Georg Lukacs: Life, Thought, and Politics

by Arpad Kadarkay

Georg Lukacs, (1885-1971) was one of the most important intellectuals of the 20th century and arguably the most original and profound thinker ever to have worked within the Marxian tradition. This is his biography. The author has drawn upon all Lukacs's writings, from the dramas of his youth to his major works in political and literary theory, and made use of archive material to which few Western scholars have had broad access. Lukacs stood at the epicentre of almost every major historical event of the turbulent 20th century, from the Russian Revolution in 1917 to the Hungarian uprising and its aftermath in 1956. He was both a philosopher and an actor. In striving to imbue the power to Communism with dignity in its thought and with tolerance in its realization he suffered both exile and persecution, goading the powerful into attacking him at the very moment he achieved world wide recognition as a philosopher of the first rank. His final realization that the attempt to achieve a Communist utopia had been a moral disaster has by no means diminished the value of his interpretation of the interactions between politics, culture and moral philosophy.

Genres: Biography

384 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1991

Reviews

[T · Rating 5 out of 5]

"There was something seductive in Lukàcs' courage, indifference to death, and grandeur of vision. His notion of sacrifice struck many people, precisely because it was seductive and therefore dangerous, as just as incredible as his appearance." (222-223)

An incredible biography, which reads in many parts like a novel.

[Alex Kurtagic · Rating 3 out of 5]

How this man is thought to deserve exaltation as an intellectual, or even a person, defies reason or belief, even in today's world. Out of contempt for his mother, the fashionable socialite, and the haute bourgeoisie into which he was born, Lukacs was drawn to destruction from an early age—of where he came from, of the society he was born into, even of himself, although time and again he chose not to pull the trigger. Embittered from youth, completely depressive and misanthropic, he heard the gospel of salvation from an ex's brother, who had returned from Russia, fully trained in Bolshevik tactics and overflowing with propagandistic rhetoric. Lukacs consecrated himself to Marx, and from 1918 dedicated himself, quite blindly, to communism. As a commissar he was responsible for theft of property on a massive scale, and by 1919, exiled after the collapse of Bela Kun's dictatorship, he was formally charged with murder, although he evaded extradition and capture. An obdurate, hardcore Stalinist for an important part of his career, he narrowed his intellect, blunted his mind, and destroyed his reason (even Adorno quipped on the matter), his thinking forever straitjacketed by ideology. He lionised Stalin, championed totalitarianism, and cheered the Gulag. Somehow he survived the Stalinist purges, and had a second bite at the cherry—albeit a very quick one—in Hungary once it was back under communist control. He finally destalinised in 1956, but by then his career was more or less over, for, unpopular among his colleagues, he was relegated to the margins, even unpersoned for a while, on account of his numerous 'revisionist' heresies, as seen by orthodox Marxists. In this period he became one of the founders of Western Marxism. To Kadarkay's credit, he does not shy away from the bad and the ugly (and there's plenty), even though he writes as an admirer. On the other hand, the narrative, which does not lack the occasional brilliant phrase or moment of humour, is sometimes, albeit only mildly, chaotic and imprecise. The focus is mostly on Lukacs' life and politics, both of which were grim; for a detailed analysis of his thought the reader will have to go elsewhere. I began the book fearing it would be a hard slog, but it proved otherwise.

[Valko · Rating 2 out of 5]

Con ojear rápidamente el índice se puede vislumbrar la gran miseria del libro: patetismo liberal y anticomunismo rampón. Que Kadarkay dedique el doble de páginas a la vida juvenil de Lukács, que no pasa de ser la vida de un intelectual bohemio, burgués, que se rebela frente al mundo con todos los gastos pagados por su posición social privilegiada es indicativo del odio de Kadarkay al Lukács que verdaderamente ha pasado a la historia como alguien destacado, el Lukács comunista, revolucionario, intelectual proletario y crítico de un socialismo en el que pese a todo prefiere vivir y morir a volver al cálido redil del aplauso burgués y el asiento cómodo en la estructura cultural capitalista. El anticomunismo de Kadarkay recorre y pudre su biografía de Lukács, en cada página se lamenta de que Lukács no se hubiese limitado a ser un intelectual burgués más, un filósofo de universidad y seminario, un crítico de esos que no pasa hambre sino que gana pingües emolumentos por su rebeldía dosificada. Kadarkay sólo ve pobreza y sectarismo en todo aquello que hizo importante la vida y el pensamiento de Lukács, aquello que hizo que Lukács no fuese un inútil decadentista más, sino el intelectual comunista más importante del siglo XX.

Si la lectura de la biografía no es vana es por los documentos que rescata y porque pese a todo capta algo de aquél espíritu de quiebra del mundo burgués vivido a principios del siglo XX. Pero es mejor leerla como si fuera una novela y no como obra científica.