Struve, Petr Berngardovich (1870–1944)

Soviet economist, sociologist and politician of German descent. In the 1890s he was the leading Marxist theorist in Russia, and in 1898 drafted the manifesto of the Russian Social Democratic Workers' party.

He soon left Social Democracy and became leader of the constitutional movement of the liberal intelligentsia, editing, in the years 1902–5, its journal, Liberation, which was published abroad. In 1905 he returned to Russia and joined the Constitutional Democratic party. In 1907 he became a member of the Second Duma. He took a leading part in the Vekhi movement and advocated the cooperation of liberals with the government. During the Russian Civil War, he was minister of foreign affairs in Ferdinand Wrangel's government in the Crimea. Later he emigrated and was prominent in the activities of the moderate Right.

Struve's two main works are the two-volume Economy and Price (1913–16) and Social and Economic History of Russia (1952)