In 1765, a group of Russia’s famous activists (Count R.I. Vorontsov, Count G.G. Orlov, Count I.G. Chernyshev, Senator A.V. Olsufyev and others) sent the following letter to Empress Catherine the Great:
All-merciful, Majestic, Great — Wise Empress and Autocratrix of Russia! The reign of Your IMPERIAL MAJESTY
is a great benefit to our country. With Your perseverance in work and Your Majesty’s focus on preserving the integrity of Your Empire,
You pay great attention to Sciences and Arts, which encourages Your loyal subjects who like self-education and are engaged in educating
other people. We, Your loyal subjects, seeing that, will unite into an association on a voluntary basis to jointly work on the improvement
of Agriculture and Territorial Arrangement. However, no matter how ardent and persevering we are, our labor will remain fruitless without
Your Monarchial protection.
Members of the Free Economic Society
After expressing her full agreement with the organization’s charter and program, Catherine also approved its name: the Imperial Free Economic Society of Russia. Besides, as a sign of benevolence, she allowed them to use her coat of arms and motto: “Bees bringing honey to the beehive,” with the inscription “Beneficial” as a Society’s symbol.
Catherine the Great determined the two main principles of the VEO’s activities: being “Imperial” (sovereign) — servicing the Russian state, as well as being “Free” — ensuring an independent and objective approach representing different points of view by uniting the constructive forces of the country – from ruling to oppositional – for this purpose.
An important role in the fate of the VEO of Russia was played by prominent economists, scientists, enlighteners, public officials who were the members of the Society in different years: Leonhard Euler, Dmitry Mendeleev, Andrey Nartov, Nikolay Beketov, Samuel Gmelin, Mikhail Kutuzov, Faddey Bellinsgauzen, Ivan Kruzenshtern, Nikolay Miklukho-Maklay, Gavriil Derzhavin, Leo Tolstoy, Aleksandr Radishchev, Nikolay Mordvinov, Grigory Orlov, Roman Vorontsov, Mikhail Speransky, Pyotr Stolypin, Sergey Vitte. The VEO of Russia deserved well of the Russian state, was serving the goals and practical aspects of enlightenment. The first Charter of the Society specified: “The most effective means of enhancing national welfare in any state is improving the economy by showing the proper methods of using crops profitably and eliminating the existing drawbacks.” The Society determined not only the current problems in the country’s economic life, but also the ways of solving these problems. The practical effect of the Society’s activities, its focus on effective reforms, disseminating new methods and technologies were as important as the theoretical research of the VEO members.
In order to encourage creative search, VEO developed an effective system of organizational measures:
- announcing contest tasks and awarding winners with medals and cash bonuses. As early as in 1766, VEO held the first contest on the question sent by Catherine the Great: “What does farmer’s ownership consist in – in his land that he cultivates or in movable property, and what right can he have for both of them for the benefit of common good?” This contest laid the foundation of the future socio-economic reforms in Russia;
- examining the suggestions of Russian investors by famous specialists or even commissions. At the same time, the most complicated projects were to undergo many-year tests in different natural and climatic areas and by different persons purposefully invited for this work;
- organizing trade fairs of advanced agricultural equipment. In the second half of the 19th century, agricultural fairs were organized not only by county and government agencies and societies, but also by uyezd ones;
- and many other things.
VEO also started implementing practical work from the first days of its life: free distribution of seeds, introducing potatoes that had not been known to Russian people before that. In 1766, the Society raised a question of reserve stores and a public ploughed areas. Soon, VEO also started making smallpox vaccine for the population. However, economic analytics remained the main area of the VEO’s activities.
In 1801, Alexander I issued the Imperial Edict addressed to governors and obliging them to perform the tasks of the Free Economic Society for joint work for the benefit of Russia. Upon the request of Alexander I, VEO was developing a statement on the effectiveness of introducing technical achievements into the Russian economy. From the 1920s, the Society was actively tackling the issues of agricultural education. For this purpose, in 1833 Nicholas I provided VEO with a capital that the Society was using to train rural teachers.
In 1790, the Society developed and published a large-scale program of local research called: “Instruction for determining a technical task and awarding essays providing information on economies of private Russian vicegerencies.” In 1801, the VEO’s merit was the Emperor’s decree on “bringing governors to books,” and in 1829 it started collecting the required data from landlords and the clergy. In 1847, the Society collected and published data on prices for bread, wood and the forest industry; two years later it organized a special expedition for collecting information on the Black Earth Belt; in 1853 it published materials on agricultural statistics.
By its 100th anniversary, VEO organized a congress of farm owners of Russia where they comprehensively discussed the following issue: “What measures should be used to study the aspects of economic life in Russia and what role the Free Economic Society and other scientists might play in this process.” Next year, together with the Geographical Society, VEO conducted a large-scale study of bread trade and productivity in Russia that resulted in a number of scientific works (by Barkovsky, Yanson, Bezobrazov, etc.).
From 1870, VEO started examining the activities of counties and publishing a special periodical, County Yearbook, and in 1877 it conducted a study of the Russian community that resulted in the publication of a substantive collection of materials. In 1889, the Society conducted the study of peasants’ arrears by the example of one of the remote uyezds in Russia; in 1896-1898 it conducted a study of agricultural artels in Kherson Governorate. At the same time, the reports made by Chuprov, Posnikov, Annensky were used to study the influence of yields on different aspects of economic life; the reports by Tugan-Baranovsky and Struve became a basis for debating the question on the focus of Russia’s economic development.
The Society members were also tackling the financial problems of the country. In 1886, VEO raised a question of income tax; in 1893 it was ardently protesting against the introduction of a salt tax; in 1896 it was discussing the draft monetary reform in Russia; and in 1898 it was requesting to reconsider the customs tariffs.
The Society was addressing the issues of agricultural education since the 1820s. For many years, VEO was managing its agricultural school, beekeeping school, had its own workshop and even a museum. While tackling the problems of soil science, the Society generalized the famous Dokuchaev’s works in its book Russian Black Earth.
The Society used to pay great attention to statistics when developing the methodology and ways of organizing an appraisal business. In 1900, a special statistical commission of VEO called a congress of county statisticians.
Numerous exhibitions of herd animals, dairy farming, agricultural tools and machinery, dried fruit and vegetables, etc. were held since 1849 under the auspices of VEO. In 1850 and in 1860 the Society organized the countrywide exhibitions of “rural creations.” The VEO’s expositions received the supreme awards of several international and world exhibitions (Paris, 1878, 1889; Prague, 1879; Chicago, 1893, etc.).
The most important VEO’s achievements having a crucial value for the country’s development are as follows: the Society members initiated the abolition of serfdom, introduction of universal primary education, developed the mechanism of the reform implemented by Alexander II. The Society became the forebear of Russian statistics, the initiator of spreading new agricultural crops in the country, soil science development, the foundation of the Russian cheese-making industry, etc.
In 1909, VEO had over 500 members, it also had corresponding members in quite a few foreign countries. The Society existed due to Government’s subsidies, numerous private donations and membership fees, had its own house in Petersburg, for some time it owned a portion of Petrovsky Island and an experimental farm on Okhta River.
All scientific and practical activities of VEO are reflected in the Transactions of the Imperial Free Economic Society published from its foundation till 1915 (281 issues), not to mention over 150 separate essays devoted to different issues and the periodicals of the Literacy Committee that worked under the Society in 1861-1895. Besides, at different times VEO was publishing the following periodicals: Ekonomicheskie Izvestiya, Krug Khozyaystvennykh Svedeny, Atlas Muzeuma Imperatorskogo Volnogo Ekonomicheskogo Obschestva, Lesnoy Zhurnal, Ekonomicheskie Zapiski, Russky Pchelovodny Listok, etc.
The privileged positions of VEO and its rights were confirmed by each of the successors of Catherine the Great (except Pavel I) when they were taking the crown. The last imperial rescript issued on November 21, 1894 drew attention to the useful activities of the Society and expressed gratitude to its work.
A period of the Society’s activities rapid development turned into the time of a growing decadence in the second half of the 1890s, which was contributed to by the liberal attitudes of some of its members that outraged the authorities. The “unreliable” Literacy Committee was separated from VEO in 1895, the Famine Relief Committee working under the Society was closed in 1898, some VEO’s periodicals were banned, its meetings minutes were confiscated. In 1900, the authorities banned public meetings for the Society and it became subordinate to the Ministry of State Property, they demanded to reconsider its Charter to restrict it with narrowly focused practical issues. The Society practically scaled down its work and restored it in full only after the Tsar’s 1905 Manifesto.
When World War I began, VEO organized provision of assistance to war victims while simultaneously discussing issues connected with the war-time state budget and the situation of economic recession. At one of such meetings in 1915, the activities of the Society were suddenly interrupted and banned. VEO resumed its work after the February Revolution of 1917 and even a Petrograd branch of the League of Agrarian Reforms was established as its structure. The first public organization of Russian economists stopped existing in 1919. The Society that had made such a great contribution to the welfare of its Motherland was recalled only many years later in connection with a letter by historian A.P. Berdyshev written to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union where he suggested commemorating the 200th anniversary of the VEO of Russia. However, functionaries from the Central Committee of the USSR Communist Party and the Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences blocked this initiative as they considered it “inexpedient.”
The revival of the Society began in the 1980s when interest in the profession of an economist appeared again. A Scientific Economic Society was established at that time, and at the 2nd Congress it was renamed into the All-Union Economic Society. In 1988, the Council of Ministers of the USSR published its decree “The Issues of the All-Union Economic Society.” Such prominent scientists, practicing economists, academicians as L.I. Abalkin, A.G. Aganbegyan, A.Yu. Ishlinsky, N.Ya. Petrakov, T.S. Khachaturov, S.S. Shatalin, professors G.Kh. Popov, P.G. Bunich, N.N. Gritsenko, O.V. Kozlova, V.N. Kirichenko, A.M. Rumyantsev, A.D. Sheremet, V.N. Cherkovets, E.G. Yasin, heads of state structures (planning, financial, statistics and other economic agencies) N.V. Belov, A.I. Lebed, N.P. Lebedinsky, N.V. Garetovsky, L.A. Kostin, V.S. Pavlov, N.I. Ryzhkov, V.I. Shcherbakov and many others were and are actively working at the Society.
The organization of economists recovered its historical name, the Free Economic Society of Russia, in 1992. The VEO of Russia is a spiritual assignee and a successor to the traditions of the Imperial Free Economic Society, which is legally protected by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation.
A great contribution to the development of the Society’s activities rightfully belongs to President of the VEO of Russia, Professor G.Kh. Popov.