Russian History of the Develop-Ment of Homo Economicus Within the Framework of the 21st Cen-Tury Theoretical Concepts of Behavioral Economics (Using Homo Ludens as an Example)

On October 30 and November 1, 2024, the conference "Pushkin and Economics" was held at St. Petersburg University. The topic is not new for Pushkin studies. It was initi-ated by the article of the famous historian Pavel Shchegolev "Pushkin - Economist", published by the newspaper "Izvestia" in 1930. Many Pushkin scholars, following Shchegolev, include Pushkin among the famous Russian economists of the 19th century, and this choir includes the voices of not only domestic "Pushkin scholars", but also foreign ones. In 1945, for example, Normano's book "The Spirit of Russian Economic Science" appeared in the USA, where Pushkin is spoken of as a famous economist. According to the authors, the economic behavior of the poet, as well as that of his friends, was irrational from the standpoint of the asserted Homo economi-cus, but quite logical from the standpoint of behavioral economics. In their study, the authors test their hypoth-esis about the prevalence of the play prin-ciple in everything that concerns the eco-nomic side of life. Pushkin is a typical Ho-mo ludens (playing man) type of the time of changes, and as such, his attitude to eco-nomic reality is of scientific interest, based on the principles of the new behavioral economics. Classical economic theory as-sumes that economic entities pursue their own interests and strive to maximize their benefits in their actions. In numerous defini-tions of the concept of "economics", the concept of "rationality" is most often en-countered. Irrational economic choice was considered in economic science as a kind of failure of regularity, at least until joint research at the intersection of psy-chology and economics, which culminated in the formation of a new direction called "behavioral economics". In particular, it studies and explains the influence of long-term strategies on economic decisions made by people under the influence of ide-als of justice, equality, or other social pref-erences. Behavioural economics also stud-ies the influence of social and emotional factors on decisions made during economic choice. It studies decisions that are irra-tional from the standpoint of income maxi-misation. Based on the principles of behav-ioural economics, it is possible to under-stand the attitude to the economic side of life of the emerging Russian intelligentsia, which began its existence, according to Ovsyaniko-Kulikovsky (author of the "Histo-ry of the Russian Intelligentsia") with Eu-gene Onegin, that is, with Pushkin. Partial-ly, the basis for economic-behavioural analysis was the magazine "Sovremennik", as a result and conscious position of the poet as an author, editor and publisher.