State and Evolution: Russia's Search for a Free Market

What was the revolution of the 1990s for Russia? writes Yegor Gaidar. Was it a hard but salutary road toward the creation of a workable democracy with workable markets, a way for Russia to develop and survive in the twenty-first century? Or was it the prologue to another closed, stultified regime marching to the music of old myths and anthems?

Few are as well-equipped to consider this matter as Gaidar, noted Russian economist and prime minister during Boris Yeltsin s early years as …