Emeritus Professor Lewis Siegelbaum will give an Honorary Lecture on Perestroika and the Labor Question.


MSU Faculty of Economics Conference (Un)Learned Lessons of Perestroika

November 17, 2025 (Monday)

10:00-11:30

Perestroika: 40 Years Later

Moderator: Alexander A. Maltsev (MSU Faculty of Economics)

• Alexander A. Auzan (MSU Faculty of Economics) Perestroika through the Lens of Path Dependence Theory

• Leonid M. Grigoryev (HSE University) The Doom of Spontaneous, Incongruent Approaches

• Andrei I. Kolganov (MSU Faculty of Economics) The Goals of Perestroika: Declarations and Reality

• Vladimir V. Popov (CEMI RAS) How Chinese Experts Explain the Collapse of Soviet Socialism

11:40-12:20

Honorary Lecture

Victor M. Polterovich (CEMI RAS, MSU School of Economics) Perestroika in the Light of Reform Theory

12:30-14:00

Perestroika: the view from Central and Eastern Europe

Moderator: Alexander A. Kurdin (MSU Faculty of Economics)

• Marek Dabrowski (CASE) The Undelivered Promise of Market Socialism

• Julius Horvath (CEU) Some Late Thoughts on the Reaction to Perestroika and the Collapse of Socialism in Some Central European Countries

• Nikolay Nenovsky (LEFMI, University of Picardie Jules Verne) The Bulgarian Transition -35 Years Later

12:30-14:00

Perestroika: What Went Wrong?

Moderator: Anatoly A. Porokhovsky (MSU Faculty of Economics)

• Alexander Yu. Protasov (St. Petersburg State University) The Perestroika Era in the History of Russia’s Economic Development: A View from the Theory of the Particular

• Sergei A. Tolkachev (Financial University) Soviet and American Perestroika: Political and Economic Parallels

• Kaisyn A. Khubiev (MSU Faculty of Economics) The Main Reasons for Perestroika’s Failure

14:00-14:30 – Lunch

14:30-15:30

Round Table: Economic Science During Perestroika and Now

Moderator: Alexander A. Maltsev (MSU Faculty of Economics)

• Oleg I. Ananyin (HSE University)

• Vyacheslav V. Volchik (Southern Federal University)

• Elena N. Kalmyckova (MSU Faculty of Economics)

• Andrei E. Shastitko (MSU Faculty of Economics)

15:40-16:20

Honorary Lecture

Peter Boettke (George Mason University) All That is Solid Melts into Air: what we have learned since 1989

16:30-18:00

Perestroika: Evolution of Assessments

Moderator: Grigory A. Bazhenov (MSU Faculty of Economics)

• Andrei A. Belykh (RANEPA) The Theory of Reforms and the Practice of Perestroika

• Olga N. Borokh (IKSA RAS) The Chinese View on Perestroika: Evolution of Assessments

• Sergei A. Vasiliev (Gaidar Institute) Economic Reform Programs During Perestroika

18:10-18:50

Honorary Lecture

Lewis Siegelbaum (Michigan State University) Perestroika and the Labor Question

19:00-19:40

Honorary Lecture

James K. Galbraith (University of Texas at Austin) Observations from a distant observer, with experience in China in the 1990s

November 18 (Tuesday)

10:30-12:00

Perestroika through the Prism of Modern Economic Theory

Moderator: Alexander A. Maltsev (MSU Faculty of Economics)

• Ruslan S. Greenberg (IE RAS) What Was Predetermined and What Could Have Been Done Better?

• Ruslan S. Dzarasov (Plekhanov Russian University of Economics) Beyond the Flow of Words: The Socio-Economic Content of Perestroika

• Alexander M. Libman (Free University of Berlin) (Topic TBA)

• Petr A. Orekhovsky (IE RAS) The Gorbachev Phenomenon in the Light of New Political Economy

12:10-13:40

Perestroika: Personal and Institutional Perspective

Moderator: Sergey A. Trukhachev (MSU Faculty of Economics)

• Andrei P. Zaostrovtsev (HSE University, St. Petersburg) Perestroika and the 1990s as a Transitional State Between Power-Property Models of Russian Society

• Vladimir A. Mau (Gaidar Institute) Lessons of Perestroika for Modern Russia

• Konstantin E. Merzlikin (MSU Faculty of Economics) Perestroika as a Chance to Escape the Path of Traditionalism

• Dmitry Ya. Travin (Independent Researcher) My Personal Lesson of Perestroika: Economists of the 1980s and Economic Reform

13:40-14:10 Lunch

14.10-14.50

Honorary Lecture

Grigory A. Yavlinsky On the Lessons of Perestroika and the Future of Russia

15:00-15:20 – Coffee Break

15.20-16.00

Honorary Lecture

Alexander G. Khudokormov (MSU Faculty of Economics) The Practice of Awarding Nobel Prizes in Economics in the 21st Century: Restructuring and Adaptation

16:10-17:10

Round Table: Perestroika: The Zoomers’ View

Moderator: Gleb S. Belyakov (MSU Faculty of Economics, NES)

–Pavel Ya. Bystrov (MSU Faculty of Economics)

–Artyom A. Zhulikov (MSU Faculty of Economics)

-Artemy P. Komarov (MSU Faculty of Economics)

–Mark A. Kreshchuk (MSU Faculty of Economics, NES)