8 PREFACE TO THE RUSSIAN EDITION 
added but a few notes and observations, concerned chiefly 
with the Anglo-American School and the most recent pub- 
lications. 
So much for the external history of this book. As to its 
substance, I should like to make the following observations: 
Hitherto two types of criticism of the latest bourgeois political 
economy have been practiced in the Marxian camp, either an 
exclusively sociological criticism, or an exclusively method- 
ological criticism. For instance, it was ascertained that the 
theoretical system in question was the outgrowth of a specific 
class psychology, which definitely disposed of it; or, it was 
pointed out that certain methodological bases, certain ap- 
proaches to the problem were incorrect, and it was therefore 
considered unnecessary to proceed to an exhaustive criticism 
of the internal phases of the system. 
No doubt, if we start with the fact that it is only a class 
theory of the proletariat that can be objectively correct, a 
mere revelation of the bourgeois character of any specific 
theory, is, strictly speaking, sufficient to justify its rejection. 
At bottom, this is a correct attitude, for Marxism claims its 
general validity precisely for the reason that it is the theoretical 
expression of the most advanced class, whose “needs” of knowl- 
edge are far more audacious than those of the conservative 
and therefore narrow-minded mode of thought of the ruling 
classes in capitalist society. Vet it is quite clear that the 
correctness of this assumption should be proved precisely in 
the struggle between the ideologies themselves, and particu- 
larly, by a logical criticism of the theories of our opponents. 
A sociological characterization of a certain theory, therefore, 
does not relieve us of the responsibility of waging war against 
it even in the field of a purely logical criticism. 
The same is true also of a criticism of method. To be 
sure, to prove that the point of departure of the methodological 
bases is a false one is equivalent to overthrowing the entire 
theoretical structure erected on those bases. Yet the struggle 
between ideologies requires that the incorrectness in method 
be proved by the fallacious partial inferences of the system, in 
which connection we may point out either the internal con- 
tradictions of the old system, or its incompleteness, its organic