Grand Auction of the Century

Author: Kristina Fritze
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-10-01
Features: Some people (including myself) once naively believed that as long as a market economy was established, any kind of market economy would ensure economic prosperity and the happiness of the people. But the reality is not like that. Market economies are not all the same; there are good and bad ones. During the transition from a planned economy to a market economy, there can be setbacks and detours. One of them is deviating from the normative, rule-of-law-oriented market economy and evolving into what is called crony capitalism. In the 1990s, the Soviet Union, which covered one-sixth of the world's landmass, underwent massive changes. Yeltsin took to the streets and delivered a speech from atop a tank, becoming a classic historical moment. However, after the excitement, the people were quickly awakened to the harsh reality: the ruble plummeted, the Chechen War broke out, cronyism and banditry ran rampant, and doctors and teachers couldn't receive their salaries. If this is capitalism, then why would so many Russians prefer to return to the past. The social order in the new Russia did not descend from the heavens; it was established by a small group of those in power—business oligarchs and young reformers. The oligarchs were shrewd businesspeople who skillfully navigated various factions and, in the end, seized vast natural wealth in Russia. The young reformers were a group of ambitious economists who put their wild theories into practice, sometimes bringing encouraging results and other times causing massive destruction. This book tells the stories of these two types of people. At a critical juncture in history, the reformers failed to seize the golden opportunity, and their mistakes cost Russian society a heavy price, one that will require the efforts of generations to come to repay.