Sergei Prokopovich

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Sergei Nikolaevich Prokopovich (Russian: Серге́й Николаевич Прокопович; 1871–1955) was a Russian economist, sociologist, Revisionist Social-Democrat and liberal politician.

S.N. Prokopovich

Life

Prokopovich was born into a noble family in

E.D. Kuskova (1869–1958), moved away from 'orthodox' Marxism toward a position their critics (Georgi Plekhanov, Vladimir Lenin and others) criticised as 'Economism
'. In fact, these critics used the term 'Economism' rather loosely and also applied it to revolutionary syndicalist currents within the Social-Democratic party. Peshekhonov's thesis was basically that, since the coming revolution would (according to 'orthodox' Marxism) be 'bourgeois-democratic, the struggle for political emancipation should be led by, and largely left to, the bourgeoisie, while the Russian working class should concentrate on organising itself economically and winning social and economic improvements.

The 'Economist' controversy in Russian Social-Democracy was quite vehement and in some ways foreshadowed the later split between Bolsheviks and Mensheviks (not all Mensheviks were former 'Economists', but many were). The dispute can also be seen as part of the controversy over Revisionism and Possibilism which raged in European Marxist parties around the turn of the century.

By 1899 Prokopovich and Kuskova had left the RSDRP. They became involved in organising Russia's nascent liberal movement. In 1904 they helped found the '

P.B. Struve and 'Legal Populists' like A.V. Peshekhonov. From different points of departure, all had arrived at the conclusion that, in Russia's present state of history, the bourgeoisie should take the lead in the political struggle against tsarism. Prokopovich nevertheless continued to sympathize with the labour movement and, beginning in 1900, published several noteworthy studies on the labour movements of Russia and Western Europe. In 1901 he moved to Baku
, where he immersed himself into organizing strikes among the Baku oil workers. It was here that he wrote the first part of his political novella Rodina i Mat ("Fatherland and Mother"), which was set in an idealized Russian past, in which peasants and workers held power. He was briefly arrested in 1903, but was released soon thereafter.

In 1904 Prokopovich co-founded the liberal newspaper Our Life (

Defencist
'.

In 1917 Prokopovich and Kuskova welcomed the

Second World War broke out, Prokopovich and Kuskova moved to Switzerland, where he died in Geneve
in 1955.

Works

  • K rabochemu voprosu v Rossii. St. Petersburg, 1905.
  • Biudzhety peterburgskikh rabochikh. St. Petersburg, 1909.
  • Agrarnyi krizis i meropriiatiiapravitel’stva. Moscow, 1912.
  • Kooperativnoe dvizhenie v Rossii: Ego teoriia ipraktika, 2nd ed. Moscow, 1918.

References

  • Lenin, V. I. Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed. (See Index volume, part 2, p. 466.)
  • Drobizhev, V. Z. “Ekonomicheskie ‘issledovaniia’ S. N. Prokopovicha i sovremennaia reaktsionnaia burzhuaznaia istoriografiia." Istoriia SSSR, no. 2, 1959
  • Shukman, H., The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the Russian Revolution. Oxford, 1988.
  • The Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Moscow, 1979. (NB: This source is hostile to Prokopovich).
  1. ^ "Noteworthy members of the Grand Orient of France in Russia and the Supreme Council of the Grand Orient of Russia's People". Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon. 15 October 2017.

External links

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