‘What’s a man without capital?’: The pitfalls and potential of private enterprise

Significant elements of both political and media discussions of this topic have been deeply ideological. In the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, small business development was extolled specifically as the antithesis of and antidote to the discredited and defunct Soviet system. By setting themselves up in private business, it was suggested, people could escape the uniformity, dependency and lack of personal initiative and creative freedom which had plagued the Soviet system, discouraging inventiveness and

independence (Polozhevets 1993). Small-and medium-sized enterprises were described as flexible, innovative and customer-oriented, and therefore as ideally suited to filling the gaps left by the unwieldy and ossified state enterprises not only in the provision of consumer goods and services but in the development of a vibrant and varied economic and business environment (Os’minina 1993: 2).