Isaak Ilyich Levin

Isaak Ilyich Levin , Russian Исаак Ильич Левин , pseudonym João Frederico Normano (born July 12, 1887 in Kiev , † April 25, 1945 in New York City ) was a Russian-American economic historian and entrepreneur.

Life

Isaak Ilyich Levin was born in Kiev in 1887 as the son of a wealthy businessman. He studied economics from 1905 to 1910 at the Polytechnic in St. Petersburg , and in the meantime also at the University of Leipzig . His most important teachers were Peter Struve , Karl Bücher and Gerhart von Schulze-Gaevernitz , with whom he completed his dissertation on stock trading banks in Russia in 1912 at the University of Freiburg . Back in Saint Petersburg, he worked at the university as a private lecturer and was also involved in a number of medium-sized companies in which he held shares. His political outlook was liberal; he wrote in Struves Russkaja Mysl as well as in the newspaper of the cadets (changing names, most recently Nasch Wek). Shortly before the paper closed, he published a critical article on Lenin's economic thinking.

Lewin had to leave Russia , worked in Finland in circles of Russian entrepreneurs in exile and in 1921 moved to the German capital, where a "Russian Berlin" was created. As in Saint Petersburg, he had a choice between business and science. He decided on a career as a banker, worked as a bank director in the financing of German-Russian trade and in setting up a Berlin head office for German provincial banks and in 1926 bought the traditional private bank G. Löwenberg & Co. This house was also affected by the crisis in medium-sized banks and Lewin was accused of counterfeiting.

He fled to Brazil in 1929 , bought a passport in the name of João Frederico Normano, and in 1930 became Vice Director of the Latin American Institute at Harvard University . As a “Brazilian” author, he quickly gained recognition for his writings on Latin America and Pan-Americanism, but was exposed at the end of 1932 and fell into the mills of extradition proceedings that became the “Normano Case” for the US State Department and Jewish organizations after the National Socialist seizure of power . Lewin was able to stay in the USA as "JF Normano", strengthened his position in Latin American studies and worked in scientific policy advice: in "pre-war planning" and "post-war planning". He also wrote and taught on the development of American Pacific interests. His last book, published posthumously, deals with the "Spirit of Russian Economics". He died in New York in April 1945 and was forgotten. Important works by the “Brazilian” Normano were later reprinted in the USA and Brazil. In Russia during the Stalin era, the author was recognized as II Levin but - due to ideology - not recognized; an anthology with an appreciation of his work was not published until 2010.

Publications (selection)

• Lewin, Isaac I .: Stock trading banks in Russia, Petrograd 1917 (Russian).
• Lewin, Isaac I .: German Capital in Russia (2nd edition), Petrograd 1918 (Russian).
• Normano, JF: The Struggle for South America. Economy and Ideology, London 1931 (other editions: Boston 1931, Westport 1973). Portuguese version: A Luta pela América do Sul, São Paulo 1944.
• Normano, JF: Brazil - A Study of Economic Types, Chapel Hill 1935 (new edition New York 1968). Portuguese version: JF Normano: Evolução econômica do Brasil, São Paulo 1939 (reprinted São Paulo 1945, reprinted São Paulo 1975).
• Normano, JF: Asia between Two World Wars, New York 1944.
• Normano, JF (ed.): El Pensamiento Económico Latinoamericano, Mexico (Fondo de Cultura Económica) 1945.
• Normano, JF: The Spirit of Russian Economics, New York 1945.

literature

• Olga Jerochina: Ученый-экономист И.И. Левин: жизнь и деятельность в России до 1918 года (The economist II Levin: His life and work in Russia until 1918). In: Terra Economicus, Rostov University magazine. Vol. 7 (2009), H. 3, pp. 128-132 (Russian).
• Andrei A. Belych (Ed.): II Lewin: Акционерные коммерческие банки в России (Stock Trading Banks in Russia). Moscow 2010, ISBN 978-5-7749-0618-5 (Russian).
• Hans H. Lembke: banker, forger, historian. Isaac Lewin's path through the history of his time . Centaurus, Freiburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-86226-176-5 .

Web links

• Biography of II Lewin | JF Normano