№1 (30) / 2026 Full issue

Release Date 27.02.2026

 HISTORY OF THOUGHT

 

 

 

Borokh Olga

PhD (Economics), Leading Researcher

Institute of China and Contemporary Asia, Russian Academy of sciences (Moscow), This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0109-4462

 

CHINESE ECONOMIC EDUCATION DURING THE CRITICISM CAMPAIGNS OF THE SECOND HALF OF THE 1950s

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In the second half of the 1950s in China were debates about the shortcomings of the economic education system established according to the Soviet model. Some professional economists criticized the postulates of Marxist political economy and called for the use of useful components of Western economics. They considered the Soviet version of Marxism unsuitable for solving China’s practical problems, pointed out the low level and absence of theoretical achievements of economic science in the USSR, and called on the authorities to ease the ideological and educational pressure on the economic community. The supporters of this viewpoint were labeled “rightists” dreaming about restoring capitalism in China, and the Chinese interpretations of Malthusianism and the theory of interest were criticized. Marxists blamed the Soviet educational model for dogmatism and disconnection from Chinese reality; its influence served as explanation of teachers’ one-sided attention to foreign economic history with insufficient interest in current issues of the development of the PRC. The recommendations to fill the courses with Chinese materials, to rethink the template of the Soviet political economy textbook, to strengthen the class character of the education, and to pay more attention to exposing “reactionary” economic theories came to the fore. The disputes of 1957–1958 enhanced the line of bringing economic theory closer to practice, popularizing Marxist political economy, and combining the political training with professional education. The main direction of changes was the Sinicization of the Soviet system of economic education without completely rejecting it. The intensification of ideological criticism in the field of economic science, along with the active promotion of political economy among the masses, has led to simplification of the interpretation of theoretical issues.

 

Keywords: Soviet political economy, Marxism, Western economics, Hundred Flowers Movement, Anti-Rightist Campaign, Chen Zhenhan, popularization of economic knowledge

 

JEL: B2, B24, A2

UDC: 330.85

DOI: 10.52342/2587-7666VTE_2026_1_128_144

 

©  O. Borokh, 2026

© Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences «Issues of Theoretical Economics», 2026

 

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Manuscript submission date: 15.12.2025

Manuscript acceptance date: 15.01.2026

 

For citation:

Borokh O. Chinese Economic Education During the Criticism Campaigns of the Second Half of the 1950s // Voprosy teoreticheskoy ekonomiki. 2026. No. 1. Pp. 128–144. DOI: 10.52342/2587-666VTE_ 2026_1_128_144