The Institute of Economics was established on March 29, 1931 by the decision of the Presidium of the Belarusian Academy of Sciences. It was done on the joint basis of pre-existing academic departments specializing in the fields of cooperation, collectivization, economic geography and location of enterprises, of the Institute of Economy of the State Planning Committee of the BSSR and of the Economic Department of the Institute of Industry. In the first half of the 1920s, Inbelkult (later BAS), the State Planning Committee of the BSSR, the People’s Commissariat of Agriculture and the Institute of Agriculture and Forestry began to conduct joint economic studies on the distribution of productive forces in agriculture, national income, drawing up control figures and working out the first five-year plan of the BSSR national economy development. Gradually, the task of centralizing economic research in the country arose and the creation of the Institute of Economics was a successful solution to this problem. The Institute of Economics was the first scientific and research organization in Belarus specializing in the study of economic science. The first director of the Institute was Academy Fellow I. Petrovich (1931-1932).

The organization and the beginning of the Institute of Economics’ operation synchronized with the processes of curtailing the NEP, the active formation of a command-administrative management system, speeded-up industrialization and collectivization. At the same time, under the ideological flag in the form of Stalin’s thesis about the exacerbation of the class struggle as socialism was built, the “right opposition” and the “national democratic” deviation in Belarusian science and culture were defeated. Therefore, many scientists who became in December 1928 the first full members of the BAS, were soon subjected to repression. A number of scientists have been repressed. Of course, atmosphere prevailing in the early 30s could not but affect the views and activities of scientists who continued to study economic problems as employees of the new Institute of Economics as part of the Academy. Along with the solution of fundamental and some topical applied economic problems of that time, the Soviet government especially highlighted the ideological function, entrusting it to academic economic science.

From the moment the Institute of Economics was established, its employees immediately joined the discussion of theoretical and practical issues of elaborating the annual and second five-year plans of the BSSR national economy development. Since 1933 The Institute of Economics has focused on research in the fields of economic geography, industry, agriculture, trade and national income. At the same time, when conducting work in the field of economic geography, very close cooperation was carried out with the Research Institute of Geography at Moscow State University and personally with Professor N. Baransky, who was an outstanding Soviet specialist in the theory and methodology of socio-economic geography and economic cartography.

The end of the 30s turned out to be tragic for the Institute of Economics, as, indeed, for the entire Belarusian people.

Leading scientists of the Academy were declared enemies of Soviet power foreign intelligence spies and members of anti-Soviet organizations. Ignatovsky, Domball, Rivlin, Nekrashevich, Zhilunovich, Surta, Pankevich, Shcherbakov and others were among them. By decision of the Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus dated 05.01.1938 the Institute of Economics, together with the Physicotechnical Institute and the Institute of Philosophy, was abolished as “not justifying itself”. This action for the second time, as well as the previously noted reprisals against a number of Belarusian scientists, which took place in the late 20s, testified that the research and educational functions of the Academy of Sciences and its institutes had already entered by the mid-30s in contradiction with the ideological tasks assigned to them by the leadership of the country and Republic.

It should be noted that even after the “abolition” of the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the BSSR, the “fragments” of its structural divisions continued to work as part of the preserved academic institutions. As early as in November 1939 they were united in the economics group of the Academy of Sciences of the BSSR, which was led by S. Malinin. In February 1940, i.e. two years after the adoption of a decision by the Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus, which had truly fatal consequences for the entire Academy of Sciences, many of its institutes and the fate of dozens of Belarusian scientists, the Council of People’s Commissars of the BSSR decided to organize a Research Institute of Economics within the framework of the BSSR Academy of Sciences, which actually recreated the previously abolished Institute of Economics.

Thus, the formation and early years of the Institute of Economics took place in a difficult domestic and historical environment. Nevertheless, despite the novelty of the tasks set for this academic institution, the small number of scientists and political repressions, the scientists of the Institute of Economics for less than a decade managed to lay the foundations of many areas of fundamental research, which were rapidly developed later, in the 50s 80s of the past century.

During the Great Patriotic War, the Institute of Economics was evacuated to Moscow, and in the post-war period, research work at the Institute of Economics was resumed in April 1945 in Minsk. Studies were conducted in the areas of industrial economics, agricultural economics and forestry economics. Particular attention of the institute’s staff was focused on solving the economic problems of the restoration and development of agricultural production, as well as on the issues of the renewal of other national economy’s sectors. During this period, the main areas of research were still economic geography, industry, agriculture and forestry, the distribution of productive forces, planning and forecasting. An important theoretical and practical value was completed in 1955 general scheme feasibility of drainage and development of the Polesie lowland’s swamps and wetlands.

In subsequent years, an increasingly important place in the research activity of the Institute of Economics was given to the study and solution of theoretical problems of increasing the public production efficiency. Research in the field of industrial economics began to cover a wide range of issues related to increasing the productivity of social labor, the efficiency of capital investments in various branches and industries, the organization of economic accounting, and the problems of pricing. The proposals and recommendations developed in those years on strengthening and developing the economy of foundry, peat, consumer goods’, glass and food industries were reflected in the development of the BSSR economy.

In the postwar period, the Institute was greatly assisted by the member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, V. Nemchinov. In the 50s 60s in Belarus, the industries that determined at that time the scientific and technological progress machine building, machine tool industry, and instrument making began to actively develop. Along with these areas, the economics of Belarusian traditional industries – consumer goods, food, meat and dairy, building materials were studied. The main place was taken by research on improving self-supporting relationships, enhancing the efficiency of fixed assets and capital investments.

In the 70s the Institute of Economics began to study the problems of the world economy. The investment policies of Western countries and their investment activity in developing countries were investigated. At this time, the staff of the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the BSSR also carried out a set of fundamental works in the field of socio-economic efficiency of public production and factors of its increase. Scientists and economists carried out a substantiation of the content of the criterion and the efficiency indicators’ system of Belarusian public production, identified the factors affecting the level of labor intensity, material intensity and capital intensity of production, studied the laws and developed categories of distribution relations. In the same period, a forecast was elaborated on the integrated use of natural resources and the development of the productive forces of Belarusian Polesie until 1990.

In the 80s the main scientific forces of the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the BSSR were concentrated on research in three major areas: improving the economic mechanism at the regional level; increasing the socio-economic efficiency of production; development of a comprehensive program of BSSR scientific and technical progress for 20 years. In the framework of these areas, the following problems were investigated: the efficiency of using economic laws in the distribution relations’ system; improving the economic mechanism at the level of production associations and industrial enterprises; problems of the national production potential efficiency (labor, capital investment, fixed assets); pricing; economics of scientific research; territorial organization of production and development of social infrastructure.

In the 90s the crisis that hit the national economy of Belarus after the collapse of the USSR, the disruption of economic relations between business entities of the former Soviet republics, as well as the collapse of the once consolidated scientific and information space, negatively affected the activity of Belarusian scientists. Research funding sharply decreased, which entailed the outflow of highly qualified scientific personnel from scientific sphere. In these difficult conditions, the team sought to minimize the loss of scientific potential accumulated over the past decades, which required a significant increase in the share of applied research in the total amount of research carried out, as well as to intensify work on the basis of grants from domestic and international organizations.

Having rearranged the remaining scientific forces, the scientists of the Institute of Economics also began research on the creation of the theoretical foundations for the Belarusian economy development in the conditions of market relations, including the problems of reforming property relations, the economic mechanism for managing the regional economy, financial and credit relations, economic assessment and the mechanism for using national resource potential, socio-economic rehabilitation of contaminated territories resulted from the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, etc. During this period, a number of collective and individual papers were published, including:

1. “The nature, structure and factors of the economic relations’ formation” (A. Morova, L. Vasyuchenok, V. Gavrilyuk, I. Zabelova, etc.), 1992
2. “Regional economy: the nature and mechanism of management” (P. Nikitenko), 1992
3. “Comparative analysis of economic systems” (V. Usossky), 1993
4. “The correlation of productivity and wages in agriculture” (I. Pelipas), 1993
5. “Management and regional policy abroad” (V. Fateev), 1994
6. “Regional economic policy in the field of production waste processing”, (T. Vertinskaya), 1994
7. “Assessment of the financial condition of enterprises” (I. Mikhailova-Stanyuta, L. Kovalev, O. Shuleyko), 1994
8. “Inflation: nature, implication and regulation” (L. Vasyuchenok, V. Gavrilyuk, E. Medvedev and others), 1996
9. “Problems of reforming the Belarusian economy” (I. Abramov, O. Bulko, I. Kolesnikova), 1996
10. “Financial and industrial groups in Belarus: prospects and methods of formation” (I. Abramov, I. Mikhailova-Stanyuta, O. Bulko and others), 1997

In 1995-1996 employees of the Institute of Economics in creative collaboration with specialists from other scientific institutions and universities participated in the preparation of the first and second national reports on human development: “Belarus face to person” and “Belarus environment for people”. This rather meticulous, responsible and pioneering research activity at that time was carried out with the administrative and technical support of the UN/UNDP Office in the Republic of Belarus and was highly appreciated not only in the country but also abroad.

In 1995, an employee of the Institute I. Abramov for the monograph “Cycles in the Development of the USSR Economy” (1990) was awarded the medal named for N. Kondratiev, established by the Russian Academy of Sciences and the N. Kondratiev International Fund.

In 1996-2000 The Institute of Economics of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus acted as the coordinator and the main executor of scientific research on the state program of fundamental research “Theoretical framework for the national economic model of the Republic of Belarus and the mechanism of its regulation (National Economy)”. The research was carried out in collaboration with the Research Institute of Economics of the Ministry of Economy, the Belarusian Research Institute of Economics and Informatics in the Agro-Industrial Complex, Polotsk State University and a number of other scientific institutions and universities across the country.

In recent years, the institute’s collaboration with higher education has intensified. Most researchers teach at universities, participate in the preparation of textbooks on economic disciplines, and the most qualified specialists are members of the Expert Council of the Higher Attestation Commission of Belarus and specialized councils for the defense of doctoral and candidate thesis at universities and research institutions, as well as academic advisers and consultants of postgraduate students, doctoral students and applicants.

Institute employees take part in the development of legislative and other normative acts, in expert and working groups under the Administration of the President of the Republic of Belarus, the Government and the National Assembly. Many of them are members of the editorial boards of leading republican and international journals specializing in social and economic issues, and carry out work on the basis of grants from the Belarusian Republican Foundation for Fundamental Research.

The Institute maintains scientific relations with foreign economic institutes and universities. Particularly close and fruitful contacts are with related Russian and Ukrainian organizations with which agreements on creative cooperation have been concluded. Among them are the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Market Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Economics of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg State University of Economics and Finance, the Institute of Economic Forecasting of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the Institute of Regional Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, etc.

The directors of the Institute:

1. I. Petrovich, 1931-1932, Full Member
2. T. Dombal, 1932-1935, Full Member
3. Y. Rakov, 1935-1937 and 1940-1941, Full Member
4. V. Lubyako, 1940-1946, Full Member
5. S. Malinin, 1946-1947, Dr.Econ.Sc., Professor
6. I. Kachuro, 1947-1951, Corresponding Member
7. G. Kovalevski, 1952-1964, Professor
8. F. Martinkevich, 1964-1980, Full Member
9. S. Galuzo, 1981-1988, Dr.Econ.Sc, Professor
10. G. Lych, 1988-1997, Full Member
11. P. Nikitenko, 1998-2010, Full Member
12. A. Daineka, 2011-2016, Corresponding Member, Dr.Econ.Sc., Professor
13. V. Belski, 2016-2020, Dr.Econ.Sc., Associate Professor
14. V. Hurski, since 2020, Cand.Econ.Sc., Associate Professor

References:

1. Institute of Economics of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (the 70th anniversary). 1931-2001/P.G. Nikitenko, V.S Fateev, O.S. Bulko and others; ed. P.G. Nikitenko and V.S. Fateev. Minsk.: "Law and Economics", 2001. – 168 p. ISBN 985-442-039-6