[OPE] The puzzle of Deutscher's "classical Marxism"

In various writings, Isaac Deutscher introduced the idea that there once existed a political era or intellectual culture of "classical Marxism" which was superseded by another era of Marxism-Leninism as state policy. In some respects, this idea of classical Marxism was close to the beliefs of the Menshevik tendency in Russian social democracy. But anyway, what Deutscher fails to explain is, how there could be a "classical Marxism" if, by his own admission, most of the so-called Marxists at that time had only read just a few of Marx's own writings, and were strongly influenced by social democracy and christian socialism?

Any thoughts?

J.

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Received on Fri Apr 3 17:21:34 2009