The Life and Scientific Legacy of the Outstanding Ukrainian Economist V. A. Kosynskyi (1864–1938)

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the activities of the Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, doctor of political economy, Volodymyr Andriyovych Kosynskyi (1864–1938), who was born in Ukraine and worked in many European countries, particularly in Latvia. Kosynskyi was active as an economist, statistician, and a public and political figure, who held the position of the Minister of Labor of Ukraine from November to December 1918. The study allows to systematize and critically evaluate the sources on the impact of Kosynskyi’s activities on the development of economics, as well as to reconstruct the main stages of his life and professional career. After a critical evaluation of the sources on the impact of Kosynskyi’s activities in economics, it is shown that his main contribution was the following: development of methodological problems of political economy, the theory and practice of credit, and methodology to develop agriculture. Kosynskyi was among the first to proclaim the transition of statistics from a science that collects and organizes information to a science that explains and predicts. The article also presents a periodization of Kosynskyi’s life and creative path, tracing the following periods: the Hlukhiv period, the Moscow period, two Riga periods, two Odessa periods, the Kyiv period, and the Czech period.