Tragedy of Russia's Reforms: Market Bolshevism Against Democracy

by Peter Reddaway, Dmitri Glinski

Release Date: 01 January, 2001

Edition: Paperback

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A well-balanced inquiry into the complexities of Russia

By applying structural methodology, the authors have in this book managed to disentangle and address a plethora of important issues attached to the transitional phase of the Russian modernisation. The principal claim of shock therapy being an outcome of the "democracy-capitalism" dichotomy is plausibly supported and illuminated by evidence proving the unsuitably pervasive influence of external institutions such as the IMF, coupled with presidential authoritarianism. The analysis accumulates considerable propensity and dynamic when the authors address the Western 'ready made, assumptions of social phenomena such as nationalism, democracy and populist movements. It delivers an insight of the intricacies inherent in the social structure. Although the authors attempt to remain largely impartial and empirical in their study, the reader cannot fail to get the feeling that the line of arguments, at times, is too one-dimensioned towards Yeltsin and the IMF. It would add more substance to the study, had the authors incorporated a wider discussion of the international dimension. I do largely agree with the author's criticism towards Yeltsin when they argue that the presidential institution enjoyed the decree to choose a more suitable path to economic modernisation. Moreover, I concur that there was a link between Yeltsin's domestic powers and the unconditional international support he enjoyed. This is not to say that external moods could or ought to have played a decisive role in shaping the future of Russia, but it should no doubt, in hindsight, have favoured the emergence of a civil society before the market. The authors have throughout the book pointed out several missed opportunities for a genuine democratic movement to take root. With Yeltsin out of the political circus, it remains to be seen if Putin will eventually allow the democratic forces in Russia, to infiltrate the socio-political layers and by so doing; put an end to another protracted and pernicious era in Russian history. I highly recommend this book for those who wish to understand Russia's place in today's and tomorrows economically globalised world.

Read the book Anders Aslund tried to smear!

Yes, it's right, Anders Aslund, former advisor to the Russian Government under Yeltsin, took quotes out of context from Reddaway and Glinski's book in a futile attempt to paint Reddaway, perhaps the most prominent authority in the world on the Soviet dissident movement and the abuse of psychiatric hospitals under the Soviet regime, and Glinski, a prominent figure in the democratic movement in Russia, as fascists...in any case, this book is by far the best that has been written telling the truth of Boris Yeltsin's tragic turn to the right -- to the mafiya and to old figures in the Soviet nomenklatura, and the accompanying turn away from the democratic movement which brought him to power.

This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to go beyond the pronouncements of the American foreign policy establishment that Russia is on the road to democracy and learn what really happened.