Isaak Rubin – Life, Work, and Legacy of the Soviet Economist

Abstract

This article seeks to present, in general terms, the Soviet economist Isaak I. Rubin (1886–1937), his life, his work, and his legacy. The first part provides information concerning the author’s life, his education, political activities, writings, imprisonments, and his condemnation to death during the violent purges of 1937. The second part offers a brief contextualization of the period in which his work flourished. The third part concisely outlines his innovative interpretation of Karl Marx’s theory. The fourth part addresses the debates his work provoked in the 1920s in the USSR. The fifth part raises the question of why his “school” was defeated and ventures a brief response. The final part seeks to understand the process of the revival of his interpretation, from the 1950s onward, up to its present influence on significant interpretative currents of Marx’s work.