The reception of Malthus in Russia

Ch. 8. P. 359–399.

Melnik D. V., Markov M.

This chapter provides some details of Malthus’s personal encounter with Russia and distinguishes three periods in the reception of his works in the Russian Empire. During the first period (1800s–1830s), there was generally adopted an optimistic version of Malthusianism suitable for substantiation of the benevolent nature of the ‘enlightened despotism’ – ‘Malthusianism in reverse’. During the 1840s–1850s, the significant social and cultural shifts resulted in the radicalization and diversification of Russian public opinion, which ceased to be confined to the tiny circle of the highest nobility and imperial bureaucracy. It was the period of actualization of Malthus, but the general attitude to his ideas became critical, if not hostile. The way, how and why that Malthus was criticized (and sometimes accepted) since the 1860s and up to the 1917 Revolution allows for a better grasp of the debates between different strands of the then prominent ideological approaches: radical, conservative and liberal.

Keywords: история экономической мысли, history of economic thought, мальтузианство, Malthusianism, Malthus, T.R., Мальтус, Т.Р.

In book

Malthus Across Nations. The Reception of Thomas Robert Malthus in Europe, America and Japan

Melnik D. V. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020.