POST-SOVIET RUSSIA’S HISTORIC COMPROMISE, 1992-1998: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF RE-FEUDALIZATION DURING SOCIOECONOMIC COLLAPSE

Abstract

During the period of 1992-1998, Russia underwent a transition from a centralized economy to a market economy with devastating socioeconomic consequences, and industrial decline, which has resulted in demographic crises. The central argument driving this thesis is that during its transition to a market economy, through shock therapy from 1992-1998, Russia’s social and economic infrastructure went through a regression in the form of refeudalization, which is empirically revealed through health and demographic indicators. Remarkably, the effects of this socioeconomic regression was buffered from further devastation through a set of social compromises between workers, unions and industrial managers, which stabilized the brunt of shock therapy, but still resulted in the refeudalization of Russian society. The objective of this study is to construct a comprehensive model to conceptualize Russia’s socioeconomic regression during the period of transition from 1992-1998, and to explain the causes for the regression within the model.