January 27, 2023
David Gordon reports on the passing of Yuri Maltsev, writing:
“Before defecting to the United States in 1989, he was a member of a senior economics team that worked on President Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms package of perestroika.
His work involved briefing members of Congress and senior officials of the executive branch on issues of national security and foreign economic and military assessment. He also testified before the US Congress and appeared on CNN, PBS News Hour, C-SPAN, CBC, and other American, Canadian, Spanish, South African, and Finnish television and radio programs. He wrote and coauthored fifteen books and over a hundred articles. He was a recipient of the Luminary Award of the Free Market Foundation and was a Senior Fellow of the Mises Institute.”
Knowing of Maltsev for years, I only heard him speak for the first time less than a year ago when he addressed Grove City College’s Austrian Student Scholar’s Conference. His warmth and humor with our students confirms everything Gordon says here. Tragically and quickly, the memory of socialism-in-practice is fading. Voices like Maltsev’s are increasingly important amidst a rising generation enamored with socialism.