Nikolai Frantsevich Danielson (1844–1918)

Famous Russian economist and publicist; one of the important representatives of liberal populism.

Danielson was born in 1844 in Russia. In the late 1860s and early 1870s, Danielson established ties with the revolutionary Narodnik organization Tchaikovsky circle. In 1870, Danielson was arrested and after his release, he took over the translation of Marx’s Capital, Vol. 1, which was not completed by G.A. Lopatin. In the process of translation, Danielson corresponded with Marx and Engels many times. The Russian version of Capital, Vol. 1, co-translated by Lopatin and Danielson, was published in 1872, which is also the first foreign language version of Capital, Vol. 1. Danielson’s translation of Capital, Vol. 2 and Vol. 3 in Russian was published in 1885 and 1896. The publication of Russian version of Capital is of great significance in the history of spread of Marxism. However, the translation of Capital and the correspondence with Marx and Engels did not convert Danielson into a Marxist. Danielson did not understand the essence of Marxism and erroneously held that Marxism was not applicable to Russia’s special national conditions, and that capitalism had no future in Russia, and advocated that advocated the continued preservation of the communal property in the land in the village community and the maintenance of a petty peasant economy and petty handicraft economy. In 1893, Danielson published Studies of Our Post-Reform Economy, discussing the economic views of his liberal Narodnism. The book interpreted the social and economic problems in Russia after the reform of serfdom in 1861, denied the progressive nature of the development of capitalism in Russia, and advocated returning to the pre-reform status quo by means of reforms—village economy, which was a blatant departure from the fundamental principles of Marxism. Lenin criticized Danielson’s populist viewpoint in many works.