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Whilst there has
been much published that distinguishes
between Marx and "Marxism", and
aims to demonstrate the non-continuities
between the two, Rubel's “La
Légende de Marx ou Engels
fondateur” is a classic
example. Rubel argues that the development
of "Marxism" as a distinct
ideology should be traced not to
Marx, but to some utterances of
Engels, and to early sectarian conflicts
within the international, where
terms like "Marxism" were
originally used pejoratively.
Critiques & Rejoinders for
"The Legend of Marx, or “Engels
the founder”"
Submit
a rejoinder
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Source: Rubel
originally prepared his “Gesichtspunkte
zum thema ‘Engels als Begründer’”
as a paper in German for the “Internationale
wissenschaftliche Engels-Konferenz”
of May 1970 in Wuppertal, but first
published it in French in 1972 as
“La Légende de Marx
ou Engels fondateur” in Études
de Marxology, Série S, No.
5. Socialisme : Science et Ethique.
This version is translated from
the French by Rob Lucas for “Marx
Myths and Legends” and is
covered by the Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
Licence 2.0.
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Biographical information
Maximilien Rubel
was born in 1905 in Czernowitz,
which was at that time within Austro-Hungary.
He was educated in law and philosophy
in Vienna and Czernowitz before
moving to France to study German
studies at the Sorbonne, from which
he received his Licence-ès-lettres
in 1934. He became a French citizen
in 1937, and shortly after began
publishing the literary magazine
Verbe-Cahiers humains,
before being drafted into the French
Army. Due to his Jewish origins,
Rubel lived semi-secretly in Paris
under the German occupation. In
his encounters with Marxist members
of the resistance movement in this
milieu Rubel was reputedly astonished
by the incoherence and confusion
that surrounded Marx and so-called
"scientific" socialism.
In difficult circumstances Rubel
then set to work to gain a thorough
understanding of Marx's life and
work. It was Rubel who originally
coined the term "marxologie"
to refer to a systematic scholarly
approach to the understanding of
Marx and Marxism, which he saw as
quite distinct. After the war, Rubel
continued with his research, first
publishing on Marx in 1946, and
receiving a Doctorate-ès-lettres
from the Sorbonne in 1954. He joined
the Centre d'études sociologiques
in the CNRS (Centre national
de la recherche scientifique)
in 1947, and retired as Maître
de recherche honoraire in 1970.
Rubel published widely on Marx-
more than 80 titles- and had a very
active academic career which cannot
be detailed here. He combined controversial
readings of Marx with rigorous scholarship,
and was frequently polemical in
his criticisms of the ideologies
of "Marxism", which he
often contrasted with a view of
working class liberation that emphasised
the "self-movement" of
the working class above all else.
Maximilien Rubel died in Paris in
1996 at the age of 91.
See also: the
Maximilien Rubel pages at plusloin.org
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