Text 2. Mykhailo Tuhan-Baranovskyy

There is no need to argue that the study of the history of economic thought is as important as the study of any other science. The history of economic thought is a part of the intellectual heritage of a country and, as such, is necessary for understanding of the present status of scholarship and culture in general. Economic science in the present-day Ukraine cannot be adequately understood without knowledge of the historical processes which contributed to its development.

Mykhailo Tuhan-Baranovskyy, an economist, sociologist, historian of industrialisation and theoretician of socialism and cooperativism,was born on January 8, 1865, in the village of Solone, in the province of Kharkiv in Ukraine. On graduating from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at Kharkiv University (1888), he studied political economy and statistics at the Faculty of Jurisprudence at Kharkiv University, passing the Master’s examination and completed his training as an economist with periods of study in St. Petersburg, Paris (1889), Moscow and London (1892). His first work, “A Study of the Marginal Utility of Economic Goods”(Вчення про граничну корисність господарських благ як причину їх цінності) (1890) and above all his doctoral dissertation on “The Industrial Crises in Modern England, their causes and influence on the economy”(Промислові кризи в сучасній Англії їх причини і вплив на народне господарство) (1894), his masterpiece dedicated to the study of business cycles, gained him the position of assistant professorof political economy at the Faculty of Jurisprudence at St. Petersburg University (January, 1895).

His fundamental work on “The Russian Factory, Past and Present”(Російська фабрика в минулому і тепер) (1898) and the subsequent translation of his major works into German, English, French and Spanish – among them, “The Theoretical Foundations of Marxism” (Теоретичні основи марксизму)(1905) and “Modern Socialism in its Historical Development”(Сучасний соціалізм в його історичному розвитку) (1906) – made Tuhan “the most eminent” Slav economist of that period (J.A.Schumpeter). From 1905 onwards Tuhan worked with the daily newspaper “Rech”and was recalled to the Faculty of Jurisprudence at St.Petersburg University as assistant professor. In 1913 he was appointed to the Department of Political Economy. In spite of the merit of his teaching and scientific research, culminating in his “Foundations of Political Economy”(Ос­нови політичної економії) (1909), a new veto by the minister forced him to resign and from 1913 to 1917, he taught in the Depart­ment of Economics of the Imperial Polytechnic Institute in St. Petersburg.

Gradually coming to share the aspirations, ideas and political programs of the Ukrainian national and cooperative movement, Tuhan left Petrograd for Kyiv in the summer of 1917 and in August 1917 he took up the post of Minister of Finance in the Central Secretariat of the Ukrainian Central Rada.In 1918 he became the Head of the Ukrainian Academy’s Third (Socio-Economic) Department and founder of the Institute for the Study of Economic Cycles at the Academy. Sent as an economic adviser with the Ukrainian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, on January 8, 1919, he died in the railroad station at Oradne on the way from Kyiv to Odesa.

All of this activity should have made Tuhan the best-known and the most influential Slav economist in the West, as well as the main link between the Austrian, German and Russian economic schools. However, his most important and original contributions to economic analysis were only partially and almost grudgingly, acknowledged by contemporaries and successors. Tuhan still awaits due recognition and documentation of his numerous contributions both to economic analysis, in the strict sense of the term and to the social sciences, in the widest sense.

Task 33. Translate the sentences into English:

1. М. Туган-Барановський – український економіст, педагог, публіцист і громадський діяч. 2. Він здобув всесвітнє визнання за внесок у монетарну теорію, історію й теорію кооперації. 3. Відо­мими на Заході є його праці з проблем історії господарства Росії, історії економічних вчень та інші. 4. Й. Шумпетер називав М. Туган-Барановського найкращим слов’янським економістом. 5. У СРСР наукова спадщина вченого не вивчалася. 6. Однак на Заході творчість М. Туган-Барановського глибоко досліджували. 7. Ґрунтовне вивчення спадщини вченого та перевидання його праць розпочалося в Україні тільки в середині 90-х років ХХ століття. 8. Йдучи власним шляхом у науці, вчений розв’язав багато важливих теоретичних проблем. 9. Хоча М. Туган-Барановський не створив власної школи, його ідеї відображені у працях представників різних шкіл. 10. Учений висунув ідею поєднання трудової теорії цінності з теорією граничної корис­ності. 11. Ця ідея підняла працю М. Туган-Барановського до світового рівня. 12. Він першим у світі звернув увагу на періо­дичність економічних циклів в економіці та диспропорцію між інвестиціями й заощадженнями. 13. Високу оцінку здобула еко­номічна спадщина М. Туган-Барановського з історії й теорії політичної економії соціалізму. 14. М. Туган-Барановський – один з найвидатніших теоретиків кооперативного руху у Східній Європі. 15. Його ідеї про кооперацію узагальнено у праці “Соціальні основи кооперації”.

Task 34. Think over and then write for half an hour on one of the following issues:

A. What modern Ukrainian economists and managers do you know? Describe the contribution of a world-known contemporary Ukrainian economist or manager in the development of economics/ management.

B. In what fields of management are the scientists of your educational institution doing research most actively? (Talks with teachers of management subjects and acquaintance with their publications will help you).

C. Do you agree or disagree with the statement: there are still gaps in management science that need to be researched?