Roman Rosdolsky Breathed New Life Into Marx’s Capital
Ukrainian Marxist Roman Rosdolsky survived the Nazi concentration camps and went on to write one of the most important books about the making of Karl Marx’s Capital, paving the way for a revival of Marxist economic theory from the 1960s.
Marxian scholar Roman Rosdolsky in the United States, c. 1960 (Wikimedia Commons)
The Ukrainian Marxist Roman Rosdolsky was one of the pioneering scholars of Marxology. He was engaged as a Marxist activist and social scientist in spaces ranging from European cities like Lviv, Krakow, Prague, and Vienna during the interwar period all the way to New York and Detroit after the war.
Rosdolsky’s life is intricately interconnected with his scholarly work. Born in 1898, he became an active socialist before World War I. During the October Revolution, he supported the Bolsheviks and became a leading figure of the newly established Communist Party of Western Ukraine.
With his lifelong partner and comrade, Emily, he shared the experience of exile and political isolation while retaining a firm belief in the possibility of a better world. Rosdolsky narrowly escaped the attention of the Soviet secret police and survived imprisonment in three Nazi concentration camps.
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