Research Workshop ‘Science and Rationality in the Soviet Economy in the Second Half of the XXth Century: Reforms, Institutions and Ideas’

On December 19 an interdisciplinary research workshop ‘Science and Rationality in the Soviet Economy in the Second Half of the XXth Century: Reforms, Institutions and Ideas’ will take place at the HSE. The event is organized by Poletayev Institute for Theoretical and Historical Studies in the Humanities.

This workshop will highlight new research and work in progress on institutional design and the role of economic theory in the political economy of the USSR. The presentations will address the question of how to study attempts to rationalize the planned economy in the period between the second half of the 1950s to the end of the 1980s. Like in contemporary capitalist and developing countries, the search for better institutional arrangements and improved management techniques, spurred the development of mathematical economics and economic cybernetics. Using archival materials, interviews with participants and published materials, our seminar will discuss the relationship between economic theory and practice in the USSR during “second generation socialism.”

Programme:

Moderator:      Alexander Dmitriev (HSE)

17:00               Opening Address

17:10              Olessia Kirtchik (HSE), Ivan Boldyrev (HSE) –“The role of economic ideas in policy-making as a research problem: Mathematical Economics in the USSR”

17:40              Vyacheslav Nekrasov (German Historical Institute in Moscow, Surgut State Pedagogical Institute) –“The Institutions of Economic Power in the USSR:  Gosplan as a strategic Player in the Soviet Economy 1955-1965, A Case Study”  

18:10               Yakov Feygin (The University of Pennsylvania, RANEPA) – “Reforming the Cold War State: The International Origins of Soviet Economics and the Rise and Fall of the Kosygin Reforms 1956-1970”

18:40 Discussion

19:40 Closing Remarks

Address: 20 Myasnitskaya Ulitsa, Room 327-K

Start time: 17.00

Everyone interested is welcome.

If you plan to take part in the event, please send your name and surname to IGITI Research Assistant Alexandra Kolesnik via email: akolesnik@hse.ru