Reflecting on the experience of war and revolution, or “economic science from Chita”: P. Maslov, 1918-1922

Introduction. The article refers to a little-known «Siberian» pages of Soviet economist and academician P. P. Maslov (1867-1946) intellectual biography. The author’s goal is not only the revision of the place of the period in the personal career of the scientist, but also assessment of his contribution to the Russian economic science that is traditionally defined as peripheral with pinning labels «the economist-cooperator» or «economist-agrarian». Methods. The author implemented historical-scientific historiographical approach with development economics as unit of the analysis. It solves the problem of historical reconstruction of a given subject area as an objective structure in the development of economic science. Research strategy that meets the requirements of the assigned tasks and current subject area presented by the method of complex historical microanalysis. Results. Traditionally regarded as a minor episode in the intellectual biography of the economist, the Siberian period was the pinnacle of his work as an economist on development issues. Comprehension of political and economic experience of the World War and Revolution contributed to the separation of the grain of realism from the chaff of socialist utopianism that allowed not only to test the validity of previously formulated position of the «theory of development of the national economy», but also to complete the model of «development in conditions of economic backwardness». Discussion. The model of the «development of underdevelopment» of the scientist is considered in the article in the context of a widely known debate that raged in the Soviet economic science of the 1920ies. Their immediate results and later historical and scientific interpretation sent the figure of P. P. Maslov and his works to the archive of science, as a result, hiding the unique character of the Marxist approach. Conclusion. Basic parameters of the reconstructed in the article model of Russian economist demonstrate not only its relationship with subsequent models of neo-Marxist development economics, but also allow to evaluate the recommendation of the scientist (but not implemented) in the framework of economic policy that he rightly called «real».