Introduction

Abstract

Nikolai Dmitrievich Kondratiev must rank as one of Russia’s greatest economists. He resides in a very select group of economic theorists of Russian/Ukrainian/Soviet origin — other members being M.I. Tugan-Baranovskii, E.E. Slutskii and L.V. Kantorovich — whose names and ideas are well-known to economists the world over.² These scholars are recognised not only for their connection to the economics of Soviet-style planning, but as original contributors to areas of economic theory only tangentially related to the USSR; it is this which gives them their ultimate importance and durability. As a first instalment in a thorough re-examination of the history of Russian economic thought, Kondratiev has been chosen as a convenient starting-point.

If we judge by the passion it has aroused, the long wave is something of an economic historian’s Holy Grail.¹