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Everyone agrees
on the necessity
of reforms, which could
prepare the Soviet
economy for a gradual
restoration of market
mechanisms and private
property relations. But at
the same time, we realize
that it will be
incredibly difficult.
About Yegor
Gaidar
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The Institute was
closely involved
in the strategic policy
decision-making process,
including formulating
long-term USSR economic
development programs.
An unprecedented
atmosphere of freedom
to express opinions
reigned there.
honors and completing his PhD studies,
Yegor was appointed to the All-Union
Scientific Research Institute of the
USSR Academy of Sciences.
In the early 1980s, it was the
Institute that became one of the
pioneers of future major economic
changes in the USSR. Yegor Gaidar
worked within a group of young
scientists headed by Stanislav Shatalin
that concentrated on comparative
studies on the results of economic
reforms in socialist countries.
Gaidar’s economic reforms in the
0s have often been labelled as “shock
therapy”. However, initially Yegor and
Gaidar
Yegor Timurovich Gaidar was
a prominent economist, politician,
and statesman, born on March 19,
1956, who left a lasting footprint in
Russian history.
He was raised in a family with
deep-rooted values, such as courage,
self-respect, independence, and sense
of duty. Yegor’s father, Timur Gaidar,
served as a military correspondent and
was sent on a mission to Cuba on the
eve of the Caribbean crisis. Later on,
in the 1960s, Timur Gaidar worked in
Pravda newspaper’s office in Belgrade.
The journey made a strong impression
on Yegor and greatly influenced his
mindset, as Yugoslavia was undergoing
economic reforms at that time. Yegor
took a vivid interest in philosophy
and history, read a lot and started
studying fundamental Marxism classics,
which he characterized as containing
“fascinating and brilliant” ideas, but
“sometimes so dulled and dogmatized”
when implemented in practice. This
genuine passion for economics and
thrive for positive change and self-
perfection that he developed in his
childhood was what Yegor Gaidar
carried with him through his whole life.
Unsurprisingly, after finishing school
in 1973, Yegor Gaidar decided to engage
with economics and enrolled in the that
department at Lomonosov Moscow
State University. After graduating with
his colleagues were united by a strong
desire to find ways to transform
the Soviet economy, drowned in
bureaucracy and excessive regulation,
without radical measures, based on
the reform experience of Hungary and
Yugoslavia. The greatest issue was the
general inertia of state mechanisms.
The inability to make appropriate
and timely decisions and a range of
ill-conceived steps and half-measures
finally led to the catastrophic self-
destruction of the Soviet economy and
the Union itself.
By the end of the 1980s, Yegor
Gaidar had become a well-known
economist with a solid reputation
in the scientific community. In 1990,
he founded the Institute for Economic
Policy at the Academy of National
Economy, which he directed until
2009. Understanding the inevitability
of the USSR’s collapse, Gaidar and
his team of young fellows put every
effort in developing a comprehensive
program of reforms to overcome the
crisis. This is how the main features
of “shock therapy” saw the light: price
liberalization, privatization, financial
stabilization, and reducing state costs –
a set of unpopular yet unavoidable
measures in a time of hardships.
Early in the morning on August 18,
1991, striking news shook the country.
All the television channels broadcast the
declaration by the self-proclaimed State
Committee of the State of Emergency.
Yegor Gaidar arrived in a Moscow filled
with tanks to support Boris Yeltsin.
On August 19, Yegor Gaidar became
acquainted with the State Secretary
of the RSFSR, Gennady Burbulis,
one of the most influential figures
surrounding the first Russian President.
Burbulis soon persuaded Yeltsin to
entrust Gaidar’s team with developing
a reform implementation program.
In the beginning of the nineties, this
was one of very few expert groups that
had thoroughly studied the possible
scenarios of large-scale economic
transformation programs.
Despite flapping
tricolour Russian
flags and triumphant
crowds, I am seriously
concerned for the
future of the country.
Any revolution is always
a terrible experience and
a great risk for the
country.
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