Leroux, Pierre. Pierre Leroux (French Pierre Leroux) An excerpt characterizing Leroux, Pierre

, France

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Biography

His education was interrupted by the death of his father and he was forced to look for work to support his mother and family. At first he worked as a bricklayer, then in a printing house, where he continued to educate himself. He became a journalist, became interested in the ideas of Saint-Simon, later in 1824 founded the magazine "Le Globe" - the official publication of the Sensimonists since 1831.

Breaks with Saint-Simonism and tries to create his own socialist system after coming to the leadership of Anfantin. He publishes several works: About equality(fr. De l "égalité, 1838), Refutation of eclecticism(fr. Réfutation de l "éclecticisme , 1839), About humanity(fr. De l "humanité, 1840) and others. In the work of Pierre Leroux "Individualism and Socialism" (1834), the term "socialism" was first used.

Then he develops a system in which he combines the Pythagorean and Buddhist teachings with the ideas of Saint-Simon. In 1841, together with Georges Sand and Louis Viardot, he founded the socialist newspaper Revue indépendante.

List of works

• Nouveau procédé typographique qui réunit les avantages de l'imprimerie mobile et du stérotypage, Paris, Didot, 1822
• Encyclopédie nouvelle ou Dictionnaire philosophique, scientifique litteraire et industriel, offrant le tableau des connaissances humaines au dix-neuvième siècle par une société de savants et de litterateurs(1834-1841), ouvrage collectif sous la direction de Pierre Leroux et Jean Reynaud. Leroux rédige de nombreuses notices.
• Réfutation de l "éclectisme, où se trouve exposée la vraie définition de la philosophie, et où l’on explique le sens, la suite et l’enchaînement des divers philosophes depuis Descartes, Paris, Gosselin, 1839
• De l'Humanité, de son principe, et de son avenir, où se trouve exposée la vraie définition de la religion et où l'on explique le sens, la suite et l'enchaînement du Mosaïsme et du Christianisme, Paris, Perrotin (1840; 2 ° edition 1845)
• De la Ploutocratie, ou Du Gouvernement des riches, in La Revue indépendante(1842); 2 ° edition en un volume, Boussac (imprimerie Pierre Leroux) et Paris (librairie Sandré), 1848.
• D'une religion nationale, ou Du culte, Boussac, imprimerie de P. Leroux, 1846
• Du Christianisme, et de son origine démocratique, Boussac (imprimerie Leroux) et Paris (libraire G. Sandré), 1848
• Projet d'une Constitution democratic et sociale, Paris, librairie G. Sandré, 1848
• Malthus et les économistes. Ou: Y aura-t-il toujours des pauvres?, Boussac, imprimerie P. Leroux, 1848
• Œuvres de Pierre Leroux (1825-1850), Paris, librairie G. Sandré, 1850-1851, 2 vol.
• La grève de Samarez: poème philosophique, Paris, É. Dentu, 1863, 2 vol.
• Job. Drame en cinq actes, Grasse-Paris, 1866 (extrait de l'ouvrage précédent)

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Literature

• Jacques Viard, Pierre Leroux et les socialistes européens, Actes Sud, 1982.
• Armelle Le Bras-Chopard, De l "égalité dans la différence: le socialisme de Pierre Leroux, Presses de la Fondation nationale des sciences politiques, 1986.
• Bruno Viard, Pierre Leroux, penseur de l'humanité, Sulliver, 2009.

Links

An excerpt characterizing Leroux, Pierre

Dagger of Radan

- Listen, son ... This man is not a Temple Knight. - pointing to the dead man, said Radan hoarsely. - I know them all - he is a stranger ... Tell this to Gundomer ... He will help ... Find them ... or they will find you. And best of all - go away, Svetodarushka ... Go to the Gods. They will protect you. This place is flooded with our blood ... there is too much of it here ... go away, dear ...

His education was interrupted by the death of his father, who forced him to support his mother and family. Working first as a freemason and then as a compositor, he joined P. Dubois in the Le globe , which became the official body in 1831 Saint-Simonian community of which he became a famous member. In November of the same year when Prosper Enfantin became the leader of the Saint-Simonians and preached the granting of women's suffrage and function couples-prétre, Leroux separated himself from the sect. In 1834, he published an essay entitled "Individualism and Socialism" which, despite his reporting of skepticism to both tendencies, coined the term socialism in French political discourse. In 1838, with Gene Raynaud that departed with him, he founded Encyclopédie nouvelle (editors 1838-1841). Among the articles he inserted into it was De l "egalité and Refutation de l "éclectisme, which subsequently appeared as separate works.

In 1840 he published his treatise De l "humanité(2nd ed. 1845), which contains the most complete exposition of his system and has been regarded as a philosophical manifesto by the Humanitarians. In 1841 he established Revue indépendante, with help Georges Sand for which he had a great influence. Her Spiridion which was dedicated to him, september cord de la lyre, Consuelo and La Comtesse de Rudolstadt, was written under Humanitarian inspiration. Leroux also became embroiled in a philosophical controversy between F.W.J. Schelling and Young Hegelians in the early 1840s. Schelling's favorable comment prompted a public response from pupil Hegel Karl Rosencrantz. Leroux continued to be interested in German philosophy and literature; he also translated and commented on some letters Goethe.

In 1843 he founded in Boussac (Creuse) press association, organized according to his systematic ideas, and founded Revue sociale... In 1848 he joined the Freemasons. With a sudden start Revolution 1848 Leruksa declared a republic in the city of Bussek, becoming its mayor on February 25. Subsequently, he was elected to the Constituent Assembly, and in 1849 to the Legislative Assembly, where he sat with radical socialist deputies and spoke frequently, although his speeches were criticized as abstract and mystical. He also published numerous letters including La Plutocratie(1848), another term that he seems to have coined. Enemy Louis Bonaparte Lerux entered exile after coup d'état 1851, which he settled with his family in Jersey where he pursued agricultural experiments and wrote his socialist poem La Grève de Samarez... On a categorical amnesty of 1869, he returned to Paris. He supported The Paris Commune but died before suppressing it.

Views

Leroux "thought a unique mixture of doctrines borrowed from Saint-Simonian, the German Idealist, Pythagorean and Buddhist sources. His fundamental philosophical principle is the principle of what he calls the "triad" - the triplicity, which he finds in order to penetrate all things, which in God is "power, intelligence and love", in man "sensation, feeling and knowledge."

His religious doctrine is pantheistic; and, rejecting the belief in a future life, as is usually intended, he replaces it with the theory of metempsychosis. In the social economy, he preserves the family, country and property, but finds in all three, as they are now, a despotism that must be eliminated. He imagines certain combinations with which this triple tyranny can be canceled. His solution seems to require the creation of headless families, countries without governments, and property without ownership. In politics, he defends absolute equality - democracy.

Lerux's significance in the history of ideas lies in his attempt to reanimate spirituality and community in France in connection with the revolutionary decades of the 1790s and the Napoleonic Era. As was the case with many of his romantic socialist contemporaries, Lerux sought a foundation on which to re-find a human community that did not rely on the pillars of the old Regime, power, hierarchy and the Catholic Church. The span of his lifetime was the years of the rise of capitalism and liberal principles of trade policy, and also the rise of the movement of organized workers. Romantic socialism as a movement tried to regulate religious and material needs in society. Lerux "the most complete exhibition of this idea is found in his Doctrine de l "Humanité, published first in 1840. In this and other works, he argues for the mutual concept of human need and identity, emphasizing the interdependence of humanity instead of crushing individuality.

see also

• Circulus (theory)

Untitled document

Alec D. Epstein(b. 1975) - specialist in intellectual history, chairman of the Center for the Study and Development of Contemporary Art (TsIIRSI).

Andrey Kozhevnikov(b. 1990) - artist and translator, co-author of a number of works on French art and society, as well as on painters of the Russian emigration.

I

Prominent French thinker and public figure Pierre Leroux (1797−1871) is much less known than one might expect. For some unknown reason, not a single book has been published in the USSR or Russia about this man, who invented and first used the term "socialism" in print in 1834 (and not at all in the meaning that this word acquired in subsequent decades) ; as far as we know, none of his articles have been translated into Russian.

The opinion that socialism started from Karl Marx has become firmly established in the mass consciousness, although this, frankly, does not correspond to reality. Professional historians have mentioned Henri Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier and Robert Owen, but only as “utopians”, predecessors and forerunners. The prominent Russian historian Alfred Steckley (1924-2010), in his book Utopias and Socialism, published after the collapse of the Soviet Union, pointed out that socialism is an anti-bourgeois trend in social thought and that Saint-Simon, Fourier and Owen are the “undisputed creators of socialism”; For some reason Leroux was not mentioned at all. Gennady Kucherenko (1932−1997), who studied the history of French socialism for many years and wrote his doctoral dissertation "Saint-Simonism in social thought of the 19th century", published as a monograph in 1975, mentioned Pierre Leroux several times, but only in the context of his polemics with Charles Fourier in 1846-1848. The first major Russian scientist to write about French pre-Marxist socialism, Academician Vyacheslav Volgin (1879-1962), who received his pre-revolutionary education in history (he graduated from Moscow University in 1908), dedicated a detailed article to Pierre Leroux, which he published already during the "thaw" ... Probably precisely because all pre-Marxist socialists during the period of domination of the "Short Course" had to be branded as "utopians", and socialist thought had to start with Karl Marx, which did not correspond to historical reality. Academician Volgin knew this very well and pointed out:

“Many contemporaries ascribed to Leroux's works the same historical significance as Rousseau's Social Contract. Heine, in his correspondence from France, called Pierre Leroux one of the greatest philosophers. In Russian radical circles of the 40s of the XIX century. the name Leroux was placed next to the names of Saint-Simon and Fourier. Georges Sand considered herself a “pale copy” of Leroux, his fanatical student. Georges Sand's social novels were undoubtedly written under the influence of Leroux, and some, perhaps, under his editorship. Leroux's influence on Victor Hugo is also indisputable. "

However, further Vyacheslav Volgin argued that “after 1848, Pierre Leroux was hardly remembered as a social thinker” - this judgment is more than strange, given that just in 1848 Pierre Leroux was elected both the mayor of the city of Bussac and a deputy Constituent Assembly of France. Academician Volgin, like no one else under the conditions of the dominance of Soviet ideologemes, could not contradict Lenin, who dealt with all representatives of socialist thought of the 1830s-1840s back in 1913:

“At the beginning of the first period, the teachings of Marx did not dominate at all. It is only one of the extremely numerous factions or trends of socialism. The prevailing forms of socialism are those that are mostly related to our populism: lack of understanding of the materialist basis of the historical movement, inability to highlight the role and significance of each class of capitalist society, covering up the bourgeois essence of democratic reforms with various supposedly socialist phrases about "people", "justice", "law" etc. The revolution of 1848 deals a mortal blow to all these noisy, colorful, loud forms of pre-Marxian socialism. "

If so, the only possible conclusion was that “after 1848, Pierre Leroux was hardly remembered as a social thinker” - any other statement could not fit in with Lenin's sweeping generalization. Unlike Henri Saint-Simon (1760−1825), who died in 1825, Pierre Leroux, who managed to meet him in Last year his life, he lived after the revolutionary events of 1848 for more than twenty years, having lived up to the Paris Commune of 1871. However, Soviet historical science continued to ignore everything he did in his mature years.

Ideological dogmatism continued to impede adequate perception and analysis of the views of French thinkers in the first half of the 19th century and in the 1970s. So, obviously distorting the course of intellectual history, Gennady Kucherenko postulated in the above-mentioned monograph about the followers of Saint-Simon:

“For K. Marx, F. Engels, V.I. Lenin's utopian socialism (French in the first place) is one of the ideological sources of Marxism and at the same time its dialectical opposite, acting as the opposition between scientific socialism and utopian socialism, i.e. unscientific ".

Pierre Leroux fell victim to these rather meaningless accusations of "utopianism" and "unscientificness" in relation to the social philosopher.

In the post-Soviet era, when Russian history and philosophy began to free itself from the ideological oppression of the "only correct teaching", the situation could have changed for the better, but the vector of intellectual pursuits was already fundamentally different: socialist thinkers went out of fashion, the interest of a significantly reduced readership was aroused authors not published in the Soviet Union. Professor Andrei Gladyshev, whose two dissertations are devoted to Henri Saint-Simon, who greatly influenced Pierre Leroux, described what happened in a very emotional article:

“Perestroika has entailed a decade of methodological confusion and confusion for many Russian historians, especially the older generations. […] Historians, previously all, as one, who were considered Marxists, learned to do without the practice of invariably citing the classics of Marxism-Leninism, which was now considered bad form. The words "class", "mode of production", "production relations", "socio-economic formation" have become almost indecent. "

“In the science of the 90s, to engage in“ utopian ”socialism at that time already seemed utopian. Russian historiography did not bother modeling the history of early French socialism “in the logic of social categories of the new era,” it simply forgot about it. Society, which tried with all its might to erase its socialist past from its memory and pinned its hopes on the capitalist future, was least of all interested in the history of socialist ideas, which in shortest time from a priority direction of historiography has turned into an odious anachronism ”.

So Pierre Leroux remained among those who have not yet waited for justice in relation to their intellectual heritage. By now, books about him have been published in French, English, Italian and German, but there are none of them in Russian; were not translated into Russian and his own works. A monument to Pierre Leroux was erected in France in 1903, but since it stands in a small town, far from popular tourist routes, none of the numerous guidebooks reproduced his photo. Hopefully, this article, based on a significant body of research literature published in France, England and the United States, will become the beginning of the study of the intellectual heritage of Pierre Leroux in Russia, which is absolutely necessary for a comprehensive understanding of the genesis of social democratic ideas in a historical perspective.

II

Pierre Leroux was in the full sense of the word a man of the people. He was born in 1797 into a modest family: his father Jacques Charles Modest Leroux, like his maternal grandfather, was a seller of juices, lemonade and other soft drinks. Father's business was not going well, and in the end he was even forced to mortgage his property. After the second son Jean was born in 1800, the family moved to the village, but by 1803 they returned to Paris, and the parents resumed trade. In 1804, as soon as the family got to their feet, the grandfather died. In 1805, the third son, Jules, was suitable, who later became an associate of his older brother and supported him ideologically. The youngest of the brothers, Pierre Victor was born in 1808 - and in the same year his father died of a long illness, leaving four sons orphans, the eldest of whom, Pierre, was only 11 years old. Many debts remained after the father, and this time of need and poverty was forever imprinted in the memory of his sons.

After graduating from the Lyceum in the city of Rennes in 1814, Pierre returned to his parents' house and entered as an apprentice in a printing house, where he mastered the profession of a typesetter. The work fascinated him so much that he even developed an improved model of the printing press. In 1822, Pierre Leroux published The New Typographical Method, which became his first published work. His mother had died the year before, and Pierre became the guardian of his three younger brothers. In the same year, he met with a member of the Chamber of Deputies Gilbert La Fayette (1757−1834), who was at that time in Society of Friends of Press Freedom(closed by the authorities in 1823) and offered him the idea of ​​his typographical invention, thanks to which, according to Leroux, it would be easier to disseminate the ideas of the Carbonari society he shared, of which La Fayette was the most prominent representative in France. After four soldiers were executed in the city of La Rochelle on charges of attempting a coup d'etat, in 1822 Leroux broke with the Carbonari and began to oppose violent methods of struggle, while continuing to work as a workshop foreman in a printing house.

The founders of French Carbonarism are considered to be Saint-Aman Bazar (1791−1832) and Barthélemy Prosper Anfantin (1796−1864) - the authors of the two-volume work "Exposition de la doctrine de Saint-Simon", published in 1828 −1829 years. It was in this work that the followers of Henri Saint-Simon critically rethought the term "individualism". From the point of view of Saint-Simon and his associates, individualism too developed an already strong egoism in man. And if you try to organize production on the principles of association, that is, partnership and cooperation, then this should lead to the development of feelings of solidarity and mutual assistance. Individualism encourages people to fight against each other; the slogan of the principle of mutually beneficial association, which was defended by the Saint-Simonists, is the struggle of people against poverty and natural disasters in cooperation with each other. They believed that the main task of the executive branch of the state was to organize people into labor associations or communities, where caring for working people and improving their lives would be the basis for the development of the whole society.

One of the popular encyclopedias states that "the supporters of socialist theories, followers of Henri Saint-Simon, began to use the concept of" individualism "to oppose" socialism "" - this could not be for the obvious reason that when the word "individualism" appeared , the term "socialism" did not yet exist. Libertarian apostle Friedrich von Hayek (1899-1992) was not much closer to historical truth, arguing in his book Individualism and Economic Order:

“By origin, both terms -“ individualism ”and“ socialism ”- are the invention of the Saint-Simonists, the founders of modern socialism. They first coined the term “individualism” to denote the competitive society they opposed, and then they coined the word “socialism” to denote a centrally planned society in which all activities are governed by the same principle as in a separate factory. "

Not named by Hayek by the name of Pierre Leroux can only be called a “Saint-Simonist”, and the term “socialism” was introduced by him, moreover, nine years after the death of Saint-Simon - when, according to the just remark of Academician Volgin, “Saint-Simonism as the special organized current of social thought disappears. "

In his work "On Individualism and Socialism", written in 1834, Pierre Leroux singled out two fundamental principles in society: "man's striving for freedom" and "man's striving for social unity." He opposed the striving for social unity, on the one hand, to egoism and individualism, and on the other, to “absolute socialism,” which he identified with the tyranny of the bureaucratic state. "Individualism" and "absolute socialism" (which in his eyes had a completely different meaning than is customary today: he spoke of a state, rather, a totalitarian) Pierre Leroux considered the two extreme poles of the organization of society. He realized that freedom and social cohesion are opposite values ​​- he called them "two pistols pointing at each other" - which, however, must coexist, complementing each other.

Leroux was one of the first thinkers to realize that social relations are inherently subject to the double danger of distortion, opposing both the idea of ​​unlimited individual rights and the concept that recognized the state as the main role in the organization public life... He wrote:

“[In this case] the individual becomes just a cog: his life is clearly regulated, he has an official ideology, which he must believe, and beyond the threshold the Inquisition awaits him. Man ceases to be a free and spontaneous being, now he is only an instrument that obeys - against his will or, on the contrary, being carried away by what is happening - and mechanically reacts to social events, like a shadow that repeats body movements. "

"Absolute socialism is no less disgusting and no less absurd than absolute individualism," he remarked with a prophetic gift worthy of surprise and admiration.

Subsequently, in 1850, he recalled:

“I invented the term 'socialism' to contrast it with the idea of ​​individualism. […] Under this name, I tried to expose the false systems of the organization of society, allegedly proposed by the disciples of Saint-Simon and followers of Rousseau. "

Beginning in 1836, the writer and publicist Louis Reibaud (1799−1879), in a series of articles published in the Revue des Deux Mondes, named the supporters of Henri Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier and Robert Owen who advocated large-scale socio-economic reforms, “ socialists ". So the term took on a life of its own, boomerang back to its creator, and in 1845 Leroux clarified:

“It should be understood by socialism ... an expanded right to public associations... For some time now it has become customary to call socialists all those thinkers who are preoccupied with social reforms, all those who criticize [...] individualism, all those who speak in one way or another ... about a sense of solidarity that unites not only members of this or a different state, but all of humanity; and in this sense we, who have always opposed absolute socialism, are now considered socialists ourselves. […] We are socialists if by socialism we mean a doctrine that, without abandoning any of the elements of the formula “freedom, brotherhood, equality, unity,” instead combines them all. ”

In 1858, Leroux wrote: "Republic and socialism are equally significant ideas." Thus, we are talking about the ideal of a democratic and socially oriented republic.

Pierre Leroux argued that the philosophers of modern times were faced with "a complex, but solvable problem of combining the principles of freedom and social cohesion." Leroux considers equality to be the ultimate goal of the entire path of humanity. In contrast to the legalists-republicans, who believed that the realization of equality is limited to the provision of universal suffrage, Leroux, in his article "Equality" (1838), noted the bitter irony that society provides the individual with legal equality without equality of fact:

“The nation is involved in agriculture, in industrial production and into trade. What is the underlying principle for all these activities? The principle of freedom, which is expressed in the freedom of competition. But ... this is where the most egregious inequality lies. There is no true competition because the means of production are owned by a small number of people and the rest are relegated to the status of slaves to industry. […] The lives of so many millions of people, so many millions of those who are completely equal to us, who are like us, our brothers and fellow citizens, completely depend on the risks that come with short-sightedness, negligence, mediocre abilities, personal addictions and all kinds of madness of capital owners. There is a tremendous irony in the fact that society has proclaimed competition: it is the same as if it fenced off a corral in which some, bound and unarmed, would be left at the mercy of others, who are well armed. The picture of freedom, which is the sphere of work and production, in reality is more like hard labor in Toulon. "

In 1824, Pierre Leroux, together with Paul-François Dubois (1793−1871), founded the magazine Le Globe. This edition became one of the most popular in the era of the Bourbon Restoration, distinguished by a high intellectual level of publications and a wide coverage of topics. The journal sought to disseminate knowledge in various fields, quite living up to its name. From an ideological point of view, during these years the publishers and authors of the Globe advocated the expansion of electoral rights based on property qualifications, and in general were distinguished by social-liberal views on politics and economics.

Beginning in 1827, Pierre Leroux began to think about creating mutual aid societies for workers. In 1839, printing workers, among whom was Leroux, were among the first to create such an association - Secret Mutual Aid Society, which established a fund to support the strikers, the unemployed and the sick. Speaking to printing workers on September 15, 1850, Leroux said that professional associations have a duty to protect workers' rights, oppose wage cuts, provide decent working conditions, and fight unemployment.

From 1822 to 1830, as befits a native of the people during the years of the Restoration, Leroux was a supporter of social liberalism, first as a member of the Carbonari conspiratorial club, and then as editor of the Globe. At the same time, socialist and republican feelings were not alien to the young Pierre Ler, however, he was an obvious opponent of the ideology, which advocates the subordination of the individual to the dictates of public institutions, even if they are the spokesmen for the interests of ordinary people. Later, in 1838, Leroux wrote:

"A person cannot entrust the state with either his thinking, or his love, or his friendship, or the leadership of his labor, or the fruits of his labor - in a word, all that multitude of actions and feelings that make up the essence of his personality."

Pierre Leroux also sharply criticized Jean-Jacques Rousseau's idea of ​​a "social contract". Quoting in 1847 the words of Rousseau that a person "will be forced to be free", Leroux bitterly ironic:

“These words ... make me remember with anger about the executioner Don Carlos, who, during the execution, said in his ear:“ Sir, this is for your own good ”. To reason like this is to mock the very human mind. It was these ideas that served as a justification for the creation of the guillotine. "

From October 1829 until the July Revolution of 1830, the editorial offices of Globus and the magazine of Saint-Simon's followers L’Organisateur were located on adjacent floors of the same building. Hôtel de Gesvres, between Rue Monsigny and Lane Choiseul. In 1830, the Globe was headed by Michel Chevalier (1806−1879), a native of Limoges, after which this publication became even more clearly positioned as a tribune for the followers of Saint-Simon. However, Leroux continued to publish in it: in January 1831, his article was published in the magazine, entitled "Rather helpless liberalism!" In it, Leroux wrote that the former "Globe" acted correctly, supporting freedom, but missing one thing important right related to the principle of freedom: the right to association. Actually speaking from a trade unionist position, Leroux advocated "the emancipation of the most numerous and most disadvantaged class" - the proletariat.

Back in 1832, Leroux criticized the "exploitation of man by man", he wrote about the class struggle, and long before Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, he gave definitions of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie based on the criteria of ownership of the means of production: "the struggle of the proletarians against the bourgeoisie" described as the struggle of "those who do not own the means of production against those who have it." In 1842, Leroux gave more detailed definitions of the opposing classes, full of sincere pain for the fate of his millions of disenfranchised compatriots:

“I call proletarians those people who produce all the wealth of the nation and who have nothing but daily wages, and whose work depends entirely on circumstances that they cannot influence; people who every day receive only a small share of the results of their labor, increasingly decreasing due to competition; people whose tomorrow is completely dependent on the unpredictable and uncontrollable movement of the economy, and who spend their old years either in a hospital bed, or do not live to old age at all. I call the workers of the cities and the peasants of the villages proletarians ... 22 million people, humiliated, forgotten, outcast, forced to live on six sous a day.

I call the bourgeoisie people to whom the fate of the proletarians is subordinate and subject; people who own capital and who live off the income from them; those who profit from industry and who lower and increase production volumes based on their own needs, who reign supreme today and who do not want anything from tomorrow except for the continuation of the eternal order, which gives them the first places and the best share. I call the bourgeoisie the owners, from the richest, who dominate in our cities, to the most insignificant, I call that the aristocracy in the villages. "

In 1849, Pierre Leroux wrote in the journal Republique that the goal of the socialists is to "socialize the means of labor."

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, undoubtedly, not only knew the work of Pierre Leroux well, but also appreciated them. In addition, Leroux and Marx met in person in Paris on March 23, 1844. "Such works as the works of Leroux ... cannot be criticized on the basis of a superficial momentary fantasy, but only after persistent and in-depth study," Karl Marx wrote in October 1842. "The best minds in France, for the most part, welcome the rise of communism," wrote Friedrich Engels a year later, immediately after that mentioning three people, the first of whom was called "the philosopher Pierre Leroux." "Leroux issues a periodic organ La Revue indé pendante, in which the basic provisions of communism are defended from a philosophical point of view, ”- noted Engels. Note that the monthly socio-political magazine "Independent Review" was published in Paris under the editorship of Pierre Leroux, Georges Sand (1804-1876) and Louis Viardot (1800-1883) from November 1841 to February 1848. That is, by the time Engels mentioned him, the magazine had been published for less than two years, but the fact that Marx's friend and co-author, who was at that time in Manchester, knew about him, testifies to how resonant this publication was.

Much later, in 1878, Friedrich Engels mentioned Pierre Leroux among the founders of socialism as an ideological school, along with Robert Owen, Charles Fourier, Louis Blanc, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Wilhelm Weitling. It is interesting to note that this reference from the text entitled "A variant of the introduction to Anti-Duhring" was included in the first collected works of Marx and Engels published in the USSR (the corresponding volume was published back in 1931), but in the second edition of the works of the founders of Marxism which was said to be more complete, this paragraph was missing. Anti-Duhring and various materials to it occupied most of the twentieth volume of the second edition, but the name of Pierre Leroux is not mentioned in it at all.

The most scandalous distortion of Marx's attitude towards Ler in Soviet publications concerned the text of Marx's letter to Ludwig Feuerbach (1804−1872), sent on October 3, 1843. The original text of this letter read:

"Wie geschickt hat Herr von Schelling die Franzosen zu ködern gewußt, vorerst den schwachen eklektischen Cousin, später selbst den genialen Leroux."

“How cleverly Monsieur Schelling knew how to attract the French, at first the weak eclectic of the Cousin, later even ingenious [sic!] Leroux» .

It was this version that was published in the first Soviet edition of the collected works of Marx and Engels in 1929. However, endure " genius Leroux Soviet ideological censorship could not, and in subsequent editions this letter is reproduced twice more and each time - with a new epithet in relation to Leroux. In the 1956 edition, this phrase of Marx looks like this:

“How cleverly Mr. Schelling caught the French - at first a weak eclectic Cousin, later even gifted [ sic!] Leroux ".

In the second Soviet edition of the collected works of the founders of Marxism, the quotation took on a third aspect:

“How cleverly Mr. Schelling caught the French - at first a weak eclectic Cousin, later even a talented one [ sic!] Leroux! "

This is how “genialen Leroux” ceased to be a genius: more than a century later, the Soviet censors, without specifying this anywhere, posthumously corrected Karl Marx so that he would not give generous compliments to those whom, according to Lenin, should be considered only “noisy, colorful [and] loud ".

III

In French socialist thought, the idea of ​​establishing a "temporary" revolutionary dictatorship in the name of a transition to a better future has been very popular since the end of the 18th century. An important role in bringing these ideas back to public discourse was played by The Conspiracy for Equality, first published in 1828, just on the eve of the Second French Revolution in July 1830. Its author was a friend and associate of the executed Gracchus Babeuf (1760-1797) Philippe Buonarroti (1761-1837), who was also one of the conspirators created in 1796 Secret Directory of Public Safety.

Pierre Leroux was very close to many of Babeuf's ideas: recall, in particular, about Babeuf's opposition to the electoral qualification, which took place as early as October 22, 1789, and compare it with Leroux's address to Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, who later became Emperor Napoleon III: “We a different [constitution] is needed, which will be created through universal suffrage. " At the same time, Leroux sharply opposed the idea of ​​violent overthrow of the regime, which, after Babeuf and Buonarroti, was preached by the professional revolutionary Louis Blanqui (1805-1881), who spent half his life in prisons. The Blanquists defended the need to create a narrow, secret hierarchical organization with the task of overthrowing the existing regime through a sudden armed uprising and establishing a temporary dictatorship of revolutionaries, which would lay the foundations of a new, socialist order. Leroux believed that the foundations of the new order should be laid by legal means, and civil resistance should not be violent. All in the same address to Napoleon Bonaparte in 1849, he spoke about this more than clearly:

“Universal suffrage will make the choice between you and us. Now we seem to be in a fortress, and it is inaccessible. If you attack her, we will leave her not like you, with cannons and rifles - we will leave her with peaceful ... weapons: with the refusal to pay taxes. "

An important idea put forward by Babeuf's followers was the need to complement the political revolution with a social revolution - only in this case, in their opinion, the working people could achieve the implementation of their intentions. They also opposed private property. Thus, Pierre Sylvain Marechal (1750-1803), the author of the Catéchisme des athées manifesto, wrote: “No more private ownership of land! We demand a common consumption of the fruits of the earth that belong to all. " Leroux, on the other hand, opposed the nationalization of the economy and society, emphasizing the importance of the development of independent public structures (nowadays they are usually called non-governmental or non-profit organizations), which should become the basis of a new civil solidarity. It is this outlook that allows Pierre Leroux to be considered one of the founding fathers of both solidarism (which Igor Voshchinin drew attention to) and communitarianism, which is ideologically close to this trend. The basis of the ideology of solidarity (from fr. solidaire- acting at the same time) is the thesis of the need for solidarity and the desire for compromise, social cooperation and spiritual trust among various sectors of society, including classes, parties and interest groups. Solidarity relations are built either on a system of mutually beneficial agreements focused on common interests, or on a set of voluntary communities.

This, as it seems, may be the second reason that the name of Pierre Leroux was erased even from those books published in the USSR, where it, it would seem, could not appear. As you know, the organization that was always perceived in the USSR as absolutely hostile, cooperation with which is impossible and unacceptable in any form, was the People's Labor Union of Russian Solidarists (NTS), created by the white emigration in 1930. Throughout its existence (up to the 1990s), this organization set itself the goal of fighting to overthrow the Soviet regime, as a result of which the regime could not have common friends with it.

In 1969, the publishing house Posev, owned by the NTS, published a program book by one of its activists, Igor Voshchinin (1906-1976), entitled "Solidarism: the birth of an idea", in which Pierre Leroux was described in one place as "the first French solidarist", and in another - as a "first solidarist" in general. This statement seems to us logical and justified, but not self-evident. Let us mention in this regard that neither in the chapter "The History of the Idea of ​​Social Solidarity", nor elsewhere in the book of Professor Georgy Gins (1887−1971) "On the Path to the State of the Future: From Liberalism to Solidarity", published in emigration in the year of foundation NTS and considered to be the most fundamental work of Russian solidarists, the name of Pierre Leroux was never mentioned. Hins began his historical excursion with an extremely vague statement:

"Solidarism, as a social doctrine, is a product of the new era, although the idea of ​​social solidarity is almost as old as the world itself, and solidarism as a fact was born together with human society."

Further, briefly mentioning the Apostle Paul, Marcus Aurelius, Auguste Comte and Emile Durkheim, Hins moved on to one of the founders of the League of Nations - the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Leon Bourgeois (1851-1925), "who made the first attempt to give legal expression to solidarity." However, the work of Léon Bourgeois was published only at the very end of the 19th century, and Voshchinin's desire to reveal the earlier ideological roots of this ideology is more than justified.

Leroux really deserves to be considered a harbinger of solidarity. In an article published after Voshchinin's death, its author - the French researcher Armel Le Bras-Chopard - showed this more than clearly. It is clear, however, that the ideological forerunner of the sworn enemies of the Soviet regime could not be viewed by its ideologists positively or even neutrally; Pierre Leroux, revered by the People's Labor Union, was automatically excluded from the Soviet list of "progressive thinkers." At the same time, it was strange to blaspheme with the last words of the person who invented the term "socialism" in a country called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. As a result, Leroux was not mentioned at all.

Biography (N. Vodovozov.)

Leroux (Pierre Leroux) - French writer (1797-1871). Brought up in the countryside, Leroux did not study anything until the age of 18, but then he graduated from the course at the Lyceum. Lack of funds forced him to get behind the counter, then to become a bricklayer for a while, finally a typesetter and proofreader in a printing house, where he invented a typesetting machine and an improved method for casting type. Since 1824 Leroux participates in the "Globe" newspaper. He signs a protest against the ordinances of Charles X and, surrounded by his typesetters, offers armed resistance to the police who have come to arrest him. Under Louis-Philippe "Globe" becomes the organ of sensimonism (see), and K. - his zealous apostle, until he disagrees with Anfantin on the issue of the rehabilitation of the flesh. 1848 Leroux as a representative of the Dpt. The Seine takes a seat in the national assembly on the extreme left. A supporter of widespread government assistance to the unemployed, he zealously defends "national workshops".

The December coup of 1851 throws Leroux out of France; he settled on Jersey Island, felt a terrible need, but did not leave scientific studies, became interested in agronomy and made successful experiments in the use of guano and other fertilizers. The fall of the Empire allows him to return to Paris, where he dies, at the height of the commune. In his philosophical convictions, Leroux went through atheism, rationalism and deism; the denial of any cult was replaced by the cult of Reason, which gave way to the cult of the supreme being. The final stage of this whole process was its own original system of pantheism and spiritualism, developed in the works: "De l" Humanit e "," Du Christianisme "and" De l "Egalit e". "God is imprisoned in the world," says Leroux, "or, rather, the world is in Him, for we cannot live otherwise than in God." The unity of God has as its continuation the unity of the human race.

Christianity, which put forward this idea, drew from it, however, the wrong conclusion, turning to the propaganda of mercy (contrary to our selfish nature), and not solidarity (beneficial to people). Another mistake of Christianity was that it placed paradise outside of life and placed God not on earth, but in heaven. Philosophy (Leroux was referring to the French philosophy of his time, mainly Cousin) failed to preserve what was true in the Jewish religion. She considers a person as a unit, while he is only a part of the whole. Thoughts, feelings, convictions of a person are not born in his own head, but they are received from the outside, from others. Man, according to Leroux, is "an animal reborn by reason and closely connected with all of humanity." Families, communities, nations are the constituent parts of the whole, unable to separate from it, without forcing reason and not generating evil. People are particles of an eternal being, an all-pervading one world soul.

"Modern people are the same people who lived in the past and awakens to live in the future." Thus, Leroux comes to the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, on which he builds his faith in the end of wars and the onset of fraternal relations between peoples. Progress is a gradual approach to equality and freedom. It is necessary to distinguish three stages in it (Leroux is inclined to see the trinity in everything), liberation from family slavery (from the power of the patriarchal family, caste), from slavery to the state (caste character) and from the tyranny of property (exclusive, privileged caste). Deprived of the "caste" character, the family, state and property will serve one good, while now they are often the main sources of evil. The tyranny of the family must be opposed to the complete emancipation of women, the tyranny of the state - the self-government of harmoniously formed communities, the tyranny of property - the involvement of the whole of society in it, the elimination of poverty.

In criticizing the existing economic form, Leroux did not show originality, using the remarks of Fourier and Saint-Simon. The influence of the same writers affected his construction of an ideal society, on the basis of an elected administration, compulsory common work and remuneration in accordance with abilities, work and needs. Interesting is Leroux's polemics against the teachings of Malthus: he denied not only availability, but also the possibility of overpopulation, arguing that there is a constant circulation of matter in the world, not drying out and eternal. Already by his own fertilization, a person sufficiently provides himself with food. Leroux had few followers. Some of Zand's novels were written under the direct influence of Leroux's ideas ("Consuelo" illustrates the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, "Le Compagnon du tour de France", "Le P eche de Mr. Antoine" and others bear the imprint of a somewhat sentimental, mystical socialism Leroux).

The younger brothers of Leroux, Achilles and Jules, were engaged under his influence in socialist propaganda (the latter owns a number of brochures), and both were expelled from their fatherland for this.

In addition to the works named above, Leroux also wrote:

* "De l" egalite "(1838);
* "Discours sur la situation actuelle de la societe et de l" e sprit humain "(1841, 2nd ed. 1847);
* "De l" humanit e, de son principe et de son avenir "(1840, 2nd ed. 1845);
* "R efutation de l" eclectisme "(1841);
* "D" une religion nationale ou du culte "(1846);
* "Projet d" une constitution democratique et sociale fondee sur la loi meme de la vie "(1848);
* "De la Ploutocratie" (1848); Malthus et les economistes (1849);
* "Doctrine de l" humanite "(1848);
* "Du christianisme et de son origine de mocr." (1848) and others.

Wed about him:
* Breynat, "Les socialistes modernes" (1850);
* Marschal, "P. S. Proudhon et P. Leroux" (1850);
* Bobert (Du Var), "El ements de philosophie sociale, rediges d" apres les ecrits de Leroux "(1841-1842);
* Eugene de Mirecourt, "Pierre Leroux" ("Les contem porains", 1869);
* Ferraz, "Etude sur la philosophie en France au XIX s." (1877);
* Flint, "Historical philosophy in France" (1893); Adam, "Philosophie en France au XIX s." (1894);
* Shcheglov, "History social systems"(vol. II, 1889).

Biography (A.I. Volodin.)

Leroux (hereinafter L) (Leroux) Pierre (17.4.1797, Bercy, near Paris, - 11.4.1871, Paris), French philosopher and utopian socialist, one of the founders of Christian socialism. He came from a petty bourgeois family. He was a typographic worker. In 1824 he founded the magazine "Globe" ("Le Globe", since 1830 - the organ of the Sensimonists), during the Revolution of 1848-49 a member of the Constituent Assembly, then the Legislative Assembly. Considering himself the successor of A. Saint-Simon, L. saw his merit and his main task in the development of the science of the "order and organization" of society. The ultimate goal of human development is equality. Modern society is sharply divided into the "third estate" and the "proletariat" (to which L. also included beggars and peasant workers), striving for association. The main condition for social transformation is moral transformation. In the future society, the tyranny of the family, state, property is replaced by the complete emancipation of women, self-government of communities, and the elimination of poverty.

In the early 30s. introduced the very word "socialism". L.'s ideas influenced FR Lamennais and V. Hugo, enjoyed fame in Russia in the 40s. 19th century

Cit .:

* Refutation de l "eclectisme,., 1841;
* De l "humanite, 2nd ed., T. 1-2,., 1845;
* Discours sur situation actuelle de la societe et de l "esprit humain, v. 1-2, Boussac, 1847;
* Du Christianisme et de son origine democratique, Boussac, 1848; De la Ploutocratie, Boussac, 1848;
* De l "egalite, Boussac, 1848; Job,., 1866; Malthus et leseconomistes, v. 1-2,., 1897.

Lit .:

* Volgin VP, P. Leroux - one of the epigones of Saint-Simonism, in the collection: From the history of social movements and international relations, M., 1957;
* Mougin H., R. Leroux., 1938; Evans D., Le socialisme romantique. ... Leroux et ses contemporains,., 1948.

Biography (A.A. Gritsanov)

(1797-1871) - French thinker, social philosopher and economist, author of the term "socialism". Major works: "Equality" (1838); "On humanity, its principles and its future" (vols. 1-2, 1840) and others. L. developed an original concept of "Christian socialism", combining the image of the social ideal of the Saint-Simonist sense, coupled with an attempt to construct ways to achieve it. The solidarity and social equality, which lay at the foundation of socialism in Latvia, were conceived by him as the result of the transforming messianic influence of the eclectic "religion of humanity" on people. According to L., in the basis of the latter, the leading role should have been played by those components of the philosophy of Pythagoreanism and the “atheistic religion” of Buddhism, which were focused on harmonizing relations between man and the world, man and man. According to L., Catholicism and socialism are fundamentally incompatible. After the Bonapartist coup in France (1852) - in exile.

Pierre Leroux must be fifty now; but at least that much can be given to him in the face; maybe he is younger. Physically, nature did not give him a particularly generous gift. This is a stooped, stocky, angular figure who has not received any grace through the traditions of high society. Leroux is a child of the people; in his youth he was a typographer, and to this day his appearance still bears the traces of the proletariat. Probably, with intention, he renounced the usual secular gloss, and if there is in him the ability of some kind of coquetry, then perhaps it consists in a stubborn adherence to rough primitiveness. There are people who never wear gloves because they have small, white hands, which are a sign of aristocratic origin; Pierre Leroux does not wear gloves either, but, of course, for a completely different reason. He is an ascetic, a man of self-denial, hating luxury and all sense gratification, and nature made it easier for him to be virtuous. But we give him no less credit for the nobility of his way of thinking, the zeal with which he sacrificed all material interests for thought, for his lofty disinterestedness in general; still less do we intend to humiliate a rough diamond because it is not polished and even dressed in dark lead. Pierre Leroux is a man, and with a manliness of character in him, which is rare, a spirit that ascends to the highest philosophical considerations and a heart capable of plunging into the deepest abyss of national grief are united. He is not only a thinking, but also a feeling philosopher, and his whole life and aspirations are devoted to improving the moral and material situation of the lower classes. He, a hardened fighter, capable of enduring the most severe blows of fate without blinking an eye, and more than once, like Saint-Simon and Fourier, starving, in dire poverty and at the same time not particularly murmuring - he is not able to calmly endure the calamities of his fellow humans ... his hard eyes are moistened at the sight of someone else's grief, and the outbursts of his compassion are stormy, furious, often unfair.

Biography (M M. Fedorova)

LEROU Pierre (April 17, 1797, Bercy, near Paris - April 11, 1871, Paris) - French philosopher, one of the first followers of Saint-Simon. In 1824 he founded the newspaper Globe, which became the organ of the Sensimonists, but in 1831, after SenSimon's student Anfantin took the leading position in it, he left it and tried to create his own socialist system of a kind of Christian socialism, the ideas of which he developed in a series of articles and brochures published in the framework of the "New Encyclopedia" (1841, 8 vols.), as well as in the books "On Equality" (De legalite, 1839), "Refutation of Eclecticism" (Refutation de leclectisme, 1838), "On Mankind, its principle and his future ”(De lhumanite, de son principe et de son avenir, 1840). Leroux speaks of humanity as a huge living association of people who, from generation to generation, are united by faith and the ability to improve.

There is a kinship of spirit and body between generations, and each subsequent generation should enrich the spiritual soil already cultivated by its ancestors. Within the framework of such humanity, there is no isolated I: each person, observing his past, present and foreseeing the future, can say about himself We, everyone is what he is, only thanks to the work of all humanity, improving, a person prepares the onset of a better future - “ a world of equality. "

Leroux's ideas had a significant impact on the formation and development of Catholic socialism.

Lit .:

* Gobof J.-J. Aux origines du socialisme francais:
* P. Leroux et ses premiers ecrits. Lyon, 1977.

Biography (ru.wikipedia.org)

His education was interrupted by the death of his father and he was forced to look for work to support his mother and family. At first he worked as a bricklayer, then in a printing house, where he continued to educate himself. He became a journalist, became interested in the ideas of Saint-Simon, later in 1824 founded the magazine "Le Globe" - the official publication of the Sensimonists since 1831.

Breaks with Saint-Simonism and tries to create his own socialist system after coming to the leadership of Anfanten. He publishes several works: On Equality (FR. De l "egalite, 1838), Refutation of Eclecticism (FR. Refutation de l" eclecticisme, 1839), On Humanity (FR. De l "humanite, 1840) and others.

Then he develops a system in which he combines the Pythagorean and Buddhist teachings with the ideas of Saint-Simon. In 1841, together with George Sand, he founded the socialist newspaper Revue Independante.

In 1846 he received a book publisher's concession, organized and managed a printing house, published new magazines and a number of brochures on socialist topics. After the revolution of 1848, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly, the main speaker from the Radical Party. In 1848 he published several works, including the Critique of Malthus (fr. Malthus et les economistes, 1849). Participates in the publication of the democratic magazine "La Republique".

As a result of the establishment of the Second Empire, he was expelled from France and lives with his family first on the island of Jersey, where he is engaged in experiments in the field of agronomy and writes the philosophical poem La Greve de Samarez, then in Lausanne. Thanks to the amnesty, he returns to his homeland in 1869, dies during the events of the Paris Commune.

List of works

* Nouveau procede typographique qui reunit les avantages de l'imprimerie mobile et du sterotypage, Paris, Didot, 1822
* Encyclopedie nouvelle ou Dictionnaire philosophique, scientifique litteraire et industriel, offrant le tableau des connaissances humaines au dix-neuvieme siecle par une societe de savants et de litterateurs (1834-1841), ouvrage collectif sous la direction de Pierre Leroux et Jean. Leroux redige de nombreuses notices.
* Refutation de l "eclectisme, ou se trouve exposee la vraie definition de la philosophie, et ou l’on explique le sens, la suite et l’enchainement des divers philosophes depuis Descartes, Paris, Gosselin, 1839
* De l'Humanite, de son principe, et de son avenir, ou se trouve exposee la vraie definition de la religion et ou l'on explique le sens, la suite et l'enchainement du Mosaisme et du Christianisme, Paris, Perrotin ( 1840; 2 ° edition 1845)
* De la Ploutocratie, ou Du Gouvernement des riches, in La Revue independante (1842); 2 ° edition en un volume, Boussac (imprimerie Pierre Leroux) et Paris (librairie Sandre), 1848.
* D'une religion nationale, ou Du culte, Boussac, imprimerie de P. Leroux, 1846
* Du Christianisme, et de son origine democratique, Boussac (imprimerie Leroux) et Paris (libraire G. Sandre), 1848
* Projet d'une Constitution democratique et sociale, Paris, librairie G. Sandre, 1848
* Malthus et les economistes. Ou: Y aura-t-il toujours des pauvres ?, Boussac, imprimerie P. Leroux, 1848
*? uvres de Pierre Leroux (1825-1850), Paris, librairie G. Sandre, 1850-1851, 2 vol.
* La greve de Samarez: poeme philosophique, Paris, E. Dentu, 1863, 2 vol.
* Job. Drame en cinq actes, Grasse-Paris, 1866 (extrait de l'ouvrage precedent)

Literature

* Leroux, Pierre - article from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia
* Jacques Viard, Pierre Leroux et les socialistes europeens, Actes Sud, 1982.
* Armelle Le Bras-Chopard, De l "egalite dans la difference: le socialisme de Pierre Leroux, Presses de la Fondation nationale des sciences politiques, 1986.
* Bruno Viard, Pierre Leroux, penseur de l'humanite, Sulliver, 2009.