Russia Under Yeltsin and Putin: Neo-Liberal Autocracy (Transnational Institute Series)

by Renfrey Clarke, Boris Kagarlitsky

Release Date: 25 February, 2002

Edition: Paperback

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From "Westernism" to the twilight of the "Second Republic"

Ably translated into English by Renfrey Clarke, Russia Under Yeltsin And Putin by Boris Kagarlitsky (Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Comparative Political Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences) is a compelling contemporary political analysis of the radical changes that have reshaped the former Soviet Union during the last twenty years. From the influence of "Westernism" to the twilight of the "Second Republic" and the uncertain future of Putin's new government, Russia Under Yeltsin And Putin is a fascinating study, and highly recommended for Russian Studies supplemental reading lists and academic reference collections.

Fascinating account of evils of capitalism

Russia's return to capitalism has caused economic collapse and political and social chaos. Kagarlitsky's book proves that workers cannot live under capitalism because it does not meet our needs. Stalin had found Russia a ruin and left it a great independent power. Gorbachev and Yeltsin found Russia a major power and left it in ruins: Kagarlitsky depicts this criminal and treasonous ruling class.

He shows capitalism's dire effects on Russia's economy, industry, the trade unions, the media, the intelligentsia, and systems of government. Capitalism ended full employment and free education and medical care. Between 1991 and 1998 overall production halved, and the population fell by 3.4 million.

He notes, "In the West, ... the bourgeoisie was being forced to wage a drawn-out positional war against the welfare state ... with the adoption of the Maastricht Accords, the advent of the euro and the establishing of a European Central Bank independent of the governments and the population." These international monetarist bodies ordered privatisation, to breathe life into a dying system.

As in Britain, the Russian working class cannot avoid head-on assault by capitalist forces; if workers don't fight, we won't survive: we will have no pensions, no jobs, no NHS, no education, no housing, no law, no order. In Russia, Kagarlitsky warns us, "A shift to compulsory medical insurance ushered in the collapse of the entire health care system."

He writes, "There is no capitalist solution to Russia's problems." In fact, capitalism is the problem. He calls on Russia's workers to make a new revolution. They must find a new way of survival and work out how to run their country again. They have to restore their organisations and fight for democracy and sovereignty.

As Kagarlitsky writes, "The American Revolution showed that democracy and independence are interlinked in the closest possible fashion. The essence of them is that a country's fate is determined by its citizens alone, and not by a parliament in Westminster to which the inhabitants of Boston have not sent deputies, and not by the International Monetary Fund, whose policies are not formulated in Moscow."