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 The New Economic Policy (NEP) () was an economic policy of the Soviet Union proposed by Vladimir Lenin in 1921 as a temporary expedient. Lenin characterized the NEP in 1922 as an economic system that would include "a free market and capitalism, ...

(NEP) after the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

. He also founded the journal ''Torgovo-Promyshlennaya Gazeta'' (''Commercial-Industrial Gazette''). During those years he collaborated closely with

Nikolai Bukharin Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (; rus, Николай Иванович Бухарин, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɪˈvanəvʲɪdʑ bʊˈxarʲɪn; – 15 March 1938) was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and Marxist theorist. A prominent Bolshevik ...

. After Lenin's death in 1924, Valentinov found his position in Soviet Russia increasingly precarious. He watched the rise of

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

with alarm and firmly opposed moves to abandon the NEP in favour of a programme of rapid industrialisation and collectivisation of agriculture.During this period, Valentinov also opposed Trotsky, who called for an end to the NEP. 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 World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

in Paris. 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 26 August 1964.

Biography

Early years

Bolshevik activist

Post-Bolshevik activities

Footnotes

Further reading