Igor Birman Explained

Igor Yakovlevich Birman (July 25, 1928  - April 6, 2011)[1] was a Russian-American economist. He received his Ph.D. in 1960. He authored a number of books translated into four languages and some 200 articles in professional periodicals and also in the popular press (Izvestia, Literaturnaya gazeta, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post).

Biography

Birman was born in Moscow in 1928. He graduated from the Statistical Institute in 1949, and earned a Ph.D. in Economics (кандидат экономических наук)in 1960. He was Director of Planning in three factories, worked in scientific institutes, and was a member of the commission on economic reform (1965). In 1974 Birman emigrated to the United States, where was employed chiefly as a consultant on the Soviet economy for The Pentagon and taught at two universities. He argued against economic estimates made by the CIA and Sovietologists, particularly, the size of the economy, comparative level of living, share and size of military expenditures, deficit of the state budget, etc.[2] Together with Valery Chalidze he edited the magazine «Russia».

Birman is best known for having criticized U.S. economists specializing in the Soviet Union (sovietologists) and CIA analysts for misunderstanding Soviet reality. [3] Birman argued that the CIA overestimated the size of the Soviet economy and that the Soviets were spending as much as 30% of their GNP on the military. In an article in the Washington Post published On October 27, 1980, he said that the Soviet economy was in a state of crisis. According to one analyst, "Outside critics had often attacked the CIAʼs operational side but never its analysis, and certainly not from the political Right. …… In 1986, the CIAʼs analysts insisted that the Soviet economy was about to expand… Three years later, the Soviet Union collapsed."[4] With the opening up of the Soviet Union and its records, Birman's assertions were supported by Soviet economists themselves. [5] [6] Though his predictions turned out to be correct, [7] American academics were skeptical of his assertions, and his work was not published in the major journals. [8] Birman was criticized for not relying on Western economic theory and mathematical models in conducting his analyses of the Soviet economy. [9] [10] Instead, he advocated for including data from what he called "anecdotal economics," relying in part on his visceral understanding of the Soviet Union, lived experience, simple logic, and intuition that could not be quantified or modeled. [11]

Igor Birman died on April 6, 2011 at his home in Rockville, MD. He was survived by his wife of 53 years Albina Tretyakova Birman; his children Julia Shildkret (George), Dina Birman (Ed Trickett), and Igor Birman (Elysa); and grandchildren Mark Shildkret, Michelle Keinan, Nicholas Trickett, Alexander Trickett, Ashley Birman, and Zoey Birman.

Books by Igor Birman

and co-authored and edited several books, for example:

Selected articles

Literature about Birman

Notes and References

  1. News: Shapiro . T. Rees . Igor Birman, economist who predicted collapse of Soviet economy, dies at 82 . Washington Post . 20 April 2011 .
  2. News: Hosenball . Mark . Intelligence: The CIA Tackles the Recession . Newsweek . 27 February 2009 .
  3. . Norquist . Warren E. . How the United States used competition to win the Cold War . Advances in Competitiveness Research . 1 January 2002 . 10 . 1 . 1–42 .
  4. News: Herman . Arthur . The 35-Year War on the CIA . Commentary Magazine . 1 December 2009 .
  5. News: Pear . Robert . Evolution in Europe; Soviet Experts Say Their Economy Is Worse Than U.S. Has Estimated . The New York Times . 24 April 1990 .
  6. News: Passell . Peter . Economic Scene; Soviet Economy: Red Storm Ebbs . The New York Times . 25 April 1990 .
  7. Wilhelm . John Howard . The Failure of the American Sovietological Economics Profession . Europe-Asia Studies . 2003 . 55 . 1 . 59–74 . 10.1080/713663450 . 826523 . 154520676 .
  8. Wilhelm . John Howard . Crisis and Collapse: What Are the Issues? . Soviet Studies . 1990 . 42 . 2 . 317–327 . 10.1080/09668139008411869 . 152083 .
  9. Birman . Igor . Gloomy Prospects for the Russian Economy . Europe-Asia Studies . 1996 . 48 . 5 . 735–750 . 10.1080/09668139608412378 . 152995 .
  10. Birman . Igor . Limits of Economic Measurements . Slavic Review . 1980 . 39 . 4 . 603–607 . 10.2307/2496500 . 2496500 . 164049697 .
  11. Birman . Igor Iakovlevich . The Soviet economy: alternative views . Atlantic Community Auarterly . 1987 . 24 . 4 . 345–355 . 78966324 .

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