Known as "the father of Russian Marxism," G. V. Plekhanov (1856-1918) was an outstanding theoretician of prerevolutionary Marxism whose works were relegated to virtual oblivion during the Stalin era. In the wake of the collapse of Marxism-Leninism, his interpretation of Russian history and of the Bolshevik revolution are once again attracting the attention of Russian scholars.

Samuel H. Baron, author of the standard biography of Plekhanov, has brought together a number of his essays that explore the place of this thinker in the history of the Russian revolutionary movement and his differences with Lenin, Stalin, and later Soviet ideologues.