The political economist who opened Khrushchev's economic debate, and institutional founder of Soviet sociology
'All formations arose spontaneously — only the socialist formation came into being through organized mass action. Might not all our problems stem from this?' — at a closed institute meeting, recalled by V.A. Yadov
Economist of the Khrushchev thaw. He placed Liberman's 1962 article in Pravda, triggering the economic reform debate, and founded the first Soviet sociological institute. Edited Kommunist and Pravda; removed for his liberal orientation.
Career Timeline
- 1926Graduates from Kharkov Institute of National Economy
- 1925–1943Works in Ukrainian SSR commissariats of agriculture and justice, then teaches political economy in Kharkov
- 1940Candidate of Economic Sciences degree; supervisor Ostrovityanov, opponent Shepilov
- 1943–1949Secretary of Kharkov Oblast Party Committee in Khrushchev's Ukrainian apparatus
- 1950–1952Director, Institute of Economics, Ukrainian SSR Academy of Sciences; head of social sciences division
- 1952–1955Head of CC departments for economic/historical sciences and science/culture
- 1955–1958Editor-in-chief of Kommunist, the party theoretical journal of the Khrushchev thaw
- 1958–1964Editor-in-chief of Problems of Peace and Socialism (Prague), hub of the Eurocommunist network
- 1962With Khrushchev's backing, places Liberman's article in Pravda, triggering the all-union reform debate
- 1964–1965Editor-in-chief of Pravda; removed after attempting to publish Solzhenitsyn
- 1965–1967Academician-Secretary of the Economics Department, USSR Academy of Sciences
- 1967–1971Vice-President of the Academy of Sciences and founding director of ICSI, the first Soviet sociological institute
- 1972Forced to resign; ICSI restructured for 'excessive liberalism,' leading researchers dismissed
- 1971–1993Member of the Academy Presidium; edits the standard political economy textbook
Related historical events
Institutional Founder of Soviet Sociology — ICSI
Rumyantsev's most enduring legacy is the founding of the USSR's first sociological institute, the Institute of Concrete Social Research (IKSI). Though a Soviet Sociological Association had existed since 1957, the discipline lacked an institutional home, subsisting as a section within the Institute of Philosophy. As Vice-President of the Academy of Sciences from 1967, Rumyantsev persistently lobbied for an independent institute, and on 22 May 1968 a Politburo decree formally established IKSI. As its first director, he assembled the finest sociologists of the generation (Yuri Levada, Igor Kon, Vladimir Yadov, Boris Grushin) and created what participants called an 'island of freedom within scientific socialism.' Under his leadership IKSI produced landmark work: the Taganrog Project (a comprehensive survey of a 'typical' Soviet medium-sized city, 1967–1973), Man and His Work (Zdravomyslov and Yadov, 1967), and Kon's Sociology of Personality (1967). At closed institute meetings Rumyantsev would pose a philosophical challenge: 'All social formations arose spontaneously. Only the socialist formation came into being through organized mass action. Might not all our problems stem from this?' But after the Prague Spring the conservative backlash intensified. When Levada's 1970 lectures came under fire from the Moscow party committee, Rumyantsev wrote to the Central Committee denouncing the 'monopolization of truth and command-administrative methods' in science. The response was devastating: he was accused of sheltering anti-Soviet elements. He resigned in 1971; the institute was restructured as ISI and leading researchers (Levada, Kon, Galkin) were expelled.