ABSTRACT
In February the Russian government had approved an Economic Policy Memorandum document for negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which outlined the principal directions of the reform program for the year. Fund membership, along with an arrangement for radical economic reform, would open the door, Sachs believed, to financial assistance from both the IMF and Western governments. Western aid was to be used to stabilize the ruble, to reduce Russia's international debt, to subsidize the import of materials needed for production, and to provide humanitarian help for people especially affected by government reforms. Finally, the reforms instituted in Poland were based on a controversial economic theory that lacked empirical confirmation. By early 1993 the Polish economy was reeling from enterprise closures and other dislocations created by the economic reform program. In 1992, David Lipton and Jeffrey Sachs wrote of "the steady, peaceful, and democratic progress of the Polish reforms".
