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MARX, Karl.

[Das Kapital, in Russian] Kapital. Kritika politicheskoi ekonomii.

[Translated by Lopatine and Danielson], vol. I. [all published hitherto].

First edition in Russian, the first foreign translation, of "the Bible of Marxism." This is the first translation to appear in any language, and the impact of it was greatest on the history, society, government, politics, culture, and psyche of that country. The publication of the first volume of Karl Marx's Das Kapital was the result of nearly 25 years of economic studies, mostly in the Reading Room of the British Museum. His biting critique of the capitalist system had developed from his previous publication of Zur Kritik der Politischen Oekonomie (1859). "Nobody before him had so clearly shown the role of the productive agencies in historical evolution; nobody so masterfully exhibited their determining influence on the form and idealogies of social organisms… If he has been justly compared with Darwin, it is in these respects that he ranks with the great genius" (Ency. Brit.) "By an odd quirk of history the first foreign translation of Das Kapital to appear was the Russian, which Petersburgers found in their bookshops early in April 1872. Giving his imprimatur, the censor, one Skuratov, had written, 'few people in Russia will read it, and still fewer will understand it.' He was wrong; the edition of three thousand sold out quickly; and in 1880 Marx was writing to his friend F. A. Sorge that 'our success is still greater in Russia, where Kapital is read and appreciated more than anywhere else" (PMM). The printing of a second edition was forbidden in Russia and so in 1890 a New York publisher brought out an nearly identical reprint of the first edition: that second edition is distinguished from the first in that the misplaced comma opposite "p. 73" in the table of contents is replaced by a full stop; and the "e" at the end of l. 40, p. 65, is replaced by a "c".

Octavo (236 × 153 mm). Contemporary Russian black half calf, blue pebble-grain cloth sides, spine with double gilt rules. Housed in a black quarter morocco solander box made by The Chelsea Bindery. Russian ownership inscription dated 1898 to front free endpaper. Joints rubbed, corners worn, two small pieces of stamp paper to half-title, an excellent copy.

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