Semyon Frank on Pugachev as a symbol of Russian revolution

Appendix: S.L. Frank. Marx and Pugachev

Abstract

In this publication, we present (in a Russian translation from German) the transcript of Semyon Frank's lecture notes entitled Marx und Pugachev (orig. Marx und Pugatschow), stored in the Bakhmeteff Archive in New York, USA. The lecture was delivered by Frank on 15 November 1927 at the Russian Scientific Institute in Berlin. The essaywhich serves an introduction to this publication defines the place which belongs to this manuscript text among the works on social and political philosophy Frank completed in 1920s, in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1917. It can be shown that throughout his entire output of this period, including the notes on Marx and Pugachev, Frank attaches to such names as Marx, Pugachev and Lenin a symbolic meaning. While even before this lecture Frank did use the word Pugachevshchina ('Pugachevism') as a general name for the particularly atrocious, blindfold kind of uprising common in Russian history, here Pugachev himself becomes a symbolic name for peasants and soldiers (Cossacks) who participate in the revolutionary movement and in whom Frank recognizes the 'mediating force' of the revolution. On the other hand, Pugachev remains for Frank a historical figure who in late 18th century already became an embodiment of many significant aspects of the Russian revolutionary type. A similar symbolic quality Frank also conveys to the figure of Lenin who is regarded by him as an 'amalgamation of Marx and Pugachev'. The introductory essay examines the possible reasons why from mid-1920s onward the reflections on revolution gain Semyon Frank's German-language writings an increasing weight.