An Explorer’s Path through the Eyes of His Contemporary

Book Review: Khanin G.I. (2020) Essays in Two Volumes, Мoscow: Tovarishestvo nauchnych izdaniy KMK (in Russian)

Abstract

Making alternative assessments of the Soviet economy and its prospects was not a safe endeavor during the entire Soviet period, but the degree of danger varied. While in the 1930s it was possible to pay with one’s life for the views that did not align with the general line of the Party (as happened with Nikolai Kondratiev and Alexander Chayanov), in the relatively liberal post-Stalinist times the arsenal of the judges included only the non-approval of a specialist’s dissertation. The latter is what happened to the economist Grigorii Khanin, whose first PhD thesis was rejected by Higher Attestation Commission. Before the beginning of perestroika, his name was known only among professionals. However, after the publication of “Sly Figure” in the “Noviy Mir” Journal in 1987 (prepared in collaboration with Vasily Selyunin) Khanin became an economist whose name was familiar to the reading public and economists who discussed the country’s economic development. The book under review is a compact presentation of the author’s extensive work, accumulated over seven decades of professional activities. Of particular interest are the works on the economy and crises in the new Russia, the forecasts and alternatives of its further development, as well as honest “memoirs of an economist” included in the second volume.