The tragedy of Russia's reforms : market bolshevism against democracy

The demise of the Soviet Union in 1991 left Boris Yeltsin with a fundamental choice about how to transform Russia’s economy and society—a "bottom-up" civic-democratic revolution with the participation of the country’s populist forces, or a "free-market" revolution from above that involved an alliance between the Yeltsin camp and the nomenklatura, the powerful bureaucrats and factory managers left over from the Soviet era. Yeltsin’s choice of the latter course brought on an economic collapse almost twice as severe as that of America’s Great Depression, and it also subverted prospects for a popularly responsive government and a constructive political opposition. The authors here present a boldly original analysis of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the birth of the Russian state. The keys to understanding these events, they argue, are the prescriptions of Western "transitologists," the International Monetary Fund, and advocates of economic "shock therapy." These prescriptions allowed the nomenklatura and the financial "oligarchs" to acquire Russia’s industrial and natural resources and to heavily influence the country’s political destiny. In this sweeping interpretation, the authors skillfully place the contemporary Russian experience in the context of history, political and social theory, and Russia’s place in the international system. 1. Reform Or Reaction? The Yeltsin Era In A Millennium Of Russian History -- 2. Russian Postcommunism In The Mirror Of Social Theory -- 3. Populists, The Establishment, And The Soviet Decline -- 4. From Russian Sovereignty To The August Coup: A Missed Chance For A Democratic Revolution -- 5. Catching Up With The Past: The Political Economy Of Shock Therapy -- 6. Yeltsin And The Opposition: The Air Of Co-optation And Marginalization, 1991-1993 -- 7. Tanks As The Vehicle Of Reform: The 1993 Coup And The Imposition Of The New Order -- 8. The Imperial Presidency In A Privatized State, 1994-1996 -- 9. Market Bolshevism In Acton: The Dream Team, Shock Therapy Ii, And Yeltsin's Search For A Successor. Peter Reddaway & Dmitri Glinski. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 644-719) And Index. Examines the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the birth of the Russian state, focusing on Yeltsin's disastrous policies, which brought on an economic collapse almost twice as severe as America's Great Depression. "IN RUSSIAN AND WESTERN DEBATES about developments in the post-Soviet world, the term ""reforms"" has become a kind of magic fetish."