Value Theory And Russian Marxism Before The Revolution *

Until the 1890s value theory in Russia was completely dominated by Ricardian and Marxian ideas, disseminated most influentially by N. Ziber (Scazzieri, 1987). There was no trace of an Austrian, Jevonian, Marshallian or Walrasian school, and – after an abortive flourish in the early 1860s – no discussion whatever of marginal utility theory in the Russian literature (Dmitriev, 1908, pp. 16–17; Kowal, 1965, p. 144; Shukov, 1988, pp. 9–10). Somewhat paradoxically, the propagation and appraisal of neoclassical economics in Russia was achieved very largely by Marxists of various persuasions. This was part of a broader movement in which liberal ideas gained influence through the intellectual activities of the ‘Legal Marxists’, who attempted to use Marxism as a tool of analysis within the confines of the Tsarist censorship.