Economic historian who argued partial reform would only destroy the planning system
'Analyses of "Gorbachev's economists" never mention the words "charlatan" or "ignoramus."'
A Soviet-born economist who emigrated to the United States, trained at Novosibirsk University and the University of Pennsylvania. In his 1988 article 'Lessons of the 1965 Soviet Economic Reform,' he argued that resistance from central ministries and Gosplan to the Kosygin reform was not mere bureaucratic self-interest but a rational recognition that partial market reform would destroy the central planning system without putting any workable alternative in its place. Together with Michael Ellman he edited The Destruction of the Soviet Economic System; this systemic incompatibility thesis became a key argument in the historiographical debate over why Soviet reforms consistently failed.
Career Timeline
- 1973Diploma in Economics, Novosibirsk University
- 1985Ph.D. in Economics, University of Pennsylvania
- 1984–2002Founder and President, Command Economies Research, Inc.; contract research for US DoD and CIA
- 1987–Assistant → Associate → Professor of Economics, Haverford College
- 1988"Lessons of the 1965 Soviet Economic Reform," Soviet Studies
- 1992/1998Co-editor with Michael Ellman, The Disintegration / The Destruction of the Soviet Economic System
- 2008"Soviet Economic Reform" entry, New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics