Background
Ivan Kondrat’evich Babst was born on October 20, 1823 in Korotoyak, Russian Empire (now Korotoyak, Voronezh oblast, Russian Federation). He was born into a family of nobles.
Ivan Kondrat’evich Babst was born on October 20, 1823 in Korotoyak, Russian Empire (now Korotoyak, Voronezh oblast, Russian Federation). He was born into a family of nobles.
Ivan Babst studied at a gymnasium in Riga.
After graduation from Moscow University in 1846 Ivan Babst started his career as a teacher of history at the Moscow orphanage (1846-1851). Since 1851 he became a professor of history and then of political economy and statistics (1856-1857) at the University of Kazan. In 1857-1874 he worked as a professor of political economy at Moscow University (1857-1874).
In 1864-1868 Ivan Kondrat'evich worked as a Director of the Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages in Moscow. Then in 1862-1863 he taught economics and statistics to the heirs of the throne the Grand Duke Nicholas Alexandrovich and Alexander Aleksandrovich. In 1860 Ivan Babst became one of the publishers of the Vestnik promishlennosti journal (1860-1861) and the newspaper "Aktsioner" (1860-1862).
In his early scholarly work Babst was concerned with problems of world history; from the mid 1850’s on, his scholarly interests shifted to economic research. His doctoral dissertation (1852) was entitled John Law, or the Financial Crisis in France in the First Years of the Regency. His main works were on political economy and statistics (Course of Political Economy, 1859; Thoughts on Current Needs of Our National Economy, 1860; and others). He substantiated the need to abolish serfdom and developed the ideas of classical Western political economy.
Ivan Babst substantiated the need to abolish serfdom, developed the ideas of classical Western political economy.