Marshall I. Goldman, Expert on Russian Economy, Dies at 87
A perceptive economist, prolific author, professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts
and associate director of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard, Professor Goldman was an authority on the Soviet economy, methodically charting its downs (becoming an importer of grain) and potential ups (becoming an exporter of oil, before prices plunged, and of gas).
Paul Roderick Gregory wrote that Marshall Goldman counts among the pioneers of American studies of the Soviet economy,
High Technology wrote that The Soviet bureaucracy will shake off all attempts to reform it as easily as a bear would swipe away attacking rabbits,
New Russia wrote that Petrostate: Putin, Power and th
in Crisis: The Failure of an Economic System," Professor Goldman was suggesting
that the failing economy was encouraging Soviet citizens "to wonder whether or not they should continue to be so passive" and whether "the time is riper than ever for some kind of explosion." Not everyone agreed with him.
"But he was on the wrong side of Russia’s last three leaders, opposing both Gorbachev
and Yeltsin, while lauding Putin." Professor Goldman credited President Vladimir V. Putin with invigorating the Russian economy by nationalizing energy companies.
Not only had it been misread as "Prostate," he wrote — "Did I know something about Putin’s health
that his physicians had been hiding from the public?" — but, he added, it might have been more appropriately titled "Impoverished State." Marshall Irwin Goldman was born on July 26, 1930, in Elgin, Ill., to Sam Goldman and the former Bella Silvian, who ran an army surplus store and later sold liquor wholesale.