ABSTRACT
In 1996 and 1997, the Russian public and Western observers discovered a new species in Russian politics: the 'oligarchs'. Politicians such as Nemtsov and Yavlinskii were as familiar with this term as journalists or political scientists.1 Soon, the term acquired an almost magical significance. It explained the faulty development of reform policies since 1992. An 'oligarchic capitalism' was made responsible for distortions in the political and social system2 and the 'oligarchs' were found to be the forces which were apparently pulling the strings behind the scenes and manipulating not only the political system but society as a whole. An opinion poll of the Russian Independent Research Institute showed that as much as one quarter of all those interviewed put the blame for the financial crisis of summer 1998 on the 'oligarchs'. In November 1998, however, the star of the 'oligarchs' was suddenly in decline: Livshits, long-time economic advisor to the President, spoke of the 'autumn of the oligarchs' (Kommersant, 25 November 1998, p.9) and Olga Kryshtanovskaya, one of the first authors to use and popularise the term (Kryshtanovskaya 1996), now proclaimed the 'death of the oligarchs' (Kryshtanovskaya 1998; Polozhevets 1998, p.2). This is an indication of the fact that the August 1998 crisis has caused major shifts in society and in the political system leading to a re-arrangement of the forces which govern them.
