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| Tatyana Zaslavskaya obituary | Tatyana Zaslavskaya obituary |
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| The eminent Russian sociologist Tatyana Zaslavskaya, who has died aged 85, is best known in the west as the author of the Novosibirsk Report, which addressed a systemic crisis in the economy of the USSR and urged comprehensive reforms, which Zaslavskaya called perestroika – the word Mikhail Gorbachev used worldwide two years later. Zaslavskaya's report was presented at a closed conference in the city of Novosibirsk in April 1983, but unknown to her, and to her great distress, it was leaked to the Washington Post. | The eminent Russian sociologist Tatyana Zaslavskaya, who has died aged 85, is best known in the west as the author of the Novosibirsk Report, which addressed a systemic crisis in the economy of the USSR and urged comprehensive reforms, which Zaslavskaya called perestroika – the word Mikhail Gorbachev used worldwide two years later. Zaslavskaya's report was presented at a closed conference in the city of Novosibirsk in April 1983, but unknown to her, and to her great distress, it was leaked to the Washington Post. |
| Zaslavskaya was a member of the idealistic generation of the 1960s. Born in Kiev, she grew up in Moscow where, in 1950, she graduated from the prestigious Moscow State University, having studied physics, then economics. In 1963 Zaslavskaya arrived in Akademgorodok – a university town near Novosibirsk – where she became head of the department of social problems at the Institute of Economics in 1967. While, everywhere else, the "Khrushchev Thaw" was ending, reducing social scientists to the production of scholastic exercises, her department continued to produce evidence-based sociology. Zaslavskaya's motto was: "Social reality is clothed with a presumption of innocence," meaning that one must study what is actually out there rather than asserting what should be – according to the Communist party or whoever else. | Zaslavskaya was a member of the idealistic generation of the 1960s. Born in Kiev, she grew up in Moscow where, in 1950, she graduated from the prestigious Moscow State University, having studied physics, then economics. In 1963 Zaslavskaya arrived in Akademgorodok – a university town near Novosibirsk – where she became head of the department of social problems at the Institute of Economics in 1967. While, everywhere else, the "Khrushchev Thaw" was ending, reducing social scientists to the production of scholastic exercises, her department continued to produce evidence-based sociology. Zaslavskaya's motto was: "Social reality is clothed with a presumption of innocence," meaning that one must study what is actually out there rather than asserting what should be – according to the Communist party or whoever else. |
| Sociologists in Novosibirsk favoured large-scale surveys to gain understanding of complex social and economic problems, especially in rural areas. Ten years of regular fieldwork crystallised into an approach known as "economic sociology" – independently of the parallel development in the west, which was then invisible in the USSR because of the iron curtain. | Sociologists in Novosibirsk favoured large-scale surveys to gain understanding of complex social and economic problems, especially in rural areas. Ten years of regular fieldwork crystallised into an approach known as "economic sociology" – independently of the parallel development in the west, which was then invisible in the USSR because of the iron curtain. |
| Zaslavskaya was a shrewd albeit principled operator within the Soviet system. All publications produced by her department were censored. She told me a story of how a little cunning could sometimes win: a censor refused to allow publication of a table showing percentages of respondents dissatisfied with, say, working conditions. "All right", said Zaslavskaya, "but could we please publish instead a table showing percentages of respondents who are satisfied?" The censor agreed. Zaslavskaya's colleagues and students, of whom I was one, remember her intellectual rigour, sense of humour, and friendly but firm leadership. | Zaslavskaya was a shrewd albeit principled operator within the Soviet system. All publications produced by her department were censored. She told me a story of how a little cunning could sometimes win: a censor refused to allow publication of a table showing percentages of respondents dissatisfied with, say, working conditions. "All right", said Zaslavskaya, "but could we please publish instead a table showing percentages of respondents who are satisfied?" The censor agreed. Zaslavskaya's colleagues and students, of whom I was one, remember her intellectual rigour, sense of humour, and friendly but firm leadership. |
| Zaslavskaya was at the forefront of perestroika: setting up in 1988 the first USSR centre for study of public opinion and becoming an MP, but in the 1990s she left politics disillusioned. Throughout the last 20 years of her life she continued to teach and write. | Zaslavskaya was at the forefront of perestroika: setting up in 1988 the first USSR centre for study of public opinion and becoming an MP, but in the 1990s she left politics disillusioned. Throughout the last 20 years of her life she continued to teach and write. |
| She is survived by her husband, Mikhail, and daughter, Oksana. | She is survived by her husband, Mikhail, and daughter, Oksana. |
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