Trends in Economic Science: Discussions of the Paths of Russian Modernization in the 19th–20th Centuries

The article analyzes the evolution of economic thought in Russia throughout the 19th–20th centuries. The global context that shaped Russian economic science and the goals that it has faced are considered. The processes of the formation of different views on the country’s development, economic policy, and the role of the state in the economy are described. It is shown that at the beginning of the 19th century the dominant ideas were those of classical economic liberalism. The issue of the emergence of the problem of catch-up development and its impact on the economic thought in Russia is discussed. The main directions of the development of views on regulation of the economy in the conditions of its increasing complexity in the process of industrial development—in particular, the strengthening role of the state and the selection of priorities of economic policy—are discussed. It is emphasized that by the end of the 20th century methods of government control of the economy had experienced a severe crisis, associated, among other reasons, with the collapse of the Eastern bloc. However, at the beginning of the 21st century, due to a number of objective and subjective reasons, the role of the state in economic management began to increase again.