The Coup's Consequences for Economic Reform

Publication Date: September 1991

Publisher: Heritage Foundation (Washington, D.C.)

Author(s): Leonid M. Grigoriev

Research Area: Economics

Keywords: Russia and Eurasia

Type: Report

Coverage: Soviet Union

Abstract:

The failed coup of August 19 has opened vast new possibilities for the peoples of the Soviet Union. But in so doing, it has also made more urgent the need formore radical free market reforms. No longer can the new democratic leaders post-pone greater economic refarm because they fear hardline opposition. In seizing political power, the reformers have assumed responsibility for saving their peoples from a rapidly approaching economic disaster. They need to exercise this power by moving as quickly as possible toward free market reform.