Customer Reviews

Kapitalizm: Russia's Struggle to Free Its Economy

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I teach a survey course on Russia to graduate-level business students. I have used a variety of texts on Russia's economic transformation, always seeking one with the ideal combination of currency, readability, and insights and perspectives attuned to the businessperson rather than the typical academic. Brady's book is it. Brady's experience with BusinessWeek and her illustrative interviews with Russian citizens resonate particularly strongly with my students, who run the gamut from straight-from-undergrad-school/can't-find-Russia-on-a-map, to individuals who have done business in Russia (successfully or un- ) and want to know more about a unique (and uniquely frustrating) environment for operations and investment. I plan to continue requiring this text for my students and hope Brady provides updated editions as needed.

This is an fabulous book on how Russia turned from state socialism into a fragile, but market-based economy. Being a Business Week correspondent in Moscow the author could witness all stages of Russia's economic transformation -- starting from supply shortages and chaos of late 1991 to the formation of financial & industrial comglomerates in 1997. This book is an exciting reading because it is easy written and combines stories on both complicated economic issues and on lives of ordinary Russians, struggling to adapt to the changes.

Rose Brady had put together an informative book about what was going on in Russia in the 1990's. Her book goes deeper than the headline news by quoting many Russians ranging from pensioners to oligarchs and by giving specific examples that are illustrative of the larger trends. The writing style is smooth and enjoyable.

The main featured oligarchs are Chubais, Gusinsky, Berezovsky, Chernomyrdin, Khodorkovsky, Luzhkov, Potanin, and Alikperov.

My single criticism is to say that the term "capitalism" should not be applied to what happened in Russia. Capitalism is a system where property rights are protected and therefore people can only get money by earning it. In Russia, the super-rich got their wealth by taking it from the government. Therefore, property rights are not protected and the system is not capitalist.

John Christmas, author of "Democracy Society"