Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores Russian economic thinking a long time before the Bolshevik's were even formed as a political force. It also explores the development of Russian economic ideas after the Bolshevik revolution in 1917. The book shows some key differences in approach to economic understanding between Brutzkus and Prokopovich. It indicates very well the extraordinary and unique nature of the immediate post-revolutionary period in Russia. The book focuses on the late Stalin era and indicates how political factors totally dominated the development of economics in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in this period. After the collapse of the USSR there was a relative de-coupling of ideology from the history of Russian economic thought. The book analyses the significant contributions made by nineteenth-century Russian economists to monetary theory.