Refurbishing the ‘circular economy’ concept in Russia: from industrial policy towards innovation by co-creation

Circular economy (CE) as a solution approach to global challenges is gaining momentum around the world. The aim of this chapter is to contribute to its origins in a historical perspective. Russia has a long history of industrial development: from being mainly agrarian in 1920s to winning WWII in 1945 and landing the first astronaut in 1961. Our findings demonstrate that CE concept was an integral part of the soviet industrial policies and most likely contributed to its “industrial miracle†. Among the key instruments were rationalization of the production processes including standardization and unification; territorial-production complexes; secondary resources and recycling; inventory of material flow systems; zero-waste technologies. We review the soviet policies according to the modern 10R CE framework and highlight that successful innovation requires not only technological, but also social innovation, lacking in the USSR. The collapse of the USSR led to a 30-years gap in Russia's CE development until the recent changes in governmental priorities that are eventually refurbishing CE concept from 2017 onwards.