Suvorov, Y. V. F. LASSALLE ON REVOLUTION // Proceedings of Petrozavodsk State University. 2020. Vol. 42. No 8. P. 15–22. DOI: 10.15393/uchz.art.2020.545


World history

F. LASSALLE ON REVOLUTION

Suvorov
Y. V. 		Petrozavodsk State University
Keywords:
F. Lassalle
revolution
reform
state
nation
leading figure
universal right of suffrage
“social monarchy”		 Summary: The article reviewed the evolution of views on the revolutionary process of the founder of German Social Democracy F. Lassalle. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the works in which Lassalle enunciates his conception of revolution. The importance of research question is specified by the demand for understanding the revolution by politicians of various views. In his student days being strongly influenced by the philosophy of G. Hegel, Lassalle considered the revolution a leap that raises the historical process to a new stage of development. Taking part in the revolution of 1848, he called to defend the interests of a popularly elected parliament with lethal force, and acted as a supporter of a democratic republic. Lassalle analyzed the consequents of the failures of 1848 in the tragedy “Franz von Sickingen”, in which he said that the revolution can win only in the case of self-sacrifice of the masses, having a leader with “realistic wisdom”, able to precisely choose the force that will prevail. In the monograph “The System of Acquired Rights”, the revolution is interpreted as a legal process for citizens to cancel their old rights and acquire new ones. In the early 1860s Lassalle’s ambitious political activity did start, at the same time his attitude towards the revolution changed. Then he was against an armed uprising, in favor of class cooperation, for the reforms that the existing state must carry out. Instead of a revolutionary leap, peaceful gradual transformations were proposed. He formulated his conception of “social monarchy” as a transitional period on the way of building a legal democratic state. Fundamental changes in Lassalle’s views on the revolution occurred as a result of the correlation of class forces in the country, the underdevelopment of the workers’ and democratic movement, the desire to create a mass people’s party, to achieve the most rapid introduction of universal suffrage.



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