Arcadius Kahan

Who was Arcadius Kahan?

Arcadius Kahan was a noted 20th century economic historian and Professor at the University of Chicago. Arcadius was author of 'Russian Economic History, The Nineteenth Century' also 'The Plow the Hammer and the Knout' The latter book presents his explanation of the foundation in the Eighteenth Century of the Russian economy and power structure.

Kahan had been a student in the Communist Party when the Nazis invaded his country, Poland, in 1939. He joined an underground group which engaged in acts of sabotage and which struggled not to be caught, a group in which he became a leader. After the Soviet army pushed the Nazis out of Poland, he expected to help in forming a new government. Instead, the Soviets set up their own state within Poland and drove Kahan to flee the country.

Kahan came to the U of Chicago after severe persecution in the old Soviet Union that included a stay in the Treblinka prison, apparently a prison used by the Soviets which was on the site of the wartime extermination camp.

Although he was member of the University of Chicago department of Economics, he was never a member of what is now known as the Chicago school of economics. In addition to Chicago, he held a visiting professorship at the London School of Economics.