Acceptance Speech for World Marxian Economics Award (I)

The World Association for Political Economy (WAPE) has kindly considered me, Korkut Boratav, worthy of one of its World Marxian Economics Awards for 2025.This came as a total surprise and naturally evoked a boundless feeling of honor in me.I am not aware of the criteria applied by the committee that has judged me worthy of this award, and hence cannot advance an opinion on the decision.However, having been informed that I was given the award for my "lifelong contribution to Marxian economics," I deem it appropriate and even necessary to share with my esteemed colleagues and friends and also those who are interested in the topic the subjective and objective factors that led me to Marxism.I was born in 1935.I have thus reached the age of 90.My interest in and sympathy for Marxism, a system of thought that is considered critical, or even "contrarian," in many parts of the world, must have arisen in my youthful days.Let me start by recounting some reminiscences of events that went into shaping me in this direction during my elementary school years, that is, roughly before 1945.During the first of these, I must have been 7 or 8. Our home was in the Hamamn neighborhood of Ankara.My father, Pertev Naili Boratav, was a professor at the School of Languages, History and Geography of Ankara University.From the windows of the apartment where we lived, one could see the avenue that led to my father's workplace.On a certain day, a while after my father had left for his office, a crowded group of youngsters emerged, marching toward the school