List of contributors to Marxist theory

This is a list of prominent figures who contributed to Marxist theory, principally as authors; it is not intended to list politicians who happen(ed) to be a member of an ostensibly communist political party or other organisation.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Name	Place of birth	Place of death	Nationality	Life	Tendency
Victor Adler	Prague, Austria-Hungary	Vienna, Austria	Austrian	1852–1918	Social democracy, Austro-Marxism
Theodor W. Adorno[1]	Frankfurt am Main, Hesse-Nassau Province, Prussia, Germany	Visp, Visp, Valais, Switzerland	German	1903–1969	Frankfurt School, Western Marxism
Louis Althusser	Birmendreïs, French Algeria	Paris, France	French	1918–1990	Western Marxism, Structural Marxism, Leninism
Samir Amin	Cairo, Egypt	Paris, France	Egyptian and French	1931–2018	Third Worldism, Maoism, World-systems theory
Otto Bauer	Vienna, Austria-Hungary	Paris, France	Austrian	1881–1938	Social Democracy, Austro-Marxism
Walter Benjamin[2][3][4]	Berlin, German Empire	Portbou, Catalonia, Spain	German	1892–1940	Western Marxism, Marxist hermeneutics
Franco "Bifo" Berardi	Bologna, Italy	Still Living	Italian	1949–	Autonomism
Eduard Bernstein	Schöneberg, German Confederation	Berlin, Germany	German	1850–1932	Social democracy, Marxist revisionism
Caio Prado Júnior	São Paulo, Brazil	São Paulo, Brazil	Brazilian	1907–1990	Marxism
Ernst Bloch[5]	Ludwigshafen, Germany	Tübingen, West Germany	German	1885–1977	Western Marxism, Marxist hermeneutics, Marxist humanism
Amadeo Bordiga	Ercolano, Kingdom of Italy	Formia, Italy	Italian	1889–1970	Italian Left communism, Leninism
Bertolt Brecht[6]	Augsburg, German Empire	East Berlin, East Germany	German	1898–1956	Marxist literary criticism
Nikolai Bukharin	Moscow, Russian Empire	Kommunarka shooting ground, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union	Russian	1888–1938	Bolshevism, Left communism (initially), Right opposition (later on)
Jacques Camatte	Plan-de-Cuques, Alpes-Maritimes, France	Still living	French	1935–	Bordigism, Anarcho-primitivism (later on), Communization (later on)
Cornelius Castoriadis[7]	Constantinople, Ottoman Empire	Paris, France	Greek and French	1922–1997	Western Marxism, Post-Marxism, Psychoanalytic Marxism, Libertarian socialism
Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya[8]	Calcutta, British Raj	Calcutta, India	Indian	1918–1993	Marxism
V. Gordon Childe	Sydney, Colony of New South Wales	Blackheath, New South Wales, Australia	Australian	1892–1957	Marxist archaeology
G. A. Cohen	Montreal, Quebec, Canada	Oxford, England	Canadian	1941–2009	Analytical Marxism
James Connolly	Cowgate, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom	Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin, Ireland	Irish and Scottish	1868–1916	Marxism, Irish republicanism
Onorato Damen	Monte San Pietrangeli, Italy	Milan	Italian	1893–1979	Italian Left communism
Gilles Dauvé	France	Still living	French	1947–	Left communism, Communization
Angela Davis	Birmingham, Alabama	Still Living	American	1944–	Marxist feminism
Guy Debord	Paris, France	Bellevue-la-Montagne, Haute-Loire, France	French	1931–1994	Situationism
Daniel De Leon	Curaçao	New York, State of New York, United States	American	1852–1914	De Leonism, Syndicalism
Joseph Dietzgen[9]	Blankenberg (now Hennef, German Confederation	Chicago, Illinois, United States	German	1828–1888	Marxism
Raya Dunayevskaya	Yaryshev, Russian Empire (today, Vinnytsia Oblast, Ukraine)	Chicago, Illinois, United States	American	1910–1987	Marxist humanism
Terry Eagleton	Salford, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom	Still living	British	1942–	Marxism
Gilles Deleuze	Paris, France	Paris, France	French	1925–1995	Freudo-Marxism, Post-Marxism
Arghiri Emmanuel	Patras, Greece	Paris, France	Greek	1911–2001	Unequal exchange
Friedrich Engels	Barmen, Kingdom of Prussia (today Wuppertal, Germany)	London, United Kingdom	German	1820–1895	Classical Marxism
Frantz Fanon	Fort-de-France, Martinique, France	Bethesda, Maryland, United States	French	1925–1961	Marxist humanism, Pan-Africanism, Decolonization
John Bellamy Foster	Seattle, Washington, United States	Still living	American	1953–	Marxism
Herman Gorter	Wormerveer	Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, Brussels	Dutch	1864–1927	Council communism
Antonio Gramsci	Ales, Sardinia, Italy	Rome, Lazio, Italy	Italian	1891–1937	Gramscianism, Western Marxism, Marxist humanism, Neo-Marxism
Félix Guattari	Villeneuve-les-Sablons, France	Cour-Cheverny, France	French	1930–1992	Freudo-Marxism, Post-Marxism
Ernesto "Che" Guevara[10][11][12]	Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina	La Higuera, Vallegrande, Bolivia	Argentine	1928–1967	Marxism-Leninism, Guevarism
Abimael Guzmán (Gonzalo)[13][better source needed]	Arequipa, Peru	Callao, Peru	Peruvian	1934–2021	Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo thought
Ted Grant	Germiston, South Africa	London, United Kingdom	South African and British	1913–2006	Trotskyism
David Harvey	Gillingham, Kent, England, United Kingdom	Still living	British	1935–	Marxist geography
Harry Haywood	South Omaha, Nebraska, United States	Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States	American	1898–1985	Marxism-Leninism
Rudolf Hilferding	Vienna, Austria-Hungary	Paris, France	Austrian and German	1877–1941	Austro-Marxism
Max Horkheimer	Zuffenhausen (now Stuttgart), Württemberg, German Empire	Nuremberg, Bavaria, West Germany	German	1895–1973	Frankfurt School, Western Marxism
Ho Chi Minh	Nghệ An Province, French Indochina	Hanoi, North Vietnam	Vietnamese	1890–1969	Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh Thought
Enver Hoxha	Ergiri (today Gjirokastër), Janina Vilayet, Ottoman Empire	Tirana, People's Socialist Republic of Albania	Albanian	1908–1985	Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought (initially), Hoxhaism
C.L.R. James	Trinidad	London, United Kingdom	Trinidadian and British	1901–1989	Marxism, Pan-Africanism, Anti-Stalinist left
Fredric Jameson	Cleveland, Ohio, United States	Killingworth, Connecticut, United States	American	1934–2024	Western Marxism, Marxist hermeneutics
Kojin Karatani[citation needed]	Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan	Still living	Japanese	1941–	Marxist literary criticism
Edvard Kardelj[citation needed]	Ljubljana, Duchy of Carniola, Austria-Hungary	Ljubljana, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia	Yugoslavian	1910–1979	Titoism
Karl Kautsky	Prague, Austria-Hungary	Amsterdam, Netherlands	Czech, Austrian and German	1854–1938	Orthodox Marxism
İbrahim Kaypakkaya[citation needed]	Çorum, Turkey	Çorum, Turkey	Turkish	1949–1973	Maoism
Kim Il-Sung[citation needed]	Chingjong, Korea	Hyangsan, Korea	Korean	1912–1994	Marxism-Leninism, Juche
Jim Kemmy[citation needed]	Limerick, Ireland	Limerick, Ireland	Irish	1936–1997	Marxism
Alexandra Kollontai[14]	St Petersburg, Russian Empire	Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union	Soviet	1872–1952	Marxist feminism, Bolshevism
Karl Korsch	Tostedt, German Empire	Belmont, Massachusetts, United States	German	1886–1961	Western Marxism
Damodar Dharmananda Kosambi	Kosben, (now Goa) British Raj	Pune, Maharashtra, India	Indian	1907–1966	Marxism
Yalçın Küçük[citation needed]	İskenderun, Hatay, Turkey	Still living	Turkish	1938–	Marxism
Antonio Labriola	Cassino, Papal States	Rome, Kingdom of Italy	Italian	1843–1904	Marxism
Paul Lafargue	Santiago de Cuba	Draveil, France	French	1842–1911	Marxism, Anti-work
Henri Lefebvre[15]	Hagetmau, France	Navarrenx, France	French	1901–1991	Western Marxism, Hegelian Marxism
Vladimir Lenin	Simbirsk, Russian Empire	Gorki Leninskiye, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union	Soviet	1870–1924	Leninism, Bolshevism
Karl Liebknecht	Leipzig, Kingdom of Saxony, German Empire	Berlin, Weimar Republic	German	1871–1919	Spartacism
Domenico Losurdo	Sannicandro di Bari, Kingdom of Italy	Ancona, Italy	Italian	1941–2018	Marxism
Georg Lukács	Budapest, Austria-Hungary	Budapest, People's Republic of Hungary	Hungarian	1885–1971	Budapest School, Western Marxism, Hegelian Marxism, Leninism
Rosa Luxemburg	Zamość, Vistula Land, Russian Empire	Berlin, Germany	Polish and German	1871–1919	Spartacism
Herbert Marcuse	Berlin, German Empire	Starnberg, West Germany	German	1898–1979	Frankfurt School, Western Marxism
José Carlos Mariátegui[16][17]	Moquegua, Peru	Lima, Peru	Peruvian	1894–1930	Marxism, Sorelianism
Andreas Malm	Mölndal, Sweden	Still living	Swedish	1977–	Marxism
Karl Marx	Trier, Kingdom of Prussia	London, United Kingdom	Prussian and German	1818–1883	Classical Marxism
Paul Mattick	Stolp, Pomerania, German Empire (now Poland)	Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States	German	1904–1981	Council communism
Andy Merrifield	Liverpool, Merseyside, England, United Kingdom	Still living	British	1960–	"Magical Marxism"
István Mészáros	Budapest, Hungary	Margate, England	Hungary	1930–2017	Marxism
Antonio Negri	Padua, Italy	Paris, France	Italian	1933–2023	Autonomism
Kwame Nkrumah	Nkroful, Gold Coast (now Ghana)	Bucharest, Romania	Ghanaian	1909–1972	Nkrumahism
Abdullah Öcalan[citation needed]	Ömerli, Şanlıurfa, Turkey	Still living	Turkish Kurdish	1948–	Democratic confederalism
Sylvia Pankhurst[citation needed]	Manchester, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom	Addis Ababa, Ethiopia	British and Ethiopian	1882–1960	Council communism
Anton Pannekoek	Vaassen, Netherlands	Wageningen, Netherlands	Dutch	1873–1960	Council communism
Evgeny Pashukanis	Staritsa, Russian Empire	Soviet Union	Russian	1891–1937	Leninism
Georgi Plekhanov	Gudalovka (now Gryazinsky District), Tambov Governorate, Russian Empire	Terijoki, Finland	Russian	1856–1918	Marxism
Bijan Jazani[citation needed]	Tehran, Iran	Tehran, Iran	Iranian	1938–1975	Marxism
Nicos Poulantzas	Athens, Greece	Paris, France	Greek	1936–1979	Structural Marxism, Leninism (initially), Democratic socialism (later on)
Isaak Illich Rubin	Dinaburg, Russian Empire	Aktobe, Kazakh SSR, USSR	Soviet Union	1886–1937	Marxism
Jean-Paul Sartre	Paris, France	Paris, France	French	1905–1980	Neo-Marxism, Existentialism
Jose Maria Sison[18][19][better source needed]	Ilocos Sur, Philippines	Utrecht, Netherlands	Filipino	1939 - 2022	Marxism-Leninism-Maoism
Alfred Sohn-Rethel	Neuilly-sur-Seine, France	Bremen, West Germany	German	1899–1990	Marxism
Mahdi Amel[citation needed]	Harouf, Lebanon	Beirut, Lebanon	Lebanese	1936–1987	Marxism
Joseph Stalin[20][21]	Gori, Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire	Kuntsevo Dacha near Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union	Soviet	1878–1953	Marxism-Leninism, Stalinism
Paul Sweezy	New York City, New York, United States	Larchmont, New York (state), United States	American	1910–2004	Neo-Marxism
Josip Broz Tito [dubious – discuss]	Kumrovec, Croatia-Slavonia, Austria-Hungary	Ljubljana, SR Slovenia, SFR Yugoslavia	Yugoslavian	1892–1980	Marxism-Leninism, Titoism
Leon Trotsky	Yelizavetgrad, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire	Coyoacán, Distrito Federal, Mexico	Soviet	1879–1940	Leninism, Bolshevism, Trotskyism
Alberto Toscano	Italy	Still living	Italy	1977–	Western Marxism
Raymond Williams	Llanfihangel Crucorney, Wales, United Kingdom	Saffron Walden, England, United Kingdom	British ( Welsh)	1921–1988	Western Marxism, New Left
Karl August Wittfogel	Woltersdorf, Lower Saxony, Province of Hanover, German Empire	New York, State of New York, United States	German and American	1896–1988	Marxism
Mao Zedong	Shaoshan, Hunan, Qing Dynasty	Beijing, People's Republic of China	Chinese	1893–1976	Marxism-Leninism, Maoism
Slavoj Žižek	Ljubljana, SR Slovenia, SFR Yugoslavia	Still living	Slovene ( Yugoslavian before Dissolution of Yugoslavia)	1949–	Western Marxism, Hegelian Marxism, Psychoanalytic Marxism

See also

• List of Marxian economists

References

1. Peter Uwe Hohendahl "Approaches to Adorno: a tentative typology" in Prismatic Thought: Theodor W. Adorno, authors: Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno, Peter Uwe Hohendahl, U of Nebraska Press, 1997 ISBN 0-8032-7305-3, ISBN 978-0-8032-7305-4, (3-20): 3.
2. "Walter Benjamin and Critical Theory". Ceasefire Magazine. 2013-04-04. Retrieved 2021-10-12.
3. "Walter Benjamin and the classical Marxist tradition • International Socialism". International Socialism. 2009-01-02. Retrieved 2021-10-12.
4. "Walter Benjamin's Marxist Critique". Caesura. 2021-07-13. Retrieved 2021-10-12.
5. Douglas Kellner and Harry O'Hara, "Utopia and Marxism in Ernst Bloch" New German Critique 9 (Autumn, 1976) 11-34: 11-13.
6. Louis Althusser http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/althusser/1962/materialist-theatre.htm The ‘Piccolo Teatro’: Bertolazzi and Brecht Notes on a Materialist Theatre 1961
7. Sven Papke, Georg W. Oesterdiekhoff, Schlüsselwerke der Soziologie (in German), VS 2001, page 79
8. E.M.S. Namboodiripad, "Dialectical" Materialism and Dialectical "Materialism", Social Scientist, Vol 10 No 4 (Apr, 1982), pp.52-59
9. Anton Pannekoek: "The Standpoint and Significance of Josef Dietzgen's Philosophical Works" - Introduction to Joseph Dietzgen, The Positive Outcome of Philosophy, Chicago, 1928
10. "Che Guevara and Contemporary Revolutionary Movements", James Petras, Latin American Perspectives, Vol. 25, No. 4, Che Guevara and His Legacy (Jul., 1998), pp. 9-18
11. "Most theories of revolution seem to agree that certain preconditions must be met if a revolutionary situation is to arise. The peculiar contribution of Ernesto Che Guevara to understanding revolutions is that according to him such preconditions can be created." from "Che Guevara on Guerrilla Warfare Doctrine, Practice and Evaluation", Jose A. Moreno, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 12, No. 2 (Apr., 1970), pp. 114-133
12. "...guerrilla warfare is essentially political, and that for this reason the political cannot be counterposed to the military." Regis Debray on Guevara's theory of the "Foco", Revolution in the Revolution, Penguin Books, 1967 link
13. "GONZALO THOUGHT IS THE THEORETICAL FOUNDATION FOR THE COMMUNISTS OF TODAY". www.redsun.org. Retrieved 2021-10-12.
14. Ebert, Teresa L. "Left of Desire" in Cultural Logic: An Electronic Journal of Marxist Theory and Practice, 3:1-2 (1999): at §5¶52-53, Online: http://clogic.eserver.org/3-1&2/ebert.html Archived 2010-11-08 at the Wayback Machine last accessed: 20090704.
15. Friedmann, John (1987). Planning in the public domain: from knowledge to action. Princeton.
16. John Kraniauskas "From the Archive: Introduction to Maria´tegui" Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, Vol. 10, No. 3, 2001 303-304. doi:10.1080/1356932012009006 3
17. Thomas Angotti "The Contributions of Jose Carlos Mariategui to Revolutionary Theory" Latin American Perspectives, Vol. 13, No. 2, Perspectives on Left Politics (Spring, 1986), (33-57): 34-36; 38-42.
18. ""On the Philosophy of Marxism-Leninism-Maosim" by Jose Maria Sison: A Book Review". NDFP. 2021-06-21. Retrieved 2021-10-14.
19. Silverio, Ina Alleco (2011-02-22). "Jose Maria Sison: A Good Man Worth Defending". Bulatlat. Retrieved 2021-10-14.
20. Ben Agger "Critical Theory, Poststructuralism, Postmodernism: Their Sociological Relevance" Annual Review of Sociology Vol. 17: 105-131 doi:10.1146/annurev.so.17.080191.000541
21. M.B. Mitin, M.D. Kammari, G.F. Aleksandrovis "The Contribution of J.V. Stalin to Marxism-Leninism" trans 'Inter'[pseud.] in 'The Seventieth Anniversary of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin', published in Izvestia Akademii Nauk SSSR, Seria Istorii i Filosofii, Tom VII, Izdatelstvo Akademii Nauk SSSR, Moscow, 1950, pp. 3-30. http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv4n1/stalin70.htm