The reforms of the early 90s: the opinions of contemporaries

Abstract

The discussion in the research community about the support or lack of support for reforms in the early 90s in Russian society and nostalgia for the Soviet past are pushing one to revisit the analysis of the changes implemented. It is necessary not to mythologize and simplify the context of the beginning of the reforms, which the official public discourse suffers from, but to take a fresh look at the opinions of the population. While the main purpose of the transformations was the structural adjustment of the Russian economy, creation of market mechanisms for its regulation, increasing economic efficiency through the revival of the institutions of private property and competition, the means of implementing reforms led to somewhat different results. The foundations of alienation of the population from power and ownership were even more profound in comparison with the Soviet period. The aim of the reforms was not the development of the country, but the establishment of a new economic order beneficial to old and new nomenclatura. Therefore, it is important to pay special attention to the perceptions of transformations in the country and estimates of the socio-political and economic changes, to return to the beginning of the 1990s and to rethink the mood in society in the course of reform. Refs 29.