Peter Lavrov and the Russian Revolutionary Movement

Peter Lavrov has possibly been the most neglected of all major figures in the history of the Russian revolutionary movement. In the U.S.S.R. he was posthumously "purged" under Stalin, and he has not been totally "rehabilitated" since then. Lavrov's early career reflected his gentry origins and his development as an extraordinary polymath. During the intellectual debates of the 1850s in St. Petersburg he began to formulate the philosophical bases for his later revolutionary theories. In the 1860s he associated with student insurgents and engaged in radical publishing ventures - activities for which he was eventually arrested and sentenced to exile in a northern province. Shortly after escaping to Paris with the help of friends, Lavrov began his career as a radical emigre publicist. He was best-known as a theoretician for his Historical Letters, which were an important influence on revolutionary populism. In this context, Lavrov's theories exerted a broad and deep influence on revolutionary groups in Russia. Pomper traces the history of Lavrov's revolutionary pursuits from his role as a prophet of the preparationist strategy of the early 1870s through his involvement in the strategic debates and innovations between the mid 1870s and 1900. Of central importance are Lavrov's concessions to Bakuninism and his eventual acceptance of terrorism as an instrument of revolution. Lavrov was a member of the Russian gentry who promoted the cause of democracy, an intellectual who felt he must prepare the self-liberation of the masses. The paradoxes of his development as a revolutionary thinker were the result of a wish to reconcile a number of disparate viewpoints. A syncretic and synthetic thinker, Lavrov reflected in his ideas all the major intellectual trends of 19th century Russia. Pomper fully examines the dynamic relationship between Lavrov's personality, philosophy, and affiliation with revolutionary socialism in general and with the Russian revolutionary movement.