Nikolaeva U.G. (2023). The political economy of precapitalist societies according to Yury Semenov (1929–2023): a new stage in the development of historical materialism. Problems in Political Economy.2023. No. 2 (34). Pp. 128-147.

Abstract

This article analyses the contribution made by the eminent Soviet and Russian historian Yury Ivanovich Semenov (1929–2023) to the development of the political economy of precapitalist societies and of historical materialism as a whole. It is shown that the works of Yu. I. Semenov on the questions of the origins of labour, humanity and society, and on the evolution of socio-economic relations in primitive and early class societies not only have a concretely scientific historico-economic signifi cance, but are of general methodological importance as well. During the Soviet period the books published by Yu. I. Semenov on the origins of humanity and society, works such as “How Humanity Arose” (1966; 2002), “The Rise of Marriage and the Family” (1974) and “At the Dawn of Human History” (1989) became widely known. Appearing in the post-Soviet period were no less fundamental studies: “Economic Ethnology” (1993), “The Origin and Development of the Economy” (2014), “An IntroducƟ on to World History” (1999–2001), “The Philosophy of History” (2003; 2011), “The Politary (‘Asiatic’) Mode of Production: Its Essence and Place in the History of Humanity and of Russia” (2008; 2017; 2019) and “An Introduction to the Science of Philosophy” (2013; 2022–2023). In the present article, the accent is on the study of the specifi c relations of property and distribution in early societies. The concept of “transdetermination”, fi rst introduced by Yu. I. Semenov and revealing the specific nature of primary determination in pre-market societis, is put forward. Questions are raised concerning the peculiarities of the development of the productive forces in pre-industrial societies. The article also examines the concept of the politary (“Asiatic”) mode of production; the nature of “common-class private property”; the nature of the distributive “polito-system”; and the role of extra-economic compulsion. Further, it reveals the main positions of the global-stadial (relay-stadial) version of the formational approach, as well as new ideas in the fi eld of dialectical and historical materialism.