The aim of this contribution is to outline the stratigraphic historiographical model which could be located within Marx’s drafts of the letter to Vera Zasulič, in order to shed light on its imma-nent political orientation. Starting from a geological metaphor used by Marx in a letter to En-gels (25 March 1868), this paper investigates the 1881’s drafts and illustrates the articulation of historical layers that Marx was able to pinpoint considering the form of Russian commune. By confronting it with the case of East India, subjected to Britain’s domination, I show how this in-terpretation of socialist potentialities hidden in the Russian obščina challenges every determinis-tic idea of progress as well as “regressive” conception of socialism itself. This analysis involves the firm recognition of the very political dimension inscribed within Marx’s historiography and its relevance to root concretely the possibilities of communist revolution within contemporary contradictions.
