1950–2023
○ Died
The institutional economist who crystallized the 50-year debate over the Kosygin reform in a single book title
In 1977, when he defended his candidate's dissertation on the 'Asiatic mode of production,' the Academy of Social Sciences under the CPSU Central Committee, the official reviewer, submitted an evaluation whose essence was: 'This is not Marxism.'
An institutional economist of Tatar origin born in Moscow, he graduated with honours from the MSU economics faculty and taught political economy there, attracting attention with a controversial dissertation on the 'Asiatic mode of production' that the Academy of Social Sciences under the CPSU Central Committee denounced as 'not Marxism.' In 1993 he helped Kuzminov found the Higher School of Economics (HSE), serving as its first department chair, first vice-rector, and first full professor, becoming a central architect of the Russian institutional-economics school. As editor of the 2017 collective monograph 'Missed Chance or Last Valve? On the 50th Anniversary of the Kosygin Reforms of 1965,' he crystallized the polarized historiographical debate: reform as a lost opportunity for the planned economy versus its last safety valve, in a single title.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1972Graduated MSU Economics Faculty with honours
- 1975–1993Associate professor of political economy, MSU
- 1993–1996First vice-rector & head of economic theory, HSE
- 1997–2013Ordained professor, head of institutional economics & economic analysis, HSE
- 2013–2017Head of economic theory, Financial University, Moscow
- 2017Editor, 'Missed Chance or Last Valve?'
Related historical events
Research on premodern economies and institutions
Nureyev's early research examined production relations and economic organization in pre-capitalist societies. His 1977 candidate's dissertation considered principles for studying production relations in pre-capitalist formations, specifically in connection with the debate over the “Asiatic mode of production.” His 1990 doctoral dissertation likewise addressed the characteristics of interaction between productive forces and production relations in pre-capitalist formations. These subjects show that his interest in the historical forms of economic institutions and social organization predated his later work as an institutional economist. In a later recollection, a colleague argued that explaining economic organization before modern states could also help illuminate contemporary life through the study of institutional choice. This is the colleague's interpretation and should be distinguished from the dissertations' own claims.