science

Isaak Rubin

Isaak Rubin is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Isaak Rubin rather than just read about it. In short: Isaak Illich Rubin (Russian: Исаак Ильич Рубин; 12 June 1886 – 27 November 1937) was a Russian Marxist economist who is considered one of the most important exponents of Karl Marx's value-form theory. His major work, Essays on Marx's Theory of Value, was first published in 1923 and went through four editions in the Soviet Union.

Key takeaways

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Reference excerpt

Isaak Illich Rubin (Russian: Исаак Ильич Рубин; 12 June 1886 – 27 November 1937) was a Russian Marxist economist who is considered one of the most important exponents of Karl Marx's value-form theory. His major work, Essays on Marx's Theory of Value, was first published in 1923 and went through four editions in the Soviet Union. He also wrote A History of Economic Thought and several other works on Marxist political economy. A member of the Jewish Bund and later the Mensheviks, Rubin was a critic of the October Revolution. His scholarship, while internationally recognized, brought him into conflict with the Soviet authorities. After a series of arrests and periods of exile beginning in 1921, he was attacked during the late 1920s in a campaign against so-called "Rubinshchina" (Russian for "Rubinism"), which condemned his work as an idealistic deviation from orthodox Marxism. Following his arrest in 1930, Rubin was forced to serve as a key defendant in the 1931 Menshevik Trial. After serving his sentence in prison and exile, he was arrested again during the Great Purge and executed in 1937. He was fully rehabilitated in the Soviet Union between 1989 and 1991.

Biography

Early life and political activity

Isaak Rubin was born on 12 June 1886 in Dvinsk, Russian Empire (now Daugavpils, Latvia), to a well-to-do Jewish family. After attending a religious elementary school (cheder) and a classical gymnasium, he enrolled in the law faculty of Saint Petersburg Imperial University in 1906. There, he studied economics under Mikhail Tugan-Baranovsky and I.I. Kaufman, graduating in 1910 as a specialist in economic science and civil law. In 1910 he married Polina Petrovna. Rubin became politically active in 1904, joining the General Jewish Labour Bund. He was arrested in 1905 but was released under an amnesty following the October Manifesto. After graduating, he was barred from an academic career and worked as a barrister in Moscow, focusing on labour law. During World War I, he was active in organisations providing aid to the war effort. Rubin did not support the October Revolution of 1917, fearing it would lead to a counter-revolution if defeated. He remained active in the Menshevik-aligned wing of the Bund after it split with its pro-Bolshevik faction in 1920, and he was elected Secretary of the Bund's Central Committee. At this time, he advocated for trade unions to be independent of the state, describing them as "organs of proletarian class spontaneity that are constructed from top to bottom on the electoral principle".

Persecution and scholarly work in prison Rubin's leadership role in the Bund led to his arrest on 20 February 1921. He was released on bail, but arrested again on the night of 5–6 November 1921. His academic colleagues, including the historian and rector of Moscow State University (MGU) Viacheslav Volgin, the Commissar of Education Anatoly Lunacharsky, and his friend David Riazanov, the director of the newly founded Marx-Engels Institute, successfully petitioned for his release. On 22 November 1921, the Cheka released him into the custody of the university rector.

During the year and three months of freedom that followed, Rubin taught at MGU and the Institute of Red Professors and prepared the first edition of his major work, Essays on Marx's Theory of Value. In 1922, he also co-edited Fundamental Problems of Economics, a collection of translated articles by prominent European Marxists such as Otto Bauer, Rudolf Hilferding, and Karl Kautsky. He was arrested for a third time on 27 February 1923, beginning a period of imprisonment and exile that would last over three and a half years. He was initially sentenced to three years in the Archangelsk concentration camp, which, given his poor health, was considered a death sentence. After his colleagues again interceded, his sentence was commuted to exile in the Crimean peninsula, beginning in December 1924. Despite the harsh conditions of his imprisonment, Rubin's scholarly output was prolific. Between 1923 and his return to Moscow in late 1926, he completed approximately twenty scientific works, including an expanded second edition of his Essays on Marx's Theory of Value, translations of works by Karl Marx and Adam Smith, and several original books and articles. He was so dedicated to his work that in December 1924, when his release from Butyrka prison was ordered, he successfully requested a postponement of several days to complete the final editing of a 450-page manuscript. While publishing successive editions of his Essays on Value, he was also furtively drafting a manuscript for a companion volume, Essays on Marx's Theory of Money.

"Rubinshchina" and the Menshevik Trial After his release from exile, Rubin began working at the Marx-Engels Institute in Moscow under Riazanov, where he headed the office of political economy. In 1928, a public campaign was launched against him and his work. This campaign, known as the "Rubinshchina" ("Rubinism"), condemned his Essays on Marx's Theory of Value for "idealism" and "falsification" of Marxism. The campaign was part of a broader shift in the Soviet Union away from the relative intellectual freedom of the New Economic Policy (NEP) period towards the dogmatism of the Stalinist era. Rubin was hounded in the press; in later editions of his Essays, he engaged with his critics, such as I.I. Dashkovsky, Semen Shabs, Aleksandr Kon, and Sergey Bessonov, adding an appendix titled "Reply to Critics". In 1930, a brochure titled Rubinshchina or Marxism? was published to denounce his views, and he was forced to resign from the Institute. On the night of 23–24 December 1930, Rubin was arrested by the OGPU (the secret police) and implicated in the preparations for the 1931 Menshevik Trial, a show trial organised by Stalin against former Mensheviks. After being subjected to what his sister described as "endless interrogation, beatings, solitary confinement ... humiliation and torture," Rubin was forced to sign a false confession and implicate his friend and protector, Riazanov. At the trial in March 1931, Rubin was sentenced to five years of imprisonment.

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Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Isaak Rubin

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Isaak Rubin claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Isaak Rubin before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Isaak Rubin ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Isaak Rubin

In research: Isaak Rubin appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Isaak Rubin in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Isaak Rubin is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1886 births, 1931 Menshevik Trial, 1937 deaths, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Isaak Rubin outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Isaak Rubin in 20 minutes

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Frequently asked questions

What is Isaak Rubin in simple terms?

Why does Isaak Rubin matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Isaak Rubin?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Isaak Rubin.