Privatization and Transition in Russia in the Early 1990s

The privatization of Russia in the early 1990s was one of the most controversial economic reforms of the twentieth century. Its objective was the formal unwinding of the Soviet administrative command economy and the founding of a market system.

Much has been written on the subject, but there is as yet no comprehensive history of the laws and events that which brought about privatization – the institutional context surrounding the debates – and the chaotic economic and administrative circumstances of their implementation. As a result, the judgments that have been passed on the reform are too often based on a superficial understanding of history they seek to interpret.

This book fills the gap, and helps to set the record straight. Written by two senior advisors who worked in Russia at the time, it disentangles the actions, the politics, the laws, the institutions and the economics that shaped, for better or worse, this momentous reform. In writing the book, the authors have had unique access not only to leading academics, but to contemporary documentation, and through interviews, to protagonists on both sides of the debate.

The book is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the period, or suggest lessons that can be learned from it. It will be of importance to any scholar of Russian history, and to those who study transition economics.

Carol Scott Leonard, Emeritus Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford, UK, is Vice-Rector of the Presidential Academy of the National Economy and Professor at the National Research University – Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia.

David Pitt-Watson is an Executive Fellow at the London Business School. In the early 1990s he was the director responsible for Eastern Europe at Braxton Associates/Deloitte.