Marshall I. Goldman

Marshall I. Goldman   (economist, academic)
Born	Marshall Irwin Goldman 26 July 1930 Elgin, Illinois, U.S.
Died	2017-08-02 (Age 87) Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University
Member of	American Committee for Peace in Chechnya, Council on Foreign Relations/Historical Members
US think-tanker studying the economy of the Soviet Union and Russia.

Marshall Irwin Goldman was an expert on the economy of the former Soviet Union,and one of the first Kremlinologists to predict the downfall of Mikhail S. Gorbachev (he fell in 1991). He was panelist for the discussion about The New Soviet (Dis)union at the 1990 Bilderberg.

As early as 1987, he painted a grim picture of the consequences of perestroika and glasnost, the liberalization programs that Gorbachev had put in place. Goldman was present during the August 1991 coup attempt that indirectly led to Gorbachev losing power.

Education

Goldman was a 1952 graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Russian studies and economics from Harvard University in 1956 and 1961, respectively. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in 1985.

Career

Goldman was known for his study and analysis of the careers of Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin. He was the author of over a dozen books on the former Soviet Union. A frequent visitor to the republics of the former Soviet Union, he met with Mikhail Gorbachev, Vladimir Putin, and former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, as well as business leaders, diplomats, and government officials at the highest levels in both countries.

Goldman was Kathryn Wasserman Davis Professor of Russian Economics (Emeritus) at Wellesley College. An expert on the Russian economy and the economics of high technology, he joined the Wellesley faculty in 1958. In 1998, the Wellesley College Alumnae Association awarded him its first Faculty Service Award. He was also Associate Director of the Davis Center for Russian Studies at Harvard University from 1975 to 2006.

Goldman was a Professor of Economics at Wellesley College and Associate Director of the Harvard Russian Research Center. Goldman was well known for his study of the career of Mikhail Gorbachev. His books on the former Soviet Union include The USSR in Crisis: The Failure of an Economic System, Lost Opportunity: What Has Made Economic Reform in Russia So Difficult, and Petrostate.

Goldman taught American economics to students and general audiences while a Fulbright-Hays Lecturer at Moscow State University in 1977; and in 1980s, he was invited by the U.S. Ambassador to the former Soviet Union to deliver a series of lectures on behalf of the U.S. Government. He also spoke on several invitational tours in China and lectured throughout Western Europe and Asia.

He was a consulting editor to the journal Current History. He wrote for publications as Current History, Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Harvard Business Review. His articles also appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, and Science, and he was a frequent guest on CNN and Good Morning America. He appeared on The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, Crossfire, Face the Nation, The Today Show, and Nightline. He wrote regularly for the Russian newspapers, Moscow News and The Moscow Times, and was often heard on National Public Radio.

Professor Goldman was an authority on the Soviet economy, methodically charting its downs (becoming an importer of grain) and potential ups (becoming an exporter of oil, before prices plunged, and of gas).

In 1991, Goldman was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was a consultant to the State Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Council on Environmental Quality, the Ford Foundation, and numerous corporations. A director of the Century Bank and Trust Company, the Jamestown Foundation, and Trustee of Northeast Investors, Goldman was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Economic Association. Goldman served as a trustee of the Noble and Greenough School as well as The Commonwealth School of Boston and was past president of the Hillel Council of Greater Boston. He was also past president of the early music group Boston Baroque. A longtime resident of Wellesley, Massachusetts, Marshall Goldman was an elected member of the Wellesley Town Meeting and was also on the town's Conservation Commission as well as the Incinerator Study Committee.

On April 19, 2013, Goldman appeared on WCBV Boston 5 News commenting on the pursuit/capture of the suspects involved in The Boston Marathon Bombing. His comments angered many Southerners as he compared the terrorists to people from Kentucky and Tennessee who "hate the government and regulation and go around attacking everyone".

Personal life

Goldman was married to Merle Goldman (b. March 21, 1931), a specialist on modern China and Professor Emerita of History at Boston University. He had four children.

 

Event Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/1990	10 May 1990	13 May 1990	New York US Glen Cove	38th Bilderberg meeting, 119 guests

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