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How Capitalism Destroyed Russia



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If you're like me, you know way too many people who think Russia is communist, or that don't realize the USSR has been gone for three decades now. But even for those who do understand that Russia is is capitalist oligarchy, not many know the full story. Come learn about how the West subjected the former soviet countries to brutal free market shock therapy, and the disastrous consequences that followed.

How Capitalism Destroyed Russia – Second Thought

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Citations and Further Reading:

Books
https://books.google.com/books?id=G7pvDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover
https://books.google.com/books?id=VEh9geWgbjgC&printsec=frontcover
https://books.google.com/books?id=WSsGEsBUsVcC&printsec=frontcover
https://books.google.com/books?id=Eal2DwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover

Videos
https://youtu.be/v6euku8NhtY
https://youtu.be/bKGdJop7L84
https://youtu.be/o8d6Vzi7zYg
https://youtu.be/oF4QkLOP2jU

Shock Therapy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock_therapy_(economics)
https://www.shortform.com/blog/russia-shock-therapy/
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/1990s-shock-therapy-set-stage-for-russian-authoritarianism-by-katharina-pistor-2022-02

The USSR and The Russian Federation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_Russian_constitutional_crisis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Gorbachev
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Yeltsin
https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-24/ukraine-supplement/states-of-shock/

Naomi Klein’s definition of shock doctrine/shock therapy
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/06/naomi-klein-how-power-profits-from-disaster

Individual statistics, facts, and quotes:

250% increase in price following privatization
https://books.google.com/books?id=G7pvDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover

56% increase in unemployment
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7828901.stm

14.5% fall/ nearly 20% decline in industrial production/1,354% inflation/real incomes being cut in half
https://books.google.com/books?id=G7pvDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover

Decrease in health and education spending
https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/health-workers-teachers-challenge-yeltsin
https://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/12/world/study-finds-poverty-deepening-in-former-communist-countries.html

12.8% increase in deaths
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7828901.stm

6 year drop in life expectancy in Russia 1991-1994/1 year drop due to Covid
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41294-021-00169-w

85% under the poverty line/Yeltsin’s 35% “correction”
https://youtu.be/bKGdJop7L84?t=693

Jeffrey Sachs’ “spontaneous market activity” quote
https://books.google.com/books?id=G7pvDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover

The mafia’s origins in Yeltsin’s decree
https://books.google.com/books?id=VEh9geWgbjgC&printsec=frontcover

47,000 then 90,000 privatized companies
https://books.google.com/books?id=G7pvDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover
https://books.google.com/books?id=VEh9geWgbjgC&printsec=frontcover

$20 vouchers and 14% of privatizations open to the public
https://books.google.com/books?id=VEh9geWgbjgC&printsec=frontcover

Graphs of wealth and inequality
https://youtu.be/bKGdJop7L84

Sachs quote about prioritizing speed during the privatization process
https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/shleifer/files/privatizing_russia.pdf

Sachs quote about not prioritizing speed during the privatization process
http://www.acamedia.info/politics/ukraine/jeffrey_sachs/What_I_did_in_Russia.pdf

Sachs quote about the urgency of privatization before people caught on
https://books.google.com/books?id=G7pvDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover

The IMF using its funds to push around economic reforms
https://books.google.be/books?id=VEh9geWgbjgC&printsec=frontcover

The centralization of power by Yeltsin
https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-24/ukraine-supplement/states-of-shock/

Favorable and extra press coverage for Yeltsin
https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/assessing-russias-democratic-presidential-election

Yeltsin election rigging
https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-24/ukraine-supplement/states-of-shock/

Sachs quote about workers councils
https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/1990/06/1990b_bpea_lipton_sachs_summers.pdf


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