Author of the 14-volume History of Soviet Russia; diagnosed a "latent incompatibility" between NEP markets and planning
'There was a latent incompatibility between the principles of the New Economic Policy and the principles of planning.' From Foundations of a Planned Economy (1969).
A British historian and former diplomat, he authored the 14-volume A History of Soviet Russia (1950–1978), a comprehensive account of Soviet political, economic, and social life from 1917 to 1929. In international relations, The Twenty Years' Crisis (1939) helped lay the foundations of classical realism, while What Is History? (1961) redefined the historian's craft as interpretation rather than the accumulation of facts. On the NEP, he judged that there was 'a latent incompatibility between the principles of the New Economic Policy and the principles of planning,' an assessment that became one of four major historiographical positions on the policy's viability. He remained a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, until his death.
Career Timeline
- 1916–1936Diplomat, British Foreign Office; Paris Peace Conference (1919) and Riga embassy (1925–1929)
- 1936–1947Woodrow Wilson Professor of International Politics, Aberystwyth
- 1941–1946Assistant Editor, The Times
- 1950–1978Published A History of Soviet Russia (14 vols.)
- 1953–1955Fellow and tutor in politics, Balliol College, Oxford
- 1955–1982Fellow, Trinity College, Cambridge