An accessible audit of Russia's efforts to gain a place at global
capitalism's table after more than seven decades of Communist
misrule and mismanagement. As Goldman (Economics/Wellesley; What
Went Wrong with Perestroika, 1991, etc.) makes abundantly clear,
switching from a centrally planned economy to a market economy is
easier said than done. Goldman draws on in-country contacts,
official records, and contemporary news reports to document how
Moscow has gone wrong at critical junctures since 1985, when
Mikhail Gorbachev first set the Soviet Union on a restructuring
course whose implications he did not fully grasp. After a lucid
account of the sociopolitical events that allowed Boris Yeltsin to
oust Gorbachev (in effect, by undermining the USSR), the author
offers an unsparing critique of the current incumbent's
stewardship. Like his unfortunate predecessor, Goldman points out,
Yeltsin failed to facilitate the formation of new businesses. Nor
did he and his chief adviser (Yegor Gaidar) do enough to encourage
land ownership. They also neglected to institute currency reforms
that could have dampened inflationary pressures and enhanced the
ruble's convertibility. Banking, price control, and tax policies
were botched as well; the regime has dithered disastrously on
privatizing state-owned enterprises; and the government has yet to
sponsor commercial codes that might restore much-needed order to a
chaotic, crime-ridden consumer marketplace. The author goes on to
weigh Russia's makeover prospects in the context of the bootstrap
recoveries achieved by former Kremlin satellites (Hungary, Poland),
mainland China, and WW II's losers (Japan, West Germany). Even
without much foreign aid or investment in the short run, concludes
Goldman, the Russians could eventually win their latest revolution,
albeit at no small cost. An informed and informative analysis of
the toil and trouble attendant upon a great nation's attempts to
gain world-class status as an economic rather than military power.
Helpful tabular material and graphs throughout. (Kirkus Reviews)
Combining trenchant commentary with first-person reporting, Goldman
provides the clearest picture yet of how Boris Yeltsin took on the
task of reforming the Russian economy and what happened along the
way. Lost Opportunity is a lucid analysis of Russia's titanic
struggle to change from a centrally planned economy to a market
economy.
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