What's the Difference? Industrial Privatisation and Agricultural Land Reform in Russia, 1990-1996

Europe - Asia Studies

Volumn 50, Issue 5, 1998, Pages 843-857

  Barnes, Andrew ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AGRICULTURAL REFORM; INDUSTRIAL REFORM; LAND REFORM; PRIVATISATION; STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT;

RUSSIAN FEDERATION;

EID: 0031782586     PISSN: 09668136     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/09668139808412568     Document Type: Article

References (63)

1. See Anders Aslund, How Russia Became a Market Economy (Washington, DC, 1995), especially p. 315.
2. Yurii Medvedev, interview with author, November 1994.
3. See G. Levchenko, 'Udastsya li profsoyuznym lideram privatizirovat' "Turist"?', Delovye vesti, 8 October 1993; and V. Kuz'michev, 'Nu, ochen' khochetsya!', Novaya gazeta, 12 October 1993.
4. See G. Levchenko, 'Udastsya li profsoyuznym lideram privatizirovat' "Turist"?', Delovye vesti, 8 October 1993; and V. Kuz'michev, 'Nu, ochen' khochetsya!', Novaya gazeta, 12 October 1993.
5. See, for instance, his 'Gorizonta poka ne vidno', Volgogradskaya pravda, 20 October 1992; and 'Puti razvitiya fermerstva', Vestnik APK, 1995, 2, p. 2.
6. See, for instance, his 'Gorizonta poka ne vidno', Volgogradskaya pravda, 20 October 1992; and 'Puti razvitiya fermerstva', Vestnik APK, 1995, 2, p. 2.
7. Gauging popular opinion is difficult in the best of circumstances, and it may be even more so in Russia than the West. The methodology behind opinion surveys there is frequently unclear, and for many reasons categories like 'no opinion', 'I don't know' and 'difficult to say' often lead the results. My approach, therefore, involved open-ended interviews with officials and citizens and culling the major ablast' newspapers. Regarding the newspapers, since glasnost' had long been underway, it was reasonable to expect a fair degree of openness in coverage, and since many of the papers had a liberal slant, reports of disappointment seemed particularly believable. Both the interviews and the newspapers pointed in the same direction - toward popular disenchantment with privatisation. Finally, my results were in general agreement with more formal polling, which was also encouraging.
8. The countless examples of this sort of informational article include Yu. Sablina, 'Rovno cherez nedelyu nachnetsya narodnaya podpiska na aktsii!', Delovye vesti, 1 February 1993; and E. Kamenskaya, 'Iz bessrebrennikov - sobstvenniki', Vechernii Volgograd, 6 February 1993.
9. The countless examples of this sort of informational article include Yu. Sablina, 'Rovno cherez nedelyu nachnetsya narodnaya podpiska na aktsii!', Delovye vesti, 1 February 1993; and E. Kamenskaya, 'Iz bessrebrennikov - sobstvenniki', Vechernii Volgograd, 6 February 1993.
10. Sablina, 'Rovno cherez nedelyu ...'
11. Kamenskaya, 'Iz bessrebrennikov ...'. It is interesting to note, though, that in this same article only eight enterprises were listed as being on the block at the first voucher auction, when 20 were actually offered on 8 February 1993. Either there was already deliberate or unintentional misinformation, or the other 12 were added at the very last moment. In either case, the credibility of promises to publish complete and timely information was already being undermined.
12. V. Makevnina, "'V obshchei programme privatizatsii Volgograd zanyal dostoinoe mesto'", Volgogradskaya pravda, 11 February 1993.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid. The face value of the vouchers was 10 000 rubles.
15. I. Nefedova, 'Bol'shaya privatizatsiya Rossii startovala vchera v Volgograde', Gorodskie vesti, 9 February 1993.
16. Sablina, 'Rovno cherez nedelyu ...'
17. T. Eslyamova, 'Vaucher - na aktsiyu - vash luchshii vybor', Volgogradskaya pravda, 9 February 1993.
18. Ibid.
19. S. Aleksandrov, "'Kupim vauchery!' Za aktsii', MIG, 10 February 1993.
20. Ibid.
21. See, for example, Konstantin Ogloblin's comments in N. Abramovich, 'Nyneshnee pokolenie budet zhit'. Pri chastnoi sobstvennosti?', MIG, 15 March 1993.
22. Makevnina, "'V obshchei programme privatizatsii Volgograd zanyal dostoinoe mesto'". The purchasing power of the 10 000 rubles face value of a voucher of course dropped radically as prices of goods soared. Theoretically, the nominal value of the vouchers was meaningless, as the amount of property available divided by outstanding vouchers determined what the certificates themselves would buy, but vouchers' face and street values nonetheless touched political nerves throughout the life of the programme.
23. P. Kodinets, 'Spasibo rodnomu pravitel'stvu za krasivyi fantik', Vechernii Volgograd, 25 February 1993.
24. E. Kamenskaya, 'Rano 'N'yusuik' obradovalsya', Vechernii Volgograd, 15 May 1993.
25. See S. Shlagbaum, 'Yu. Medvedev: "Reformy - sredstvo, no ne tsel' " ', Novaya gazeta, 21 January 1994.
26. For one example, see A. Ershov, 'Vpervye v Rossii zemlya prodana s auktsiona', Izvestiya, 1 November 1993.
27. B. Nemtsov, 'Osnova vlasti', Rossiiskaya gazeta, 24 November 1990, p. 1.
28. The amendment, which was part of the 'Zakon ob izmeneniyakh i dopolneniyakh Konstitutsii Rossiiskoi Federatsii - Rossii', was passed on 9 December 1992, and referred to land 'dlya vedeniya lichnogo podsobnogo i dachnogo khozyaistva, dlya sadovodstva i individual'nogo zhilishchnogo stroitel'stva'. It appears in Sobranie aktov prezidenta i pravitel'stva Rossiiskoi Federatsii, 1993, 2, pp. 92-101.
29. See, for example, Stephen K. Wegren, 'Private Farming and Agrarian Reform in Russia', Problems of Communism, 41, 3, 1992, p. 118; and Peter R. Craumer, 'Regional Patterns of Agricultural Reforms in Russia', Post-Soviet Geography, 35, 6, 1994, p. 329.
30. See, for example, Stephen K. Wegren, 'Private Farming and Agrarian Reform in Russia', Problems of Communism, 41, 3, 1992, p. 118; and Peter R. Craumer, 'Regional Patterns of Agricultural Reforms in Russia', Post-Soviet Geography, 35, 6, 1994, p. 329.
31. Interviews with oblast' land committee chairman and with private farmers in Rudninsk raion, November and December 1994.
32. Examples of this school tend to come from those who advised the Russian government on economic reforms. See, for example, Maxim Boycko, Andrei Shleifer & Robert Vishny, Privatizing Russia (Cambridge, MA, 1995); and Anders Aslund, How Russia Became a Market Economy (Washington, DC, 1995).
33. Examples of this school tend to come from those who advised the Russian government on economic reforms. See, for example, Maxim Boycko, Andrei Shleifer & Robert Vishny, Privatizing Russia (Cambridge, MA, 1995); and Anders Aslund, How Russia Became a Market Economy (Washington, DC, 1995).
34. Olivier Blanchard & Richard Layard, 'Overview', in Olivier Blanchard, Maxim Boycko, Marek Dabrowski, Rudiger Dornbusch, Richard Layard & Andrei Shleifer, Post-Communist Reform: Pain and Progress (Cambridge, MA, 1993); and Pekka Sutela, 'Insider Privatisation in Russia: Speculations on Systemic Change', Europe-Asia Studies, 46, 3, 1994, p. 419.
35. Olivier Blanchard & Richard Layard, 'Overview', in Olivier Blanchard, Maxim Boycko, Marek Dabrowski, Rudiger Dornbusch, Richard Layard & Andrei Shleifer, Post-Communist Reform: Pain and Progress (Cambridge, MA, 1993); and Pekka Sutela, 'Insider Privatisation in Russia: Speculations on Systemic Change', Europe-Asia Studies, 46, 3, 1994, p. 419.
36. The best example of this interpretation is Michael McFaul, 'State Power, Institutional Change, and the Politics of Privatization in Russia', World Politics, 47, 1995, pp. 210-243.
37. M. Berger, 'Goskomimushchestvo gotovitsya k peredache imushchestva', Izvestiya, 27 March 1992.
38. 'Book value' (nominal'naya stoimost') was determined in an appraisal and was not indexed to inflation. As noted below, the absence of indexing was the key to insiders' success at retaining control of enterprises.
39. For early comments on this tendency, see Sutela, 'Insider Privatisation in Russia'; Peter Rutland, 'Privatisation in Russia: One Step Forward: Two Steps Back?', Europe-Asia Studies, 46, 7, 1994, pp. 1109-1131.
40. For early comments on this tendency, see Sutela, 'Insider Privatisation in Russia'; Peter Rutland, 'Privatisation in Russia: One Step Forward: Two Steps Back?', Europe-Asia Studies, 46, 7, 1994, pp. 1109-1131.
41. V. Vdovin, 'Aktsionery keramicheskogo doveryayut sovladel'tsam "Al'fa-Kapitala"', Delovye vesti, 15 October 1993.
42. Ibid. The tenth spot went to a representative of an investment fund that had acquired 5.72% of the firm's shares. It is perhaps interesting that the author, a supporter of radical reform, did not yet see such insider control as a problem, as the last two paragraphs of his article painted a rosy future for the enterprise.
43. I am indebted to Kathryn Stoner-Weiss for this point.
44. Abramovich, 'Nyneshnee pokolenie budet zhit'. Pri chastnoi sobstvennosti?'. Property fund chairman Konstantin Ogloblin advised workers against such action, but they did not always heed his warnings.
45. See, for example, Anatolii Alekseevich Chernyaev, 'Sovershenstvovanie strukturnykh preobrazovanii v sel'skom khozyaistve Povolzh'ya', doctoral dissertation, Vserossiiskii nauchnoissledovatel'skii institut ekonomiki, truda i upravleniya v sel'skom khozyaistve, Moscow, 1994, p. 51.
46. See, for example, Don Van Atta (ed.), The "Farmer Threat": The Political Economy of Agrarian Reform in Post-Soviet Russia (Boulder, CO, 1993).
47. A. V. Vorob'ev, 'Dokladnaya zapiska o khode zemel'noi reformy i ee itogakh za 1991-1992 gg. v Volgogradskoi oblasti', Volgograd, mimeo, 21 September 1992, p. 4.
48. A. V. Vorob'ev, 'Spravka o khode zemel'noi reformy v Volgogradskoi oblasti', Volgograd, mimeo, June 1992, p. 4; and ibid., August 1992, p. 1.
49. A. V. Vorob'ev, 'Spravka o khode zemel'noi reformy v Volgogradskoi oblasti', Volgograd, mimeo, June 1992, p. 4; and ibid., August 1992, p. 1.
50. Vorob'ev, 'Dokladnaya zapiska o khode zemel'noi reformy', 21 September 1992, p. 5.
51. Reshenie Malogo Soveta Oblsoveta narodnykh deputatov, 'O khode zemel'noi reformy v oblasti', Vestnik APK, 1993, 6, p. 1.
52. Ibid.
53. E. Pishchikova, 'Puti dlya vol'nykh zemledel'tsev', Rossiiskaya gazeta, 12 May 1992.
54. A. V. Vorob'ev, 'Puti razvitiya fermerstva', Vestnik APK, 1995, 2, p. 2.
55. A. I. Kazannik (General Procurator of the Russian Federation), 'Informatsiya po voprosam fermerstva', memo to Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, December 1993.
56. For but one example of such claims, see Sovet Agrarnogo soyuza Volgogradskoi oblasti, 'Postanovlenie "O polozhenii del v agropromyshlennom proizvodstve i merakh po ego stabilizatsii"', Vestnik APK, 1993, 13, p. 1.
57. Anatolii Chernyaev, 'Agraronoi reforme trebuyutsya korrektivy', Ekonomika sel'skogo khozyaistva Rossii, 1994, 2, p. 6.
58. Kazannik, 'Informatsiya po voprosam fermerstva', December 1993.
59. In a large majority of cases, it is still individual enterprises which keep registration records, almost always by hand, leaving a shareholder with very little recourse when his or her name 'accidentally' disappears from the rolls.
60. For example, Vasilii Starodubtsev, a conservative agrarian director and one of the orchestrators of the coup attempt against Gorbachev in August 1991, has a suite in the Ministry of Agriculture's main building in Moscow. Likewise, the head of the Agrarian Party in Volgograd oblast', Evgenii Novikov, uses office space in the building with the ablast' branch of the ministry. Such arrangements allow managers to use informal channels to influence policy making.
61. Grindle & Thomas have argued similarly, noting that, particularly within the international lending agencies that advise economic transition efforts, 'implementation and sustainability are often considered to be matters of effective administration, not political processes'. See Merilee S. Grindle & John W. Thomas, Public Choices and Policy Change: The Political Economy of Reform in Developing Countries (Baltimore, MD, 1991), p. 4.
62. On such 'pacts', see Guillermo O'Donnell & Philippe C. Schmitter, Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Tentative Conclusions About Uncertain Democracies (Baltimore, MD, 1986); and John Higley & Richard Gunther (eds), Elites and Democratic Consolidation in Latin America and Southern Europe (Cambridge, 1992).
63. On such 'pacts', see Guillermo O'Donnell & Philippe C. Schmitter, Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Tentative Conclusions About Uncertain Democracies (Baltimore, MD, 1986); and John Higley & Richard Gunther (eds), Elites and Democratic Consolidation in Latin America and Southern Europe (Cambridge, 1992).