Destinies of “Capital” in Russia

Workshop, 14 September 2017, Moscow, Russia

The State Historical Public Library of Russia is pleased to invite you to the Workshop «Destinies of the “Capital” in Russia» that will be held in Moscow 14 septembre 2017.

150 years ago the Karl Marx’s “Capital”, Volume 1, was published. It is the book, that greatly influenced not only the development of economics, history, sociology and philosophy, but also became one of the most important sources for scientific inspiration of the political and social changes throughout the world. Despite the fact, that Marx himself didn’t write a lot about Russia, the first socialist revolution and the first attempt to build a new non-capitalistic society was held right here.

In Russia, Capital had a long, difficult and exiting way – together with our country. The first translation of Capital was made in Russian and published in 1872 legally in tsarist Russia. Subsequently the book was prohibited by the censorship, but at that time it became very popular among the intelligentsia and influenced even the narodniks (who didn’t accept Marxism itself) and changed their political language and some theoretical ideas. In 1920s, in the USSR, there were many interesting discussions on Сapital in the context of possibilities and different ways of constructing a non-capitalistic economy and society. Later Сapital became a sacred dogma, till the moment when it’s credibility fallen down, it had seemed irrevocably, together with the Soviet Union itself.

However, this great book and it's ideas got rebirth in modern Russia. There are new publications of Capital (also in new translation), it is studied and discussed.

In the 150-years anniversary of the first publication of Capital, Volume I, on 14 of September 2017, a conference "Destiny of Capital in Russia" will be held in the Center of Social and Political History(branch of the StatePublic Historical Library of Russia). The complex and exiting history of translations, publications, reading and understanding of the main Karl Marx's book will be discussedat the conference.

Main issues of the conference:

  • Destinies of translations and translators of Capital.
  • Theoretical discussions on Capital in USSR and Russia.
  • Capital's influence on the Russian intellectual history.
  • Marxist groups in Russia from the XIXth century till today.
  • Capital in modern Russia: who read it and what for?

Deadline for the applications is 1 September 2017

We will be very pleased to see you at the workshop in Moscow. For any questions concerning the workshop, please do not hesitate to contact the Head of the Center of Social and Political History – the branch of the State Historical Public library of Russia Elena Strukova (stru@shpl.ru)

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