ABSTRACT
Of all the former communist states attempting to transform their economies, Russia is in perhaps the best and the worst position. It is in the best position because its young economists leading the transformation have had the opportunity to observe the process in other former communist states which embarked upon this road earlier: the worst, because the problems facing the Russian economy are more serious than elsewhere and the psychological barriers towards transition to a free market economy are more deep-seated due to decades of ideological indoctrination.
