Jermen Mikhailovich Gvishiani is a famous philosopher, sociologist. A recognized specialist in management. Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences and RAS, Doctor of Philosophy. He is known for his family ties with the highest leadership of the USSR, including Alexei Kosygin, chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union.
Beginning of the biography of Germain Mikhailovich Gvishiani
Jermen was born on 12/24/1928 in Akhaltsikhe, a border city of modern Georgia. He was the son of the famous head of the NKVD - Mikhail Maksimovich Gvishiani. The father chose an unusual name for the child - Dzerman. It was formed from the names of famous leaders of the Cheka Dzerzhinsky and Menzhinsky. A little later, the name underwent a transformation, becoming a Germain.
Jermen’s childhood passed in Georgia. Then he moved with his father, who had departed to a new duty station, in the city of Vladivostok. In this city in 1946, young Gvishiani graduated from high school. His dream was to serve in the Navy, he intended to continue his education in a military school. However, interested in new opportunities, he made an attempt to enter the Moscow Institute of International Relations, which opened a year earlier. This decision was not easy for Jermen, as his mother Irma Khristoforovna dreamed of developing his son’s serious musical inclinations. But the younger Gvishiani decided in his own way and successfully entered MGIMO, which he graduated in 1951.
In the same year he realized his childhood dream, until 1955 he served in the ranks of the Navy of the USSR.
Germain's father - Michael Gvishiani
Gvishiani Mikhail Maksimovich, father of Germain, made a significant career in the security organs of the USSR. In 1945 he became lieutenant general. He was an associate of Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria. At the end of the 40s he was his personal guard. However, in the early fifties of the XX century, his relationship with Beria deteriorated. Mikhail was fired from the security agencies. But this was a gift of fate, he was not shot along with the former patron.
Also known as Mikhail Gvishiani and as the person who led the deportation of Chechens and Ingush. At the same time showed excessive cruelty. Once he ordered, with the support of Beria, to destroy almost 700 people. For his atrocities, he did not suffer serious punishment, was not arrested, escaped with only the deprivation of the rank of general. He died peacefully in 1966.
The beginning of scientific activity
In 1955, Jermen Mikhailovich began his journey in science. Successfully graduate from graduate school. He is working on his Ph.D. She successfully defended in 1960. The theme for the Soviet Union was unusual, dedicated to the sociology of management of the United States of America. A year later, in 1961, he published on its basis a monograph on the problems of American business.
During this period, he worked at Moscow State University, where from 1960 to 1968 he lectured at the faculty of philology. The philosopher Jermen Mikhailovich Gvishiani becomes a famous and respected scientist.
He defended his doctoral dissertation on organizational management theory in the USA in 1968 at the Institute of Philosophy of the USSR Academy of Sciences. After 2 years, in 1970, the dissertation served as the basis of the book - “Organization and Management”. It became the first scientific work in the USSR, in which the achievements of Western schools in the field of management were studied in detail.
This work was very much in demand. Two years later, in 1970, Jermen Mikhailovich Gvishiani published a second, supplemented edition, which was translated into 11 languages ​​and published in many countries around the world.
The book has been relevant for several decades. The last, third edition, heavily revised and thoroughly supplemented by the author, was released in 1998. This book is still recommended as a textbook for students of economic universities in Russia.
Experts say that Jermen Mikhailovich managed to study the problems of management organization without the influence of ideological stereotypes. He transferred the issue under consideration from the political plane to the scientific field, was able to raise the study of management sociology to a high philosophical level.
Work in the government of the USSR
The scientific developments of Gvishiani did not go unnoticed. In 1965 he was invited to work in the Council of Ministers of the USSR. There, until 1985, Jermen Mikhailovich worked as deputy chairman of the State Committee for Science and Technology. It is worth noting that for some period among his subordinates was Colonel Oleg Penkovsky, a convicted and executed American spy. In the period from 1985 to 1986 he worked as deputy chairman of the USSR State Planning Commission.
In positions held, he was responsible for organizing and maintaining international relations, successfully realizing the tasks set — to promote the development of international scientific and technical cooperation for the introduction of the achievements of foreign science and technology and advanced technologies in the USSR.
Interestingly, Jermen Mikhailovich is credited with his successful cooperation with Italy, thanks to which the Volga Automobile Plant was built. He also successfully negotiated with representatives of France, as a result of which advanced color television technologies were successfully implemented in the USSR.
Activities of Gvishiani overseas
While working in the State Planning Commission of the USSR D.M. Gvishiani was noted for his success in the work of the UN Advisory Committee, which was engaged in the introduction of scientific and technological discoveries on a global scale.
In the same period, Jarmen Mikhailovich Gvishiani became one of the founders of the Club of Rome, an influential international public organization. This structure, which unites representatives of the elites of world politics, finance, culture, science, and to this day is studying the problems of the biosphere of the earth, promotes the ideas of harmony between man and nature.
Founder and head of analytical structures
In 1972, he became the founder of the International Institute for System Analysis (IIASA). He headed this structure from 1972 to 1987.
In 1976, the personal business of Germain Mikhailovich Gvishiani was replenished with a new, iconic line, he initiated the creation of the All-Union Scientific Research Institute for System Research (VNIISI). This structure was tasked with solving the problems that arose before the USSR in the seventies of the XX century. The Institute was conceived as an advanced research structure of a new type. Director of VNIISI Gvishiani was from the day of its foundation until 1992. Subsequently transferred to the post of Honorary Director. Since 1992, VNIISI has been transformed into the Institute for System Analysis of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Researchers of the life path of Gvishiani claim that his activities were closely connected with the state security organs of the USSR. So, one of the tasks set for him by these structures was the formation of a research organization under the VNIISI, which was to bring together free-thinking specialists from various fields, able to implement innovative economic projects and overcome professional isolation.
In the period from 1983 to 1985, according to contemporaries, the institution was directly supervised by the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, the former head of the KGB of the USSR Yu.V. Andropov.
Gvishiani students, graduates of VNIISI - IIASA
During the leadership of the institute, the students of Germain Mikhailovich Gvishiani were persons who became famous in the future, the so-called fathers of Russian democracy, the destroyers of the USSR, namely:
- Stanislav Sergeyevich Shatalin, deputy Gvishiani, developer of the well-known program “500 days”;
- Pyotr Olegovich Aven, oligarch, future Minister of Foreign Economic Relations of the Russian Federation;
- Egor Timurovich Gaydar, who became a well-known and controversial person in the 90s of the 20th century, Minister of Finance and Acting Prime Minister of Russia;
- Viktor Ivanovich Danilov-Danilyan, who headed the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation at the beginning of the 1990s;
- Vladimir Mikhailovich Lopukhin, in 1991 Minister of Fuel and Energy;
- Alexey Dmitrievich Zhukov in the government of the Russian Federation, headed by Fradkov, was deputy prime minister. Subsequently, the head of the Russian Olympic Committee;
- Mikhail Yuryevich Zurabov, former head of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation and Minister of Health.
From another structure, which was also headed by Gvishiani, namely MIPSA, other famous people in modern Russia “grew up”, namely: Anatoly Borisovich Chubais; Sergey Yurievich Glazyev, who in the 90s held the post of Minister of Foreign Economic Relations, known for his views on the economic reforms of the Russian Federation; Evgeny G. Yasin, who later served as Minister of Economics; Gavriil Kharitonovich Popov, who in the nineties was the mayor of Moscow.
The above list of individuals in whose formation of worldview Gvishiani directly participated has become the personnel base for the implementation of the so-called democratic reforms in Russia. Based on the foregoing, we can conclude: the role of Germain Gvishiani in the collapse of the USSR is definitely visible, and it is quite significant.
A family
Jermen Mikhailovich Gvishiani - the son-in-law of Kosygin, chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR (1964-1980). His wife, Lyudmila Alekseevna Kosygina, died in 1990. They have two children, daughter Tatyana and son Alex. The daughter is a candidate of law, a graduate of MGIMO. Son Alexei is an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, head of the geophysical center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. A well-known geoinformatics scientist in Russia and abroad.
Interestingly, the former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, Yevgeny Primakov, was married to Gvishiani’s adoptive sister.
He died on May 18, 2003. Academician Jermen Gvishiani was buried in Moscow, at Troekurovsky cemetery.