Leonid Vitaliyevich Kantorovitch was born with Leningrad in 1912 and died in 1986.

At 22 years, this young researcher, very gifted for the Mathématiques, is named professor with the Université of Leningrad. In 1971, it directs a mathematical research center of economy created especially for him to Moscow.

It is a little before the Second world war, that Leonid Kantorovitch discovers the technique of the linear programming, and possibilities that this one can bring to optimization Soviet economic production. But its analyzes run up quickly against the role of the prices in the economy. From there, he concludes that the prices are determined by the relative scarcity of the products. What leads it indirectly, to reintroduce the theory of marginal utility, which is opposed to the Marxist theory of the value work according to which the price of a product is determined by incorcoporé work directly and indirectly.

It is thus only after the Stalinist era that the theories of Kantorovich will be published. They will find applications in the liberalization of the Soviet economy. One of the contributions of Kantorovitch is to have initiated an approach which takes into account the marginal productivity of the investment, in order to solve the difficulties related to the allowance of the resources within a socialist economy.

Leonid Kantorovitch accepted the “Nobel Prize” of economy in 1975.