Life Path and Scientific Activity of Mykola Ivanovych Ziber

Abstract

The article is devoted to the scientific and practical activities of the outstanding scientist-economist, profound theorist, active publicist and prominent Ukrainian public figure Mykola Ivanovych Ziber.

The life of the scientist, his historical role in the development of political economy and statistics are considered. Mykola Ziber was a great connoisseur of classical English economic literature and the newest German economic literature. He systematized and popularized the ideas of classical political economy.

The contribution of the scientist to the development of the theoretical and methodological foundations of statistics is determined. Mykola Ziber actively used the historical-evolutionary and interdisciplinary subjection in the study of the interconnectedness of economic activity and legal economic relations. The scientist paid a lot of attention to the analysis of land relations and co-operation, industrial development and the impact of progress on socio-economic processes. A prominent economist with an analytical mind examined various historical and economic issues, analysed socio-economic processes in different countries of the world.

Great attention Mykola Ziber paid to questions of statistical classifications, defining their features and imperfections. He focused on the commonly defined division of statistics into three main groups: population statistics, economic statistics, and moral statistics. Scientist revealed the essence of the phenomena belonging to these groups and their classification.

The article describes Ziber’s attempt to build a program that would enable the development of material that characterizes social life. Mykola Ziber believed that it is necessary to study demographic processes and socio-physiological relation, generalize information that characterizes these processes, and more widely use average values. The author was convinced that in order to develop a holistic program for the study of social phenomena it was necessary, in addition to demographic processes, to study information on production and consumption. The program, developed by Mykola Ziber was one of the first, which was used by the statistics of Chernihiv region to study the socio-economic development of the country. It made possible to describe in detail the state of socio-economic phenomena. The author has sufficiently clearly defined all the necessary questions. A system of statistical indicators was formed, method of grouping was widely used, and objects were considered on a number of different features. Mykola Ziber’s work made a sufficient contribution to the enrichment of the methodology of statistical research.