Vorontsov, Vasilii

Vorontsov, Vasilii Pavlovich 

(literary pseudonym, V. V.). Born 1847; died December 1918. Russian economist, sociologist, and publicist; one of the ideologists of the liberal Narodniki (Populists) of the 1880’s and 1890’s. He believed that conditions did not exist in Russia for the development of capitalism. He regarded the rise of Russian industry as an unnatural and harmful phenomenon, the result of protective government policies. Idealizing the obshchina (peasant commune), small-scale production in agriculture, and cottage industry, Vorontsov defended the petite bourgeoisie and tried to find a means of protecting them from the consequences of capitalist development. In the 1890’s he opposed the Russian Marxists and advocated conciliation with the tsarist government. The views of Vorontsov were criticized by G. V. Plekhanov and V. I. Lenin. Criticizing Vorontsov and other liberal Narodniki who had denied the development of capitalism in Russia, Lenin noted that they ’’embellish and distort the truth with the help of Manilovian phrases” (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 2, p. 346). [Manilov, a sentimental milksop, is a character from Gogol’s Dead Souls.]

WORKS

Sud’by kapitalizma v Rossii. St. Petersburg, 1882.
Ocherki kustarnoi promyshlennosti v Rossii. St. Petersburg, 1886.
“Krest’ianskaia obshchina.” In Itogi ekonomicheskikh issledovanii Rossii po dannym zemskoi statistiki, vol. 1. Moscow, 1892.
Artel’nye nachinaniia russkogo obshchestva. St. Petersburg, 1895.
Sud’ba kapitalisticheskoi Rossii. St. Petersburg, 1907.
Ot semidesiatykh godov k deviatisotym. St. Petersburg, 1907.

REFERENCES

Lenin, V. I. “Ekonomicheskoe soderzhanie narodnichestva i kritika ego v knige G. Struve.” Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 1.
Lenin, V. I. “K kharakteristike ekonomicheskogo romantizma.” Ibid., vol. 2.
Plekhanov, G. V. Obosnovanie narodnichestva v trudakh Vorontsova (V. V.). St. Petersburg, 1896.
Istoriia russkoi ekonomiche skoi mysli, vol. 2, part 2. Moscow, 1960.