The concept of “capitalism” in the history of Russian self-awareness

Abstract

Starting point is that Marx never used the concept capitalism. “Capitalism” literally “grow” from the translation of the Marx’s Capital into Russian language and the discussions around it which were initiated by Populists and Marxists. It happened long before the emergency of Weber’s and Sombart’s works which give precedence in popularization of the concept “capitalism”. The article shows that Marxist and partly Liberal discourses of capitalism firstly formed in Russian language in the papers of Russian writers, philosophers and politicians. Thanks to translation of Marx’s Capital and discussions around it in Russian cultural environment it was made the key terms of Marxist understanding of capitalism that allows the conclusion that Marxist discourse of capitalism can be determined as Russian. Our research showed that the concept capitalism became commonly-used in Russian political literature and also emerged and took root in Russian vocabulary before that it happened in Europe countries. There is reason to believe that at first the concept “capitalism” with its stable Marxist content emerges in Russian language, and then this form, “forged” in Russian philosophical and political discussions and fixed in the vocabularies, becomes the sample for Marxist interpretation of capitalism in principle. Thus, European understanding of “capitalism” essentially turns out Russian meanings.