Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 2.pdf/317

Rh of his own account of working-class conditions in England and France.

Engel's book on Dühring became known in Russia soon after its appearance (1878), and Dühring was eagerly read by the Russian socialists.

From the outset, Marx's theory of value, as a theory of labour, secured acceptance in Russia. The first detailed discussion of Marx in the Russian tongue was published in 1871. This was Ziber's book, Ricardo's Theory of Value and of Capital in relation to subsequent Elucidations and Enlargements, a work in which Marx's doctrine was represented as a development of the teachings of Ricardo and Adam Smith. Among Russian economists, Marx's theory of value has numerous and notable adherents down to the present day (Čuprov, Isaev, etc.).

Marx (like Engels) learned Russian, so that he might be able to study Russian works, above all statistical statementsconcerning economic conditions and their development. Some of his letters bear witness to the result of these labours, letters to Nikolai-on, Sorgé, Kugelmann, and others, wherein Marx is mainly concerned with the fundamental theme of the narodniki.

Marx’s doctrine of historical materialism had a fertilising influence upon Russian historiography and upon Russian histories of literature. Allusion has already been made to Tkačev's literary criticisms. There is a notable quantity of Marxist literary criticism in Russian, though this consists merely of studies of individual authors, for no complete history of Russian literature on Marxist lines has as yet been produced. Certain collective studies of literary history have recently appeared, but none embodying a consistent exposition of historical materialism.

The same observation applies to certain Marxist disquisitions on Russian history. Last of all we have to consider the matter which is of chief importance to ourselves, the achievements of Russian Marxism in the domains of philosophy and of the philosophy of history, which will shortly be discussed in some detail.

HE split in the Zemlja i Volja in 1879 resulted in the formation of the Social Democratic Party in 1883, the year in which Marx died.