His particular contributions include the "Strumilin index", a measure of labor productivity, and the "norm coefficient", relating to analysis of investment activity.
Strumilin was born into an impoverished noble family of Strumillo-Petrashkevich, descended from Marshal of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Stanislav Petrashkovich Stromila.
He joined the revolutionary movement in 1897 by becoming a member of the League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class.
Strumilin then became a member of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1899 and joined its Menshevik faction.
After the October Revolution he worked on setting up the Soviet planned economy while he was appointed to a professorship in economics at the Moscow State University.