Post-Soviet Russia: A Journey through the Yeltsin Era by Roy s> Medvedev George Shriver (review)

Abstract

176 SEER, 8o, I, 2002 Bulgaria. In Russia, the 'rules of reward [.. .] appeared completely at odds with the logic of post-industrialization'(p. I63). While the book presents much new knowledge about the early period of transformation, it might be questioned whether I993 is too early a date to generalize about the effects of transformation,as substantivechanges in the fieldof stratificationmighttakesome time to takeeffect.Also the authormight have takeninto account the levels of marketizationand contact with the West which occurred in the successfultriadwell before I989 which led to changes in stratificationin these counties (and not to the same extent in the others where change came later). He might have 'lagged' some of the data to take account of differences in timing. The tables provide useful percentage comparisons,but the reader is not told the absolute numbersfrom which the percentages are derived. Comparisons would also have been facilitated if otherstatisticaldata on the population, such as the size of occupationalgroups and their changes between I988 and I993, could have been added to the surveyresults.As to the random samplingof the respondents,it is not obvious to the readerwhy only 4,734 people were interviewedin the largestcountry, Russia, whereas 5,62I were selected in the much smaller state of the Czech Republic. Overall, the book contributespositivelyto our understandingof the process of transformationin Central Eastern Europe. It covers a relatively underresearchedarea and is a valuable contributionto stratificationstudies. There is a good bibliography to guide students wishing to pursue more general themes discussedin the book. Faculty ofSocialandPoliticalSciences DAVID LANE University ofCambridge Medvedev, Roy. Post-Soviet Russia.A Journey Through theYeltsin Era.Translated and edited by George Shriver. Columbia University Press, New York, 2000. Vii + 394 pp. Index. f24.oo: $37.50. IF Roy Medvedev was not happy with the Soviet system, and his previous works make that abundantly clear, he is equally dissatisfiedwith what came after(atleast, thatis, untilthe Putinera, as his recent Zagadka Putina[Moscow, 2000] demonstrated). The argumentwhich he puts forwardin Post-Soviet Russia.AJourney Through theYeltsin Erais summed up earlyon: 'This capitalist"revolutionfrom above" [...] ended in disasteras of August I998' (P. 5). August I998 is to all intents and purposes the end point of this book, which begins with a finely detailed treatment of the immediate post-Soviet years, I992 and I993. There is inevitablya problem with objectivitywhen dealing with Medvedev's work, as the role of impartialobserveris not one to which he pretends. This is doubly the case when dealingwith the early I99os, where his own politicalviews took concreteformthroughelection to the Congressof PeoplesDeputies (theSoviet parliamentwhich existed between I989 and i99i), and then through his role as co-chair of the SocialistPartyof WorkingPeople. This objectivitygap takesa stronganti-Yeltsinform, attackingin particular the economic policies pursued in the immediate post-Soviet period. And REVIEWS I77 indeed there is much to attack,as Medvedev details the inflation,wiping out of personalsavings,insiderprivatization,industrialcollapse, and capitalflight which markedthese reformattempts.On occasion, the anti-Yeltsinnegativity takes on a knee-jerkcharacter I particularlyenjoyed the statement that, during President Yeltsin's dispute with parliament in December I 992, 'a demonstrationoutside the Kremlin wallsin supportof the presidentdrew only about 50,000' (p. 35, my italics). Apart from Yeltsin, the villains of this piece are the generation of young reformerswho rose to prominence in the I990s. It is hard not to perceive in Medvedev's prose a sense of injusticethat the generation of which he himself is part, by and large missed out on political power in the post-Soviet era. Those who had been dissidentsand reformersduring the high tide of Soviet power were passedover- whetherbyYeltsinpersonallyorby the impersonal forces of history in favour of an unproven new generation, who had not earned their spurs in the battles of the Soviet era. And it seems to have rankled. A few examples of Medvedev's attitudeto thisnew generationwillillustrate the point. First, the foremost economic reformer of the early I990s, Yegor Gaidar, 'had no experience in industry or administration.He was a typical representativeof that smallcohort which in I99 I-92 rose frombeing headsof research departmentsto become government ministers[. . .] He never knew poverty orwant' (p. I3). Then Anatoly Chubais, who oversaw the privatization process of that period, isdescribed,on being appointedto head the StatePropertyCommittee...