A new English translation of Isaak Illich Rubin’s classic Essays on Marx’s Theory of Value.First published in the Soviet Union in 1923, Rubin’s book sparked a fierce value controversy with contemporary Soviet economists during the late 1920s. As such, the present translation is conceived as a variorum edition, including all the essential supplementary materials related to this foundational work in Marx’s value theory, published here in English for the first time. In addition to Rubin’s main work, this edition includes his four most important related publications, as well as ten debate articles written and published by his contemporary proponents and opponents.
List of FiguresPart AEditorial Foreword by the TranslatorPart B ‘Essays on Marx’s Theory of Value’Foreword to the Fourth EditionForeword to the Third EditionIntroductionSubpart I Marx’s Theory of Commodity FetishismIntroduction to SubpartI: Marx’s Theory of Commodity Fetishism1 The Objective Basis of Commodity Fetishism2 The Process of Production and its Social Form3 The Reification of the Relations of Production of People and Personification of Things4 Thing and Social Function (Form)5 Relations of Production and Material Categories6 Struve on the Theory of Commodity Fetishism7 The Development of the Theory of Fetishism in MarxSubpart II Marx’s Theory of Labour ValueIntroduction to SubpartII: Marx’s Theory of Labour Value8 Basic Characteristics of Marx’s Theory of Value9 Value as the Regulator of Production10 The Equality of Commodity Producers and Equality of Commodities11 The Equality of Commodities and Equality of Labour12 The Content and Form of Value[Supplement 1: Chapter 12 in the Second Edition (Chapter 9 in the First Edition)] Value and Exchange Value (the Content and Form of Value)13 Social Labour14 Abstract Labour[Supplement 2: Chapter 14 in the Second Edition (Chapter10 in the First Edition)] Abstract Labour15 Qualified Labour16 Socially Necessary Labour17 Value and Social Need1 Value and Demand2 Value and Proportional Distribution of Labour3 Value and Volumes of Production4 The Equalisation of Demand and Supply18 Value and Prices of Production1 Distribution and Equilibrium of Capitals2 Distribution of Capitals and Distribution of Labour3 Prices of Production4 Labour Value and Prices of Production5 The Historical Foundation of the Theory of Labour Value19 Productive LabourAppendicesAppendix 1: On the Terminology of Marx1 Labour and Value2 ‘Crystallisation’3 Thing and Social FunctionAppendix 2: Reply to Critics1 Reply to I.Dashkovsky2 Reply to S.Shabs3 Reply to A.Cohn4 Reply to S.BessonovPart C Rubin’s Journal Articles in Relation to his Main Work1 ‘Relations of Production and Material Categories’ (1924)2 ‘Review on Franz Petry’ (1924)3 ‘Abstract Labour and Value in Marx’s System’ (1927)I.II.III.4 ‘On the History of the Text of the First Chapter of Capital by K. Marx’ (1929)Chapter I: Value and Exchange Value in Critique and CapitalChapter II: Marx and BaileyPart D Documents published in the Soviet Union during the Value Controversy in the 1920s1 A. Voznesensky: ‘On the Problem of the Understanding of the Category of Abstract Labour’ (1925)2 I. Dashkovsky: ‘Abstract Labour and the Economic Categories of Marx’ (1926)3 S. Shabs: from The Problem of Social Labour in Marx’s Economic System– A Critique of ‘Essays on Marx’s Theory of Value’ by I.Rubin (1928)4 A. Cohn: ‘Some Observations of my Critics in the Light of Marx’s Theory’ (1928)5 V. Dunaevsky: ‘The Law of Labour Value in Capitalism in I. Rubin’s Essays’ (1929)6 A. Greblis, M.Korovai, I.Stepanov: ‘On the Disputable Problems of the Theory of Value (about I. I. Rubin’s Book, Essays on Marx’s Theory of Value)’ (1929)7 M. Saigushkin: ‘Abstract Labour as a Materialistic Category’ (1929)8 E. Landye: ‘The Marxist Method and the Foundation of the Theory of Value (for a Characterisation of the New Variant of Bogdanovshchina)’ (1929)9 I. Blyumin: ‘On the Problem of Labour Forming Value’ (1929)10 Z. Verner: ‘How Rubin’s System of Views is Pushing Ahead Under the Guise of Battle with the Mechanists’ (1930)Part E Translator’s Introductory Essay– Rubin’s Interpretation of Marx’s Theory of Value and the Value Controversy in the Soviet Union in the 1920sI The Rubin Controversy and its Political OppressionII The Controversy around Rubin’s Interpretation of Marx’s Theory of Value in the Soviet Union during the 1920sName Index