Milieux historiques, storia, tempo e politica: Marx tra i "quaderni etno-antropologici" e la lettera a Vera Zasulič (1879-1882)

This essay aims to show the presence of a theory of plural temporality in the so-called “last” Marx. It also seeks to highlight how such a theory contrasts both the teleological conception of history and the idea of the revival of the archaic as a possibility for future communism. The first section examines the concept of “milieux historiques” as it appears in the 1877 letter Marx prepared for the editors of the journal Otečestvennye Zapiski. The second and third sections examine, in light of this concept, Marx’s so called “Ethnological Notebooks” and the letter to Vera Zasulič, written between 1879 and 1882. The final section, in light of the Preface to the second Russian edition of the Manifesto (1882), shows the political implications of such a theory of plural temporality in light of Marxian reflection on the relationship between the Russian commune, capitalist mode of production and revolution.