About Yegor Gaidar
Yegor Timurovich Gaidar was a prominent economist, politician, and statesman, born on March 19, 1956, who left a lasting footprint in Russian history.
He was raised in a family with deep-rooted values, such as courage, self-respect, independence, and sense of duty. Yegor’ s father, Timur Gaidar, served as a military correspondent and was sent on a mission to Cuba on the eve of the Caribbean crisis. Later on, in the 1960s, Timur Gaidar worked in Pravda newspaper’ s office in Belgrade. The journey made a strong impression on Yegor and greatly influenced his mindset, as Yugoslavia was undergoing economic reforms at that time. Yegor took a vivid interest in philosophy and history, read a lot and started studying fundamental Marxism classics, which he characterized as containing“ fascinating and brilliant” ideas, but“ sometimes so dulled and dogmatized” when implemented in practice. This genuine passion for economics and thrive for positive change and selfperfection that he developed in his childhood was what Yegor Gaidar carried with him through his whole life.
Unsurprisingly, after finishing school in 1973, Yegor Gaidar decided to engage with economics and enrolled in the that department at Lomonosov Moscow State University. After graduating with honors and completing his PhD studies, Yegor was appointed to the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
In the early 1980s, it was the Institute that became one of the pioneers of future major economic changes in the USSR. Yegor Gaidar worked within a group of young scientists headed by Stanislav Shatalin that concentrated on comparative studies on the results of economic reforms in socialist countries.
Gaidar’ s economic reforms in the 90s have often been labelled as“ shock therapy”. However, initially Yegor and
The Institute was closely involved in the strategic policy decision-making process, including formulating long-term USSR economic development programs. An unprecedented atmosphere of freedom to express opinions reigned there.
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