It is not so easy to take the long view of socioeconomic history when you are participating in a revolution. For that reason, Russian economist Yegor Gaidar put aside an early version of this work to take up a series of government positions--as Minister of Finance and as Boris Yeltsin¿s acting Prime Minister--in the early 1990s. In government, Gaidar shepherded Russia through its transition to a market economy after years of socialism. Once out of government, Gaidar turned again to his consideration of Russia¿s economic history and long-term economic and political challenges. This book, revised and updated shortly before his death in 2009, is the result.

Yegor Gaidar (1956¿2009) was a Russian economist and politician and a key architect of economic reforms in Russia¿s transition to a market economy.