May 7: the birthday of Yevgeny Yasin, the Minister of Economy who built the market
Yevgeny Yasin was born on May 7, 1934, in Odessa, to a railroad worker. He became one of the main architects of the transition from the Soviet planned economy to a market economy and served as Russia's Minister of Economy from 1994 to 1997. He died in September 2023, at the age of 89.
The Path to Economics
Since childhood, Yasin dreamed of becoming a geologist and kept records of enterprises in Soviet cities. But he couldn't enroll in the geology department: the dean was only willing to accept one Jew, and he wasn't chosen. He trained as an engineer, spent a year as a foreman on a train building bridges, and another two at a design institute. He admitted to being a staunch communist, but became disillusioned when confronted with the real world.
Fascinated by economics, he graduated from Moscow State University. At 35, he became a professor and taught for ten years.
Reformer of the Perestroika era
Yasin entered politics in the late 1980s. He participated in the development of several programs for the transition to a market economy. He co-authored the famous "500 Days" program—a step-by-step guide to transitioning to private property and free pricing. None of the proposed reforms found support in the Gorbachev government.
"The 1973 oil crisis and the subsequent sharp rise in oil prices allowed Brezhnev to maintain the national economy in an acceptable state without doing anything to develop it. So they held out until 1986, and then everything fell apart," Yasin said.
He collaborated with young reformers Yegor Gaidar and Anatoly Chubais. Among his students was Elvira Nabiullina, who later became Minister of Economy.
Minister and liberal
With Yeltsin's rise to power, he supported the policy of "shock therapy" and price liberalization. From 1994 to 1997, he served as Russia's Minister of Economy. He halted the decline in production and attracted foreign investors. However, due to a further drop in oil prices, he was unable to stabilize the ruble and eliminate wage and pension arrears.
"I see my citizens going to stores without standing in line. Now they're standing in line for tickets to rock concerts. And that's because a market has emerged," he said of the results of the reforms.
After leaving politics
Yasin was one of the founders of the Higher School of Economics. In the 2000s, he served on the political council of the Union of Right Forces, along with Nemtsov, Chubais, Gaidar, and Khakamada. He worked on the Civil Initiatives Committee, created at the initiative of Alexei Kudrin following the Bolotnaya Square protests. Until 2019, he headed the Liberal Mission Foundation, a supporter of Navalny.
After the annexation of Crimea, he stated that the conflict with Ukraine was exacerbating Russia's economic crisis. He had been seriously ill in recent years and did not comment.
"If we want to be rich, we must be free and responsible. This has been proven by the history of Western countries," Yasin said.
