Taneev, Vladimir Ivanovich

Born Aug. 24 (Sept. 5), 1840, in Vladimir; died Oct. 21, 1921, on the estate of Dem’ianovo, near the city of Klin, in what is now Moscow Oblast. Russian public figure, lawyer, and materialist philosopher. Brother of the composer S. I. Taneev.

Taneev graduated from the St. Petersburg School of Jurisprudence in 1861. Beginning in 1866 he appeared for the defense in a number of political trials. Taneev’s philosophical views were influenced by N. G. Chernyshevskii and A. I. Herzen, by the Utopian socialists, and by the tenets of scientific materialism; he believed that the revolutionary future belongs to the working class. In the 1870’s, Taneev welcomed the establishment of the First International and supported the Paris Commune of 1871. K. Marx called Taneev “a devoted ally of the people’s emancipation” (K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 34, p. 185).

Taneev greeted the Revolution of 1905–07 and the Great October Socialist Revolution with enthusiasm. In the spring of 1919 he was issued a safe-conduct signed by V. I. Lenin (see Poln. sobr. soch., 5thed., vol. 50, p. 383).