Mathematical Economics in the Era of Socialism and the Transition to the Market (Part One)

This article is devoted to the study of the history of the Soviet economics and mathematics school, its struggle with official ideology and attempts to influence the choice of strategies for socioeconomic development. During the NEP period, a galaxy of brilliant economists worked in the Soviet Union, who mastered advanced statistical and economic–mathematical methods and obtained a number of fundamental results, which, under favorable circumstances, could have become the basis for Russia’s inclusion in the global stream of economic research. However, the leaders of the emerging trend advocated a rational combination of plan and market, which contradicted the government’s decision to curtail the NEP. The authorities demanded justification for their policies, independent research was viewed as hostile, and the school was destroyed. Its revival began in the late 1950s after the exposure of the cult of personality and proceeded in a fierce struggle against pedantic Marxism. It is shown that this struggle revealed the imperfection of the world economic and mathematical theory of that time, which was focused on the study of market competition and did not consider the mechanisms of rationing, queues, and the black market, typical for a planned economy.