7 How (or How Not) to Reform (Maybe) an Economy (If There Is One) Russia At least with Russia, nobody even pretends to know what he’s talking about. No economic textbook prepares a visitor for the Russian experience. No school of economic thought foresaw the Russian situation. Can a society that has had the full faith and credit of its government contradicting economic sense for generations become a free market and not blow up? Can a Cuban-type mess be turned into Wall Street pandemonium without causing Albanian bedlam? And is there some middle way like the ball-up in Sweden? All the world’s Russia experts (and most of its Russians) are trying to figure these things out. But Russia is “a riddle wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, tied in a hankie, rolled in a blanket, and packed in a box full of little Styrofoam peanuts,” said Winston Churchill, or something like that. The Russians may adopt our ideas, our way of living, and our point of view. They may join the great international society of rights, law, and progress. Or their response may be, as graffiti I saw on a Moscow factory wall put it, FUCK YUO . I came to Russia for the first time in July 1982, arriving at the twilight of the Brezhnev era and also, literally, at twilight. Dusk is prolonged and shining in midsummer at latitude 55°, but nothing shone in Moscow. Storefronts weren’t lit, and there were very few storefronts. No headlights were visible. More to the point, no cars were. The city had street lamps, but as far apart as Patti Smith albums. The endless apartment blocks seemed blacked out. Could it be that no one lived in Russia? Or was there just not much living to be done? Red Square
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