TUGAN-BARANOVSKY, MIKHAIL IVANOVICH

(1865–1919), political economist and social theorist.

The most significant prerevolutionary Russian and Ukrainian contributor to economics, Tugan-Baranovsky was born near Kharkov, Ukraine, and attended Kharkov University. As a leading member of the Legal Marxist group, Tugan attempted to reform orthodox Russian Marxism by adding a large dose of neo-Kantian ethics, together with insights from British classical economics and a dash of the German historical school. In economic theory Tugan's most significant work was Industrial Crises in Contemporary England (1894). This pioneered the detailed empirical description of trade cycles—together with concern for their social consequences—alongside a theoretical explanation combining maldistribution of income, disproportion between industrial branches, and a mechanistic steam engine analogy using free loanable capital as the motor force. This approach influenced Western macroeconomic theorists such as John Maynard Keynes, Dennis Robertson, and Michal Kalecki.

Tugan also wrote a major work examining the history of the Russian factory using legislative and business history sources, a widely read account of the principles of political economy, and a study of cooperative institutions. In addition, Tugan made notable contributions to social theory, monetary economics, conceptions of socialist planning, and the history of economics. Towards the end of his life Tugan's allegiance shifted from Russia back to Ukraine, and he was Ukrainian Minister of Finance from August to December 1917. During 1918 he helped to establish the Academy of Science in Kiev, and died on a train headed for Paris the following year.

See also: industrialization

bibliography

Barnett, Vincent. (2001). "Tugan-Baranovsky as a Pioneer of Trade Cycle Analysis." Journal of the History of Economic Thought 23(4):443–466.

Crisp, Olga. (1968). "M.I. Tugan-Baranovskii." In International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, ed. D. L. Sills, vol. 16. New York: Macmillan.

Tugan-Baranovsky, M. I. (1970). The Russian Factory in the Nineteenth Century, tr. Arthur Levin and Cleora S. Levin. Homewood, IL: R. D. Irwin for the American Economic Association.

Vincent Barnett