The article analyzes the work of the academician Nikolay P. Fedorenko as the Academician-Secretary of the Soviet Academy of Sciences Department of Economy (1971—1985). It also looks at his role in the management of the Department of Economy in the above mentioned period. The author points out the respect and sympathy of all the members of this Department toward Fedorenko. In the period of Brezhnev stagnation and economic difficulties the Soviet economy was facing, Fedorenko desperately struggled for the right to elaborate progressive ideas, including intensive use of economic-mathematical methods in the national economy management. Aganbegyan underlines that Nikolai Fedorenko had the rare managerial quality to find and gather talented and progressive scholars. Thanks to that, the Central Economics and Mathematics Institute had become the cradle of the highly qualified scientists, who also contributed to the functioning of the Soviet Academy of Sciences Department of Economy. In Aganbegyan’s eyes, Fedorenko is an exemplary Academician-Secretary; the author considers that himself and his colleagues were fortunate to work with such a leader for fifteen years.