The founder of Soviet statistics whom Lenin rebuked and relied on
On August 16, 1921, Lenin wrote to Popov that the Central Statistical Board, 'which lags behind an unofficial group of writers, is a model bureaucratic institution.'
Pavel Popov was the first head of the Central Statistical Administration (ЦСУ), which produced the data foundation for Soviet central planning. A zemstvo statistician, he met Lenin and Tsiurupa in Ufa exile, a connection that secured his appointment to lead the state statistical apparatus in 1918. Under his direction, ЦСУ compiled the world's first inter-sectoral balance of a national economy for 1923/24. Lenin rebuked him in 1921 (calling ЦСУ 'a model bureaucratic institution') yet Popov remained until 1926 and served on the Gosplan Presidium. He survived the purges and worked in Gosplan until 1948, a rare longevity for a non-Bolshevik who joined the party only in 1924.
Career Timeline
- 1892–1895Teacher in Ust-Uda; made contact with political exiles
- 1896–1898Arrested for revolutionary activity; exiled to Ufa, began statistical work
- 1898–1917Zemstvo statistician in Ufa, Samara, Smolensk, Vologda, Kharkov, and Tula
- 1917–1918Head of statistics at Ministry of Food, Narkomzem, and VSNKh
- 1918–1926Manager of ЦСУ RSFSR/USSR (People's Commissar rank); led first inter-sectoral balance
- 1922–1928Member of the Gosplan Presidium
- 1928–1929Director of the Conjuncture Institute, ЦСУ USSR
- 1931–1948Head of Agriculture Department, Gosplan RSFSR