Barnett presents the first in-depth analysis in English of the pioneer of long cycle analysis, N.D. Kondratiev (1892-1938), who was a key policy adviser to the Soviet government in the early part of the 1920s. Kondratiev developed a market-led industrialization strategy for the USSR, in direct opposition to Stalin's centrally-planned industrialization programme, and was the director of the Conjuncture Institute, a centre for the study of business cycles and forecasting between 1920 and 1928. It was within the Conjuncture Institute that Kondratiev developed his analysis of long cycles. Barnett covers all aspects of Kondratiev's work.

VINCENT BARNETT is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of Birmingham. After graduating from film school in 1988 he completed an MA in Political Thought in 1989 and a PhD in Soviet Economic History in 1992. His doctorate at the University of Glasgow was entitled `At the Margins of the Market: Conceptions of the Market and Market Economics in Soviet Economic Theory During the New Economic Policy, 1921-29'. In 1992 he was appointed as Research Fellow at CREES on a project investigating decision-making during the second five-year plan, before embarking on a full-scale study of Kondratiev and the Conjuncture Institute in 1995. He is the author of various articles on Soviet economic history in journals such as Europe-Asia Studies and The Economic History Review.

Introduction Kondratiev before the Conjuncture Institute Kondratiev and Economic Policy During NEP Kondratiev's Trip Overseas, 1924-25 Kondratiev, Long Cycles, and Economic Conjuncture Kondratiev and the Economics of Planning Kondratiev and Soviet Industrialisation Strategy Kondratiev in the 1930s Conclusion