The Piratization of Russia: Russian Reform Goes Awry / Edition 1

by Marshall I. Goldman

Overview

In 1991, a small group of Russians emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union and enjoyed one of the greatest transfers of wealth ever seen, claiming ownership of some of the most valuable petroleum, natural gas and metal deposits in the world. By 1997, five of those individuals were on Forbes Magazine's list of the world's richest billionaires. These self-styled oligarchs were accused of using guile, intimidation and occasionally violence to reap these rewards. Marshall I. Goldman argues against the line that the course adopted by President Yeltsin was the only one open to Russia, since an examination of the reform process in Poland shows that a more gradual and imaginative approach worked there with less corruption and a wider share of benefits.

The Piratization of Russia is an accessible, timely and topical volume that is required reading for those with an interest in Russian reform. Its appeal will range from students, academics, economists and politicians to the interested lay-reader keen to understand Russia's problems and learn how they could have been avoided.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415315296
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	04/10/2003
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	5.44(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Marshall I. Goldman is Davis Professor of Russian Economics, Emeritus at Wellsley College and Associate Director of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard, USA.

Table of Contents

1. Russia's Financial Bucaneers: The Wild and Wooly East 2. Setting the Stage: The Russian Economy in the Post-Communist Era 3. The Legacy of the Czarist Era: Untenable and Unsavory Roots 4. It's Broke, So Fix It: The Stalinist and Gorbachev Legacies 5. Privatization: Good Intentions but the Wrong Advice at the Wrong Time 6. The Nomenklatura Oligarchs 7. The Upstart Oligarchs 8. FIMACO: The Russian Central Bank and Money Laundering at the Highest 9. Corruption, Crime and the Russian Mafia 10. Who Says There Was No Better Way? 11. Confidence or Con Game: What Will it Take?

Editorial Reviews

'A tale of the making of rich oligarchs in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union and of the mafia’s role in these reforms.' - The Independent Review

'A clear, freewheeling [account of] ...the insider-dominated transfer of public property to a small number of "oligarchs."' - Foreign Affairs

'A testament to his longtime argument that Russia could have — and should have — done more to see to it that ordinary people were not left behind by the hastily envisioned new market economy.' - Moscow Times

From the Publisher

That the privatization of Russia's assets was a colossal heist is not news — especially not to Goldman. He was among the first and staunchest critics of the Yeltsin-Gaidar economic reforms, including the most flagrant misappropriation: the insider-dominated transfer of public property to a small number of "oligarchs." Since then, the debate over Russia's economic path has grown increasingly heated and occasionally personal. Having been on the receiving end of these exchanges, Goldman throws his own punches here. He acknowledges that any plan would have been at least partially defeated by Russia's cultural and communist past but contends that the one chosen only made matters worse, producing new structural deformities that will not be easily corrected. Moreover, he argues, alternatives existed, taking China and Poland as examples. All in all, Goldman provides a clear, freewheeling version of his side of the argument.

Foreign Affairs