Renowned Sociologist Teodor Shanin Dies at 89

Teodor Shanin, professor of sociology at the University of Manchester, honorary professor at HSE University, and founder of the Moscow School for the Social and Economic Sciences, passed away on Tuesday, February 4. He was 89.

Professor Shanin was a pioneering scholar in world peasant studies and conducted field research in various parts of the world. He first came to Russia in 1961, and in 1963, he commenced work on his doctoral dissertation here. Over time, Russia became his second home. Though a British citizen, his scholarly contribution to Russia was significant.

In the Soviet period, Professor Shanin’s work spurred the revival of Russian agricultural scientific traditions and the heritage of Alexander Chayanov. It is no coincidence that he was elected an honorary member of the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences of the Soviet Union (VASKhNIL).

In the early 1990s, he organized three retraining schools for young Soviet sociologists in Manchester and Kent. And for many now renowned sociologists, these schools have become a gateway to the profession and the field of international sociology.

In the post-Soviet years, Professor Shanin set to work founding the Moscow School for the Social and Economic Sciences (or ‘Shaninka’ as it came to be called for short), a Russian-British graduate school that introduced British academic practices to Russian higher education. The small university opened its doors in the mid-1990s and soon became a new model for other Russian universities, HSE University first and foremost among them. In the summer of 2007, Mr. Shanin resigned from his post as rector and became president of the School.

Professor Shanin became the leader of the world’s top research team in Russian peasant studies; his young colleagues spent lengthy periods of time living with and studying peasant families in different regions of Russia. His research team collected materials that have been invaluable to the field and gave outsiders the opportunity to hear ‘Peasant Voices’. Professor Shanin developed the concept of ‘polar economy’ to define forms of economy that do not fit into traditional ideas about linear progress.

Teodor Shanin was a unique person whose life was filled with contradictions. He served in the military as a volunteer and led the British social movement against war. He despised awards, rarely wore a suit, and was awarded the Order of the British Empire. His first monograph on the Russian peasantry was The Awkward Class: Political Sociology of Peasantry in a Developing Society, Russia 1910-1925(Oxford UP, 1972). And recently, a biography about the scholar, The Dissenting Teodor(Nesoglasnyi Teodor, AST Publishers, 2020), was published.

He was often an intimidating force for those who tried to hinder progress, and he did not agree with those who stopped short at the sight of obstacles. In all that he did, Teodor Shanin never wavered from his chosen path. It seemed as if he was born to achieve the impossible. And that is what he did.

We extend our condolences to Professor Shanin’s relatives, colleagues, and many students.