Why I Am a Marxist

Reflecting on my own Soviet education and past, I argue that Marxism stagnated in the USSR, but has growing relevance to the emerging capitalism of post-Soviet Russia. Thanks to the achievements of the socialist regime, the concepts of classical Marxist theory became abstract and speculative to Soviet citizens. At the same time, Soviet Marxism lost its essential link to democratic debate and independent political action, both necessary to its development and vibrancy. By contrast, post-Soviet capitalism has the potential to invest Marxist thought with newly practical meaning and heuristic value for Russians. Indeed, for post-Soviet thought and change, Marxism, with its search for truth and its transformative capacity, has unique standing in Western philosophy.