ABSTRACT
This chapter describes, as much as possible, the state of privatization in Russia as of October 1993, with an emphasis on the main procedures and first results of mass privatization. The dominance of the public sector coupled with the long isolation of the Russian economy from the rest of the world make it inevitable that changes in property ownership will take place on an unprecedented scale. The widespread term "mass" privatization usually unites two independent but closely connected processes. The Russian privatization process joins the two processes together, mainly by selling shares both at open voucher auctions and by closed subscriptions for enterprise employees. The Russian ideology of mass privatization values speed of privatization over quality of individual projects, and has therefore established one uniform, crude procedure. The concept underlying the voucher program was adopted by the Russian government in June 1992.
