Populism gave rise to several organizations that tried in different ways to approach the solution of the problem of combining the "socialist consciousness" of the Russian people with the revolutionary outbreak in Russia.

Pyotr Tkachev was a representative of the extreme wing of populism, which broke with Herzen's liberalism and Lavrov's democracy.

Thus, Tkachev's theory of the "revolutionary minority" is reduced to using popular discontent to seize power by this minority. In the very act of seizing power, Tkachev saw the main meaning of revolutionism. The fact that, having seized power, the "revolutionary minority" destroys all opponents, and then, using "the power and authority of power", introduces socialism, is, of course, an open recognition of the need for violence to introduce socialism, especially since Tkachev openly considered all other ways to be utopia ...

Not only turning the seizure of state power into the main goal of the revolution, but also considering power to be the main intrinsic value, Tkachev subordinated everything else to this value, including internal relations in the “revolutionary minority”.

Petr Tkachev

Influence of Tkachev's ideas on Lenin

Lenin in his main work What Is To Be Done? "(Its name is not without reason echoes the main work of Chernyshevsky: Lenin, according to N. Valentinov, chose him quite deliberately) sets the task of creating a disciplined, closed party" revolutionary minority, a party that put itself in a state of siege in a fist. " In order to justify the creation of such a party from the point of view of Marxism, to link his party organizational doctrine with the doctrine of Marx, Lenin ascribes, and then assigns to his small group of professional revolutionaries, the name "vanguard of the proletariat", "vanguard of the proletariat."

This assertion, never verified by any democratic vote, is the new element that Lenin needed to link the Marxist doctrine with left-wing Narodnik (Tkachev) organizational principles.

We will not cite here either numerous quotations from Lenin's pamphlet "What Is To Be Done?", Nor endless testimonies characterizing the Bolshevik group as accepting the organizational principles of a "state of siege in a fist."

As just one of many examples, let us cite the impressions of the famous Bolshevik Olminsky during a clash with the Leninist group already at the very beginning of his work in RSDLP... Soon after II Party Congress, Olminsky, as he writes, "... was imbued with the strongest prejudice against the majority for his bureaucracy, Bonapartism and the practice of state of siege." Subsequently reconciled with bolshevism Olminsky, in the first phase of the struggle between the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks, declared that he could not "subject himself to the tyranny of a state of siege, submit to the demand for" blind obedience "," a narrow interpretation of party discipline ", elevate the principle of" not reasoning "into a guiding principle; to recognize the supreme institutions [of the party] as "power, to enforce their will by purely mechanical means ...".

Thus, Lenin tried since the split with mensheviks in 1903, to create from the party a cohesive group "true revolutionism, which would consist in seizing state power."

The "revolutionary dictatorship" insisted on by the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries came from the same sources, from the same extreme wing of populism, from which Lenin drew his passionate will for violent revolution even when a democratic legal order was established in the country. That is why, in defending this position, Lenin did not hesitate to declare in print that out of 10 thousand people who read or heard about the “withering away of the state, 9,990 do not know or do not remember at all that Engels directed his findings ... not only against the anarchists. And out of the other ten people, probably nine do not know what a "free people's state" is and why the attack on this slogan is an attack on the opportunists. " A few lines further, Lenin admits that the slogan of the German Social Democracy is "a free people's state" and was the slogan of a democratic republic. All the self-confident assertions that among 9999 (all except Lenin!) "Do not know or do not remember" the works of Marx and Engels were needed by Lenin in order to substantiate the admissibility of a violent seizure of power when the establishment of the most democratic republic in Russia became historic fact.

P.N. Tkachev about revolution, party and terrorism.

"Pyotr Nikitich Tkachev was born in 1844 into a poor landowner family. Back in the 60s, he was a well-known publicist and critic, and one of the most ardent maximalists who ever existed in Russia. For his participation in the Petersburg student riots, he was in 1861. . sat in the Kronstadt fortress.

Upon leaving the fortress, according to the story of his sister Anna Anenskaya, a famous writer of children's stories, he said that then for the success of the revolution he preached that the revolution could happen soon, offered to cut off the heads of all, without exception, residents of the Russian Empire over 25 years old. Later he abandoned this idea (A. Anenskaya. From the past years, "Russian wealth", for 1913, Book 1, p. 63.). In 1862 he was again arrested for possession of a revolutionary proclamation and was sentenced to imprisonment in a fortress for three years. Even before that, his literary career began. Upon leaving the Peter and Paul Fortress in 1865, he became one of the closest collaborators of the radical journal “ Russian word”, And after the closure of this magazine by the government - created to replace“ Russian word ”- the magazine“ Delo ”. In 1867-1868. he was associated with various illegal revolutionary circles. In 1868, he became close to Nechaev and later, together with Nechaev, drew up a "Program of Revolutionary Action." In March 1869 Tkachev was arrested again and in July 1871 he was sentenced to imprisonment for one year and four months for drawing up a revolutionary proclamation. After serving this sentence, Tkachev was to be exiled to Siberia, but thanks to the efforts of his mother, she was replaced by his expulsion to his homeland. In 1873 he fled abroad. At the end of 1875, he began publishing the revolutionary magazine Nabat, which came out intermittently until 1881. In his magazine Nabat, Tkachev advocated the seizure of power by a minority and the dictatorship of a revolutionary minority to rebuild society on communist principles.

“The people,” wrote Tkachev, in his article “The People and the Revolution,” “cannot save themselves, left to themselves, cannot arrange their fate in accordance with their real needs, cannot carry out and implement the idea of \u200b\u200bsocial revolution in life”.

Only a revolutionary minority can, according to Tkachev, "lay the foundation for a new reasonable order of community." The people in the revolution will appear only as a "destructive force", the action of which is directed by the revolutionary minority.

“The attitude of the revolutionary minority to the people and the participation of the latter in the revolution,” wrote Tkachev, “can be defined as follows: the revolutionary minority, having liberated the people from the yoke of the oppressive fear and horror of the ruling power, opens up the opportunity for them to show their destructive revolutionary power and, relying on this force, skillfully directing it towards the destruction of the enemies of the revolution, it destroys the strongholds that protect them and deprives them of all means of resistance and opposition. Then, using its strength and its authority, it introduces new progressive communist elements into the conditions of people's life. "

Only after taking control of the state apparatus, the revolutionary party will be able to start fulfilling its reform plans, as a result of which a communist society will be created.

"The seizure of power," wrote Tkachev, "is only a prelude to the revolution." The mastery of the state apparatus is the first and necessary condition, without the achievement of which the revolutionary party cannot begin to fulfill its tasks of restructuring society on communist principles. "

“Revolution,” writes Tkachev, “is carried out by a revolutionary state, which, on the one hand, fights and destroys the conservative elements of society, abolishes all those institutions that hinder the establishment of equality and brotherhood; on the other, it introduces institutions that are conducive to their development. Thus, having seized power, the revolutionary party conducts activities of two kinds - “revolutionary-destructive” on the one hand, and “revolutionary-dispensational” on the other. “The cause of revolutionaries does not end with a violent coup. Having seized power in their hands, they must be able to hold on to it and use it to realize their ideals. " Tkachev also advocated the creation of a strictly centralized and disciplined revolutionary organization to seize power.

“The success of the revolution,” he wrote, “is only possible when an organization is created that brings together disparate revolutionary elements into one living body, acting according to one general plan, subordinate to one leadership - an organization based on the centralization of power and decentralization of functions.” (“Nabat”. 1875 Glinsky, volume 1, pp. 506-510).

Only such an organization is capable, according to Tkachev, of preparing and carrying out a coup d'etat.

“To seize power,” says Tkachev, requires a conspiracy. For a conspiracy - organization and discipline: If the immediate, practically-achievable task of revolutionaries is reduced to a violent attack on the existing political power in order to seize this power into their own hands, then it naturally follows that it is precisely this task that should be directed all the efforts of a true revolutionary party. The easiest and most convenient way to carry it out is through a state conspiracy ...

Organization, as a means of disorganization and destruction of the existing government power, as the immediate, most urgent goal - this should be the only program of activity of all revolutionaries at present ”.

According to Lev Deutsch, Tkachev's ideas "led not only to extreme indignation, but directly to the horror of the then revolutionaries."

Tkachev was the first to carry out a theoretical understanding of terror as a means of political struggle, to sanction the terrorist practice that spontaneously emerged in the midst of the populist movement in relation to spies, traitors, and then to representatives of power. "Revolutionary terrorism," declared Tkachev, "is ... not only the most reliable and practical means to disorganize the existing police-bureaucratic state, but it is the only real means of transforming a loyal servant into a human citizen." Tkachev as a revolutionary thinker expressed the limit of radicalism in the history of the Russian revolutionary movement, a limit that, in essence, turned out to be a dead end. This radicalism, which hastened the revolution at all costs, was inseparable from anti-democracy, which engendered the view of the people as the "meat of the revolution", as the object of social reform; a people who themselves do not realize what their happiness lies in. Hence the absolutization of the power of benefactors, the absolutization of dictatorship, the principle of violence. The success of the revolution and the means of achieving its ideals are placed above universal human morality. This tradition, which was not started by Tkachev, but he was theoretically grounded and energetically implanted in the consciousness of the participants in the social struggle, met with opposition from the mass of revolutionaries and from the leading populist ideologists. Bakunin and Lavrov pointed to the danger of absolutizing an abstract theory that was forcibly introduced into life. Assessing the significance of P.N. Tkachev for Russian political thought and the revolutionary liberation movement, N.A. Berdyaev writes: "He was the only old revolutionary who wanted power and thought about ways to acquire it. He is a statesman, a supporter of the dictatorship of power, an enemy of democracy and anarchism. For him, a revolution is the violence of a minority over the majority ... Tkachev is more a predecessor of Bolshevism than Marx and Engels "

Petr Nikitich Tkachev short biography a literary critic and publicist is outlined in this article. P.N. Tkachev was the ideologist of the Jacobin trend in populism.

Biography of Tkachev Peter Nikitich briefly

The future writer was born in the Pskov province in 1844 in the family of a poor landowner. Studied at the St. Petersburg University at the Faculty of Law. In his student years, he took part in the university riots, for which he was imprisoned for several months in the Kronstadt fortress.

Later, after leaving the fortress, he received academic degree, but again on suspicion of participation in the political case of Ballod, Tkachev spent several months in the Peter and Paul Fortress in accordance with the Senate's verdict.

Writing ability opened early. The first article was published in 1862 in the Vremya magazine. He wrote a lot about judicial reform, published in the magazines "Time" and "Epoch". In 1865 he began to publish in the well-known magazine "Delo". In the spring of 1869, Tkachev was again arrested for participating in the Nechaev case and sentenced to 1.5 years in prison. Peter Nikitich was exiled to Velikie Luki, from where he emigrated abroad afterwards.

He resumed his activities as a journalist in 1872, publishing in the same magazine "Delo", but under pseudonyms - Nikitin, Grachioli, Nionov, Postny, Gr-li, All the same.

P.N. Tkachev was the ideologist of Russian Blanquism, brought up on the ideas and views of the sixties. He was an ardent admirer of Bolshevism, even more than K. Marx. While abroad, he led the association of Russian revolutionaries. He expressed his thoughts in the Nabat magazine, which was published in Geneva under his editorship. He devoted a lot of time to studying the statistics of the economy and population, subtly noting the relationship between the size of the land allotment and the growth of the peasant population.

Unlike other populists, Tkachev believed that the peasantry could not independently carry out a revolution. In his opinion, the revolution should take the form of a coup, which will be carried out by a strictly conspiratorial organization of revolutionaries, whose members have passed a strict selection and are subject to iron discipline. But this organization was supposed to "shatter" the existing government with the help of terror in advance. Opposing Bakunin's anarchism, Tkachev considered it impossible to destroy the state. In the course of the revolution, in his opinion, the replacement of old state institutions to new, revolutionary ones.

Biography of Tkachev

Tkachev Petr Nikitich (1844, village of Sivtsevo, Pskov province - 1885, Paris) - the ideologist of the revolutionary. populism. Rod. in a small noble family, but according to his living conditions he was a typical commoner. He studied at home and in the 2nd Petersburg. gymnasium. In his gymnasium years, Tkachev met with the socialist who had a great influence on him. lit-roy: the works of A.I. Herzen, N.P. Ogareva, N.G. Chernyshevsky, P. Proudhon, etc. His idol and spiritual mentor was the French conspiracy theorist and practitioner Auguste Blanqui. In 1861 Tkachev entered the law faculty of Petersburg, un-that, but he did not have to study. As an active participant in student unrest, Tkachev was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress, from where he was released a month later. on the bail of the mother. In 1868, Tkachev passed the exams for a full university course and received the degree of candidate of law, which was not useful to him. Coming out of the fortress, Tkachev approached the roar participants. circles and was repeatedly arrested. His journalistic activities in the journal. "Russkoe Slovo", "Delo" and others were of an oppositional, revolutionary-democratic character and were persecuted by the censorship. In 1869 he was arrested, in 1871 he was convicted in the case of S.G. Nechaev. Exiled in 1872 to the Pskov province, in 1873 he fled abroad. He worked in the magazine. P.L. Lavrov "Forward!", Then broke up with Lavrov, polemicized with F. Engels. Published a magazine. "Nabat", collaborated in gas. O. Blanks. Believing that "for the renewal of Russia it is necessary to destroy all people over 25 years old," he consistently professed radicalism, affirming the relativity of morality and proclaiming the possibility of a conspiratorial intellectual group seizing power.

Tkachev considered social roar possible and close. in Russia, because the autocratic state "does not embody the interests of any estate" and therefore has no support. Rus. Jacobinism and Blanquism had deep national soil in Russia in the form of the traditions of riots and palace coups, the autocratic absolutist regime and the emergence of a wide layer of commoners, which was reflected in the roar. the struggle of populism in the future. In 1882 Tkachev fell ill and died in a psychiatric hospital.

Pyotr Nikitich Tkachev (1844-1885) - a famous Russian revolutionary, ideologist of populism. The article discusses in detail his biography, views and ideas.

Childhood and adolescence

Petr Nikitich Tkachev was born on June 29, 1844 in the Pskov province (the village of Sivtsovo). His parents were small landed nobles. At first, Pyotr Nikitich attended the 2nd St. Petersburg Gymnasium. Then from the fifth grade of this gymnasium in 1861 he entered the St. Petersburg University, the Faculty of Law. However, Pyotr Tkachev did not have to study. The fact is that at that time student unrest began, as a result of which the university was closed. Among other active participants in these unrest, Tkachev was first imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress (in October), and then in Kronstadt, from which he left in December.

Thesis defense, a feature of revolutionary views

The tsar ordered to leave Peter Nikitich in the capital, instructing his mother. Tkachev did not have the opportunity to continue his studies at the university. However, seven years later, he nevertheless passed the exams as an external student, presented his thesis and became a candidate of law. Somewhat later, criticizing Lavrov for being too divorced from the revolutionary movement, Pyotr Nikitich wrote about himself that since the time of the gymnasium he did not know any other society than those young men who were fond of student gatherings, arranged reading rooms and Sunday schools, started communes and artels, etc. He was always not only with them, but also among them, even when he was in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Peter Nikitich's focus on the immediate solution of certain tasks of the revolutionary movement formed character traits his socialist concept.

Participation in revolutionary associations

Tkachev, while still at the gymnasium, began to read socialist literature. He got acquainted with the publications of Ogarev and Herzen, with the articles of Dobrolyubov and Chernyshevsky. Already in the early poems dating back to 1860-62. (some of them were on the lists), Tkachev preached the peasant revolution. He finally embarked on a revolutionary path in 1861. Since that time, Tkachev actively participated in the student movement, as a result of which he was arrested, searched, and interrogated many times. Petr Nikitich was constantly under police surveillance. He served a prison sentence almost every year.

In 1862, his affiliation with the circle of L. Olshevsky was opened. This circle was preparing for publication several proclamations, which contained a call to overthrow the king. In 1865 and 1866, Pyotr Nikitich Tkachev was close to the organization of I. A. Khudyakov and N. A. Ishutin, and in 1867 and 1868 - to the "Rublevsky Society", whose members carried on propaganda under the guise of itinerant teachers. It is also known that Pyotr Tkachev in 1868 belonged to the Smorgon commune, which is the predecessor of the organization created by S. G. Nechaev. Then, in 1868-1869, Pyotr Nikitich, together with Nechaev, was a member of the steering committee of the St. Petersburg student movement.

The beginning of literary activity

In June 1862, Peter Nikitich's literary career began. His literary talent was revealed in the 60s. As one of the theoreticians of revolutionary populism, a brilliant critic and publicist, Tkachev collaborated with several progressive magazines. It should be noted that already in his first articles, devoted to the criticism of the judicial reform, which was planned by the government, there is a noticeable revolutionary-democratic, oppositional mood. They were published in the magazines "Epoch" and "Time" of the Dostoevsky brothers, as well as in the "Library for Reading".

Acquaintance with the works of Marx

In a number of articles written in the period from 1862 to 1864, Pyotr Nikitich put forward the idea of \u200b\u200bchanging the existing social relations in Russia on a socialist basis by setting up a network of educational land-industrial associations, primarily on unpopulated lands. Around this time, Pyotr Nikitich Tkachev got acquainted with some of the works of Karl Marx.

His biography in December 1865 is marked by the fact that in Russkoye Slovo, for the first time in the legal press of our country, he outlined the main thesis of K. Marx related to the materialistic understanding of history, which he presented in the preface to "To Criticism. It should be noted that this time Tkachev was already a permanent employee of two democratic journals ("Delo" and "Russkoe slovo"). He actually replaced Pisarev, who was placed in the Peter and Paul Fortress. simplified.

Tkachev's concept design

In 1868, P.N. Tkachev published the charter of the First International in translation (in the appendix to Becher's book), as well as the charter of the People's Bank of Proudhon. By the end of the 1860s, the views of Peter Nikitich developed into a certain concept. He called for in the country. This concept was expressed in the "Program of Revolutionary Actions" that emerged from the circle of Tkachev and Nechaev.

Peter-Pavel's Fortress

It must be said that much of what P.N. Tkachev wrote was either forbidden, or did not pass under the conditions of censorship, or was taken away during numerous arrests. When, during the next student riots (in March 1869), Tkachev was arrested again, he was immediately brought forward 3 literary charges. The first of them was for the creation and publication of the appeal "To the Society!", Which presented the demands of the students; the second - for the publication of a collection entitled "Ray", published instead of the forbidden "Russian Word"; the third - for the fact that he published the book "Work Question" by E. Becher. This time the Peter and Paul Fortress became a prison for Pyotr Nikitich for almost four years. At the beginning of 1873, Tkachev was sent into exile in Velikie Luki, home. From there he fled abroad with the help of MV Kupriyanov, also a revolutionary.

Life abroad, controversy with Engels and Lavrov

Journalism, interrupted by the arrest, resumed in 1872. Tkachev again began to publish his articles in "Delo". However, he signed them not with his last name, but with different pseudonyms (All the same, P. Gracioli, P. Gr-li, P. N. Postny, P. N. Nionov, P. Nikitin).

In London and Geneva, Pyotr Nikitich at one time collaborated with P. L. Lavrov (his portrait is presented above) in preparation for the publication of the magazine "Forward!" Nevertheless, even his first steps in emigration were marked by serious polemics with F. Engels and Lavrov. In 1874, Tkachev's brochures "The tasks of revolutionary propaganda ..." and "An open letter to Friedrich Engels" were published in Zurich and London. This controversy immediately put Petr Nikitich in an isolated position abroad.

The emigre literature of F. Engels, Lavrov and others took a slightly different position than Pyotr Nikitich. The essence of the disagreement between them was that Tkachev viewed political struggle as an essential prerequisite for a future revolution. However, he underestimated the role of the masses in it, with which many Russian emigres could not agree. In his opinion, the revolutionary minority must conquer power, establish a new state, carry out revolutionary transformations that express the interests of the people. The latter can only take advantage of the results. Pyotr Tkachev was mistaken in his opinion that the autocracy had no social basis in Russia, that it was not an expression of the interests of one class or another. in turn, in the articles he wrote, he answered with criticism of Tkachev's views, which he considered petty bourgeois.

Publication of the magazine "Nabat"

Pyotr Nikitich, leaving the "Forward!", Found supporters among the circle "Cercle Slave" (translated as "Slavic circle"), which united Russian-Polish emigrants. With their help, Tkachev in 1875 began to publish the Nabat magazine in Geneva. In this magazine, he took the position of editor. This publication became the organ of the Jacobin trend, close to Blanquism, in revolutionary populism. Tkachev in this period openly expressed his socialist views, arguing about the theoretical substantiation of socialism, tactics and strategy of the revolutionary struggle. In the Nabat magazine, Pyotr Nikitich controversially with PL Lavrov, and his ideas, which at first had little influence and often provoked irritation, began to find supporters by the end of the 1870s. This happened as the turn of the Russian revolutionaries to political and social methods and the requirements of the revolutionary struggle.

"Society of People's Liberation"

In 1877, Pyotr Nikitich, together with his followers, managed to organize the "Society of People's Liberation". This strictly conspiratorial association was created with the help of the Blanquist Communards from France (F. Cournet, E. Granger, E. Vaillant, and others). The society relied in its activities on some Russian circles (in particular, I. M. Kovalsky in Odessa and Zaichnevsky in Orel). Tkachev in 1880 collaborated in the newspaper "Neither God nor Lord" by O. Blanka.

Nevertheless, the prejudice against Pyotr Nikitich remained very strong. So much so that "Narodnaya Volya" (according to V. I. Lenin, its activities were prepared by Tkachev's ideology) rejected the alliance with "Nabat", which was assumed earlier. "Nabat" ceased to be published after its short publication in 1881 as a newspaper.

Publication under various pseudonyms

Tkachev, living abroad, continued to publish in the legal Russian press under various pseudonyms, which (All the same, P. Grachioli, etc.) we have already listed. As one of the main employees of "Delo", Pyotr Nikitich published many articles on philosophy, law, history, pedagogy, economics, etc. However, after the editor of this journal, G. Ye. Blagosvetlov, died, cooperation became less regular. Tkachev's articles appeared less and less frequently. It seemed that the literary and revolutionary activities of Pyotr Nikitich were fading, but in reality this was not the case.

By now, some new facts have become known concerning recent years Tkachev's life in exile. They indicate that this Russian literary critic and revolutionary continued to actively create. Recently, the socialist newspaper Le Tocsin, which was published in the south of France (Narbonne) in 1882, was discovered. Leading articles for her were written by Tkachev, who hid his name under the pseudonym "Gracchus". Most likely, these appearances in the press can be considered the last.

Since November 1882, Tkachev's illness progressed, as a result of which he ended up in the hospital. Pyotr Nikitich died in Paris on December 23, 1885. Selected works of him forever entered the history of the revolution.

Philosophical views of Tkachev

At first glance, in such a rich and varied activity of the tribune-publicist-politician, there is no place for serious philosophy, or else it is assigned a subordinate, purely random role. Indeed, from the formal point of view, Peter Nikitich Tkachev himself, most likely, gives us a reason for this assumption. After all, he was a fierce critic of all philosophical systems.

However, already in one of his first articles (in the "Legal Metaphysics" published in 1863) Tkachev formulated his program of the reform of philosophy. He says that it is necessary to build a true, fruitful, living philosophy, which is alien to any kind of metaphysics. It must tie together the parts of social science that have been forcibly dissolved. This philosophy will be a social, social science. It should be of benefit to society.

Tkachev, as a publicist, often returns to the problem of the benefits of philosophy. In his opinion, it should become the basis for transforming the world, an instrument of science, the core of a correct worldview. As a politician, Pyotr Nikitich Tkachev especially developed the problems of revolution, sociology, a just and reasonable social order. He called his philosophical position "realism" (or rationalism).

Such a curious person was Pyotr Nikitich Tkachev. Interesting Facts almost everything about him is connected with the revolution, to which he gave his whole life.


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