Status Updates From Selected Philosophical Work...

Two comments so far:

(1) Holy fuck this dude is Althusser born 80 years prior.

(2) The publisher of my copy obscured the fact that this is a direct reprint of the 1960 Moscow Publishers copy. This is mainly relevant for the introduction, by a V Fomina I can’t track down, is very explicitly interpreting Plekhanov through Lenin’s eyes.

A decent level of cookery by Plekhanov in Monist View of History, which is honestly the highlight of this collection

In "Our Differences", Plekhanov continuing his endless war of polemics against the Narodniks. More of historical interest than anything else.

Some of the points in "Socialism and Political Struggle" were accurate and others aged so poorly (e.g. the amount of hardship that building socialism in a poor society like Russia would mean as we saw after the October Revolution, the prediction that a democratic revolution could facilitate a coalition between socialists and liberals... With hindsight one can see how well that went, trying to coax the kadets)

"Socialism and the Political Struggle" is quite good so far. A good criticism of Bakunin, some of Proudhon's followers and trade union factions in Russia who advocated for worker abstention from independent political action. If Lenin's "What is to be Done?" Is too spicy, this is also would be a decent introduction due to the general thrust of the argument.