Formerly the preeminent republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Russia has been an independent nation since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Because of its great size, its natural resources, and its political domination, the Russian Federation played a leading role in the economy of the Soviet Union. In the years preceding the disintegration of the union in 1991, the economy of Russia and the union as a whole was in decline. In 1992, immediately after the separation, the Russian government implemented a series of radical reforms. Price controls were abolished as the beginning of a transition from a centrally controlled economy to a market economy. An immediate series of sharp price increases caused extreme hardships for the Russian people. Inventor of the fictional five-year plan, the fake harvest, Russia introduced another novel economic concept in 1996. It was a society modeled after the capitalist society. High expectations of economic growth even with “shock therapy”--unemployment, social discontent and opportunities for corruption; influence of western politicians and the U.S. policy; and failing to completely reform the communistic system were some factors to why some became rich but led many to misery and an early death. Despite the huge infusions of Western money, millions of ordinary Russians struggled to survive in an economy neither capitalist nor communist, but something brand new and strange, which ultimately led to the failure of economic reform in Russia.In the fall of 1996, Boris Yeltsin won the presidential election in Russia. He was viewed as the personification of reform in Russia.... who had vanquished the Communist dragon during the hard-line coup attempt of August 1991 -- and the leader best placed to introduce democratic, market-oriented reforms. In the same year Yeltsin became the President of Russia, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, Thomas R. Pickering, predicted by the fall ...
