Nikolai Kondratiev, Soviet economist: biography, contribution to the economy

The notorious polygon "Kommunarka" became the site of the death of many Soviet disgraced scientists. One of them was the economist Nikolai Dmitrievich Kondratiev. In the first years of the USSR he directed agrarian planning of the country. The main part of Kondratiev's theoretical legacy was the book "Big cycles of conjuncture". The scientist also substantiated the policy of the NEP, which enabled the restoration of Soviet economy after the devastating Civil War.

Childhood and youth

Economist Nikolai Kondratiev was born on March 16, 1892 in the village of Galuevskaya, Kostroma province. From the age of 13 he went to the church and teachers' seminary. During the first Russian revolution, the student became an SR and helped the work of the strike committee of textile workers. For this he was expelled from the seminary and even sent to prison.

A year later, Nikolai Kondratiev was released and entered the school of horticulture and agriculture in the Ukrainian city of Uman. In 1908 he went to St. Petersburg. In the capital Kondratiev shared a room with a culturologist and sociologist Pitirim Sorokin, the future founder of the theory of social mobility.

The beginning of scientific activity

In 1911, Nikolai Kondratiev entered the University of St. Petersburg. After graduation, he chose the department of political economy and statistics and decided to get ready for a professorship.

At this time Kondratiev led a stormy literary and scientific activity. He collaborated with the "Herald of Europe", "Covenants" and other journals, and also delivered numerous lectures. The young intellectual was in the scientific circles of Mikhail Tugan-Baranovsky and Lev Petrazhitsky. Professor Maxim Kovalevsky made him his secretary. In 1915 Kondratiev Nikolai Dmitrievich publishes his first monograph devoted to the economy of his native Kostroma province.

Participation in revolutionary events

Even being a part of the scientific community of St. Petersburg, Kondratiev remained a member of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. For a long time he was followed secretly by the secret police. In 1913, when Russia celebrated the 300th anniversary of the Romanovs' house, Kondratiev spent a month in prison.

The political activity of the economist intensified after the sudden events of the February revolution. The young scientist was a delegate to the Third Congress of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, held in Moscow in May-June 1917. There he delivered a speech in support of the Provisional Government. Then the economist became Kerensky's adviser on agriculture. Nikolay Kondratiev participated in the creation of the Council of Peasants' Deputies and in September was delegated to the All-Russian Democratic Conference. The economist was elected to the Provisional Council of the Republic. In addition, he managed to participate in the activities of the Main Land Committee and the League of Agrarian Reforms.

Helping the Kerensky government, Kondratiev worked to overcome the food problem that arose from the long war against Germany and its allies. The lack of food affected the mood of society. The creation of a stable supply system would allow smoothing out many social contradictions and avoiding a political crisis. At that time Kondratiev was a supporter of the idea of a state grain monopoly. He also had hopes for the deployment, although in 1917 she did not solve the food problem - the threat of large-scale famine continued to loom before the Provisional Government.

Departure from politics

The October Revolution transferred Kondratyev to the opposition camp. He became a member of the Constituent Assembly of Socialist-Revolutionaries. When this body was dispersed, the scientist moved to the Union of the Renaissance of Russia, which spoke against the Bolsheviks. In 1919, the Socialist-Revolutionary Party was completely destroyed. Kondratev Nikolai Dmitrievich departed from politics and devoted himself entirely to science.

After the revolution, Kondratiev moved to Moscow. There he began teaching at several higher educational institutions - the University of Shanyavsky, the Cooperative Institute, the Petrovsky Agricultural Academy. For some time, the work of the economist was the Moscow People's Bank. In 1920 Kondratiev was arrested and became a figurant of the case of the "Union of the Renaissance of Russia". The former SR saved the intercession of the utopian Alexander Chayanov and the prominent Bolshevik Ivan Teodorovich.

Work in the State Planning Committee

Kondratieff's efforts led to the founding of the Institute for Concentration at the People's Commissariat of Finance. The Soviet economist headed it in 1920-1928. He also worked for three years in the People's Commissariat of Agriculture. In the State Planning Committee of the USSR Kondratiev was a member of the agricultural department. The scientist headed the development of the strategy for the development of the agrarian sector.

In 1922, Nikolai Kondratiev, whose contribution to the economy of the young Soviet state was already significant, once again became the target of repression. He was included in the list of undesirable citizens who were preparing to expel from the USSR. Kondratieff was defended in the People's Commissariat of Agriculture. Since the expert controlled several important processes, his name was deleted from the black list.

Abroad

In 1924 Kondratiev went on a foreign scientific trip. He visited Germany, Canada, Great Britain and the USA. The economist had to get acquainted with the market mechanisms of Western countries. This experience was useful to him when developing the principles of NEP. It was Nikolai Kondratiev (1892-1938) who was one of the main adherents of the new economic policy, to which the Bolsheviks came after several years of ruinous war communism. Also, the Soviet specialist had to assess the prospects for export of the USSR.

Kondratiev's friend Pitirim Sorokin was already living in the States at the time. He suggested that Nikolay Dmitrievich stay in America, head a university chair there and protect himself and his family, who went abroad with him. However, Kondratiev refused to leave his homeland. He was fascinated by the new opportunities that NEP opened before him.

Homecoming

In 1924, the Stalinist repressions had not yet begun . No one could even imagine that there would be horrors that shocked the USSR in the 1930s. From the declassified correspondence of Stalin with one of the organizers of the terror, Yakov Agranov, it is now known that in the detention of Kondratyev was tortured by the personal order of the leader. Being in the US, the economist hardly expected something like this.

Returning from abroad, Kondratiev continued his active work in the field of economic planning - he was offered and worked out the so-called agricultural five-year plan of 1923-1928.

Contribution to the economy

In 1925, Kondratieff's most important theoretical work, "Big cycles of conjuncture," was published. It sparked a wide discussion both in the USSR and abroad. A new term appeared, which Nikolai Kondratiev suggested, "cycles of economic development."

According to the theory of the scientist, the world economy develops in a spiral. The upswings are cyclically replaced by recessions, and vice versa. The researcher believed that the length of one such period is about 50 years. In the USSR, many did not like the ideas that put forward Kondratiev. "Kondratieff's cycles" were considered the author's retreat from Marxism.

It is interesting that the economist put forward his hypothesis without any theoretical grounds. Kondratiev used only his own empirical observations. He analyzed in detail the indicators of the economies of the USA and Western Europe from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 20th century. Having done this work, the scientist has constructed graphs and found repeated synchronism. Kondratiev defined the following phases of development of any economy: growth, peak, decline, depression.

If in the Soviet Union the bold theory never found application, then abroad, it was appreciated by many economists of world renown. Kondratiev's concept was defended by Austrian and American scientist Josef Schumpeter. In Russia, the study of the compatriot's legacy was resumed only after Perestroika. Among other things, Kondratiev left behind fundamental research on the dynamics of prices of agricultural and industrial goods.

Conflict with the authorities

The "big cycles of conjuncture" provoked opposition from the Soviet leadership. Shortly after the publication of the monograph, the journalist persecution of Kondratyev began, organized by Grigory Zinoviev. There was no scientific controversy in it. Criticism was like a denunciation. Although the Soviet leadership, after Lenin's death, represented a dozen Bolsheviks battling for power, it almost did not tolerate Kondratyev.

The exception was Mikhail Kalinin. Stalin later blackmailed him with his long-standing ties with Kondratiev. Nikolai Bukharin supported the theoretical ideas of the scientist (when Bukharin was also tried and sentenced to capital punishment, the Bolshevik, among other things, was accused, in a political alliance, of a disgraced economist).

Opal

Although Kondratiev himself, Kondratiev's Cycles and all his other economic initiatives were attacked at the highest level, the scientist was not going to surrender his positions without a fight. He defended his own rightness both in magazines and at meetings. Particularly striking was his speech at the Communist Academy, which took place in November 1926. In addition, Kondratiev wrote reports and memorandums to the Central Committee.

In 1927 in the magazine "Bolshevik" under the loud headline "Manifesto of the kulak party" appeared another article of Zinoviev. It was she who set the tone, in which Kondratieff later suffered last fatal blows. Accusations of sympathy for kulaks and undermining socialism were no longer just threats, they were followed by real actions of the Chekists.

Request for help

Theoretical proposals and books by Nikolai Kondratiev were based on the idea that the economy should develop gradually. This principle contradicted Stalin's haste, with which the flywheel of Soviet industrialization was untwisted. In many ways for this in 1928 Kondratiev was removed from the leadership of his offspring - the Institute of the conjuncture, and thrown out of scientific life.

In 1930, Nikolai Dmitrievich wrote a letter to his friend Sorokin, which was illegally delivered to the United States via Finland. In the message the scientist briefly described the growing horrors of Soviet reality: dekulakization in the village, pressure on the intelligentsia. Without work, Kondratiev was on the brink of starvation. He asked Sorokin for help. He turned to Samuel Harper, a professor at the University of Chicago who often visited the USSR.

Arrest and imprisonment

During his regular trip to the Soviet Union, Harper met several times with Kondratiev. Once they two came to a pre-arranged apartment, where they were waiting for the agents of the GPU. Kondratiev was arrested. It was in 1930.

Sitting in prison, the economist continued his scientific activity. In conclusion, he wrote several works. Formally, Nikolai Kondratiev, whose biography is connected with the SRs and even Kerensky, was judged in the case of the Peasants' Labor Party. In 1932 he was sentenced to eight-year imprisonment. Kondratiev went to the Suzdal political agent. There he continued to write.

Up to now, only one work of the Suzdal period, dedicated to the macromodel of economic dynamics, has reached. Being in prison, the scientist watched how his monographs become world-famous and economic forecasts come true. The more it was for him to experience a forced separation from full-fledged scientific activity.

Shooting and Rehabilitation

Although eight years have passed, Kondratiev never waited for the release. In 1938, at the height of the Great Terror, he was judged by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR. On September 17, the scientist was shot. The site of the massacre was the Kommunarka test range. There he was repressed and buried.

In 1963, after the 20th Congress of the CPSU, Kondratieff was rehabilitated, although this fact was not made public. The scientific legacy of the economist for many years remained the object of defamation and criticism of official Soviet science. Finally, Kondratiev's good name was restored to Perestroika, in 1987, when he was rehabilitated for the second time (this time along with his ruined colleague Alexander Chayanov).