Capitalism Russian-style

Library Journal

This book nicely complements a recently published account of a would-be American entrepreneur in Russia, Timothy Harper's Moscow Madness (LJ 2/1/99). Both describe the new capitalist order in Russia, Harper through one individual's experiences, Gustafson (government, Georgetown Univ.) in this more wide-ranging and dispassionate study focusing on the painful birth and early years of a distinctive Russian form of capitalism. His is a gloomy tale. Gustafson addresses what went wrong and what the prospects are for improvement. His tone is judicious and his judgments well anchored in an impressive bibliography and an acute knowledge of contemporary Russian realities. In addition to the well-known list of problems--corruption, crime, alienation from the law, massive tax avoidance, collapsing infrastructures, and so forth--the author points out the longer-range, more fundamental cause of present difficulty: "the historic inability of state and society to develop a stable and productive partnership." And the prospects? Gustafson hopes for an emerging market society "with all its flaws." This is an important, timely study of a crucial subject, one that can be read profitably by specialist and nonspecialist alike.--Robert H. Johnston, McMaster Univ., Hamilton, Ont. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Timothy L. O'Brien

[F]or anyone interested in an engaging, sweeping tour of the Russian economy in the 1990's and a framework for understanding the complicated financial and political dynamics at work in Russia, Thane Gustafson's Capitalism Russian-Style is a superb guide. Gustafson, a professor of government at Georgetown University, tackles his subject with authority and grace, offering bounteous facts and anecdotes that never drag down his narrative or his argument.
—The New York Times Book Review