By Vladimir I . Lenin

A number of writers, would-be Marxists, have this year undertaken a veritable campaign against the philosophy of Marxism. In the course of less than half a year four books devoted mainly and almost exclusively to attacks on dialectical materialism have made their appearance. These include first and foremost Studies irt (?—it would have been more proper to say “against”) the Philosophy of Marxism (St. Petersburg, 1908), a symposium by Bazarov, Bogdanov, Lunacharsky, Berman, Helfond, Yushkevich and Suvorov; Yushkevich’s Materialism and Critical Realism; Berman’s Dialectics in the Light of the Modern Theory of Knowledge and Valentinov’s The Philosophical Constructions of Marxism. All these people could not have been ignorant of the fact that Marx and Engels scores of times termed their philosoph- \ / ical views dialectical materialism. Yet all these people, who, despite the sharp divergence of their political views, are united in their hostility toward dialectical materialism, at the same time claim to be Marxists in philosophy! Engels’ dialectics is “mysticism,” says Berman. Engels’ views have become “antiquated,” remarks Bazarov casually, as though it were a self-evident fact. Materialism thus appears to be refuted by our bold warriors, who proudly allude to the “modern theory of knowledge,” “recent philosophy” (or “recent positivism”), the “philosophy of modern natural science,” or even the “philosophy of natural science of the twentieth century.” Supported by all these supposedly recent doctrines, our destroyers of dialectical materialism proceed fearlessly to downright fideism1 (in the case of Lunacharsky it is most evident, but by no means in his case alone!)

FOREIGN LANGUAGES PUBLISHING HOUSE, LAWRENCE AND WISHART LTD. LONDON, 1950, 393p.

by LOUIS L. SNYDER

Although nationalism has been the prime moving force of European history for the last one hundred years and has become of similar importance in Asia since the end of the First World War, the serious study of its meaning and implications has only recently begun. Yet such a study seems of urgent concern not only for the scholar but also for statesmen and citizens dealing with international relations. For nations—with their drives, emotions, and real or supposed interests—are the chief actors on the stage of present history. Errors of judgment about the persistence and variations of national traditions and character and about the nature of nationalism were responsible, among other factors, for the coming of the wars and the weaknesses of the peace treaties of the twentieth century. In the middle of th

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: $4-10601, 1954, 220p.