Economic Observation and Measurement in Russia before 1917: Surveying Typicalities and Sampling Totalities

Vincent Barnett

History of Political Economy, 2012, vol. 44, issue 5, 46-70

Abstract: This article provides a case study of the development of observational methodology and techniques in a non-Western country. It does so by first considering various institutions of observation that existed in Russia across the nineteenth century, such as government statistical departments, the Imperial Free Economic Society, and the zemstvo. This is then followed by an analysis of debates that occurred over observational methodology between various Russian economists such as A. I. Chuprov, A. A. Chuprov, D. I. Mendeleev, and A. V. Chayanov, and a consideration of the use such observations were put to by others such as S. N. Prokopovich. The political ramifications of different observational practices are outlined, for example, by Marxists such as V. I. Lenin and M. I. Tugan-Baranovsky, and the link considered to exist by some economists between social and natural scientific techniques of observation is scrutinized.

Keywords: observation; observing; Russia; zemstvo; A. I. Chuprov; A. A. Chuprov; D. I. Mendeleev (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hope.dukejournals.org/content/44/suppl_1/46.full.pdf+html link to full text (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hop:hopeec:v:44:y:2012:i:5:p:46-70

Access Statistics for this article

History of Political Economy is currently edited by Kevin D. Hoover

More articles in History of Political Economy from Duke University Press Duke University Press 905 W. Main Street, Suite 18B Durham, NC 27701.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Center for the History of Political Economy Webmaster ().