ABSTRACT
The new entrepreneurs—a highly variegated group—have had a mixed reception from the Russian public. Russian entrepreneurs must contend with widespread negative or ambivalent attitudes toward private business among certain sectors of the Russian population and the political elite. The reemergence of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurialism in Russia after many decades of ruthless suppression and relentless vilification invites historical comparison. Four phases can be discerned in the evolution of entrepreneurs as a social group in Russia since 1986. These phases include the first, ending in 1991, the second, from 1992 to 1994, the third, from 1995 to August 1998, and the fourth, from September 1998 to Yeltsin's resignation in December 1999. In the mid-1990s, the media began to refer to a small group of successful entrepreneurs as "oligarchs", suggesting that the economy had fallen into the hands of a few powerful men who presided over financial empires based on ill-gotten wealth.
