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• Scientific Council of RAS on economic history;
• Research and Educational Center «The economic history of Central Russia and the Middle Volga region» of Ogarev Mordovia State University;
• Center of Economic History of  Lomonosov Moscow State University

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ISSN 2409-630X (Print), ISSN 2618-916X (Online)

DOI: 10.15507/2409-630X.064.020.202401.020-027

Olga N. Kuznetsova

Peter the Great Saint Petersburg Polytechnic University (Saint Petersburg, Russia),

e-mail: bon-box@mail.ru

 

Alexander Yemelyanovich Lositsky (1869–1944). Problems of Planning Statistics in Agriculture and Food Balances in the Russian Economy of the early 20th Century

 

Abstract

Introduction. The creation and analysis of arrays of actual statistical data in agriculture, as a research area, became particularly relevant in connection with the First World War. In the Russian Empire, Alexander Yemelyanovich Lositsky, whose name is practically unknown to modern science, should be considered the founder of population consumption statistics. The purpose of the article is to analyze the contribution of A. E. Lositsky to statistics, in surveys of population nutrition, the creation of food balances and planning in agriculture.

Materials and Methods. The methodological basis of the study was the analysis of scientific and practical works by A. E. Lositsky, general scientific methods were used, as well as the method of comparative analysis and statistical methods.

Results. Based on the archival materials of the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF) funds, the facts of the biography of A. E. Lositsky were first introduced into scientific circulation. His legacy, methods of working with statistical data are studied, his contribution to the development of the first plans for the development of agriculture in the USSR is considered.

Discussion and Conclusion. The creation of such a research area as urban and rural consumption statistics was closely linked to the experience of supplying the population with food during the period of social upheaval in the early twentieth century, when food became a force capable of influencing political decision-making in the country. The population surveys conducted by A. E. Lositsky and his colleagues lead to the creation of databases for sociological and economic analysis in the context of the transition to a planned and distributive economy. The proposed provisions and conclusions draw attention to the compilation of food balances as an analytical tool of the country’s economic policy. The undertaken analysis of population nutrition for agricultural planning statistics represents a significant contribution to the economic history of Russia in the 1890s and 1940s and solves the problem of returning the name of A. E. Lositsky to a wide readership.

Keywords: statistics, economic history, food, nutrition, balance, Gosplan, A. E. Lositsky, agriculture, economic data, sociological data.

For citation: Kuznetsova O. N. Alexander Yemelyanovich Lositsky (1869–1944). Problems of Planning Statistics in Agriculture and Food Balances in the Russian Economy of the early 20th Century. Ekonomicheskaya istoriya = Russian Journal of Economic History. 2024; 20(1): 20–27. (In Russ.). DOI: 10.15507/2409-630X.064.020.202401.020-027.

 

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