This second edition updates all chapters and covers the impacts of the global financial crisis and the European Union.

Anders Aslund is a leading specialist on postcommunist economic transformation with more than 35 years of experience in the field. The author of eleven books, he has also worked as an economic advisor to the Russian, Ukrainian and Kyrgyz governments. Dr Aslund joined the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington DC as a senior fellow in 2006. Before that he was the Director of the Russian and Eurasian Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He teaches at Georgetown University. He earned his PhD from Oxford University. He was born in Sweden and served as a Swedish diplomat.

Introduction: a world transformed; 1. Communism and its demise; 2. Radical reform versus gradualism; 3. Output: from slump to recovery and boom; 4. Liberalization: the creation of a market economy; 5. From hyperinflation to financial stability; 6. Privatization: the establishment of private property rights; 7. The social system; 8. The politics of transition; 9. From crime toward law; 10. The importance of the European Union; 11. The global financial crisis, 2007-12; Conclusions: a world transformed.