The Agrarian Question in the Views of N. Kh. Bunge (to the 200th Anniversary of his Birthday)

Abstract

Introduction. 2023 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of N. Kh. Bunge, an outstanding Russian scientist, economist, public figure and statesman. His views, especially on the agrarian question, are still poorly understood. The aim of the study is to analyze and evaluate the views of N. Kh. Bunge on the agrarian issue and to reveal their humanistic nature. Materials and Methods. The study used methods of analysis, synthesis, generalizations and axiology, as well as historical-retrospective, historical-genetic and hermeneutical, program-targeted and structural-functional methods for studying problematic issues in the history of economic science. The study is based on primary sources: the writings of N. Kh. Bunge himself and the works of his contemporaries. Results. Among the most significant ideas in the field of posing and solving the agrarian issue of N. Kh. Bunge, his approaches to the issues of land ownership and land use, migration (settlement) processes, the development of peasant self-government, the development of rental, tax and financial-credit relations are identified and disclosed. The multidimensional and at the same time contradictory nature of the views of N. Kh. Bunge in matters of domestic economic policy were revealed. The conclusion is made about the humanistic orientation of the scientific heritage of the scientist and the need for its further more detailed study in the context of a new social reality. Discussion and Conclusion. Specific approaches of Russian historiography to the study of the works of N. Kh. Bunge in the pre-revolutionary period (A. N. Zak, I. I. Levin, A. A. Mikulin, M. N. Sobolev, M. I. Tugan-Baranovsky and others) and the growing interest in his political and economic views in the 21st century. An assessment is given to the debatable thesis about the characterization of the views of N. Kh. Bunge as being “between historicism and liberalism” (J. Zweinert).