Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences

George Kleiner

8 May 1946, Ivanovo — 4 June 2026, Moscow

Economist and mathematician, author of systems economic theory, the account of an economy as the interaction of object, project, environment and process systems. A long road from commutative algebra to mesoeconomics.

Chronology

1964Left School No. 33 in Ivanovo with a gold medal, after several years of winning the city mathematics olympiads

1969Graduated with honours from the Lomonosov Moscow State University Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics

1969—1991Institute of Electronic Control Machines: from junior researcher to head of the laboratory of mathematical problems of industrial economics

1972Candidate of Sciences in Physics and Mathematics

1989Doctor of Economic Sciences

1991Professor

1991—2026Central Economics and Mathematics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences: head of the laboratory of microeconomic analysis and modelling, deputy director, head of the division for modelling production facilities and complexes and of the research programme in mesoeconomics, microeconomics and corporate economics

1998Professor at the State University of Management

1998—2017Deputy Director for Research, CEMI RAS

2000—2026Founded the All-Russian symposium “Strategic Planning and Enterprise Development” at CEMI RAS and chaired it for twenty-seven years. The 27th was held on 14—15 April 2026, two months before his death

2003Elected Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences

2007Head of the Chair of Institutional Economics, State University of Management

2008—2026Editor-in-chief of the journal Economics of Contemporary Russia. The journal was founded in 1998 by Academician D. S. Lvov, who led it until his death in July 2007: the fourth issue of 2007 still appeared under his editorship. From the first issue of 2008 the journal was headed by Kleiner

2009Professor at the Moscow School of Economics, MSU

2009—2024Founded the chair of systems analysis in economics at the Financial University and headed it for fifteen years, remaining thereafter its academic supervisor. He had worked with the university since 1992

2026Scientific report “Is a unified economic theory possible?” — the international seminar Theoretical Economics of the Institute of Economics of the RAS and the New Economic Association, 9 April

2026Scientific report “Outlines and predictors of a unified economic theory” to the Academic Council of CEMI RAS, 18 May — his last public appearance

Awards

2025Certificate of Merit from the Rector of the Financial University, for service on its Academic Council

2024Order of Friendship

2024Jubilee medal “300 Years of the Russian Academy of Sciences”

2023Preobrazhenie Prize, for advancing the knowledge economy in Russia

2023The I.A. Ilyin Prize and Medal of the All-Russian Quality Organisation, for outstanding scientific achievement in the field of quality

2021, 2023Certificates of Merit of the Russian Academy of Sciences

2022The Free Economic Society of Russia’s Economics Book of the Year award, for a contribution to economic theory — for Systems Economics: Steps of Development

2020National “Professor of the Year” award in economics

2017N.D. Kondratiev Gold Medal

2016Diploma for special achievement in economics education — a special award of the Free Economic Society competition “Economics and Management 2015”, in which the chair he headed also won its category

2016Silver Medal of the Free Economic Society of Russia

2014Medal of the Order “For Merit to the Fatherland”, 1st class

2007Medal of the Order “For Merit to the Fatherland”, 2nd class

2002V.S. Nemchinov Prize

George Kleiner at an award ceremony — At an award ceremony.

**2024**The Order of Friendship presentedBy presidential decree of 5 February 2024 — for a major contribution to Russian science and on the tercentenary of the Academy. He is congratulated by the President of the Academy, G.Ya. Krasnikov, and a Vice-President. That same day he wrote on his own page: “I serve the Fatherland! I serve Russian science! Vivat!” Image from kleiner.ru.

**2023**The I.A. Ilyin Honorary MedalThe highest award of the All-Russian Quality Organisation. Image from kleiner.ru.

**2023**Diploma of the I.A. Ilyin PrizeIn the category “For outstanding scientific achievement in the field of quality”, 30 October 2023. Image from kleiner.ru.

**2023**The Ilyin medal presentedImage from kleiner.ru.

**2023**Diploma of the Preobrazhenie 2023 Prize“For contribution to and outstanding achievement in spreading the knowledge economy in Russia”. Presented on 27 October 2023 at the Rossiya Segodnya news agency. Image from kleiner.ru.

**2022**Diploma of the Economics Book of the Year awardA special award in the category “For a contribution to economic theory” — for Systems Economics: Steps of Development. Image from kleiner.ru.

**2022**The All-Russian Economic Assembly11 November 2022, the headquarters of the Free Economic Society of Russia and the International Union of Economists, on Economist’s Day. Image from kleiner.ru.

**2020**The Professor of the Year awardThe emblem of the national award of the Russian Professorial Assembly. The laureates were announced at the Professorial Forum on 19 November 2020. Image from kleiner.ru.

**2017**Diploma of the N.D. Kondratiev Gold MedalThe 9th international competition among Russian scholars; jury decision of 29 June 2017. The N.D. Kondratiev International Foundation and the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences.

**2017**The N.D. Kondratiev Gold Medal, obversePortrait of N.D. Kondratiev, 1892—1938.

**2017**The N.D. Kondratiev Gold Medal, reverse“For contribution to the development of the social sciences”, number 27.

**2016**Winner’s diploma, the “Economics and Management 2015” competitionAn award to the chair he headed, in the category “Economic theory. Macro- and microeconomics”. A competition of the Free Economic Society of Russia; signed by R.S. Grinberg. On the same day he himself received a diploma for special achievement in economics education. Image from the Financial University website.

**2002**Diploma of the V.S. Nemchinov PrizePresidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Academic service

Chair of the RAS Scientific Council on the Integrated Development of Industrial Enterprises, Division of Social Sciences
Editor-in-chief of Economics of Contemporary Russia and the Russian Journal of Economics and Law
Deputy editor-in-chief of the Russian Management Journal; chair of the editorial council of Property Relations in the Russian Federation; member of the editorial boards of Economics and Mathematical Methods, the Journal of the New Economic Association, Finance and Business, and AlterEconomics
Founder and standing chair of the All-Russian symposium “Strategic Planning and Enterprise Development” at CEMI RAS, from 2000 to 2026
Convenor of the weekly seminar on modelling and development of production systems at CEMI RAS
Head of the chair of institutional economics at the State University of Management from 2007; founder of the chair of systems analysis in economics at the Financial University in 2009, its head until 2024 and thereafter its academic supervisor; head of the chair of general economics at the State Academic University for the Humanities
Head of the research school “Systems modelling of the economy” at the Financial University
Member of the Senate of the Free Economic Society of Russia, formerly of its Board
Conferences he convened year after year: “Institutional Economics: Development, Teaching, Applications” and the D.S. Lvov National Economic Forum at the State University of Management; “Systems Analysis in Economics” and “The Systems World of A.A. Bogdanov” at the Financial University; the Lvov Readings; and “Systems Analysis in Design and Management” at the Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University
Member and chair of expert councils of the Russian Science Foundation, RFBR, RFH and the Higher Attestation Commission; member of dissertation councils at CEMI RAS, the MSU Faculty of Economics and Southern Federal University
Supervised more than thirty doctoral and candidate theses; wrote more than twenty textbooks and teaching manuals

Emblem of the All-Russian symposium “Strategic Planning and Enterprise Development” — The symposium goes on. It has met at CEMI every spring since 2000; the twenty-seventh was held on 14—15 April 2026. The jubilee twenty-fifth, in 2024, drew more than two hundred participants from twenty-two cities. sympozium-cemi.ru Post-release of the 25th symposium

From his own recollections

A tribute to Vladimir Pozner

G.B. Kleiner

He tells how, in 1969, he was given a three in Marxism-Leninism by a lecturer named Utenkov, and so could not enter the MSU mathematics graduate school. Eleven years earlier the same Utenkov had tried to fail Vladimir Pozner.

His VK page, 8 April 2024

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“There are no years. There is US!”

G.B. Kleiner

On the five-yearly reunion of the 1969 mathematics graduates of MSU, 25 May 2024. “I understood at last that to be proud of one’s age, or ashamed of it, is unseemly: I was surrounded by classmates I love.”

His VK page, 3 June 2024

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“I feel like the tortoise Tortila”

G.B. Kleiner

On the medal for the tercentenary of the Academy of Sciences: “It seems to me that I have lived these past 300 years together with the Academy — or if not with the Academy, then at least with science.” The medal was presented by A.I. Stavchikov, the academic secretary of CEMI.

His VK page, 10 February 2024

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Publications about George Kleiner

An interview with G.B. Kleiner

Vinokurova N.A.

His last long interview: on his parents and Ivanovo, on the MSU mathematics faculty, on INEUM and CEMI, on evidence-based modelling, and on why the Russian economy resembles a “dry” Napoleon cake.

Economics of Contemporary Russia, 2026, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 188–195. In the section “In memory of our colleagues”

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Academic reputations of Russian economists and their scientometric assessments

Sokolov M.M., Chechik E.A.

Voprosy Ekonomiki, 2022, no. 11, pp. 117–135

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We mourn…

The Rectorate of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation

The university’s official word on the day of his death: “We shall remember him as a man who understood the complex bonds of the social and economic world both broadly and deeply, and who had a sensitive heart and a fine sense of humour.”

Press centre of the Financial University, 4 June 2026

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In memory of Georgy Kleiner

The editors of Economics of Contemporary Russia

The word of the journal Kleiner edited for nineteen years.

Economics of Contemporary Russia, 2026

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In memoriam: Georgy Kleiner (8 May 1946 — 4 June 2026)

The editors of the Russian Journal of Economics and Law

The word of the journal whose editor-in-chief Kleiner was in his last years. It names his principal scientific results: the theory of systemic balance in the economy, a universal theory of systemic factors of production, the intellectual theory of the firm, a new theory of economic cycles, the concept of mesoeconomics, and the idea of multipolar management of an organisation.

Russian Journal of Economics and Law, 2026, vol. 20, no. 2, p. 478. In the “In memoriam” section

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