普列汉诺夫在论述历史唯物主义的有关著作中,几乎都涉及了必然和自由的关系问题。他之所以非常重视这个问题,是当时思想理论战线上捍卫历史唯物主义斗争的需要。普列汉诺夫是在同俄国民粹派的主观社会学、“合法马克思主义”和“经济唯物主义”的斗争中,来捍卫和发展马克思主义的必然与自由关系学说的。俄国民粹派的主观社会学的始祖之—拉夫罗夫认为,人是自由的,历史是主 Plekhanov’s discussion of the historical materialism in almost all the issues involved in the relationship between necessity and freedom. The reason why he attaches great importance to this issue is the need to defend the struggle for historical materialism on the ideological and theoretical fronts. Plekhanov, in the struggle against the subjective sociology, “legitimate Marxism” and “economic materialism” of the Russian Narodnik, defended and developed the Marxist doctrine of necessity and freedom. Lavrov, the ancestor of the subjective sociology of the Russian Narodnik, believes that man is free and history is the Lord