J.S. MILL'SPRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL ECONOMYIN IMPERIAL RUSSIA: PUBLICATION AND RECEPTION

Abstract

This essay explores the publication and reception of John Stuart Mill's Principles of Political Economy in late imperial Russia. First published during the era of the Great Reform, Mill's Principles was discussed within the context of the Russian debate on capitalism and land reform. It became popular not only among economists and university students but also the intelligentsia who dominated the debate on capitalism in Russia until the last decade of the century. In reading the Principles, they focused primarily on Mill's discussion of social questions and the ethics of capitalism rather than on the theoretical subjects of economics. In Russia, as in England, the reception of Mill's ideas was not uniform, reflecting the readers’ diverging political views and assumptions. In Russia, however, the tendency towards selective reading was more pronounced and the labels attached to Mill were more extreme.