(Onovanya Politicheskoy Zkonomi / Principles of Political Economy)

St. Petersburg: V tipografii Karla Vul fa, 1860. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. Chernyshevsky’s Translation of Mill’s Political Economy

, , H. . (Mill, J.S.CHERNYSHEVSKY, N.G.). (Onovanya Politicheskoy Zkonomi). St. Petersburg: V tipografii Karla Vul fa, 1860. Blank leaf + TP + [5] - 426. Octavo. First Edition.

An incomplete translation of book 1 of the 4th edition of Mill's Principles of Political Economy, 1857 (cf. p. [6]), published as a separately-paged supplement to Sovremennik (cf. verso of t.p.); no more published in this first edition. Chernyshevsky only translated the first volume of Mill’s work, but provided extensive commentary in his translation (“A complete translation, but without his notes [the censors prohibited them], was published in 1865”). It was remarked by a contemporary that “by the notes and commentaries he appends to the translation [Chernyshevsky] seeks to transform Mill into Proudhon!” It was because of the notes and commentary that Chernyshevsky was prohibited from translating more. Nicholas I sought to prevent all foreign works of philosophy and politics from being translated, so this was one of the first Western philosophical texts to be translated into Russian just 5 years after the death of Nicholas I in 1855.

Somewhat championing a socialist vision of economics, Mill became a hero of economics in Russia. The utilitarianism of Mill (and Bentham) serves as an ethical source of motivation for Raskolnikov in Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. But it is also Mill’s economic vision that serves as a purpose—to annihilate the current economic conditions that create so much suffering and replace it with a socialist system by which individuals can seek and attain advantage, resulting in happiness and freedom for all. In Chernyshevsky's What Is To Be Done? Vera’s mother Marya repeatedly tells Vera how her books say the world is not supposed to be this way, that a better world is to come. Raskolnikov justifies his murder of Alyona because she causes great harm to her sister Lizaveta and has doomed all her money to the monastery. By killing her, and taking her wealth, Raskolnikov can free Lizaveta from Alyona’s treatment and begin to remake the new world economy.


CONDITION: Very good. Well-worn in contemporary full cloth. Minor repairs to hinges. Light spotting to pages.


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