ABSTRACT
As a final element in the study of the economics of Soviet break-up, we now turn to the different transition strategies developed in the Newly Independent States. As we have seen in Chapter 1, states matter because states choose their preferred economic system, or more precisely in the present context, states matter because they choose the speed and the method of the transition to their preferred economic system. Before break-up, all republics had to follow the reform plans as they were dictated from Moscow in the name of perestroika. The new situation enables the republics to do better or worse than Moscow in transforming their economies and creating market economies. We briefly discussed a few elements of transition in Chapter 2. Here we study the issue somewhat more extensively.
