ABSTRACT
The most striking changes in behavioral norms involving many millions of people in Russia may have occurred in the consumer market in the 1990s. It is readily apparent that the rules that once governed the old deficit economy have nothing to do with the Russian economy. Two circumstances pressed the urgency of behavioral change among the general population: first, the collapse of the customary way of life, and second, the emergence of a radically new economic situation. Shock-therapy reforms in late 1991 and early 1992 brought about an unusual situation—an abundance of goods and a deficit of money. Brought up under the Soviet system, where the reverse problem prevailed, Russians had no previous experience of how to act under such conditions. At first, the most formidable challenge seemed to be getting the new laws passed and translated into a legal code for Russian society, but this turned out to be one of the easiest problems to solve.
