Marx as a Forger of the Socialist Tradition. Diagnosis by Georgii Fedotov

Abstract

The author tries to demonstrate that Georgii Fedotov, who at first sight seems to be not very interested in the philosophy of Marx, was an insightful and very severe critic of marxism. In order to prove it he explains what part the criticism of marxism plays in his philosophy of history. According to Fedotov the only way to overcome the crisis of civilization is reconciling of liberalism, socialism and Christianity. Such a reconciliation is quite possible because liberalism is compatible with Christianity while socialism has Christian sources as it was demonstrated in the course of ecclesial history and in the history of socialism whose founders (Leroux, Lammenais, George Sand and others) proposed an ideology with a strong religious bias. The materialistic and atheistic marxism, however, cut the ties between Christianity and socialism; thus it constitutes one of the major obstacles to reconcile the three traditions and overcome the crisis.