JASNY, NAUM

JASNY, NAUM (1883–1967), economist. Born in Kharkov, Ukraine, Jasny obtained a doctorate in law in St. Petersburg (Leningrad). Jasny practiced law for a short time, and then became director of a flour mill in Kharkov, an experience which aroused his interest in economics. After the Russian Revolution he worked on designing food policies for the Soviet government, for which he later undertook economic research in Germany. While there he joined the Business Cycle Research Institute and in 1933, with the coming of Hitler, he moved to the United States where he was appointed senior economist with the Department of Agriculture. From 1939 he was with the Food Research Institute of Stanford University where he prepared forecasts of food availability in allied and enemy countries. After World War II, he worked with the Stanford Soviet Economic Group. Jasny's main interests were agricultural statistics and economics. His estimates of grain harvests in the U.S.S.R. served for many years as the basis for the investigations into the Soviet military potential. Among Jasny's major works are The Socialized Agriculture of the U.S.S.R. (1949); The Wheats of Classical Antiquity (1944); Soviet Industrialization 1928–52 (1961); Soviet Planning (1964), edited by J.T. Degras and A. Nove; and Khrushchev's Crop Policy (1965). His memoirs were being prepared for publication at the time of his death. (Joachim O. Ronall)