Ideas and Ideals

The article is devoted to the author’s teaching and research activities in 2002-2015. The author was teaching simultaneously at Novosibirsk State Technical University (NSTU) and the Siberian Academy for Public Administration (SAPA, now – the Siberian Institute of Management – the branch of RANEPA). The most effective teaching took place at NSTU, due to better preparation and motivation of students. Unfortunately, the most gifted students didn’t actualize themselves in science because of low prestige of science in Russia. It was less interesting for him to teach at SAPA because students and postgraduates were less interested and less prepared. At that time he started reading a new course "National Economy". Developing the course helped him understand better the basic features of economic development of Russia, at least since the 18th century: economy development went by jerks. He found the explanation of the Russian historical process and it stimulated his research activities. He focused his scientific work on "The Economic History of Russia in Modern Times." In the given article the author reveals the problems, which appeared while writing the first volume as well as the problems of the Soviet economic system since the early 60's until the collapse of the Soviet system in the early 90s. The author stresses the fact of his acquaintance and subsequent cooperation with the economist Dmitry Aleksandrovich Fomin. Many articles based on precise calculations were written with him. On the basis of these studies, he concluded that the recovery growth of the Russian economy would prolong to 2007, the process similar to the NEP. He also predicted that such a growth should result in stagnation and decline in GDP with the exhaustion of available resources and the absence of real modernization and the lack of human capital. The forecast of the author came true in many respects: the cessation of economic growth in 2008, and the world oil prices in 2015.

In the interview, the following issues are discussed: the specifics of interaction of economic and political processes, in particular, about the opportunities and limitations of political interference in the economy, the role of advanced technologies in the redistribution of social wealth and the corresponding economic structures. The issue of economics as a science and the dependence of the development of the country's economy on the level of economic education in the country are discussed. The author shares his opinion about the role of the humanitarian component of education in the university course, highlighting the decisive importance of the teacher's personality in the formation of a common worldview. Education should focus on the ability to think, work with information and draw logical conclusions. The question of the too pragmatic attitude towards fundamental science is discussed, as well as the importance of the world reserve currency for the stable operation of financial markets.

The paper considers the debt structure of Russian regions, which plays an important role in the ability to manage regional budgets. The aim of the paper is to analyze opportunities and advantages of extended use of market borrowing forms. The authors suggest avoidance from non-market borrowings (budgetary loans) to market forms of borrowings. In many regions this requires changing the terms of borrowing money from credit organizations and using revolving credit lines, as well as creation of credit portfolio in order to use credit resources in the long-term perspective. It should also allow to save money on servicing debts of the Russian Federation regions. The authors also analyze the experience in the management of public debt of Russian regions, especially the debt of the Novosibirsk region. Basing on the data on debt levels of Russian regions, the problem of combination of debt levels growth and region's own incomes drop is studied in detail. The authors show the unequal distribution of debt levels among the regions, and it is concluded in the article that development of regional borrowings market in Russia faces difficulties. Finally, the authors present the ways of solving the revealed problems and give recommendations how to manage the public debt of the Russian Federation regions.

The authors present initial results of a study dealing with the scenario forecasting of the Russian economy development in its uncertainty and ambiguity. The Russia's future now looks very "nebulous" because of the large number of less predictable foreign economic and political risks. But the main factor of uncertainty, which can be characterized as the fundamental, i.e., excluding the possibility of a correct conversion to the risk situation, springs from the well-established resource dependence of the Russian economy over the past half-century. The peculiarity of the study is related to the application of expert-statistical Bayesian method based on non-formalized source of information by the method of peer reviews. The direct object of the study is to evaluate the probability of the basic scenario of the Russian economy in the long term and in a broader sense it solves a problem of identifying the conditions, which will be required for the realization of favorable scenarios and will be able to prevent adverse ones. According to the results of the two phases of the study conducted in 2014 and 2015, most experts appreciate the likelihood of further development of the country on the way of creating a "resource superpower" with the risk of finding itself on the "periphery of the world", because there is the slightest difference between the two scenarios. Trying to build a “resource superpower” without precisely formulated transparent terms and conditions, we may not cope with the threats and challenges and become a raw material appendage of the "world-economy".

The paper is concerned with the issues of economic policy improvement of Russia, vulnerable to adverse effects associated with its high raw export orientation. Main features of «Dutch Disease» for the Russian economy are identified. It demonstrates the spiral nature of the "Dutch disease" in the Russian economy and the threat of its transition to the active open form. Particular attention is paid to assessing the impact of decreasing of world oil prices with sharp tightening of financial conditions under the influence of the sanctions in 2014 for the Russian economy. It also identifies the main obstacles to the remission of the "Dutch disease" in the Russian economy in the conditions of falling oil prices of 2008-2009 and 2014-2016 years. Analysis of the system limitations of socio-economic development and threat for reindustrialization posed by introduced against Russia sectoral sanctions is another point of this study. The necessity of active structural policy in the Russian economy, accompanied by an enabling sectoral credit policy of the Central Bank of Russia, is shown. Recommendations for the Russian economic policy allowing to accelerate structural modernization of the Russian economy under the circumstances are also given in the study.

In this article a reader can find the continuation of the offered in the previous publications the analysis of the concept Siberia as a megaregion. Understanding Siberia as the megaregion plays an exceptionally important role in contemporary geopolitics, taking into account the position of this megaregion, concerning China and South-Eastern Asia. No less significant appears to be the economic capacity of Siberia, taking into consideration it’s natural resources and also it’s industrial, scientific and educational levels. The concept of the megaregion allows to observe Siberia in it’s entity, from the Urals up to the Pacific Ocean. Such an attitude permits to get rid of the “fragment” approach, i.e. division into separate, weakly connected, regions and national territories. Popular in the Russian economic discourse the notion “macroregion” has purely economic character and in difference from “magerarion” doesn’t involve historic, social and cultural dimensions. In the case of New Industrial Revolution there are new opportunities for Siberia, depending on the rebirth of industrial production on the basis of modernization and innovations, and also launching the original projects. Siberia as Russia in whole needs this innovative impulse not only in the sphere of economics, but also in education and science. The positive results will be possible by saving and renewing basic values and cores of successful strategic projects. To reach ambitious aims it’s necessary to have highly-qualified specialists and investments in R&D. It’s important to shift social responses from the plain consumption to the authentic productive labor thru realizing such values as justice and equality.

Globalization has seriously influenced the system of higher education. As a result the concept of the university role has also changed. Such concepts as “Entrepreneurial Universities” by Clark B., “A Triple Helix” by Etzkowitz H., “The Third Generation University” by Wissema J. came into being. All these concepts change our traditional understanding of the impact universities have on the social and economic development of our society. The term “academic capitalism” appeared at the end of the 1990-ies. Slaughter S. and Leslie L. define it as the market activities of the research and educational institutions as well as the staff aimed at attracting the money from outwards. University becomes the subject of the market economy with all the consequences. Russian universities today mostly have a hierarchical management structure, modeled on a big corporation. In the conditions of academic capitalism, which is not only highly competitive but also dynamic and volatile, the management system must be able to quickly respond to emerging challenges that the bureaucratic structure cannot always meet. The article shows that the network methodology of management decision-making has many advantages, as well as a number of restrictions.

The paper analyzes issues of how regional studies and allied disciplines react upon each other, and what are the main objectives and principles of economic zoning and classifying regions of various sizes accepted in economic science. From the economic point of view, regions are classified mostly proceeding from the purposes of management and analytics. The paper discusses the reasons of economic imperialism, i.e. invasion of economists into the adjacent fields of science. The major feature of an economic approach in historical - economic studies and regional ones is application of economic models, quantitative methods, and their own definitions. The paper presents a brief analysis of the studies concerning Siberia and its regions made by the Institute of Economics and Industrial Engineering of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science in the Soviet and post-Soviet time. Siberia has been an object of cross-disciplinary research at least for two hundred years. The paper also compares the key ideas and approaches of the recent Siberia case-studies carried out by specialists of various sciences. The concept of megaregion from the point of view of economical science is discussed, and the corresponding directions of further research of Siberia are set.

In the interview Professor S. D. Valentey talks about the importance and perpetual exigency of Marxism as a major scientific direction. He also speaks about the loss of our Marxist school and the related to this loss issues in economic science and economic education. The author analyzes the problems of thrifty production, the new quality of economic growth, sociology of population. He also points out the importance of the conducted studies in this field during the Soviet period and characterizes the specifics of Russian capitalism. The interview also touches upon the issue of the pseudo-education and purchase of diplomas. Professor highlights the necessity of a new generation of economists coming to office, free from neo-liberal and other clichés. S. D. Valentey argues that economic science cannot be based on the reading of books and journal articles only, though it is also very important, without it there is no science. Economics is based on field studies. The task today is a field research of the specific real economy, real economic processes.

The published material is an interview of the famous Russian economist, Professor G.I. Khanin, to the journalist D. Peretolchin. It is based on the discussion of the monograph "Economic History of Russia in Modern Times" (in 3 vol.), published in 2008-2014 by the NSTU. The author shows a deep disappointment with the course of economic reforms in the 90-ies of the last century and insists on the necessity of finding alternatives. The main novelty of the monograph is to rethink the economic development in the Soviet period, based on alternative macroeconomic and sectoral assessments. To obtain the most objective and reliable picture of the economic results of the country since the 30-ies of the last century to modern times, the author used a combination of economic and socio-political analysis, a variety of sources, from economic and historical literature, statistical guides to memoirs and media publications. Estimates of national income growth from 1928 to 1989 made by G.I. Khanin are at odds with the official ones in more than 10 times: instead of the 90 times growth there was the 6.9 times growth. In the post-Soviet period the value of assets was significantly distorted, much more, than during the Soviet period. The recovery value of fixed assets, in current prices, at the beginning of the 21st century almost 8 times exceeded the registered value. These distortions result in the distortions of many other macroeconomic indicators. G.I. Khanin evaluates the current situation in the Russian economy as tragic due to the gradual exhaustion of physical and human capital. He also gives a somewhat paradoxical positive assessment of the command system in the Soviet Union due to the impressive economic performance, particularly in the 50-ies.