Imperial Russia: Marxism a la Carte
Edward Acton looks to the Tsarist ancien regime of the 19th century to set the scene for a historical understanding of Russia that does not throw out the baby with its Marxist bathwater.
For Western students of Russia's past, these are exhilarating times. Countless archives and historical documents are being declassified. With the removal of ideological blinkers, Soviet historiographical debate shows every sign of recovering the verve and vitality that characterised the pre-revolutionary Russian intelligentsia. Above all, the need to understand the past has acquired a desperate urgency. No society today is more passionately engaged in grappling with its own history than is that of the Soviet Union. And there are unparalleled opportunities for Western specialists to engage in this debate. Numerous international conferences are prompting face to face discussion, leading Soviet journals are welcoming Western contributions, and major Western monographs are being translated into Russian.
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