The scientific referents of Plekhanov's theory of knowledge
pp. 105-127
in: , Genesis and development of Plekhanov's theory of knowledge, Berlin, Springer, 1991Abstract
Western and Soviet commentators have often maintained that Plekhanov did not pay enough attention to the transformation contemporary natural sciences were undergoing. Nevertheless, by analysing his writings and reading it appears that he was actually deeply concerned with the sciences. Plekhanov had been interested in scientific studies since he attended the Mining Institute in Saint Petersburg as a young man. When Pavel Aksel"rod met him at the beginning of the 1870's, Plekhanov "dreamed of finishing the Mining Institute and going abroad to improve himself in chemistry."1Some fellow-students later told Rosalija Markovna Plekhanova that, when her husband left the Institute in order to devote himself wholly to revolutionary activity, a professor of chemistry declared: "What a pity! He would have become a great scholar!".[LNPI, p.201]