Author Description

Originally published in Germany in 2002 to excellent reviews, with a Russian translation published early in 2008 and winning the book prize from the European Society of the History of Economic Thought in 2003, the English translation is eagerly anticipated. Searching for basic socio-philosophical "patterns of thought" behind the evolution of Russian economic ideas, this book offers the most detailed and comprehensive account of a larger part of the history of Russian economic thought. Zweynert's main thesis is that the legacy of Russian Orthodoxy is the all-decisive tradition that set the country somewhat apart from the Western world in regard to economic reasoning. The problems in establishing a functioning market economy in today's Russia, the author argues, must at least partly be seen in this context. Zweynert concludes the book analysing the recent debates in order to demonstrate path dependencies in Russian economic ideas.