12 Facts About Orthodox Marxism

Orthodox Marxism is the body of Marxist thought that emerged after the death of Karl Marx and which became the official philosophy of the majority of the socialist movement as represented in the Second International until the First World War in 1914.

Orthodox Marxism aims to simplify, codify and systematize Marxist method and theory by clarifying the perceived ambiguities and contradictions of classical Marxism.

Philosophy of orthodox Marxism argues that material development is the primary agent of change in the structure of society.

Emergence of orthodox Marxism is associated with the latter works of Friedrich Engels, such as the Dialectics of Nature and Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, which were efforts to popularise the work of Karl Marx, render it systematic and apply it to the fundamental questions of philosophy.

Orthodox Marxism is contrasted with revisionist Marxism as developed in post-First World War Social Democratic parties.

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Orthodox Marxism rested on and grew out of the European working class movement that emerged in the final quarter of the 19th century and continued in that form until the middle years of the twentieth century.

The official thought of the Third International was based in orthodox Marxism combined with Leninist views on revolutionary organization initially.

Orthodox Marxism is contrasted with later variations of Marxism, notably revisionism and Stalinism.

Luxemburgism is highly critical of the reformist Orthodox Marxism that emerged from the work of Eduard Bernstein's informal faction of the Social Democratic Party of Germany.

Orthodox Marxism was removed as editor by the leadership of the SPD when the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany split away from the SPD.

Instrumental Orthodox Marxism is a theory derived from classical Orthodox Marxism which reasons that policy makers in government and positions of power tend to "share a common business or class background, and that their decisions will reflect their business or class interests".

Western Marxism, the intellectual Marxism which developed in Western Europe from the 1920s onwards, sought to make Marxism more "sophisticated", open and flexible by examining issues like culture that were outside the field of orthodox Marxism.