Ecological Utopianism in Narodnik Thought: Nikolay Chernyshevsky and the Redemption of Land

ABSTRACT

The work of Narodnik revolutionary Nikolay Chernyshevsky (1828–1889) is representative of the ecological utopian tradition within the history of ecological economic thought, serving as inspiration to current debates on sustainability and the contemporary role of the peasant economy. His ecological utopianism is depicted as the combination of knowledge stemming from the natural sciences and egalitarian ideals. Technical progress, social reform, and human development would be the requirements to achieve such an ecological utopia. To that end, land should be redeemed in favor of rural communes, so that humans can more harmoniously relate to themselves and to nature.

KEYWORDS:

• Narodnism
• peasant economy
• rural communes
• ecological economic thought
• Nikolay Chernyshevsky

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Hugo da Gama Cerqueira and João Antônio de Paula for their support and such great conversations over the past four years. I also appreciate the comments made by the editor and two anonymous reviewers. The usual disclaimers apply.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The term “populism” is as a free translation from the Russian narodnichestvo, which stems from narod – people or folk. The term “Narodnism” bears the same specific meaning and is here given preference, given the multiple uses of the word “populism.”

2 “Going to the people” (khozhdenie v narod) was the motto of hundreds of young revolutionary intellectuals who moved to the countryside and lived amongst peasants while inciting them to rise against the Tsar. They were received by peasants with suspicion and befuddlement. Many were denounced by peasants and faced persecution and imprisonment.

3 The points of view of Marx and Engels themselves toward Narodnism remain out of the scope of this text. It suffices to mention how Marx acquiesced to Russia’s peculiar historical development, the role of the obshchina, and the country’s ability to skip a capitalistic stage in his epistolary exchange with Narodnik thinker Vera Zasulich. For more on Marx and revolutionary Russia, see Shanin (1983).

4 Eco-Marxists call attention to Karl Marx’s stance on the dangers of a “metabolic rift” between society and nature to address how flows of matter and energy, which are necessary for the expansion of the capitalist system, cannot be permanently maintained by the carrying capacity of the planet (Burkett 2009; Foster 2000; Löwy 2001). The ecosocialist model retains the emancipatory objectives of the original concept of socialism but rejects productivist modes of organization. The social character of production, the satisfaction of human needs, and ecological constraints are prioritized in detriment of the imperative of economic growth at all cost (Löwy 2015).

5 The Sovremennik was originally an initiative of the great poet Aleksandr Pushkin, being restored after his death by the poet Nikolay Nekrasov.

6 Lenin’s praise of Chernyshevsky’s main novel would also point to the Narodnik roots of the 1905 revolution. According to Frank (1990, 200), “there is thus a clear line of historical affiliation between Chernyshevsky’s novel and the Leninist ideal of the Bolshevik.”

7 Non-English references have been freely translated by the author.