Dzhermen Mikhailovich Gvishiani (24 December 1928,

Akhaltsikhe Akhaltsikhe ( ka, ახალციხე ), formerly known as Lomsia ( ka, ლომსია), is a small city in Georgia's southwestern region (''mkhare'') of Samtskhe–Javakheti. It is situated on both banks of a small river Potskhovi (a left ...

– 18 May 2003,

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

) was a Soviet and Russian philosopher, sociologist, management theorist and scientific administrator.

Early life and family

Dzhermen Gvishiani was born the son of Mikhail Maksimovich Gvishiani, a

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

and an Armenian mother. His forename was composed from the first part of

Felix Dzerzhinsky Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky ( pl, Feliks Dzierżyński ; russian: Фе́ликс Эдму́ндович Дзержи́нский; – 20 July 1926), nicknamed "Iron Felix", was a Bolshevik revolutionary and official, born into Poland, Polish n ...

's name (Dzher) followed by the first part of

Vyacheslav Menzhinsky Vyacheslav Rudolfovich Menzhinsky (russian: Вячесла́в Рудо́льфович Менжи́нский, pl, Wiesław Mężyński; 19 August 1874 – 10 May 1934) was a Polish-Russian Bolshevik revolutionary, Soviet statesman and Communist ...

's name (men). Both were former chairmen of the

Joint State Political Directorate The Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU; russian: Объединённое государственное политическое управление) was the Intelligence agency, intelligence and state security service and secret police ...

(OGPU) for whom his father worked. Since 1948 married to Lyudmila Gvishiani (Kosygina), librarian and the only daughter of the Soviet Prime Minister (by 1948 - Minister of Finances)

Alexei Kosygin Alexei Nikolayevich Kosygin ( rus, Алексе́й Никола́евич Косы́гин, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsʲej nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ kɐˈsɨɡʲɪn; – 18 December 1980) was a Soviet statesman during the Cold War. He served as the Premi ...

. His son,

Alexei Gvishiani Alexei Dzhermenovich Gvishiani (russian: Алексей Джерменович Гвишиани; 29 October 1948) is a well-known Russian scientist, full member (academician) of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS). Chief Scientist of the Geophy ...

, is a prominent Russian geoinformatics scientist. Granddaughter,

Ekaterina Semenikhin Ekaterina Alekseyevna Semenikhin (russian: Екатерина Алексеевна Семенихина; born 4 December 1971) is a Russian art collector, philanthropist, economist and honorary consul. Semenikhin is the co-founder of the Ekateri ...

a, art collector and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

honorary consul A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

Career

Gvishiani graduated from the

Moscow State Institute of International Relations Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) (russian: Московский государственный институт международных отношений (МГИМО), also known as MGIMO University) is an institute of ...

in 1951 and became a member of the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

. He also joined the Soviet Navy that year, serving until 1955. Then he started work for the State Committee for New Technology. However, when the organisation was superseded by the State Committee for Science and Technology in 1965, he was appointed Deputy Chairman under

Vladimir Kirillin Vladimir Alekseyevich Kirillin (russian: Владимир Алексеевич Кириллин; – 29 January 1999) was a Soviet physicist specializing in energetics and thermophysics and a member of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Uni ...

. Member of the

Club of Rome The Club of Rome is a nonprofit, informal organization of intellectuals and business leaders whose goal is a critical discussion of pressing global issues. The Club of Rome was founded in 1968 at Accademia dei Lincei in Rome, Italy. It consists ...

, co-founder of the

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) is an independent international research institute located in Laxenburg, near Vienna, in Austria. Through its research programs and initiatives, the institute conducts policy-or ...

and head of its Soviet branch, Institute for Systems Analysis of the

Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991, uniting the country's leading scientists, subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (until 1946 ...

, known for its free thinking atmosphere unusual in the heavily ideologized Soviet environment that was essential to develop a market-oriented programme of further reforms of the Soviet economy. In 1980s he served as the deputy head of Soviet

Gosplan The State Planning Committee, commonly known as Gosplan ( rus, Госплан, , ɡosˈpɫan), was the agency responsible for central economic planning in the Soviet Union. Established in 1921 and remaining in existence until the dissolution of ...

. Gvishiani was a member of the United Nations Advisory Committee on Science and Technology (ACAST) since its inception in 1964.

Publications

* ''Organisation and management;: A sociological analysis of Western theories'' (1972) Moscow: Progress Publishers * ''Systems Research: Methodological Problems'' (1984) Oxford: Pergamon Press

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gvishiani, Dzhermen 1928 births 2003 deaths 20th-century Russian philosophers People from Akhaltsikhe Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Full Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences Moscow State Institute of International Relations alumni Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Recipients of the Vasilyev Brothers State Prize of the RSFSR Russian sociologists Soviet philosophers Soviet sociologists Burials in Troyekurovskoye Cemetery