György Litván - Socialism and Social Science: Selected Writings of Ervin Szabó (1877-1918)

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Routledge Revivals

Socialism and Social Science

The essays and letters of Ervin Szab (18771918) present proof of his critical insight into Marxist theory and of his perceptive analysis of socialism around the turn of the century. His ideals of an engaged social science and an enlightened socialism, his preoccupation with the socialist future, are still relevant today.

The writings selected in this work, first published in 1982, are primarily those which address themselves to general issues of the European working-class movement and socialist theory, but there are also a few pieces that characterize the intellectual and political climate of early twentieth-century Budapest. Szab was one of the theoretical leaders of a whole generation of progressive thinkers from Oscar Jszi through Karl and Michael Polnyi to Georg Lukcs and many others. The almost insurmountable conflict between theory and practice that characterized Ervin Szabs life remains a problem that has to be solved by engaged intellectuals whatever the time and place. Background notes and an introduction by the editors help to place the writings in their historical and political context.

Socialism and Social Science

Selected Writings of Ervin Szab

(18771918)

Edited by
Gyrgy Litvn
and
Jnos M. Bak

First published in 1982
by Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd.

This edition first published in 2011 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

1982 Gyrgy Litvn and Jnos M. Bak

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Publisher's Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

Disclaimer
The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and welcomes correspondence from those they have been unable to contact.

ISBN 13: 978-0-415-67940-4 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-203-80236-6 (ebk)

SOCIALISM AND SOCIAL
SCIENCE
SELECTED WRITINGS
OF ERVIN SZAB
(18771918)

Edited by

Gyrgy Litvn
and
Jnos M. Bak

First published in 1982
by Routledge &Kegan Paul Ltd
39 Store Street, London WC1E 7DD,
9 Park Street, Boston, Mass. 02108, USA and
Broadway House, Newtown Road,
Henley-on-Thames, Oxon RG9 1EN
Printed in Great Britain by
St. Edmundsbury Press, Suffolk
Editorial compilation and translation
Gyrgy Litvn and Jnos M. Bak 1982
No part of this book may be reproduced
in any form without permission from the
publisher, except for the quotation of brief
passages in criticism

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Szab, Ervin, 18771918.
Socialism and social science.
Includes index.
1. Communism and social sciences. I. Litvn, Gyrgy.
II. Bak, Jnos M. III. Title.
HX541.5.S95 335.4 8113993

ISBN 0-7100-9007-2 AACR2

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The editors wish gratefully to acknowledge the many suggestions and comments received from friends and colleagues, and apologize for not having been able to follow all their recommendations. We wish to thank our typists, Barbara Parker, Sheila Rowswell, Eva Fr and William E. Taylor, who offered more than mere technical help by deciphering our hieroglyphs and often suggesting better formulations than ours.

Most articles of Szab were translated from the Hungarian by Mario D. Feny; Masses or individuals and The Hungarian Revolution, as well as the correspondence were translated from the German original by J. M. Bak, who also translated all editorial matters. For the permission to reprint J. M. Bak's translation (from the German text) of The agrarian question we are indebted to the editor of Peasant Studies and UCIS, Pittsburgh.

Budapest-Vancouver
December 1980

Gy.L. J.M.B.

EDITORS INTRODUCTION

During the two decades of his creative and productive career, Ervin Szab enjoyed an undisputed reputation as a scholar, wide acclaim as a socialist theoretician, and early and lasting success as a librarian. But he was also beset by continuous frustrations and failures, and was plagued by contradictions he was unable to resolve, as they originated in his personal philosophy, the theories he embraced and the conditions in which he had to live and work.

He was the first systematically trained Marxist in Hungary but also the first revisionist (though not a Bernsteinian). He was a protagonist of extreme revolutionary ideas but found his best friends among liberal democrats in whose circles he felt himself most at home. He was the Hungarian most closely associated with Russian revolutionaries and the best informed about radical movements there, but for a socialist example he chose to turn to the west, to Franco-Italian syndicalism and Anglo-American unionism. His political writings show him as an advocate of all-out class struggle, but as a leader of the Sociological Society and director of the Budapest Municipal Library he defended science and art from immediate political influences.

Three major tensions and contradictions in Szabs life and work may serve to illustrate the field of force which defined his thoughts and actions: those between theory and praxis, Marxism and ethics, and the author and his audience. All that we can attempt here is to sketch the outlines of these topics, briefly referring to the social, political and intellectual surroundings of Szab; to do more would amount to an essay on the history of avant-guerre Hungary which would certainly exceed the frame of an introduction.

THEORY AND PRAXIS

Several friends and contemporaries of Szab wondered whether he was deep down inside a scholar or a revolutionary activist. One of his closest friends and first biographer Oscar Jszi wrote that

his revolutionary convictions were always stronger than his scholarly ambitions. Although he loved and enjoyed scientific truths, he regarded them as a kind of spiritual ammunition in humanity's fight for liberation.... The guiding star )

But in another memorial article, a few years later, he stated: The librarian and the theoretician were always stronger in him than the party politician and agitator.() Obviously both assessments contain much truth, and this in itself hints at the puzzle in Szabs real character.

These contradictory trends in Szabs life can be partially explained by his personal qualities and the conditions of the times in which he lived. He was of frail health, of weak nervous disposition, a poor orator, and, although an extremely disciplined worker, organically unable to fulfil the role of mass leader. Also, the need for a regular income made him accept a civil service position early in life which, although hardly against his inclinations, forced him to assure the authorities, however liberal the Budapest city council may have been, that his desires to serve the cause of socialism are for the time being (sic!) limited to the scholarly study of the movement.()

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