Abstract

With the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the official declaration of the transition from socialism to capitalism, Russia, both in terms of its economic potential and population and in terms of its inheritance of a strict centralist system has a special standing among transitional economies. Having undertaken a “shock” transition to capitalism under the leadership of the International Monetary Fund, this period was quite painful. Within a short time, the country underwent one of its most severe and painful crisis in 1998. Far beyond a transition from socialism to capitalism, bearing the multi-dimensional change in cultural, political and policy areas coupled with a complex process in mind, this transition was no doubt much more difficult and sensitive for a nation like Russia that had a rooted socialist tradition. This reality when combined with a “shock therapy” strategy based on neo-classical prescriptions that guided this process did not take into account the particular condition of the nation together with standard reform policies that ignored institutional change, it became inevitable to question what type of a system came about in Russia. In this context, the purpose of this study is to examine whether the policies put into the implementation within the axis of a basic strategy that was chosen during the transition period did in fact create a capitalist system or not in Russia.

Keywords:Transition Economies, Transition Period in Russia, Neoclassic Transition Model, Shock Therapy, Gradualism.