The Tragedy of Soviet Market Economists

The Failed Quest to Civilise Russia, 1972-2022

Häftad, Engelska, 2026

549 kr

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In this pathbreaking history, Tobias Rupprecht offers a revisionist account of Russia's post-Soviet marketisation from the perspective of the advisors and ministers who oversaw this transformation. Based on extensive interviews with economists and research in state and private archives, he uncovers a significant minority of economic liberals from late Soviet academic and dissident circles who sought to chart a new path, believing free prices and private property were the foundations of a 'civilised country'. This provides a vital challenge to the dominant narrative that neoliberal advisors and organisations imposed harmful reforms on Russia after the collapse of Communism. Liberal reformers faced a profound dilemma - one for which Western advisors had no solution either: Should they commit to democratic political activism and risk irrelevance, or align themselves with those in power and be co-opted by an authoritarian state determined to re-assert its imperial strength?

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2026-08-31
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor372
FörlagCambridge University Press
ISBN9781009736985

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Introduction: the dilemmas of peripheral liberalism; 1. Crisis: economic expertise and politics in a stagnating Soviet Union, 1972–1985; 2. Catastrophe: economic debate, generational divide, and failed reform during perestroika, 1985–1991; 3. Hubris: liberals in power, and the limits to liberal power, in the new Russia, 1991–2000; 4. Diabolus ex machina: Russian liberals and the rise of authoritarian state capitalism, 2000–2022; Conclusion: the failure of Russian peripheral liberalism; Bibliography.

'This is a book of many virtues, but undoubtedly the most outstanding one is its unrelenting iconoclasm. The conventional wisdom holds that Russia was wrecked by neoliberal reformers who followed disastrous Western advice, and those who want to stick to it will surely be annoyed by Rupprecht's meticulously crafted and substantiated arguments. But intellectually alert readers will certainly find these arguments profoundly stimulating.' Venelin I. Ganev, Miami University, Ohio