Ecology and social energetics: the Podolynsky-Vernadsky connection
Journal: Dialectical Anthropology
Year: 2026

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 agr