György Lukács: My Encounter with Marx

Lukács wrote “My Road to Marx,” where he recounts his approach to Marxism. In it, he says that it was a process full of doubts, changes in thought, wars, and political experiences. It was through The Communist Manifesto that he had his first contact with it, still during his youth, and it caused an “extraordinary impression.” After that, he began studying works by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, especially Capital.

Lukács was very impressed by the theory of surplus value, by the idea that history is made through the struggle between social classes and by the division of society between rich and poor. However, at that time he still saw Marx only as an economist and sociologist. He was influenced by neo-Kantianism and by authors such as Georg Simmel and Max Weber, and believed that philosophical materialism was outdated. Because of this, the Marxist elements present in his early texts appeared in a very weak form and mixed with idealist and subjectivist ideas. Lukács himself says that these influences were “so diluted and faded that they were almost unrecognizable.”

During the World War I, a major change occurred, because the devastation of the war created a profound crisis within him. During this period, Lukács began studying Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and dialectics more deeply. Little by little, he came to see Marx as “the great thinker, the great dialectician.” Even so, he recognizes that he still did not completely understand dialectical materialism and remained attached to many idealist ideas.

The Russian Revolution and the European revolutions of 1918 completely changed his trajectory. In 1918 he joined the Hungarian Communist Party and began participating directly in the revolutionary movement. Political practice forced Lukács to study Marx, economics, history, and the workers’ movement more deeply. Through this, he realized the limits of the subjectivist and syndicalist ideas he had previously defended.

In History and Class Consciousness, Lukács tried to bring Hegel and Marx closer together, but later recognized that many idealist elements still existed in his view. Only later, according to him, after many years of militancy and studying Vladimir Lenin, was he able to truly understand materialist dialectics as a whole.

One of the most important ideas in the text is that Marxism cannot become something rigid and mechanical. Lukács uses a phrase by Lenin: “the phenomenon is richer than the law.” In other words, reality is always more complex than any ready-made theory. For him, Marxism needs to be constantly reconstructed through practice and historical experience. When this does not happen, it becomes merely dogma.

Lukács also speaks about the period of Joseph Stalin and admits the conflicts he experienced at that moment. Although he perceived problems in Stalinism and Soviet bureaucracy, he believed that it was necessary to maintain unity against fascism and against Adolf Hitler. Later, he came to critically recognize the weight of dogmatism and intellectual repression during that period.

For Lukács, the relationship with Marx is the “true touchstone” of any serious intellectual. The way a person understands Marx also defines their position in relation to history and class struggle. His encounter with Marxism became the very history of his intellectual and political life.

References:

— LENDVAI, F. L. György Lukács 1902–1918: His way to Marx. Studies in East European Thought, v. 60, n. 1-2, p. 55–73, 9 fev. 2008.

‌— Marxism’s missing link: a reader’s guide to Lukács’ History and Class Consciousness. Disponível em: <https://www.counterfire.org/article/marxisms-missing-link-a-readers-guide-to-lukacs-history-and-class-consciousness/>.

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