Subversive Praxis, Open Crisis and Critique

Abstract

The revolts in Eastern Europe and more specifically the Hungarian Uprising of 1956 offered a practical critique of the Soviet-type regimes and acted as a fire alarm for the forthcoming demise of Eastern European societies. The death of Stalin and the class struggles in Eastern Europe against the state bureaucracies evoked a debate vis-à-vis the crisis of Marxism opened up in 1898 by Masaryk, in which both orthodox and critical trends of Marxism participated. Dealing with the crisis of Marxism, Castoriadis moved from a critique of orthodox Marxism to articulate his critical approach to Marx’s own thought. He sought the reasons which caused this crisis — the factors which were responsible for the petrification and decay of Marxism. The degeneration of Marxism and the loss of its radical character were attributed to its transformation into a semi-religious dogma and a closed theoretical system. Castoriadis dealt with the questions regarding the crisis of Marxism long before Althusser’s announcement of the crisis in 1977. Later on, and more specifically in 1978, Castoriadis contributed once again to the crisis of Marxism debate through his response to Althusser. This chapter focuses on Castoriadis’ engagement with the crisis of Marxism by linking the two more remarkable open manifestations of the crisis — that is, the political-practical rupture of the Hungarian Uprising of 1956 with Althusser’s academic-theoretical announcement of the crisis 17 years later.