Abstract

Hegel’s philosophy of revolution has been widely studied and much debated. Some scholars see Hegel as a tiresome defender of existing political orders, while others point to his enthusiastic, if partial, support for the French Revolution, as well as for many modern revolutions or insurrectionary movements, both ancient and modern. Following this last line of argument, my paper attempts a Hegelian interpretation of the Russian Revolution, taking into account important aspects such as the subversive dynamic of Hegelian political concepts, the relationship between class and state in Hegel’s political philosophy, the overwhelmingly anti-feudal character of the Russian Revolution, and, finally, the stabilisation and distortion of the Russian Revolution under the Stalinist regime, which, in Hegelian terms, can be seen as a new form of absolute freedom (terror) aimed at solving the main social dilemma of modernity identified by Hegel in his Elements of the Philosophy of Right, namely poverty.