Privatization and Piratization in Post-Communist Russia

In The Piratization of Russia: Russian Reform Goes Awry (2003), noted scholar Marshall I. Goldman critically assesses the economic reforms of post-Soviet Russia, focusing closely on Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar’s flawed privatization program. Unlike Poland’s privatizations, which spurred the growth of a solid middle class, Russian reforms produced a handful of wealthy oligarchs and a powerful anti-reform backlash.