Andrei Petrovich Parshev (; born 16 February 1955 in
Moscow
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
) is a Russian political writer. His best known book, ''
Why Russia is not America'', sets forth his climate-based theory of Russian economic problems. He also wrote ''Why America is Attacking'', arguing that military control over oil-producing countries is essential for the survival of the American economy.
Parshev graduated from the
Bauman Moscow State Technical University
The Bauman Moscow State Technical University (BMSTU; ), sometimes colloquially referred as the ''Bauman School'' or ''Baumanka'' (), is a public technical university (Institute of technology, polytechnic) located in Moscow, Russia. Bauman Univ ...
in electrical engineering in 1978. He subsequently worked as engineer and lecturer in the border guards detachment of the
KGB
The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...
, now known as
Border Guard Service of Russia and rose to the rank of colonel.
Political and economic views
Parshev is known for arguing that an economic system based on liberal
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...
is unsuited for
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
because, as he claims, the harsh Russian climate makes the Russian economy inherently uncompetitive with other nations (e.g. with low temperatures high heating costs requiring higher salaries for workers and more expensive construction methods).
Parshev argues for the scaling down of Russian foreign trade, greater
self-sufficiency
Self-sustainability and self-sufficiency are overlapping states of being in which a person, being, or system needs little or no help from, or interaction with others. Self-sufficiency entails the self being enough (to fulfill needs), and a sel ...
and
autarky
Autarky is the characteristic of self-sufficiency, usually applied to societies, communities, states, and their economic systems.
Autarky as an ideology or economic approach has been attempted by a range of political ideologies and movement ...
, and for a return to more
Soviet
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
-style forms of management in economy and politics. His writings are influential among Russian nationalist and
ultranationalist
Ultranationalism, or extreme nationalism, is an extremist form of nationalism in which a country asserts or maintains hegemony, supremacy, or other forms of control over other nations (usually through violent coercion) to pursue its specific ...
circles.
See also
*
The Siberian Curse: How Communist Planners Left Russia Out in the Cold
*
The Ultimate Resource
External links
*
Russian political writers
1955 births
Living people
{{Russia-writer-stub