Marxism | Proslogion Scientific Journal

Zmud L. Ya
M. A. Gukovsky on the way to Leonardo da Vinci: the History of Science and Technology in the 1930s, in: Proslogion: Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Social History and Culture, 2023. Vol. 6(2). P. 38–62.

Leonid Yakovlevich Zhmud’, Doctor of Philosophy, Principal Academic Researcher at the Saint Petersburg Branch of the Institute for the History of Science and Technology named after S. I. Vavilov, Russian Academy of Sciences (199034, Russia, Saint Petersburg, Universitetskaya embankment, 5)

l.zhmud@spbu.ru

Language: Russian

The paper covers the early period of M. A. Gukovsky’s scholarly work, the 1930s, when his major study on the history of science, “The Mechanics of Leonardo da Vinci”, was written; in 1939 it was defended as a doctoral dissertation though published only in 1947. Gukovsky had been educated by scholars of the old school, such as L. P. Karsavin, I. M. Grevs, A. I. Khomentovskaya, but did not immediately become a historian. His scholarly and organizational activities in the Commission for the History of Knowledge and the Institute for the History of Science and Technology began after the “great break” that sharply increased the ideological pressure on the humanities. In articles and reviews of this time, Gukovsky appears as a scholar of a new generation, capable both to combine academic scholarship with a Marxist understanding of history in general and the history of science and technology in particular and to form a new methodology for their research, meeting the challenges of the time.

Keywords: M. A. Gukovsky, N. I. Bukharin, history of science and technology, Commission on the History of Knowledge, Institute of the History of Science and Technology, Renaissance, Marxism

URL: http://proslogion.ru/7s-zmud/

10.24412/2500-0926-2023-71-38-62

pdf

Kovalev, V. A. Politekonomisty ponevole: Richard Lakhman «Kapitalisty ponevole. Konflikt elit i ekonomicheskie preobrazovaniya v Evrope rannego Novogo vremeni» i metodologiya neomarksizma [Political economists in spite of themselves. Richard Lachman’s «Capitalists in spite of Themselves. Elite Conflict and Economic Transitions in Early Modern Europe» and neomarxist methodology], in: Proslogion: Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Social History and Culture, 2017. Vol. 3 (1). P. 258–266.

Victor Aleksandrovich Kovalev, Doctor of History, assistant professor, St. Petersburg State University of the Humanities and Social Sciences (192238, Rossiya, Sankt-Peterburg, ulitsa Fuchika, dom 15)
onuphriyphd@gmail.com

Language: Russian

This review of Richard Lachman’s «Capitalists in spite of themselves» shows pluses and minuses of the research. Also in the review actual historiography issues are discussed and neomarxist methodology came under criticism. The criticist argues that the key issue of the research is Marxist’s thesis of the distributive role of the authorities and economical reductionism. Accepting Pierre Bourdieu conception of social and symbolic capital, Lachman returns to the classical Marxist conception of base (economy) and superstructure (power, policy culture and other). The role of the symbolic, social, military, spiritual capital became downgraded and diminished. Benefit of the research is attention to the historical process in Italian city-states which set aside of the researcher’s attention very often. Also other form’s of non-classical form of medieval power and society structuring, the Holy Empire, the spiritual knight’s Orders, the city’s unions, etc. are left by Lachman unattended, because of their disengagement in transition to capitalist economy. His interesting conception of «vertical» and «horizontal» absolutism wasn’t developed because of the researcher’s inattention to non-material and mythological forms of power. In spite of references to Paul-Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu works, Lachman continues to envisage political power as a distributive structure. Being interesting and very informative, Lachman’s research inherits Marxist’s paradigm deficiencies.

Key Words: Neo-history, Marxism, neo-Marxism, Foucault, Braudel

URL: http://proslogion.ru/31-kovalevt/