…no CPSU here. Only a museum worker or a sociologist

Abstract

Without Academician Aganbegyan, the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences would, in all probability, not have been established. During the first attempt to create a “British college in Moscow”, when by the spring of 1992 it became evident that the Russian ministry would be unable to fulfil its part of the agreement, Aganbegyan, then Rector of the Academy of National Economy under the Government of the Russian Federation, continued to support Shanin’s initiative and was prepared to allocate the necessary resources. The British side, however, remained resolute in its decision to discontinue cooperation with the Russian government.

Later, in the autumn of 1993, when the idea of the future Moscow School began to circulate within the rapidly developing Intercentre again, Aganbegyan — despite the dire material conditions at the Academy — insisted on reviving the project and secured premises that soon housed the now-famous library and the first classrooms. In this way, in rescuing the Academy from “death”, Aganbegyan simultaneously gave “life” to the Russian-British university in Moscow.

The interview explores this episode, his initial meeting with Teodor Shanin, the distinctive features that made the Moscow School attractive, and the reasons why its institutional model proved difficult to replicate across the Academy.

The conversation was conducted by Ilya Presnyakov, Ph.D. D Student, School of Historical Studies, Tel Aviv University.

For citation: Aganbegyan, A. (2025). “…no CPSU here. Only a museum worker or a sociologist”. Russia’s Directions. Vol. 3. No. 3. P. 94–103.

Additional Info

Submitted: August 18, 2025

Copyright: © Auhtors, 2025

Distribution: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)