Nikolai Frantsevich Danielson (; also known as N-on, Nik-on, Nikolai-on; 7 February 184413 July 1918) was a Russian socio-political figure, economist, publicist, and one of the theoreticians of liberal populism. He is also famous for his translations of by Marx, and being a writer on Russian economic development.

Early life

Danielson was of descent. He graduated from

Commercial School Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

, and later attended lectures in St. Petersburg's university. In the 1860s Danielson worked at the St Petersburg Mutual Credit Association. Mutual credit associations were then often associated with utopian and social reform politics, and during that period, he became involved in radical political circles and took interest in one of the populist ''

narodnik The Narodniks were members of a movement of the Russian Empire intelligentsia in the 1860s and 1870s, some of whom became involved in revolutionary agitation against tsarism. Their ideology, known as Narodism, Narodnism or ,; , similar to the ...

'' movement.

Economic Writings and Translation of ''Das Kapital''

In 1872, Danielson published the first Russian translation of volume 1 of by

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

. The translation had been initiated by

Mikhail Bakunin Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin. Sometimes anglicized to Michael Bakunin. ( ; – 1 July 1876) was a Russian revolutionary anarchist. He is among the most influential figures of anarchism and a major figure in the revolutionary socialist, s ...

before Bakunin's break with Marx and had been continued by

German Lopatin German Alexandrovich Lopatin (; 13 January 1845, in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia – 26 December 1918, in Petrograd) was a Russian revolutionary, journalist, writer and poet. Biography Lopatin came from an aristocratic family. He studied physics ...

. While completing the translation, Danielson initiated a correspondence with Karl Marx and Friedrich

Engels Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels"
''

Views on Marxism

Danielson regarded himself as a

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

, but was criticized by the self-proclaimed "orthodox" Marxists

Georgi Plekhanov Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov ( rus, Георгий Валентинович Плеханов, p=ɡʲɪˈorɡʲɪj vəlʲɪnʲˈtʲinəvʲɪtɕ plʲɪˈxanəf, a=Ru-Georgi Plekhanov-JermyRei.ogg; – 30 May 1918) was a Russian revolutionary, ...

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

and

Peter Struve Peter (or Pyotr or Petr) Berngardovich Struve (, ; – 22 February 1944) was a Russian political economist, philosopher, historian and editor. He started his career as a Marxist, later became a liberal and after the Bolshevik Revolution, joined ...

, among others. Danielson's critics grouped him with populist writers like

Vasily Vorontsov Vasilii Pavlovich Vorontsov (Russian: Василий Павлович Воронцов; Pseudonym: V.V., 13 January 1847 – 10 December 1918) was an influential Russian ''narodnik'' economist and sociologist, one of the principal protagonists in t ...

and

Nikolay Mikhaylovsky Nikolay Konstantinovich Mikhaylovsky (; – ) was a Russian literary critic, sociologist, writer on public affairs, and one of the theoreticians of the Narodniki movement. Biography The school of thinkers he belonged to became famous in the ...

. But whereas Vorontsov claimed that the development of industrial capitalism in Russia was impossible for lack of markets and Mikhailovsky thought that it was possible but undesirable and preventable. Danielson argued that capitalist industrialisation was already well under way in Russia by the 1890s. The "orthodox" Marxists agreed with him in this. However, in the 1890s, Plekhanov, Lenin and their associates argued that capitalism in Russia must follow essentially the same course as capitalist development in Western Europe. Danielson believed that the "capitalist stage" of development could be foreshortened in Russia, since Russia's late development would allow it to adopt the latest western industrial technology without having to undergo the social evolution that had first produced it in the West. This theory went back to A.I. Herzen and N.G. Chernyshevsky and strongly influenced the theoreticians of the

Socialist-Revolutionary Party The Socialist Revolutionary Party (SR; ,, ) was a major socialist political party in the late Russian Empire, during both phases of the Russian Revolution, and in early Soviet Russia. The party members were known as Esers (). The SRs were ag ...

(PSR), such as

Victor Chernov Viktor Mikhailovich Chernov (; 19 November 1873 – 15 April 1952) was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and theorist who was a principal founder and leader of the Socialist Revolutionary Party (PSR). As the party's chief ideologist, he deve ...

. It also anticipated

Leon Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky,; ; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky'' was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist. He was a key figure ...

's theory of "uneven and combined development". Danielson argued that capitalism was essentially dispensable for further economic development, and that industrialisation could continue on the basis of a socialist economy. Like the ''narodniks'', he saw the surviving peasant village communes as potential nuclei for a socialist organisation of the Russian economy. Plekhanov and Lenin denounced this as dangerous utopianism.

Political Involvement

In the early 1900s, Danielson was briefly involved with the Russian Socialist-Revolutionary Party, but he did not play a very active role in it, and he withdrew after the ''"Azef affair"'' of 1908. (

Yevno Azef Yevno Fishelevich (Yevgeny Filippovich) Azef (; 1869–1918) was a Russian socialist revolutionary who also operated as a double agent and agent provocateur. He worked as both an organiser of assassinations for the Socialist Revolutionary Party ...

was a prominent leader of the PSR and the chief of its terrorist organisation; in 1908 he was unmasked as a double agent for the Okhrana, the secret police.) Danielson seemed to have played no role in the

Russian Revolution of 1917 The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

References

* Zverev, V., ''N.F. Danielson, V.P. Vorontsov: Dva portreta na fone russkogo kapitalizma''. Moscow, 1997. * The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition, Moscow, 1970–1979 * Von Laue, Theodor H., "The Fate of Capitalism in Russia, the Narodnik Version." American Slavic and East European Reviev XIII (1954), 11–28. *Walici, A., ''The Controversy over Capitalism: Studies in the Social Philosophy of the Russian Populists.'' Notre Dame UP, 1989. * Eaton, Henry, "Marx and the Russians." Journal of the History of Ideas (1980), p. 89. * Fedayashin, Anton A., "Humane Modernization as a Liberal Ideal: Late Imperial Russia on the Pages of theHerald of Europe, 1891–1904." The Historian Vol. 71 (no. 4), 2009, pp. 780–804. * Lenin, V. I. “Po povodu tak nazyvaemogo voprosa o rynkakh.” Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed.. vol. 1. pp. 95–96, 98, 104, 119–20. * Lenin, V. I. “Ekonomicheskoe soderzhanie narodnichestva i kritika ego v knige g. Struve.” Ibid., vol. 1. * Lenin, V. I. “Chto takoe ’druz’ia naroda’ i kak oni voiuiut protiv sotsial-demokratov?" Ibid., vol. I, pp. 218–19, 243, 280, 282–83, 320–21. 335–38. {{DEFAULTSORT:Danielson, Nikolai 1844 births 1918 deaths Writers from Moscow People from Moskovsky Uyezd Sociologists from the Russian Empire Economists from the Russian Empire Translators from the Russian Empire Economists from Moscow Russian socialists Russian Marxists Narodniks German–Russian translators Russian people of Finnish descent