The Role of International Financial Institutions in Stabilizing the Russian Economy

Abstract

Between the end of Czarist Russia in 1917 and the early 1950s about a third of the world’s population experienced a transition from a market economy to central planning. In the late 1980s, in the run-up to the collapse of the Soviet empire, the reverse process was set in motion in most of the former socialist countries: transition from a planned to a market economy Their long history of central planning and lack of experience of free-market economics made assistance by international financial institution essential to the transition economies. It was expected that this assistance would be both financial and consultative.

I am indebted to Dr Tomasz Mickiewicz for the useful comments on earlier versions of this chapter. Responsibility for any remaining errors rests with the author.