Privatization and Transition in Russia in the Early 1990s

3   Reforming the communist inheritance

The goals and limits of privatization

This chapter aims to assess the likelihood that the Privatization Programme would achieve its objectives, given the economic and political context of the early 1990s in Russia. Were the goals set for the privatization reform realistic and, if so, what economic and political conditions were required for it to be successful?

The chapter begins by considering what was known about the industrial structure of Russia at the time. The reform programme, both its successes and failures, can be appreciated only in the context of understanding the economic institutions to be reformed. The chapter does not claim to do full justice to the nature of Soviet inheritance or to the state ...