Yegor Gaidar

Yegor Gaidar was a Soviet and Russian economist, politician and author, and was the Acting Prime Minister of Russia from 15 June 1992 to 14 December 1992. He was the intellectual leader of many of Russia's political and economic reforms after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, which brought him both praise and harsh criticism. He participated in the preparation of the Belovezh Accords that formally ended the existence of the USSR. Many Russians held him responsible for the economic hardships that plagued the country in the 1990s that resulted in mass poverty and hyperinflation among other things, although liberals praised him as a man who did what had to be done to save the country from complete collapse. Gaidar was born in 1956 in Moscow, the son of Pravda military correspondent Timur Gaidar and the grandson of Soviet writers Arkady Gaidar and Pavel Bazhov. He graduated with honors from the Department of Economics at Moscow State University in 1978 and received his Ph.D. in economics in 1980. After several years as a researcher, he became a journalist and then received his doctor of economics in 1987. He was a long-time member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and an editor of the CPSU ideological journal Communist during the perestroika. He joined Boris Yeltsin's camp during Perestroika and quit the Communist Party in 1991. He was appointed as the Minister of Finance in November 1991 and became the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economics in March 1992. He was the main advocate of free market economic reforms according to the principle of shock therapy. His best-known decision was to abolish price regulation by the state, which immediately resulted in a major increase in prices and amounted to officially authorizing a market economy in Russia. He also cut military procurement and industrial subsidies, and reduced the budget deficit. He faced strong opposition from the parliament and the conservative forces, who accused him of betraying the national interests and destroying the economy. He was appointed as the Acting Prime Minister in June 1992, after Yeltsin dismissed the previous government. He formed a reformist government that tried to stabilize the economy and implement privatization and fiscal policies. He also improved relations with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and secured financial aid from the West. He supported Yeltsin during the constitutional crisis of 1993, when the president dissolved the parliament and faced an armed rebellion. He was reappointed as the Acting Prime Minister after the adoption of the new constitution and the election of the new parliament. However, he failed to win the confirmation vote in the State Duma in December 1993, and was replaced by Viktor Chernomyrdin. He remained as the First Deputy Prime Minister until January 1994, when he resigned due to health problems and disagreements with Chernomyrdin. After leaving the government, Gaidar remained active in politics and academia. He formed his own political party, Democratic Choice of Russia, in 1994, and led it to the parliamentary elections, where it came fourth with 15% of the vote. He also ran for president in 1996, but withdrew his candidacy in favor of Yeltsin, who won a second term. He became the leader of the opposition to the Communist-dominated parliament, and criticized the government's policies on Chechnya, corruption, and social welfare. He also founded the Institute for the Economy in Transition, a think tank that conducted research and analysis on economic and political issues. He was a member of the Public Chamber of Russia and the Council for Foreign and Defense Policy. He also wrote several books and articles on the history and theory of economic reforms. He was a supporter of Vladimir Putin, who succeeded Yeltsin as president in 2000, and praised his efforts to restore the state authority and the rule of law. He also supported Dmitry Medvedev, who became president in 2008, and advised him on economic matters. He died of heart failure in 2009, and was buried with state honors in Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.