Barnett presents the first in-depth analysis in English of the pioneer of long cycle analysis, N.D. Kondratiev (1892-1938), who was a key policy adviser to the Soviet government in the early part of the 1920s. Kondratiev developed a market-led industrialization strategy for the USSR, in direct opposition to Stalin's centrally-planned industrialization programme, and was the director of the Conjuncture Institute, a centre for the study of business cycles and forecasting between 1920 and 1928. It was within the Conjuncture Institute that Kondratiev developed his analysis of long cycles. Barnett covers all aspects of Kondratiev's work.

Looking at the alternatives to Stalin's reform program that had such tragic outcomes, this snappy, readable book, this will be an insightful text for economic and political historians with an interest in Russia.

First major collection in English of the writings of the leading Soviet agricultural economist and statistician of the 1920s, who posited a theory of long cycles of economic activity of some fifty to sixty years duration. Jailed and ultimately executed for his criticisms of Stalin's regime, his work was not widely available even in Russian prior to the dissolution of the USSR. The four volumes contain his writing on: economic statics, dynamics and conjuncture; basic problems of economic statics and dynamics; agriculture; and his speeches and letters. The first volume also contains six introductory essays. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

This four-volume set contains a large selection of Kondratiev's work in translation. Kondratiev produced works on aspects of long waves, questions of methodology, economic dynamics, economic policy, and both the history of economic thought and economic history.

THE idea that the dynamics of economic life in the capitalistic social order is not of a simple and linear but rather of a complex and cyclical character is nowadays generally recognized. Science, however, has fallen far short of clarifying the nature and the types of these cyclical, wave-like movements. When in economics we speak of cycles, we generally mean seven to eleven year business cycles. But these seven to eleven year movements are obviously not the only type of economic cycles. The dynamics of economic life is in reality more complicated. In addition to the above-mentioned cycles, which we shall agree to call “intermediate,” the existence of still shorter waves of about three and one-half years’ length has recently been shown to be probable. But that is not all. There is, indeed, reason to assume the existence of long waves of an average length of about 50 years in the capitalistic economy, a fact which still further complicates the problem of economic dynamics.