Science Fair Project Encyclopedia Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov
(December 11, 1856 – May 30, 1918; Old Style: November 29, 1856
– May 17, 1918) was a Russian revolutionary and a Marxist
theoretician. He was a founder of the Social-Democratic movement
in Russia. Plekhanov contributed many ideas to Marxism in the
area of philosophy and the roles of art and religion in society.
Plekhanov was originally a Narodnik, a leader of the
organization "Land and Liberty". After emigrating from Russia in
1880, he established connections with the Social-Democratic
movement of western Europe and began to study the works of Marx
and Engels. This led him to renounce Narodism and become a
Marxist. In 1883, he founded, in Switzerland, the "Emancipation
of Labor" group, which popularized Marxism among Russian
revolutionaries. At its dissolution, he joined the Russian
Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) and worked with Lenin. In
1903, at the second congress of the RSDLP, Plekhanov broke with
Lenin and sided with the Mensheviks