Ivan Ozerov
Ivan Khristoforovich Ozerov, who also wrote under the pseudonym Ikhorov, was a Russian professor, financier, economist, urban planning specialist, and prose writer.
Biography
Ozerov was born in 1869 to a peasant family. After studying at a two-year folk school, he showed such promise that his teachers helped arrange for Ozerov to attend the Chukhloma city school, and from there to the prominent Kostroma gymnasium. He studied at the gymnasium on a Susanin scholarship and graduated with a gold medal.In 1889, he traveled to Moscow to study in the law faculty of Moscow University. Under the leadership of professor I. I. Yanzhula, Ozerov studied economic sciences and finance. After graduating with a diploma of the 1st degree, he was appointed in November 1893 as a junior candidate for judicial positions in the Moscow Court of Justice and from January 1894 studied at the Department of Financial Law in order to prepare for a doctorate. In 1896 he was sent on a mission to Europe, where he examined the development of tax systems, financial law, customs policy, and entrepreneurship in Germany, England, France, and Switzerland.
In 1898 he received a master's degree for his thesis "Income tax in England and the economic and social conditions of its existence". In February 1900 he defended his doctoral thesis "The main trends in the development of direct taxation in Germany in connection with economic and social conditions" and was appointed as a professor of financial law at Moscow University.
In the 1900s I. Kh. Ozerov won a reputation as one of the most respected Russian scholarlys – economists. Thanks to his lectures, Ozerov enjoyed the same respect and sympathy among the students of Moscow University. Ozerov had the idea of creating a Student Bank in Moscow to issue loans for education with the condition of repaying them after the end of the course, growing to its cliff: economic life waves are currently rising high, and it is necessary that a person know how to break away from cliffs in time, change places, adapt to new conditions, and here the state has major tasks – this is why the task of expanding the horizons of the population, the task public education plays a major role in the present".
Ozerov was not a desk scientist, but a practical scientist, enthusiastic and tireless enlightener. "I, as the son of the working people, wanted to be useful, and, being raised at the expense of the people, climbing up through his shoulders, I wanted to be useful in spreading knowledge among him and awakening in him energy and creativity in economic life", – he wrote.
In 1901, he took part in the activities of the Moscow Society of Mutual Assistance of Mechanical Production Workers, created on the initiative of S. V. Zubatov. He organized popular lectures for workers in the Historical Museum in Moscow and drafted a charter for the Society. When it became known that the security department was involved in the creation of society, Ozerov did not give up lectures and convened something like an arbitration court of public figures, who found the lecturers useful.
He told about his participation in the activities of the Company in detail in the book "Policy on the Work Issue in Russia over the past years".
In the summer of 1907, Ozerov was transferred to St. Petersburg University, while remaining at the same time a lecturer at Moscow University – was a private assistant professor at the faculty of law. He also taught at the Bestuzhev women's courses and at the highest women's courses of N. P. Raev in St. Petersburg, as well as at the Pedagogical Academy.
In July 1911, he was again appointed an ordinary professor at Moscow University and headed the department of financial law until April 1917.
At the same time, he was from October 1912 a supernumerary ordinary professor at the Moscow Commercial Institute, taught finance and a history of economic life and economics at the Shanyavsky Moscow City People's University. Since 1914 – member of the legal test committee at Moscow University.
Since 1909 – elected member of the State Council of the Academy of Sciences and universities.
I. Kh. Ozerov spoke in many cities of Russia with public lectures. He took part in the work of various government commissions of the Ministry of Finance, trade and industry. With research and development goals going around Russia, getting acquainted with real production and banking activities, Ozerov gave entrepreneurs, engineers and accountants a wide variety of vital advice: "I saw that there was something to attach to the head torso or tail": so, he recommended that he buy a forest area in a paper mill so as not to depend on wood prices; cement plant – to build a driveway to use cheap Moscow region coals; Moscow Mayor – to use the coal burned in the mines near Moscow to light and heat the city.
From January 1, 1914 – State Councilor; he was awarded the Order of St. Anne of the 2nd degree and the Order of St. Vladimir of the 4th degree.
In April 1917 he resigned from Moscow University. After the revolutionary year of 1917, the Ozerov, unlike many Russian bankers and entrepreneurs, did not follow in emigration and stayed in Russia, where he continued his scientific activities, in particular, he developed the concept of creating an agricultural bank, studied the financial problems of domestic and foreign trade, and studied the scientific organization of labor.
In 1918, I. Kh. Ozerov became the economic adviser to Hetman Skoropadsky in Ukraine. In 1919 he returned to Moscow. Lectured at the Industrial Institute. He served at the Institute for Environmental Research, collaborated with the Financial and Economic Institute of the People's Commissariat of Finance. He taught at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Moscow State University ; taught the course "Introduction to Financial Science". Cooperating with the Economist magazine of the industrial and economic department of the Russian Technical Society, he proposed effective, in his view, ways to get the country out of the chaos. In 1919–1921 he taught at the MFEU, taught the course "Fundamentals of Financial Science".
In 1922, the possibility of expelling Ozerov on a "philosophical ships" was considered, but in the end the scientist was recognized as not dangerous. In 1927 he retired.
He was arrested on January 28, 1930, and sentenced to capital punishment with the replacement of 10 years in prison. The whole of 1930 was in the Butyrka prison, then he served his sentence on Solovki and on the White Sea–Baltic Canal. In 1933, he was amnestied and he went to Voronezh, where his wife was exile. By a decree of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR of June 19, 1935, his conviction was lifted and in 1936 he and his wife were settled in the Nursing House of Scientists in Leningrad. There Ozerov and died during the blockade of Leningrad; He was buried at Piskaryovsky cemetery.
In St. Petersburg, in the Department of Manuscripts of the Public Library there are unpublished memories of Ozerov.
According to the conclusion of the USSR Prosecutor's office of January 21, 1991, it was fully rehabilitated.
Economic views
At the beginning of the 20th century, I. Kh. Ozerov became famous for his numerous works on the modernization of the socio-economic and state system of Russia. Ozerov left behind more than 50 books, dozens of articles. Ozerov was the author of the first and only before the revolution textbook "Fundamentals of Financial Science", which withstood five reprints. He is the author of the book "On the New Way. To the economic liberation of Russia, "" What does America teach us? "", The society of consumers. Historical sketch of their development in Western Europe, America and Russia "", Financial reform in Russia. Where does the state take money from us and what does it spend for them? "", The struggle of society and the state with bad working conditions "", The development of universal solidarity "", To fight against the people's darkness! " and others. He advocates, in particular, reforming the structure of the university social sciences teaching, the creation in classical universities of the faculties of economics, with the obligatory introduction of courses of national and world history, and the extensive professional training of management personnel for Russian industry and banking institutions. The main topics in the works of I. Kh. Ozerov were questions of the development of the domestic economy and the recovery of the financial system of the country. However, he paid no less attention to the problems of institutionalizing group interests, considering them in the context of changes in the economic life of Europe and the United States. His research echoed in general the theoretical developments of representatives of the German historical school, as well as the findings of T. Veblen.Views on industrialization
Views on entrepreneurship and cooperation
Ozerov believed that "we need to create a new type of entrepreneur, with a broad outlook, on a large scale, with other methods" He spoke and wrote about the need to establish in Russia "an elastic social system that would give everyone the opportunity to develop their strength", advocated raising interest in science, raising "another generation with different heads and other habits", spoke in favor of switching from low-paid labor to highly paid.Ozerov was looking for more fair socially-organized forms of production and considered co-operation counter-monopoly. He believed that in a historical perspective, cooperation could make adjustments to the legal system, improve the budget, and reveal its potential. Ozerov was the most consistent of the so-called consumer societies, capable of uniting different classes, reducing or completely blocking social tensions that inevitably grow under capitalism. According to him, in the consumer society "people of different classes, estates <...> come together for a common cause, and they learn to appreciate each other and respect. The upper classes will not be so indifferent to the demands of the working class, and the workers, in turn, will become familiar with the production mechanism, marketing conditions, market influence on him, and will make practical demands".
It is noteworthy that the Old Believers entrepreneurship relied on the ideas of Ozerov in their successful entrepreneurial activity.