Lev Timofeev (born 1936), is a Russian economist, political commentator and novelist. The son of a high-ranking Russian government official, Timofeev graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.

Career

In the late 1960s and 70s, Timofeev worked as a journalist for the Moscow magazines, like Novyi Mir, Kommunist, etc. In 1985 Timofeev's book "The Technology of the Black Market or the Peasant Art of Starving" was published in the West by Telos Press. The book presented a harsh condemnation of the Communist economic system.

Timofeev was consequently arrested and sentenced to 11 years of hard labour on the grounds of "anti-soviet propaganda". He was freed in 1987 by a special decree signed by Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...

. In the late 1980s, Timofeev published the Referendum magazine and also served as the chairman of the Moscow Helsinki Committee for Human Rights

Helsinki Committee for Human Rights

The Helsinki Committees for Human Rights exist in many European countries as volunteer, non-profit organizations devoted to human rights and presumably named after the Helsinki Accords...

, a human rights watchdog. As and economist, Timofeev became one of the most vocal proponent of economic liberalism in Russia.

In 1993 Timofeev ran for the parliamentary seat on the Democratic Russia

Democratic Russia

Democratic Russia was generic name for several political entities that played a transformative role in Russia's transition from Communist rule:...

 ticket. Appointed professor at the Russian State Humanitarian University, Timofeev was for many years director of the Center for Research on Extralegal Economic Systems and advised the government of Boris Yeltsin

Boris Yeltsin

Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of...

. In the mid-1990s he joined the Transnational Radical Party

Transnational Radical Party

The Transnational Radical Party is a political association of citizens, parliamentarians and members of government of various national and political backgrounds who intend to use nonviolent means to create an effective body of international law with respect for individuals and the...

 and became member of its General Council. Timofeev was the leading theorist of the drug-use depenalization.

In the early 2000 Timofeev retired from politics and teaching and embarked on a career of a novelist: since 2004 he published two novels and a collection of short stories. His 2006 novel "Negative" was nominated for the Booker Prize.