Roman Rosdolsky

Roman Osipovich Rosdolsky (, ''Roman Osypovyč Rozdol's'kyj''; July 19, 1898 – October 20, 1967) was a prominent Ukrainian Marxian scholar, historian and political theorist. Rodolsky's book of 1968 entitled ''Zur Entstehungsgeschichte des Marxschen 'Kapital' : Der Rohentwurf des Kapital 1857–1858'' (On the history of the creation of Marx's 'Kapital': The rough draft of Capital 1857–1858; English translation of 1977: ''The Making of Marx's Capital''), became a foundational text in the rediscovery of Marx critique of political economy,Broady, Donald (1978)
"Återupptäckten av ekonomikritiken"
/ref> as well as influenced later scholars such as Moishe Postone.

Biography

Roman Rosdolsky was born in Lemberg (Lviv) in Galicia, at that time in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now in Ukraine. Rosdolsky's father Osyp Rosdolsky was a Ukrainian theologian, philologist, ethnographer, and translator of some repute. Roman's uncle was Ukrainian composer Danylo Rosdolsky. Both Roman's grandparents were priests of the Greek Catholic Church and well-known supporters of the independence of the Ukrainian nation. Ivan Franko was a family friend.

As a youth, Rosdolsky was a member of the Ukrainian socialist ''Drahomanov Circles''. He was drafted in the imperial army in 1915, and edited with Roman Turiansky the journal ''Klyči'' in 1917. He was a founder of the International Revolutionary Social Democracy (IRSD) and studied law in Prague. During World War I he founded the antimilitaristic "Internationale Revolutionäre Sozialistische Jugend Galiziens" (International Revolutionary Socialist Youth of Galizia). He became a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Eastern Galicia, representing its émigré organization 1921-1924 and a leading publicist of the ''Vasylkivtsi'' faction of the Ukrainian Communists. In 1925, he refused to condemn Trotsky and his Left Opposition, and was later, at the end of the 1920s, expelled from the Communist Party.

In 1926-1931, he was correspondent in Vienna of the Marx-Engels Institute in Moscow, searching for archival materials. At that time, in 1927, he met his wife Emily. When the labour movement in Austria suffered repression, he emigrated in 1934 back to L'viv, where he worked at the university as lecturer and he published the Trotskyist periodical ''Žittja i slovo'' 1934-1938. He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1942, but survived internment for three years in the concentration camps of Auschwitz, Ravensbrück and Oranienburg. While he was in prison, his son Hans Georg was born in January 1943. The family emigrated to the U.S. in 1947. Rosdolsky worked there as an independent scholar, doing thorough research in the Detroit library. He published also under pseudonyms such as "Roman Prokopovycz", "P.Suk.", "Tenet" and "W.S.".

Rosdolsky is mainly known in the English-speaking world for his careful scholarly exegesis on Marx's '' Grundrisse'', ''The Making of Marx's Capital''. The collection of essays overturned many previous interpretations of ''Das Kapital''. Yet he published much more, especially on historical topics. During his life, he corresponded with numerous well known Marxist writers including Isaac Deutscher, Ernest Mandel, Paul Mattick, and Karl Korsch. Mandel called Rosdolsky's work on the National Question the only Marxist criticism of Marx himself.

Rosdolsky died in 1967 in Detroit.

Main published works in English

* 1951 "The Distribution of the Agrarian Product in Feudalism", in: ''Journal of Economic History'' (1951), pp. 247–265
* 1952 "On the nature of peasant serfdom in Central and Eastern Europe", in: ''Journal of Central European Affairs'', Vol. 12, 1952.
* 1963 "A Revolutionary Parable on the Equality of Men", in: ''Archiv für Sozialgeschichte'', Bd. 3 (1963), pp. 291–293.
* 1965 "Worker and Fatherland: a Note on a Passage in the Communist Manifesto". Science & Society, Vol. 29, 1965, pp. 330–337 (reprinted in Bob Jessop & Dennis Wheatley (ed.), ''Karl Marx's social and political thought''. London: Routledge, 1999).
* 1974 "Method of Marx's Capital". ''New German Critique'', Number 3, Fall 1974.
* 1977 ''The Making of Marx's Capital''. London: Pluto Press, 197

* 1986 ''Engels and the `Nonhistoric' Peoples: the National Question in the Revolution of 1848''. Glasgow: Critique books, 1987. First published in ''Critique'', No.18/19, 1986.
* 1988 "A Memoir of Auschwitz and Birkenau." (Introd. John-Paul Himka). ''Monthly Review'', Vol. 39, no. 8 (January 1988), pp. 33–38

* 1999 ''Lenin and the First World War''. London: Prinkipo Press, 1999.
* 2009 "The Jewish Orphanage in Cracow". In: The Online Publications Series of the Center for Urban History of East Central Europe, No. 4, Lviv, October 2009 (translated by Diana Rosdolsky)

References

Further reading

* Ernest Mandel, "Roman Rosdolsky (1898–1967)", Quatrième Internationale, 33 (April 1968). English translation: "Roman Rosdolsky – a genuine Marxist scholar", ''Intercontinental Press'' (New York), 6, 21: 512–514, 3 June 1968. Dutch translation: "Wie was Roman Rosdolsky

(obituary)
* Obituary of Emily Rosdolsk

* Janusz Radziejowski, "Roman Rosdolsky: man, activist a scholar", in: ''Science & Society'', Vol. 42 (1978), Nr. 2, pp. 198–210 (provides biographical details).
*Anson G. Rabinbach, "Roman Rosdolsky 1897–1967: an introduction". ''New German Critique'', No. 3, Autumn 1974, pp. 56–61.
* Ralph Melvile 1992, 'Roman Rosdolsky (1898–1967) als Historiker Galiziens und der Habsburgermonarchie', in: Roman Rosdolsky, ''Untertan und Staat in Galizien. Die Reformen unter Maria Theriasia und Joseph II'', Mainz: Von Zabern: VII–XXV.
* "On Roman Rosdolsky as a Guide to the Politics of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung", ''Science & Society'', Vol. 63, Nr. 2, pp. 235–241
* Review of Roman Rosdolsky, ''Engels and the `Nonhistoric' Peoples''

* Raya Dunayevskaya, ''A Critique of Roman Rosdolsky: Rosdolsky's Methodology and the Missing Dialectic'

* Paul Mattick, ''Roman Rosdolsky: Das symbolische Schicksal eines osteuropäischen Marxisten'

* Manfred A. Turban, "Roman Rosdolsky's Reconsideration of the Traditional Marxist Debate on the Schemes of Reproduction on New Methodological Grounds", in Koropeckyj, I. S., ed. ''Selected Contributions of Ukrainian Scholars to Economics. Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute Sources and Documents series''. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute distributed by Harvard University Press, 1984, pp. 91–134.
* John Paul Himka, "Roman Rosdolsky's Reconsideration of the Traditional Marxist Debate on the Schemes of Reproduction on New Methodological Grounds: Comments", in Koropeckyj, I. S., ed. ''Selected Contributions of Ukrainian Scholars to Economics''. Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute Sources and Documents series. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute distributed by Harvard University Press, 1984, pp. 135–47.
* João Antonio de Paula, "Roman Rosdolsky (1898–1967): um intelectual em tempos de extremos". ''Nova Economia'', vol. 17, n. 2, 2007

* Anson G. Rabinbach, "Roman Rosdolsky 1897–1967: An Introduction". ''New German Critique'', No. 3 (Autumn, 1974), pp. 56–61.

External links

Roman Rosdolsky Archive
at marxists.org
* International Institute of Social History
A description of the Rosdolsky archives

Wikiversity Rosdolsky reading circle (Vienna)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosdolsky, Roman
1898 births
1967 deaths
Academic staff of the University of Lviv
Ukrainian anti-capitalists
Ukrainian Trotskyists
Ukrainian Marxists
Marxist theorists
Marxian economists
Ukrainian Austro-Hungarians
People from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria
Austrian people of Ukrainian descent
Ukrainian revolutionaries
Communist Party of Western Ukraine members
Soviet Marxist historians
Politicians from Lviv
Critics of political economy
Anti-Stalinist left