This lecture presents an overview of the main Marxist theories of dependency and unequal development in the Balkans in the first three decades of the 20th century. It shows how, using orthodox Marxist methodology, various theorists, independently of each other, had reached similar or even identical conclusions on the topic. Those conclusions relate to the issues of socialist revolution in the periphery, imperialism, the relationship of the labor movement to the peasantry, and nationalism as a potentially emancipatory social force. The general framework for considering these issues was the awareness of the peripheral position of their countries in the world capitalist system, and the development of early theories of dependence and unequal development, which influenced the perception of a potential socialist revolution on the periphery. Similar conclusions of various authors facilitated the reception of Bolshevik ideas among Balkan Marxists after 1917, given that the Bolsheviks were also dealing with similar problems of the revolution and drawing similar conclusions. Theoretical debates about dependency and unequal development continued during the 1920s, marked by the legacy of discussions before the First World War, but supplemented by the experiences of the Russian Revolution. At that time, Balkan Marxists began to seriously question the (semi-)colonial dependence of their societies on imperialist states for the first time, and in the second half of the decade they participated in debates about Leon Trotsky’s permanent revolution and the theory of revolutionary stages, which is usually associated with Joseph Stalin.

Stefan Gužvica is a Junior Researcher at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory. He is the author of the book Before Tito: The Communist Party of Yugoslavia during the Great Purge (1936–1940) (Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 2020) and the editor of the anthology Herman: Quo vadimus? (Belgrade: Most Art, 2023). He received his doctorate from the University of Regensburg in 2022 with a dissertation entitled “Sickle Without a Hammer: Revolution and Nations in the Balkans, 1900s–1930s.”

The event will be photographed and recorded due to publishing on social networks, the website and other information channels for the purpose of promoting the event and activities of the Institute.