"Taking into account what economics was like in Stalin’s time, the very decision to work in that field seems dreadfully courageous. Economics was emasculated just after the October revolution, Marxism was proclaimed the culmination of human knowledge, and all "reactionary professors" were deported out of the country. The economic science was cut down to the level of Smith and Ricardo in Marx’s interpretation, and the scientific methodology was replaced by medieval scholasticism of "explication of the classics." Any fresh thought was proclaimed heretical; theories of "bourgeois economists" could only be treated as "reactionary" or "apologetic." Nobel prizes in economics did not exist; instead, "special Stalin prizes" were widely distributed to scientists: first prize – execution, second prize – prison camp, and third prize – exile. Economics was one of the most dangerous professions, so that few serious scientists managed to avoid those "awards." (Many older scientists at the Central Economico-Mathematical Institute, which gathered best economists of Moscow in its early days, were "winners" of these "special Stalin prizes.")
Kantorovich’s move from mathematics to economics seems especially reckless, taking into account the role mathematics played at that time. Russian mathematics at that time occupied a leading position in the world in many aspects; on the other hand, it was free from ideology as mathematicians firmly stated that their science could not be bourgeois or proletarian, ideal-istic or materialistic. It was relatively safe to work in mathematics, but Kantorovich, who was recognized as a classic of mathematics in his lifetime, devoted most of his activity to economics with the only aim of helping his country. "
