He was born on on October 21, 1931 in the village Izluchistoe of Sophievsky district of Dnepropetrovsk district. Father — Shulim Nusinovich Rapoport, mother — Elizabeth Abramovna Ruskol.

Valentine spent his early childhood in favorable atmosphere. His father was an activist of the Communist party and he worked on various senior economic posts. His mother was with children. The parental love, kind, active and creative atmosphere in the family, intelligent friends and colleagues of parents positively affected on the formation of Valentine’s character and outlook.

In 1939, at the age of 8, Valentine went to school and he was already able to read and write. He studied well, with interest. In 1941 he graduated from the 2-nd class. The Great Patriotic war began, interrupted his education and greatly changed the family life.

During evacuation in 1941–1943 in the village Kepental his mother and older brother Julius worked in a collective farm full daylight. Valentine watched the five-year-old Jeanne and three-year-old Nathan, and took care of home and attended to poultry and livestock — at first goat, then a cow-heifers. Valentine didn’t face with similar problems previously, but due to his intelligence, efficiency and optimism he quickly got started and successfully coped with these responsibilities. He didn’t have to continue his studies and the village school was not functioning.

From October 1943 to June 1944 the family lived in Saransk, Mordovia. Let’s note here a characteristic episode. Dependant children received 200 grams of bread a day. Mother barely placed a 12-year-old Valentin as a pupil to the shoe shop. During the work there he began to receive 600 grams and poor dinner.

In June 1944 the family returned from evacuation again to Ukraine to the Zaporozhye region. They lived in the villages of Trojany, Androvka and Novotroitskoye of Berdyansky district and since 1947 they lived in Berdyansk town. There appeared an opportunity for Valentine to continue his studies. In three years he learned the training programs from 3rd to 7th classes, making up for lost time. In the school he became a member of the Komsomol.

In 1947 he graduated from the six-month school of factory training and worked as an electrician on the restoration of the Pervomaisky plant of agricultural machinery in Berdyansk.

In 1948-1951 he studied in Berdyansk engineering college. From the third year Valentine was drafted into the Soviet Army. He served in the artillery: the gunner, commander of the howitzer guns, sergeant. Valentine was demobilized in September 1953 with the rank of second lieutenant in the reserve.

Valentine came to his parents to New Kahovka of Kherson region and in 1953–1959 he worked as a locksmith-inspector on Kakhovka railway station. There he met Galina Vladimirovna Yastremskaya and in 1956 they created another Rapoport family. Their children Tatiana and Irina were born in New Kahovka.

He graduated from two courses of the correspondence department of the historical faculty in Odessa University continuing his self-education. In parallel with work and study he had a social activity as a secretary of the main Komsomol organization at the station Kakhovka. In 1956 he was admitted to the Communist Party.

The achieved financial position and moral condition didn’t satisfy Valentine. He was 28 years old, and he understood that his capabilities were not used enough. But he couldn’t find use for them in New Kahovka. So in 1959 in the midst of the campaign for the development of virgin lands, Valentine with his family moved from there. At first he worked as a mechanic-inspector of cars in Ekibastuz, then as a chief engineer at the factory for repair of agricultural machinery.

In 1961–1972 Valentine worked at the Pavlodar machine-building plant (later — tractor plant) in Pavlodar town — a large industrial and cultural center of the Kazakhstan north-eastern region. He started as an engineer-technologist. On his initiative the experimental design and technological bureau for the implementation of plastics in the engineering industry was founded and he led it until 1970.

Valentine Rapoport with his wife and children

In 1964 his son Eugene was born. In the same year Valentine Shulimovich graduated from Pavlodar Industrial Institute on the specialty of "mechanical engineer of machine building technology".

In 1970–1972 Valentine Rapoport was the Head of the bureau of rationalization and invention of the plant.

In 1972–1974 Valentine worked in design institute of automated control systems (ACS) in Pavlodar as the Head of the sector of management systems research — director of tasks for ACS. In 1974–1976 he was a deputy chief engineer for new technology on the agricultural engineering plant in Frunze city, Kyrgyzstan.

In 1976 Valentine was already one of the leading experts on management in the Soviet Union and he was invited to take the post of chief of technology management department at the Kama automobile plant (Kamaz) in Naberezhnye Chelny, Tatarstan. There he was engaged, on his own initiative, in the development and implementation of management technology procedures, a new direction in the management science. That was very necessary during formation and functioning of the collective of 110 000 workers in this industrial giant. As a result, he created the System of Kamaz Document Management Technology. Valentine worked in Kamaz for 10 years. Even now, many years later, people in Kamaz work according to the procedures, developed by Valentine Shulimovich. Workers often remember him as one of the most prominent scientists and experts of his time and a remarkable man.

Kamaz became too small for the high erudition and the accumulated experience of Valentine Shulimovich. He strove for more. Then began the remarkable year 1985 and it was a start of a new era in the life of the country. There was a turn toward a market economy, the free enterprise became possible.

Valentine Rapoport left Kamaz and started his private practice as a professional consultant in economics and organization of control. In June 1988, he established an independent consulting firm, one of the first consulting companies in the USSR in the sphere of administrative activity — Limited Liability Company "Research and Advisory Centre "ECOU-Consult" located in New Kahovka. It was the company of the Rapoport family. Its founders and members were: Valentine Rapoport — CEO and scientific director; Julius Rapoport — administrative director and senior consultant; V. I. Gayvoronsky, I. U. Rapoport, A. N. Rapoport, E. V. Rapoport, U. A. Kosynkin — consultants; I. E. Rapoport — economist; O. U. Rapoport — accountant.

Valentine Rapoport was one of the first economists and managers who recognized the need for a new strategy of enterprise development and restructuring of their economic mechanism inherent in a market economy. This strategy was used on such large projects as "Tryokhgornaya factory" in Moscow, plants "Autodiesel", "Mashpibor" and institute "Hydroproject" in Yaroslavl; plant "Torfmash" in Ryazan, NPO "Volga" in Kazan, Elabuga automobile plant, Kherson pulp and paper mill and others. The heads of the enterprises didn’t think about it then, trying to work the old fashioned way. It was necessary to have the knowledge and ability of Valentine Rapoport, in order to convince them of the importance of the problem. But then the results were quite impressive for them!

Valentine Rapoport didn’t try to copy blindly the experience of the foreign management consulting. He put in a basis of "ECOU-Consult" work his scientific developments, which had no analogues in world practice. These were the works of the System of Kamaz Document Management Technology on diagnostics of the enterprises management and others. On their basis in 1990 the team of "ECOU-Consult" completed development of a package of techniques under the general name "System solver of RVS problems" which became a great contribution of Valentine Rapoport to the world methodology of approach to solving problems. This work was made by J. S. Rapoport, V. I. Gayvoronsky, I. U. Rapoport, A. N. Rapoport, E. V. Rapoport, U. A. Kosynkin and J. S. Yagodina under the direction of V. S. Rapoport.

Valentine Rapoport successfully applied the "System solver" in his practice of consultant in economics and management organization. In 1992 he first used it to analyze macro-economic problems of reforming the post-soviet economy. As a result of it there were revealed different approaches to the implementation of the reform that were alternative to the reforms in the CIS countries (newspaper Business world, Moscow, 07.30.92).

The next step was to analyze patterns of inflationary economy, in which he developed principles and methods of inflation control that allowed using its inherent laws to increase production and improve the welfare of the people (the book "System model of inflation management". Valentine Rapoport created such a powerful tool, invented and introduced the method of its effective use — the new type of business game that he called "Problem-solving workshop with the use of the "System solver". It was a new technology for activation of creative thinking process in a group of people.

The example of the effectiveness and efficiency of "System solver" and "PR-workshop" was a project made by "ECOU-Consult" for the city councils of Kherson and Elabuga in 1990-1991. About 80 people under the leadership of six consultants-methodologists, with the participation of managers and specialists of the city management bodies developed the concept of the city self-government on the theme "Kherson administration in terms of transition to the market economy". This concept anticipated the principles and main regulations of the Law of Ukraine on local self-government that was adopted later.

Valentin Shulimov is the author of many published and unpublished scientific works on technology of mechanical engineering, sociology, economics and management. In 1987 he brilliantly defended his thesis for the degree of candidate of economic sciences. Many scientists think that it could be a doctoral thesis.

As a member of Komsomol and the Communist party, Valentine Shulimovich wanted his works and deeds to correspond with high ideals and to make his contribution to the development of the country. But in 1960s he began to notice the discrepancy between the policy of ruling party and proclaimed ideals. He tried to fight with these things within the limits of the totalitarian regime. For example, he wrote a letter to the first secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU N. S. Khrushchev about the emerging "cult of Khrushchev" and about the unreality of the proclaimed housing program. In the 1970s, despite the demagoguery of the ruling elite, he proved (at the level of Candidate’s dissertation) that under socialism the work of the people is a "hired labor" and they should be well paid for it accordingly.

In the 1980s during the strife between the governments of the USSR and China, when the party press revealed Chinese socialism in every way, he had a study group of political education in Naberezhnye Chelny for the secretaries of the party committee and district committees of Komsomol. Valentine compared the state of the economies of these countries and tried to show in an implicit form the identity of their foundations. Also at the beginning of perestroika, he was the founder and the inspirer of the youth debating club of N. Bukharin. The purpose and method were the same — to "open the eyes" of youth activists on the illegitimacy of the regime, retracing activities of Bukharin.

As we can see, Valentine Rapoport took an active civil position and did a lot of public work, often conjugated with repressive action of the authorities. Of course, such a position was determined by the peculiarities of the man’s nature, his individual traits and innate abilities.

Valentine Rapoport, his wife Galina, Joseph Shaikin,
Jeanne Yagodina, Julius Rapoport. Kiev, 1990

Valentine Rapoport was known as a wise, honest, purposeful, principled and unselfish man, initiative, energetic and conscientious worker. He was an extrovert by nature and was the center of attraction for friends and other workers. Valentine was notable for the desire for knowledge and justice and critically assessed the realities of life. He was ambitious and always had a sense of dignity. From the above we can see his extensive erudition and creative approach to work.

The range of his interests was wide — art, literature, politics, economics and, of course, everything connected with production work. He wrote poetry, painted, danced beautifully, and loved to sing, though he didn’t possess a strong voice. He was a participant of the literary association in Pavlodar city and sometimes went on creative business trips as a poet. There with his friends (also poets, musicians and artists) he organized the wonderful "gatherings on Wednesdays", which were called shortly "chatter".

Valentin and Galina with their grandchildren

Anticipating a greater demand for management consulting, Valentin Rapoport showed the unselfish concern about the future of relatives. He created the collective company "ECOU-Consult" and invested intellectual property (his knowledge and skills) in authorized fund. All members of Julius’ and Valentin’s families became founders and employees. All of them contributed to the functioning of the firm. A work under the direction of Valentin Shulimovich became a real academy of theoretical and practical knowledge and skills for the young consultants. It significantly increased the erudition and range of vision, changed their outlook in many aspects.

On February 8, 1995 heavy irreversible illness cut short the life path of Valentin Shulimovich Rapoport in the prime of his creative activity. He was only 63 years old. He was buried at the cemetery of Naberezhnye Chelny city. Instead of a conclusion let’s give a word to the poet.

The Prayer of Contemporary
Послушайте!
Одолжите немножечко времени!
Я хотел бы немного расслабить
Тугую пружину дел.
Я бы лег
И в бездонное небо бездумно глядел.
Это было бы так хорошо:
Посреди суеты, забот
вдруг Звонкая тишина, голубой небосвод...
Ну, послушайте!
Одолжите немножечко времени!
Я возьму и добавлю его
К своим слишком коротеньким суткам,
Пересчитаю его, разложу по минуткам,
Выйду в путь, чтоб пожить налегке и...
Растрачу все время,
Словно пьяный гусар в кабаке!
Одолжите немножечко времени!
С недописанной песней валяется где-то тетрадь,
С буйной жаждой познанья никак не могу совладать,
Сами просятся в руки ученых записок тома,
Почитать бы неплохо веселый романчик Дюма.
К черту это бездонное небо!
Подумаешь, давно я в него не глядел!
Столько еще не законченных дел!
Столько надо творить, Столько надо дарить слов, улыбок, стихов,
Хитроумных машин, философских гипотез...
Дайте время свое!
Выйду с миром один на один.
Всё сумею и время само рукавицей заткну за пояс!

V. S. Rapoport, 1985

The main scientific works of V. S. Rapoport
1. System of documentary technology of Kamaz management. Standard of the enterprise, 1976–1986.
2. System approach in production management. A series of articles in the journal "ECO", Novosibirsk, 1980-1983.
3. Diagnostic management. Practical experience and recommendations. Book, Moscow, "Economy", 1988.
4. System solver of RVS problems. Package of techniques. On the rights of the manuscript. "ECOU-Consult", 1990.
5. Alternative memorandum on economic reform in the CIS. Article, newspaper "Business world", Moscow, 07.30.92.
6. The art of managing the inflationary economy. Book. New Kahovka, ECOU, 1994.
7. System model of inflation management. Book, Kiev, "Skarbnitsa", 1994.