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Lenin as a Statistician: A Non‐Soviet View
Author(s) -
Kotz Samuel,
Seneta Eugene
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
journal of the royal statistical society: series a (statistics in society)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.103
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1467-985X
pISSN - 0964-1998
DOI - 10.2307/2983097
Subject(s) - statistician , political science , mathematical economics , computer science , economics , mathematics , statistics
SUMMARY Many of Lenin's arguments were based on statistical analysis, and in the Soviet milieu he is widely praised as a statistician. In this paper we first examine the background and influences of Lenin's statistics and also consider his statistical arguments, some of which are often cited in the Soviet literature. Our general conclusions are that (a) in his earlier work Lenin exhibited innate craftmanship in analysing large‐scale statistical data, (b) his statistics owes much to V. E. Postnikov, P. N. Skvortsov and F. A. Shcherbina whose influence has been downplayed, (c) Lenin was not beyond turning his analysis to political ends, (d) his influence among established statisticians in the Russian Empire, including the zemstvo statisticians, was quite modest and (e) he was instrumental in establishing official statistical organs in the USSR.