Russia's Economic Transitions

Book excerpt: Russia's Economic Transitions examines the three major transformations that the country underwent from the early 1860s to 2000. The first transition, under Tsarism, involved the partial break-up of the feudal framework of land ownership and the move toward capitalist relations. The second, following the Communist revolution of 1917, brought to power a system of state ownership and administration - a sui generis type of war-economy state capitalism - subjecting the economy's development to central commands. The third, started in the early 1990s and still unfolding, is aiming at reshaping the inherited economic fabric on the basis of private ownership. The three transitions originated within different settings, but with a similar primary goal, namely the changing of the economy's ownership pattern in the hopes of providing a better basis for subsequent development. The treatment's originality, impartiality and historical breadth have cogent economic, social and political relevance.