Nachalo was a Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n Marxist monthly magazine published in Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

, Russia, in 1899.

Origins

When Novoye Slovo

Novoye Slovo

Novoye Slovo was the title of two separate Russian magazines published in Saint Petersburg, the first appearing between 1894 and 1897 and the second in the fall of 1917....

, the flagship magazine of the Saint Petersburg-based Legal Marxists, was suppressed by the Czarist government in December 1897, their leaders began planning a new magazine. At first, the idea was to have Vladimir Posse

Vladimir Posse

Vladimir Aleksandrovich Posse was a Russian socialist journalist and editor who typically signed his articles V. A. Posse....

 (who was close to the Legal Marxists as well as to the narodnik

Narodnik

Narodniks was the name for Russian socially conscious members of the middle class in the 1860s and 1870s. Their ideas and actions were known as Narodnichestvo which can be translated as "Peopleism", though is more commonly rendered "populism"...

 populists) take over Zhizn

Zhizn

Zhizn was a Russian magazine published first in Saint Petersburg , then in London and Geneva .Zhizn began its existence as a general purpose magazine in January 1897. For the first two years it was edited, at various times, by S. V. Voejkov, D. M. Ostafyev, M. V. Kalitin, and M. S. Ermolaev and...

(Life), a moderate populist magazine, and use it as a platform for Legal Marxism. However, when Posse became Zhizn's editor in early 1899, the Legal Marxists' plans suddenly changed and they started their own magazine, Nachalo, in January 1899 .

History

Nachalo's editorial board consisted of Peter Struve, Mikhail Tugan-Baranovsky

Mikhail Tugan-Baranovsky

Mikhail Ivanovich Tugan-Baranovsky or Myhaylo Tuhan-Baranovsky was the Ukrainian politician, statesman, and a noted Russian-Ukrainian economist, a tutor of Nikolai Kondratiev...

, V. G. Veresayev, V. Ya. Bogucharsky, and A. M. Kalmykova. Contributors included Legal Marxists as well as revolutionary Marxists living in exile or abroad like Georgy Plekhanov, Vladimir Lenin

Vladimir Lenin

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...

, Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....

 and Vera Zasulich

Vera Zasulich

Vera Ivanovna Zasulich was a Russian Marxist writer and revolutionary.-Radical beginnings:Zasulich was born in Mikhaylovka, Russia, one of four daughters of an impoverished minor noble. When she was 3, her father died and her mother sent her to live with her wealthier relatives, the Mikulich...

. In all, there were five issues published between January and May 1899, although the April issue was confiscated by the censors. Starting with issue 2, the magazine was supportive of Eduard Bernstein

Eduard Bernstein

Eduard Bernstein was a German social democratic theoretician and politician, a member of the SPD, and the founder of evolutionary socialism and revisionism.- Life :...

's revision of Marxism, which caused frictions with Plekhanov, an opponent of Bernstein's and the leader of orthodox Marxism in Russia.

The editors also made an attempt to build up a literary section in collaboration with Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...

 and Russian Symbolists, but were unsuccessful, which made them turn to Maxim Gorky

Maxim Gorky

Alexei Maximovich Peshkov , primarily known as Maxim Gorky , was a Russian and Soviet author, a founder of the Socialist Realism literary method and a political activist.-Early years:...

 and early Russian Modernists. The magazine was closed down by the government in June 1899, and the Legal Marxists were forced to join Posse's Zhizn

Zhizn

Zhizn was a Russian magazine published first in Saint Petersburg , then in London and Geneva .Zhizn began its existence as a general purpose magazine in January 1897. For the first two years it was edited, at various times, by S. V. Voejkov, D. M. Ostafyev, M. V. Kalitin, and M. S. Ermolaev and...

as originally planned.

Influences

The last issue (1972) of the Situationist International magazine, featured an editorial analyzing the events of May 1968. The editorial, written by Guy Debord

Guy Debord

Guy Ernest Debord was a French Marxist theorist, writer, filmmaker, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situationist International . He was also briefly a member of Socialisme ou Barbarie.-Early Life:Guy Debord was born in Paris in 1931...

, was title The Beginning of an Era, probably as a detournement

Detournement

A détournement is a technique developed in the 1950s by the Letterist International, and consist in "turning expressions of the capitalist system against itself." Détournement was prominently used to set up subversive political pranks, an influential tactic called situationist prank that was...

reference of Nachalo (The Beginning).

Further reading

• Leopold H. Haimson. The Making of Three Russian Revolutionaries: Voices from the Menshevik Past, Cambridge University Press, 1987, ISBN 0-521-26325-5 p. 468.
• Shmuel Galai. The Liberation Movement in Russia 1900-1905, Cambridge University Press, 1973, (paperback edition 2002), ISBN 0-521-52647-7 p. 96-97.