Yuri Maltsev December 31, 1950 – January 25, 2023
Born in 1950 in Kazan, capital of Tatarstan, Soviet Union, Yuri Maltsev spent his life devoted to the freedom of individuals until passing away in Chicago, Illinois on January 25, 2023. He now rests in peace in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Yuri had a vibrant youth. As a child, he attended music school, specializing in piano. Although he ultimately decided not to pursue piano, his love of music, specifically the classical works of Tchaikovsky, Bach, and Chopin, stayed with him his entire life.
Yuri began his studies at Kazan State University before transferring to Moscow State University, where he completed his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in Labor Economics. Later, he joined Gorbachev’s economic advisory board, focusing on the implementation of the perestroika. During his tenure at the USSR’s International Labor Organization, he traveled and worked throughout Europe and Sri Lanka, a cosmopolitan theme he would carry on throughout his life.
Always skeptical of the Soviet system, Yuri was drawn to Western writings by Graham Greene, Agatha Christie, William Faulkner, and Friedrich Hayek. These authors, he said, were his “windows to the West”. Later, in the United States, his favorites grew to include Leslie Nielsen movies.
In 1989, while on a Soviet sanctioned business trip to Finland, Yuri made an impromptu dash for the United States, ultimately successfully defecting from the USSR. After various intelligence debriefings in Germany, he made his way first to New York City and then to Washington D.C., where he became a fellow of the Institute of Peace. While in DC, he testified before Congress and appeared on multiple news outlets, including Fox News, CNN, and C-SPAN, discussing the inanities of the USSR and communism. In one of his proudest and happiest moments, Yuri became a United States citizen in 1995.
Driven by his passions for speaking and teaching, Yuri moved to Kenosha, Wisconsin in 1991 to begin as a Professor of Economics at Carthage College, where he remained until his passing. In his over three decade tenure at Carthage, Yuri became well known for his lectures, commitment to his students, and student trips to exciting and often out-of-the-way places. These trips included meeting with local communities, educational organizations, and government officials. Yuri said his student tours to Cuba “were the best way to inoculate young minds against the evils of communism”. Yearly family trips were just as action-packed.
Yuri believed to his core that individual liberty and property rights were the natural foundations of human existence. He wrote two books, co-authored nine books, and wrote more than three hundred articles exposing the horrors of totalitarianism. Yuri befriended the giants of libertarian thought, Murray Rothbard and Hans-Hermann Hoppe, from the Austrian School of Economics and was humbled to become a Senior Fellow at the Mises Institute.
Yuri’s knowledge of economic thought, world history, and human nature was exceptional. He gave hundreds of speeches at universities and colleges in the US and abroad. Additionally, he spoke at numerous worldwide military installations to senior officials in intelligence agencies and the Department of Defense. His humor and personal stories touched the lives of many across the world with the ideals of freedom and his critique of authoritarianism.
Yuri will be remembered for his vividly amusing and wise stories about his life and the historical events he witnessed. He was loved by all and will dearly be missed as a husband, father, brother, son, friend, and professor.
Yuri is survived by his wife Rita, whom he met in Lithuania in 2002, and their two children, Laura and Stanley. He is also survived by his older daughters Alexandra and Hannah, his sister Natalia, and his mother Olga.
His funeral will be on Monday, January 30th as follows
— 11am – 1pm visitation at St. Matthews Episcopal Church (5900 7th Ave, Kenosha, WI 53140)
— 1pm – 2pm service at St. Matthews
— 2:30pm burial at Green Ridge Cemetery (6604 7th Ave, Kenosha, WI 53143)
— 3pm – 7pm reception at the Kemper Center’s Founders Hall (6501 3rd Ave, Kenosha, WI 53143)
Everyone is invited at any time at their convenience.
