The Rise and Decline of Polish Revisionist Marxist Economics: The Fates of Włodzimierz Brus and the Faculty of Political Economy (University of Warsaw), 1953–1968

Abstract

The paper deals with the history of Polish revisionist Marxist political economy, which flourished between 1956 and 1968, mostly in the academic institutions of Warsaw. The fate of Polish revisionism in Marxist economics is presented in parallel to the intellectual biography of Włodzimierz Brus (one of its leaders) and the fate of the Faculty of Political Economy ( Wydział Ekonomii Politycznej [WEP]), which he co-established at the University of Warsaw. The authors compare contemporary documents and existing analyses of the period with memories of Brus’s colleagues and students, collected decades after the events. The authors show that both the relative freedom of expression and academic research and the process of gradual closing of these possibilities were related to the changing balance of power within Party elites.