The dismantling of the Marx-Engels-Institute.: For a biography of David Ryazanov

Abstract

Through the biographical sketch of David Ryazanov (Odessa, 1870 - Saratov, 1938), the main impeller and first Director of the Marx-Engels Institute in Moscow, the article offers a detailed period narrative that illuminates not only the main stations of a life marked by both political militancy and intellectual passion and activity, but also the story of how the Marx-Engels-Institute became the Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute (IMEL) in 1931, later to become the Marx and Engels Sector of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).