The highest-ranking Armenian economist in the Soviet apparatus, who pushed the Law on Cooperatives through the Politburo
When conservative members of the Politburo vehemently opposed the Law on Cooperatives in 1988, Sitaryan reportedly answered: "This law will not destroy socialism — it will save it."
A Soviet Armenian economist and statesman who participated in nearly every major chapter of Soviet economic reform from the Kosygin era through perestroika, as both theorist and operational leader. In the mid-1960s he helped design the introduction of commodity-money relations for the Kosygin reform commission; as First Deputy Chairman of Gosplan (1986–1989) he drafted the core perestroika-era restructuring measures. The 1988 Law on Cooperatives, which he authored and personally defended before a hostile Politburo, was the first Soviet law to grant private enterprise legal standing. As Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers (1989–1990) he advanced the opening of Soviet foreign trade, and after the USSR's dissolution founded the Institute for Foreign Economic Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1953Senior economist and senior researcher, Financial Research Institute (NIFI), USSR Ministry of Finance
- 1966Doctor of Economics; later awarded professorship (1970)
- 1970–1974Director, Financial Research Institute (NIFI), USSR Ministry of Finance
- 1974–1983Deputy Minister of Finance of the USSR
- 1983–1986Deputy Chairman of Gosplan (State Planning Committee) of the USSR
- 1986–1989First Deputy Chairman of Gosplan; First Deputy Chairman, Interdepartmental Commission for Improving the Economic Mechanism
- 1989–1990Deputy Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers, Chairman of the State Foreign Economic Commission, Permanent Representative of the USSR to Comecon
- 1990–1991Member of the Central Committee of the CPSU
- 1992–2009Director, Institute (later Centre) for Foreign Economic Research, Russian Academy of Sciences
Related historical events
- 1965–1970The Kosygin ReformKosygin reform commission economistIn 1965, he helped design the introduction of commodity-money relations for the Kosygin reform commission.
- 1985–1991Perestroika and Glasnostpushed cooperative law
- 1987–1991The Economic Reform Debate and the 500 Days ProgrammeCooperatives law working-group leaderIn 1988, he led the working group preparing the Law on Cooperatives, developed its core concept, and presented the draft to the Politburo.
Perestroika and the Law on Cooperatives
Sitaryan's reform agenda included cooperative activity from his involvement in preparing the 1965 Kosygin reform. In a later interview, he recalled developing concrete proposals while preparing economic measures for Yuri Andropov in 1983. He argued that state enterprises could not fully realize their capacities or enter the market if they remained dependent on directives from above; cooperatives offered one way to introduce market elements into economic management.
From 1986 to 1989, as First Deputy Chairman of Gosplan and deputy chair of the interdepartmental commission for improving the economic mechanism, Sitaryan led work on measures to restructure economic management. A biographical account records that he headed the working group preparing the Law on Cooperatives, was responsible for its underlying concept, and presented the draft to the Politburo. The law was adopted in May 1988. It provided a legal framework for cooperatives and sought to expand cooperative activity in the economy. Rather than reducing this measure to the legalization of private enterprise in general, it is better understood as Sitaryan's effort to introduce cooperatives and market elements within the framework of the Soviet planned economy.