From self-estrangement to restratification

pp. 183-199

in: Victor Zitta, Georg Lukács' Marxism alienation, dialectics, revolution, Berlin, Springer, 1964

Abstract

In the present chapter I shall examine Lukács' theory of a proletarian ruling class and elucidate its implications. Lukács is among the first significant Marxists (with Lenin and Antonio Gramsci) to claim that authentic Marxism is elitist; but, he surpasses all in his bluntness. Lukács' theory of the proletarian ruling class is on one hand an enlargement on his own early views about the "hero" — the gnostic activist — in whom essence comes to life, and on the other hand an ideological justification of his elitist measures during the Hungarian Commune of 1919, certifying them through his theory as fundamentally Marxist. During the Hungarian Commune, Lukács had — as shown above — restratified people according to their political outlook even in situations — among writers, artists, etc. — in which previous societies or theories of society never ventured to rank people into classes.