FROM THE IDEA OF PRIVATIZATION OF PERESTROIKA PERIOD TO RADICAL RUSSIAN REFORM: THE POINTS OF VIEW OF RUSSIAN AND FOREIGN AUTHORS

• Main Author: A. S. Vashchuk
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Jurist, Publishing Group 2020-05-01
• Series: Sravnitelʹnaâ Politika
• Subjects: russian historiography; foreign literature; privatization; russia; the russian far east; comparative studies; perestroika; radical-liberal reforms
• Online Access: https://www.comparativepolitics.org/jour/article/view/1160
• ISSN: 2221-3279; 2412-4990

The author analyzes the points of view of Russian authors on the history of privatization in Russia, and they are compared with the opinion of foreign researchers. Herewith, the understanding of politicianscontemporaries of the “privatization era” is compared with scientifi c opinion. The attitude towards privatization of the two political leaders M. Gorbachev and B. Yeltsin is shown. Criteria of inclusion of works to the historiographical review are defi ned – it is presence in them judgments on a questions: whether reforms of the fi rst half of 1990s were direct logical continuation of Perestroika? or did Yeltsin's team, which came to power, change the strategy of domestic policy including privatization in the spirit of revolutionary traditions? The author characterizes the conditions under which there was a process of understanding reforms in Russia, and concludes: there are many similarities between the domestic neoliberal assessment of privatization and the opinions of foreign researchers, but there are also differences. The value of the comparative method in the foreign literature on privatization is revealed as well the conceptions “of inevitability of privatization” and “of destruction of the socialist system”, common in Russian historiography, are compared. The novelty of the problem statement lies in the fact that the research experience of Russian and foreign authors is presented both at the conceptual level and in line with the Far Eastern regionalism. The main aspects of the privatization study on the Far East materials are revealed.