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

In: History of political economy, Volume 44, Issue suppl_1, p. 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.