Georgii Valentinovich Plekhanov

Born in 1856, Georgii Valentinovich Plekhanov became one of the first major Russian thinkers to embrace Marxism and is often described as a founder of the Russian Marxist movement. He began his political life in the populist current, but after exile he turned decisively toward Marxism and became an influential writer on philosophy, history, and politics.

In 1883, he helped found the Emancipation of Labour group, widely recognized as the first Russian Marxist organization. Through essays, polemics, and translations, he played a major part in introducing Marxist ideas to Russian readers and later became an important figure in the Russian Social Democratic movement.

Plekhanov’s later career was marked by sharp disagreements with Lenin and the Bolsheviks. He opposed the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917, and he died in 1918, leaving behind a body of work that continued to influence debates about Marxism, revolution, and Russian political thought.