People of the Revolution and the USSR

Activity
Any Scholarship and theory 2
Affiliation

Most people

Any Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks 2

All 1 affiliations

Soviet Union

Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks 2
Position(set)
Any Imperial establishment and White movement 1 Left critics of Bolshevism 1 Socialist-bloc reform leader 2 Marxism and communism 27 Nationalism 2
Citizenship
Any Soviet Union 2
Background(set)
Any Russia 17 Poland 12 Hungary 8 Czechoslovakia 4 Estonia 4 Czechia 3 Lithuania 3 Armenia 2 Romania 2 Ukraine 2 Azerbaijan 1 Bulgaria 1 East Germany 1 Georgia 1 Latvia 1 Slovakia 1
Era
Any

People of the Soviet Union

The last generation1985–1991 2
Socialist-bloc reform leader Background: Armenia Clear all

Georgy Khosroevich Shakhnazarov

Георгий Хосроевич Шахназаров
Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks Socialist-bloc reform leader Soviet Union Armenia 1924–2001 ○ Natural causes

Founder of Soviet political science and brains of perestroika's political reform

"Gorbachev, me, all of us were double-thinkers — we had to balance truth and propaganda in our minds all the time. It was the choice between dissidence and surrender."

Armenian-born political scientist and Doctor of Law from Baku. He founded the Soviet Political Science Association and led it for 17 years, pioneering the theory of socialist democracy and becoming one of the earliest Soviet theorists to acknowledge interest-group pluralism within society. As Gorbachev's aide, he designed the constitutional reform that abolished the Party monopoly, introduced competitive elections, and created the Soviet presidency. After the USSR's collapse he wrote the memoir The Price of Freedom and also published science fiction under the pseudonym Georgy Shakh.

Career timeline
  • 1941–1945Artillery platoon commander and battery reconnaissance chief; fought through Königsberg, Sevastopol, and Minsk
  • 1949–1952Graduated law at Azerbaijan State University; postgraduate at the Institute of Law, USSR Academy of Sciences
  • 1952–1960Editor at Politizdat publishing house
  • 1960–1964Editorial work at Political Self-Education and Problems of Peace and Socialism (Prague)
  • 1964–1988Consultant, then deputy and first deputy head of CC Department for Relations with Socialist Countries (GDR, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Cuba)
  • 1969Doctor of Law: dissertation 'Socialist Democracy: Problems and Perspectives'
  • 1973–1990President of the Soviet Association of Political Sciences; vice-president of IPSA
  • 1987Corresponding member of USSR Academy of Sciences; deputy of USSR Supreme Soviet
  • 1988–1991Assistant to Gorbachev, then adviser to USSR President: designed political reform and constitutional revision
  • 1990–1991People's Deputy; chairman of the Supreme Soviet subcommittee on constitutional legislation
  • 1992–2001Director of the Center for Global Problems, Gorbachev Foundation

Abel Gezevich Aganbegyan

Абел Гезевич Аганбегян
Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks Socialist-bloc reform leader Soviet Union Armenia 1932–

Gorbachev's chief economic adviser and the market-reform architect of perestroika

Perestroika is a revolutionary renewal of the whole of Soviet society — growth cannot be separated from democratization and glasnost. (1988)

Armenian mathematical economist born in Tbilisi. As director of Novosibirsk's IEiOPP (1966–1984), he shaped the economics of Siberian development and the BAM railway, and founded the journal EKO. In 1985 he became Gorbachev's chief economic adviser, proposing enterprise autonomy, market elements, and foreign trade opening within the planned economy. He was Academician-Secretary of the Academy's Economics Department (1986–1989) and after the Soviet collapse served as rector of the Academy of National Economy (1989–2002), training Russia's post-Soviet managerial class.

Career timeline
  • 1955–1961Economist at the State Committee on Labour and Wages
  • 1961–1966Sector head at Novosibirsk IEiOPP; director at 33
  • 1966–1984Director of IEiOPP; chair of BAM science council; founded and edited EKO
  • 1974Full academician of USSR Academy of Sciences (corresponding member 1964)
  • 1985–1989Gorbachev's economic adviser; chair of Commission for the Study of Productive Forces
  • 1986–1989Academician-Secretary of Economics Department; Academy Presidium member
  • 1989–2002Rector of the Academy of National Economy under the USSR, then Russian government
  • 2002–presentChair of Economic Theory and Policy at the Academy; continued publishing