''The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism'' () is an article written by the Russian revolutionary

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 ...

and published in 1913. The article was dedicated to the thirtieth anniversary of

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

’s death.

Main points

In ''The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism'', Lenin opposes those who treat Marxism as a kind of “pernicious sect”. In rejecting these reproaches, Lenin stresses in every way possible that Marxism emerged as a natural result of the entire preceding history.

The history of philosophy and the history of social science show with perfect clarity that there is nothing resembling “sectarianism” in Marxism, in the sense of its being a hidebound, petrified doctrine, a doctrine which arose away from the high road of the development of world civilisation.

Lenin argues that Marxism, on the contrary, is a consistent theory resulting from the processing, critical re-interpretation and creative development of the best that human thought produced in the nineteenth century. According to Lenin, the theoretical sources of Marxism are classical

German philosophy German philosophy, meaning philosophy in the German language or philosophy by German people, in its diversity, is fundamental for both the analytic and continental traditions. It covers figures such as Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Immanuel Kant, ...

, classical English

political economy Political or comparative economy is a branch of political science and economics studying economic systems (e.g. Marketplace, markets and national economies) and their governance by political systems (e.g. law, institutions, and government). Wi ...

, French

utopian socialism Utopian socialism is the term often used to describe the first current of modern socialism and socialist thought as exemplified by the work of Henri de Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier, Étienne Cabet, and Robert Owen. Utopian socialism is often de ...

and

French materialism French materialism is the name given to a handful of France, French 18th-century philosophers during the Age of Enlightenment, many of them clustered around the Salon (gathering), salon of Baron d'Holbach. Although there are important differences b ...

. The direct predecessors who made the greatest impact on the philosophical views of Marx and Engels were

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealism, German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political phi ...

and

Feuerbach Ludwig Andreas von Feuerbach (; ; 28 July 1804 – 13 September 1872) was a German anthropologist and philosopher, best known for his book '' The Essence of Christianity'', which provided a critique of Christianity that strongly influenced ge ...

. In a changed form, Hegel's dialectical ideas became the philosophical source of

materialist dialectics Dialectical materialism is a materialist theory based upon the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels that has found widespread applications in a variety of philosophical disciplines ranging from philosophy of history to philosophy of scienc ...

. In their critique of Hegel's idealist views, Marx and Engels relied on the whole of the materialist tradition, and above all on Feuerbach's materialism.

Dialectical materialism Dialectical materialism is a materialist theory based upon the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels that has found widespread applications in a variety of philosophical disciplines ranging from philosophy of history to philosophy of scien ...

is the result of a radical creative transformation of Hegel's and Feuerbach's systems on the basis of a new interpretation of social and natural reality:

Marx deepened and developed philosophical materialism to the full, and extended the cognition of nature to include the cognition of human society. His historical materialism was a great achievement in scientific thinking.

The ideas of the outstanding English economists,

Adam Smith Adam Smith (baptised 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the field of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as the "father of economics"——— or ...

(1723–1790) and

David Ricardo David Ricardo (18 April 1772 – 11 September 1823) was a British political economist, politician, and member of Parliament. He is recognized as one of the most influential classical economists, alongside figures such as Thomas Malthus, Ada ...

(1772–1823), who laid the foundations of the economic anatomy of bourgeois society and substantiated the labour theory of value, helped Marx and Engels to evolve the social philosophy of

historical materialism Historical materialism is Karl Marx's theory of history. Marx located historical change in the rise of Class society, class societies and the way humans labor together to make their livelihoods. Karl Marx stated that Productive forces, techno ...

Influence

In the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, Lenin's article “The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism” offering a concise exposition of the essence and origin of Marxism was a must-read not only for the students of higher educational establishments, but also for the senior pupils. A specific quote: "Marxist doctrine is omnipotent because it is true" (), was widely used in both Soviet propaganda and educational literature as a motto. In his book ''Revolutionary Strategy'' marxist theoretician Mike Macnair points to

Chartism Chartism was a working-class movement for political reform in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom that erupted from 1838 to 1857 and was strongest in 1839, 1842 and 1848. It took its name from the People's Charter of ...

as the fourth source of marxism and links its omission by Lenin to "both the general loss of democratic-republican understanding in the

Second International The Second International, also called the Socialist International, was a political international of Labour movement, socialist and labour parties and Trade union, trade unions which existed from 1889 to 1916. It included representatives from mo ...

, and the specific political regression of the British

labour movement The labour movement is the collective organisation of working people to further their shared political and economic interests. It consists of the trade union or labour union movement, as well as political parties of labour. It can be considere ...

after 1871".

References

External links

*
The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism
' by Vladimir I. Lenin at the

Marxists Internet Archive Marxists Internet Archive, also known as MIA or Marxists.org, is a non-profit online encyclopedia that hosts a multilingual library (created in 1990) of the works of communist, anarchist, and socialist writers, such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Enge ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism Works by Vladimir Lenin Dialectical materialism

Main points

Influence

See also

References

External links