Resumen
The works of Karl Ballod (1864-1931) - a Russian-German economist of world importance (of Latvian origin) are analyzed. The article focuses on three main works by Karl Ballod: on mortality, age composition and life expectancy, work devoted to the basics of statistics and, in particular, his book, entitled "The State of the Future". Already his first internationally recognized work laid the foundation for the application of mathematics in demographic research. It was Karl Ballod who introduced the concept of the coefficient of a demographic load. In ?The State of the Future?, Karl Ballod argues that socialism is not a utopia, and that its realization is possible even with the present level of productive forces. At the same time, socialism would be a more economical system than capitalism. Denying Marx's theory of the class character of the capitalist state, Ballod suggests that socialism can be achieved not by a revolutionary but by peaceful means. The purpose of this article is to identify the tasks ahead of the National Program of the Digital Economy - as a global project for Russia's modernization.