Jan Waclaw Machajski's (1866-1926) political doctrine, known as Makhaevism, was a synthesis of several revolutionary theories in Western and Eastern Europe: Marxism, anarchism, and syndicalism. His criticism of the intelligentsia and theory of a "new class" were influential to Communism and helped to create a hostility that culminated in Stalin's Great Purge of the 1930s.

Marshall S. Shatz is professor of history, emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Boston.