Pyotr Berngardovich Struve (1870-1944)

Russian economist, the main representative of “Legal Marxism”. Born to the family of the governor of Perm Province, he studied and lived in Stuttgart, Germany from 1879 to 1882, since he spent youth in Germany he was influenced by Germanic culture. After entering the University of Petersburg in 1889, he was deeply attracted by the criticism and truth of Marxism and joined a Marxist study group.

From 1891 to 1892, he went to Austria to study sociology and law and got in touch with a large number of works on social democracy. In the 1890s, he became the editor of “Legal Marxist” magazines called The New Word and The Beginning.

He joined the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party, he was the drafter of the Manifesto of the RSDLP’s First Congress. In 1894, he published Critical Notes on the Economic Development of Russia which is regarded as a masterpiece rwork of “Legal Marxism” trend of thought in Russia. The book borrowed the terminology of Marxist economics to demonstrate economic problems such as the development of capitalism in Russia however it distorted the basic principles of Marxism. He fell into conflict with the liberal Narodniks while began praising the liberal bourgeoisie in Russia, denied the historical law that the capitalist system will perish due to the development of its internal contradictions, and denied the necessity of proletarian revolution.

In 1901, Struve announced his withdrawal from the R.S.DL.P., completely separated himself from Marxism and socialism, he turned to liberalism and religious worldview. In 1905, Tsardom issued the “Decree of October 17”, which allowed the exiled Struve to return to Russia, and after Struve arrived in Russia, he participated in the establishment of the Constitutional Democratic Party, assumed duties as a member of the Central Committee and became the right-wing leader of this party. In 1907, he was elected as a deputy to the Second Duma.

Struve opposed the overthrow of the Tsar’s rule by violence. In 1905, when the Russian Revolution was at hand, he published articles which called on people to give up violence, opposed armed uprising, and advocated instilling democratic ideas to people’s mindes. He advocated relying on the history and cultural tradition of the country and establishing a constitutional monarchy system, with the expectation of achieving political freedom through a constitutional political system. When the minister of internal affairs who suppressed the revolution in 1905, Prime Minister of Russia, Pyotr Stolypin, put forward the idea of “We Strive For A Great Russia” in 1907. Subsequently, in 1908 Struve published his work “The Great Russia” and “Fragments of Ideas on State and Nation” which became one of the initiators of the "Great Russia" thought.

In 1909, he organized and directed the publication of the famous collection of essays called Vekhi (can be translated as Landmarks or Milestones) which included the essays of prominent intellectuals of Russia. In this collection, Struve expressed his extreme hatred of revolution. During the World War I, he advocated imperialist aggression and expansion. After the victory of the October Revolution, in November 1917, he helped to the organization of so-called volunteer army to fight against the Soviet regime. He served as a member in the counter- revolutionary governments of Denikin and Wrangel. After fleeing abroad in 1921, he actively organized expatriate groups against Bolsheviks and continued to criticize Marxism through publishing and writing. He died in Paris in 1944. Lenin called him as the “master of treason”.