Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 2.pdf/387

361 way in which it has made it a point of principle to insist that science must be applied to political practice, to demand that politics shall be based upon strictly scientific historical and sociological knowledge. In this matter, Marxism follows the example set by Herzen and his successors.

On the philosophical plane, the religious problem presents great difficulties to the Marxists, though it must be admitted that the other parties, and above all the representatives of the church, have the same problem to solve. Mere Feuerbachian negation will not suffice. Doubtless such negation may have been the most effective weapon to employ against theocratic caesaropapism, but the old religion can be defeated only by a new religion.

To a certain extent, Marxism replaces religion by the cultivation of art.

In the literary field, at any rate, the Marxists make their appearance as critics, for in Russian Marxism literary criticism plays the same role as in the other trends. The Marxists have endeavoured to create a comprehensive history of literature, but since the task is still beyond their unaided strength they have had to join forces here with the narodniki, the liberals, and the social revolutionaries.

Among creative artists, the Marxists have a certain right to claim Gor'kii as their own, although the orthodox Marxists incline rather to regard him as a revisionist or a social revolutionary.

In the sphere of the fine arts, Marxism is still weak. Further, it is necessary to note that Marxism as yet has done hardly anything for the populdrisation of art. Its endeavours to popularise science have a one-sidedly intellectualist stamp.

It must be accredited to Marxism as a service that it has vigorously opposed the decadent movement in literature, as manifested not only in Saninism, but also in metaphysical, religious, and political aberrations. The works of Andreev, Merežkovskii, and Sologub, were rightly criticised, and an apt estimate was formed of Nietzsche and the Nietzschean cult. The cause of decadence was seen to lie in the social system of capitalism. It was recognised that pessimism, idealism, and mysticism, are merely so many outward manifestations of the widespread taedium vitae which is charac-