Russia's Capitalist Revolution: Why Market Reform Succeeded and Democracy Failed, by Anders Aslund, Peterson Institute for International Economics, October 2007. ISBN paper 978-0-88132-409-9.

The Russian revolution, collapse of the Soviet Union, and Russia's ensuing transformation belong to the greatest dramas of our time. Revolutions are usually messy and emotional affairs, challenging much of the conventional wisdom, and Russia's experience is no exception.

This book focuses on the transformation from Soviet Russia to Russia as a market economy, and explores why the country has failed to transform into a democracy. It examines the period from 1985, when Mikhail Gorbachev became the Soviet Union's Secretary General of the Communist Party, to the present Russia of Vladimir Putin. Åslund provides a broad overview of Russia's economic change, highlighting the most important issues and their subsequent resolutions, including Russia's inability to sort out the ruble zone during its revolution, several failed coups, and the financial crash of August 1998.

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You can download "Introduction", "Perestroika: The Great Awakening" in PDF format. FREE!

About the Author:

Anders Aslund, known to repeatedly challenge conventional wisdom on transition economies, is a leading specialist on post-communist economic transformation with more than 30 years of experience in the field. He boldly predicted the fall of the Soviet Union in his, Gorbachev s Struggle for Economic Refor (1989). In Building Capitalism: The Transformation of the Former Soviet Bloc ; (2002) he firmly stated that the only choice Russia had was market reform.

In his new book, Russia s Capitalist Revolution, he explains why Russia s market reform succeeded and democracy building failed. Dr Åslund joined the Peterson Institute for International Economics as senior fellow in January 2006. He has worked as an economic adviser to the Russian government (1991 94), to the Ukrainian government, and to the president of the Kyrgyz Republic. Before joining the Peterson Institute he was the director of the Russian and Eurasian Program at the Carnegie Endowment for nternational Peace, and he codirected the arnegie Moscow Center s project on Post-Soviet Economies. He was founding director of the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics and professor at the Stockholm School of Economics (1989 94).

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