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Release Date 27.02.2026

 ECONOMIC HISTORY

 

 

 

Vasiliev Sergey

Doctor of Economics, Professor

E.T. Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy (Moscow), This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

ECONOMIC REFORM PROGRAMS AND THE LAUNCH OF ECONOMIC REFORM IN RUSSIA

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The article contains analysis of the programs of economic reforms developed in the USSR and Russia in 1984-1992. Early programs were based mainly on the experience of reforms in Yugoslavia and Hungary and assumed gradual introduction of market mechanisms while preserving for time being Soviet political system.However, the political liberalization, which accompanied the “perestroika” process and the rapid growth of fiscal imbalances, led to the revision of the concept of phased transition to market in favor of radical and fairly rapid economic reforms, which was reflected in the economic program “ 500 days”. In 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union a group of young economists led by Yegor Gaidar proposed a program of market transformation, which was launched early in 1992. Despite some successes in the implementation of the program, it nevertheless failed in its main direction: financial stabilization was not carried out and the country entered a protracted period of high inflation.

 

Keywords: Soviet economic reform programs in the 80s, gradual and radical reforms, reform program of Gaidar, economic reforms of Gaidar

 

JEL: А11, А22, В25, В30, В,52

UDC: 338(091)

DOI: 10.52342/2587-7666VTE_2026_1_189_214

 

©  S. Vasiliev, 2026

© Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences «Issues of Theoretical Economics», 2026

 

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Manuscript submission date: 10.11.2025

Manuscript acceptance date: 09.12.2025

 

For citation:

Vasiliev S. Economic Reform Programs and the Launch of Economic Reform in Russia // Voprosy teoreticheskoy ekonomiki. 2026. No. 1. Pp. 189–214. DOI: 10.52342/2587-7666VTE_2026_1_189_214