The Oligarchs: Wealth and Power in the New Russia

by David E. Hoffman

Release Date: 23 December, 2003

Edition: Paperback

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A wonderful review of the Oligarchs

The Oligarchs of Russia are a special breed and this excellent book brings them to light. Hoffman excellently details the various men who came tot he fore in the New Russia under Yeltsin. From Mayor Luzhkov to Gusinky, Khordorovsky and Berezovky among others this book paints a wonderful picture of the hustlers, gangsters, politicians and Bankers that recreated Russia in the 1990s, making it mirror more 1920s America then the past soviet empire. This wonderful account details the back story of the various super-rich who came to dominate Russian Industry from Yukos to Aeroflot and the Russian Central Bank, from oil to automobiles. These men started poor, many were of Jewish ancestry and subjected to the prying eyes of the vast soviet bureaucracy. In one oligarchs case he started out selling Bibles on the black market and another pioneered the building of Dacha's over and above his quota for production. A wonderful tale about the horrors of communism, for instance the story of Russia's disgusting massive warehouse for vegetables, and the story of the cowboy capitalists, most of whom are now in prison or under indictment and forced to flee abroad.

Seth J. Frantzman