Bernstein’s Russian-language polemic on whether socialism can claim the authority of science
A Short Text Issued in Russian in 1906
Vozmozhen li nauchnyi sotsializm? — the title translates as “Is Scientific Socialism Possible?” — is a brief work on the subject of socialism by the German socialist theorist Eduard Bernstein (1850–1932). It appeared in Russian in 1906, issued by the publisher Burevestnik, in a translation from the German by Iu. Raikhesberg. It carries an alternative title, Otvet G. Plekhanova — “An Answer to G. Plekhanov” — which identifies it plainly as a reply to the Russian Marxist Georgi Plekhanov.
The Question Behind the Title
The book’s governing question is contained in its title: whether socialism can properly be described as “scientific.” The phrase “scientific socialism” was the standard claim of the Marxist tradition, which presented its account of history and economics as a science rather than as a moral ideal or a utopian scheme. To ask whether such a science is possible is therefore to interrogate that claim at its foundation. Bernstein, the most prominent socialist theorist of his generation to challenge Marxist orthodoxy, frames the work around this question and directs it at Plekhanov, one of the leading defenders of the orthodox position in the Russian movement.
A Reply to Plekhanov
The work’s second title makes its polemical character explicit: it is written as an answer to Plekhanov, and its argument is conducted against him and the tradition of orthodox “scientific socialism” that he represented. The text thus belongs to the wider debate within European socialism at the start of the twentieth century over whether socialism should be grounded in a claim to scientific certainty about historical development or rested on other foundations — a debate in which Bernstein was a central and controversial figure.
A Brief, Pointed Intervention
The work is short — a compact tract rather than a treatise — and its form suits its purpose: a direct, argumentative reply to a named opponent rather than a systematic exposition. Its significance lies in carrying the revisionist challenge to Marxist orthodoxy into the Russian-language debate, where it was aimed squarely at Plekhanov’s defense of the orthodox “scientific” position.
A 1991 edition was published in Moskva by Filosofskoe obshchestvo SSSR. The Princeton University Library catalog gives its extent as 83 pages and its size as 21 cm, and records it under the call number HX56 .B463 1991 in ReCAP Remote Storage. The same catalog entry supplies OCLC number 28262569. A supplementary record for another version carries the identifier SCSB-11022830.
Digital Listings and Page Extent
Google Play lists a 64-page e-book version and dates it to January 1906. The Online Books Page notes a link to page images at HathiTrust, with US access only, and describes its entry as an uncurated book entry from its extended bookshelves, readable online now without a stable link; it also notes that the book can be requested for addition to the curated collection, which has stable links.
