Economist and Historian
Born 24 November 1915, St Petersburg, Russia.
Died 15 May 1994.

An influential economist and historian who became advisor to successive British Ambassadors to the Soviet Union and was instrumental in changing British Government policy towards the Soviet Union in the early 1980s.

Connection to the University of Glasgow: Professor

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Achievements

The following achievements are associated with Alexander Nove:

Creating the first peer-reviewed journal specifically devoted to the economic, political and social policy systems of the Soviet Union
The peer-reviewed academic Journal, Soviet Studies, was launched in 1949 to critical acclaim.

Influencing policy towards the Soviet Union
Alec Nove had a significant role in advising successive British Ambassadors to the Soviet Union and in changing British Government policy towards the Soviet Union in the early 1980s.

Honours

The following honours are associated with this person:

• Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
• Honorary Degree

Biography

Alexander Nove (1915-1994) was James Bonar Professor of Economics from 1963 to 1982. He was a scholar of Russian and the new Alexander Nove Chair of Russian and East European Studies was named for him in 1996.

Born Alexander Novakovsky in Petrograd (St Petersburg) during the First World War, Nove, son of Russian Jewish parents were exiled from Russia following the 1917 revolution. The family moved to England in 1923, and Nove graduated with a BSc in Economics from the London School of Economics in 1936. He served in the army, where his final appointment was Major in Intelligence, and later served on in the Board of Trade, which permitted him to spend two years at the University's Department of Soviet Studies from 1952 to 1954. Nove returned to the LSE as Reader in Russian Social and Economic Studies and in 1963 he accepted the James Bonar Chair and became Director of the University's Institute of Soviet and East European Studies.

He was Britain’s most distinguished Sovietologist at that time, making contributions in the fields of political economy, Russian economic history and the political and social analysis of the Soviet Union. Shortly before his death, Nove delivered the prestigious Averell Harriman Lecture at Columbia University, New York, in 1993. He died while on holiday in Norway in 1994.