Yakov Aleksandrovich Novikov

Born in Constantinople in 1849 and raised in Odessa from childhood, he studied law at Novorossiysk University and later taught there. He also belonged to a wealthy merchant family and was the owner of a major rope factory, giving him a practical connection to commerce as well as ideas.

Novikov worked on the tariff commission that prepared the Russian customs tariff of 1892 and became a leading voice for free trade at the 1896 trade and industrial congress. Alongside his public activity, he wrote on economics, sociology, war, and relations between nations, with books including Protectionism, War and Its Supposed Benefits, and Social Darwinism.

In sociology, he moved from an organic view of society toward the psychological school, and he sharply criticized social Darwinism for reducing human society to crude struggle. His journalism also advanced pacifist ideas. Contemporary reference works noted that his writings were better known in Western Europe than in Russia itself, and several were translated into other languages.