Abstract
This paper evaluates the reception of Léon Walras’ ideas in Russia before 1920. Despite
an unfavourable institutional context, Walras was read by Russian economists.
On the one hand, Bortkiewicz and Winiarski, who lived outside Russia and had the
opportunity to meet and correspond with Walras, were first class readers and very
good ambassadors for Walras’ ideas, while on the other, the economists living in Russia
were more selective in their readings. They restricted themselves to Walras’ Elements
of Pure Economics, in particular, its theory of exchange, while ignoring its theory
of production. We introduce a cultural argument to explain their selective reading.
JEL classification numbers: B 13, B 19.
