Ecology and social energetics: the Podolynsky-Vernadsky connection

Abstract In 1880 Serhiy A. Podolynsky (1850–1891) described the human economy as a metabolic flow of energy and was later praised for it by ecologist Vladimir Vernadsky, whereas his work encountered strong criticism by Friedrich Engels. However, the notes taken by Karl Marx were rather neutral in tone. In this article, we use primary sources in Ukrainian and Russian, including Vernadsky’s diaries and correspondence, to shed light on the ecological aspects of Podolynsky’s accounting of energy flows in agriculture and, more broadly, on the economic implications of his social energetics. In addition to a contribution to European intellectual history of the environment and the history of Ukrainian radical political movements in the 1870s, we provide arguments for the continued relevance of Podolynsky’s work for today’s planetary ecologists, ecological economists, political ecologists and eco-Marxists.