Russia ─ A Long View

It is not so easy to take the long view of socioeconomic history when you areparticipating in a revolution. For that reason, Russian economist Yegor Gaidar put aside an earlyversion of this work to take up a series of government positions--as Minister of Finance and asBoris Yeltsin's acting Prime Minister--in the early 1990s. In government, Gaidar shepherded Russiathrough its transition to a market economy after years of socialism. Once out of government, Gaidarturned again to his consideration of Russia's economic history and long-term economic and politicalchallenges. This book, revised and updated shortly before his death in 2009, is the result.

Gaidar's account of long-term socioeconomic trends puts his country in historicalcontext and outlines problems faced by Russia (and other developing economies) that more developedcountries have already encountered: aging population, migration, evolution of the system of socialprotection, changes in the armed forces, and balancing stability and flexibility in democraticinstitutions. This is not a memoir, but, Gaidar points out, neither is it "written from theposition of a man who spent his entire life in a research institute." Gaidar's "longview" is inevitably informed and enriched by his experience in government at a watershed momentin history.

Yegor Gaidar (1956--2009) was a Russian economist and politician and a key architect of economic reforms in Russia's transition to a market economy.