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Very Short Introductions #646
The Russian Economy: A Very Short Introduction
Russia today is as prominent in international affairs as it was at the height of the Cold War. Yet the role that the economy plays in supporting Russia's position as a 'great power' on the international stage is poorly understood. For many, Russia's political influence far exceeds its weight
in the global economy. However, Russia is one of the largest economies in the world; it is not only one of the world's most important exporters of oil and gas, but also of other natural resources, such as diamonds and gold. Its status as one of the largest wheat and grain exporters shapes commodity
prices across the globe, while Russia's enormous arms industry, second only to the United States, provides it with the means to pursue an increasingly assertive foreign policy. All this means that Russia's economy is crucial in serving the country's political objectives, both within Russia and
across the world. Russia today has a distinctly political type of economy that is neither the planned economy of the Soviet era, nor a market-based economy of the Euro-Atlantic variety. Instead, its economic system is characterised by a unique blend of state and market; control and freedom; and
natural resources alongside human ingenuity.
The Russian Economy: A Very Short Introduction introduces readers to the dimensions of the Russian economy that are often ignored by the media and public figures, or exaggerated and misunderstood. In doing so, it shows how Russia's economy is one of global significance, and helps explain why many of
Russia's enduring features, such as the heavy hand of the state and the emphasis on military-industrial production, have persisted despite the immense changes that took place after the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991.
ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and
enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
in the global economy. However, Russia is one of the largest economies in the world; it is not only one of the world's most important exporters of oil and gas, but also of other natural resources, such as diamonds and gold. Its status as one of the largest wheat and grain exporters shapes commodity
prices across the globe, while Russia's enormous arms industry, second only to the United States, provides it with the means to pursue an increasingly assertive foreign policy. All this means that Russia's economy is crucial in serving the country's political objectives, both within Russia and
across the world. Russia today has a distinctly political type of economy that is neither the planned economy of the Soviet era, nor a market-based economy of the Euro-Atlantic variety. Instead, its economic system is characterised by a unique blend of state and market; control and freedom; and
natural resources alongside human ingenuity.
The Russian Economy: A Very Short Introduction introduces readers to the dimensions of the Russian economy that are often ignored by the media and public figures, or exaggerated and misunderstood. In doing so, it shows how Russia's economy is one of global significance, and helps explain why many of
Russia's enduring features, such as the heavy hand of the state and the emphasis on military-industrial production, have persisted despite the immense changes that took place after the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991.
ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and
enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
160 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2020
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160 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
September 26, 2023
Conventional and familiar. Connolly claims: (i) Russia has long been statist; (ii) markets are efficient. Both claims need questioning, nuancing, perhaps rejecting.
March 22, 2024
“…poorly protected property rights increased uncertainty for a large portion of would-be and actual entrepreneurs.”
This book is extremely pro market, which isn’t a problem on its own except I wanted to read a book about Russia’s economy, I don’t want to know what the author thinks, I want to know what Russia is like.
This book is extremely pro market, which isn’t a problem on its own except I wanted to read a book about Russia’s economy, I don’t want to know what the author thinks, I want to know what Russia is like.
March 27, 2022
This provides a wonderful overview of the Russian economy. It seems very balanced as well. I loved that it provides the reader with a good history of the Russian (and especially Soviet) economy, as well as a relatively deep dive into the current (pre-second invasion of Ukraine) situation. The book explains Russian economic mistakes and challenges (including weak property rights, relatively low growth rates, relatively low productivity, over-reliance on petroleum, high military spending, etc.) but generally gives Putin good marks for providing the country with macroeconomic stability. The book was of course written before Putin’s seemingly disastrous decision to invade Ukraine again, and on a much wider scale.
August 2, 2021
This is one of the few decent surveys of Russia’s economy that I can find, that is also contemporary. The only other text I’ve encountered that covers the topic of Russia’s economy is the undergraduate textbook “Russian & Soviet Economic Performance & Structure”, by Paul Gregory and Robert Stuart. This book is not intended for the general reader, though it does not seem to have a high bar with respect to technical prereqs (it’s also written by a Hoover policy researcher so take that into consideration as well). This book is written by Richard Conolloy, who seems to lecture masters level business and policy students, so decidedly a more applied purview, though the level of analysis does seem comparable to Gregory/Stuart’s text.
Conolloy’s text covers a similar scope to Gregory/Stuart in that they both cover both the Soviet and post-Soviet eras of the Russian economy. Though in Gregory/Stuart, there is considerably more attention at building an input/output sectoral model and/or analysis to critique Soviet era policy. Conolloy also breaks down his analysis of both the Soviet and Russian economies mostly by sector, and by region in some cases, but doesn’t introduce anything theoretical constructs. This is fine however, since most of those constructs are functionally useless, and Conolloy can better communicate the nature of the Soviet economy by merely stating things directly.
And the story is pretty straight forward after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation attempted to convert the command-economy to a market economy quickly. Though not discussed in much detail, the policy that was set to achieve this goal was hailed as ‘shock therapy’ and whatever it’s theoretical merits, the results were pretty disastrous for the Russian Federation. As Conolloy outlines, not only did the population of the nation shrink over the decade and a half post the collapse of the Soviet system from 190 million to approx. 140 million, but life expectancy for men slipped below the age of 60. I’d like Connollloy to explain this demographic event in more detail, but he doesn't really. We are led to believe that effects were the results of a combination of emigration, poor healthcare, and the widespread endemic of alcoholism among other factors. This phenomena was likely made even worse by the 1997 Asian financial crisis which saw Russia default on it’s loan obligations and being forced to further fiscal policy, which likely destroyed lives in the country by cutting off the vulnerable to critical capital for basic living expenses. Those in the United States that experienced the recent Covid-19 recession can probably relate to this somewhat, though what happened in Russia was likely an order of magnitude worse.
This section leads to the Putin era, which sees the strengthening of the central state. Which includes the reconsolidation of former Soviet heavy industries, which were haphazardly distributed to former workers (and quickly consolidated by some savvy individuals who eventually became the first cohort of oligarchs in that era). Through some judicious use of the state law, Putin retrieved these industries for the state either directly or delegated their control to other members of the Russian business class that would not challenge the state, and were in fact beholden to it. As Connoloy describes, this consolidation allowed the Russian state to tap into the revenue stream from these businesses, mostly from the natural resource sector, and funnel them into defense, savings/investment capital for the state, and social welfare programs.
The book’s coverage of recent material post-Crimean invasion and the subsequent Western sanctions is a bit sparse. I would have liked more content on these topics, as everything prior to this seems to also be covered in Gregory/Stuart’s textbook. The two topics of most interests are 1. How has Russia reconfigured it’s industries to support their central-Asian integration plans, both in the “Eurasian Economic Union” project and the integration between China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) 2. How has Russia sought to jump start it’s burgeoning science/innovation economy? This latter topic is especially interesting because Russia, even after 20 - 30 years of economic stagnation and periods of profound mismanagement does contain some of the best mathematicians, physicists, engineers, and computer scientists in the world. Possibly second (maybe third?) only to those found in the United States, and possibly the “EU” as a whole, though it’s probably not appropriate to aggregate the talents of Europe together in this way.
Connolly notes interestingly that despite the cultural/government changes between the USSR and the Russian Federation, the patterns of trade between Russia and the world has not changed much, which is mostly exporting raw materials, though he notes these other elements of Russia’s economy may be understated in US/Western analysis, so this view may not be entirely accurate. An interesting topic that could be covered by a future edition to this book could be Russia’s reform of it’s university system, as at least 2 or 3 new major research universities have formed in Russia in the past 10 years and these seem to be part of a concerted effort to jump-start Russia’s high-technology infrastructure.
This book would be greatly benefited by an expanded edition which goes into greater detail of all current topics. There is currently a dearth of books on this topic outside of the specialist literature, so if you wish to familiarize yourself on this topic, it really is a list of less than a half-dozen books. This book will get you started, but it’s only a start. Recommended.
Conolloy’s text covers a similar scope to Gregory/Stuart in that they both cover both the Soviet and post-Soviet eras of the Russian economy. Though in Gregory/Stuart, there is considerably more attention at building an input/output sectoral model and/or analysis to critique Soviet era policy. Conolloy also breaks down his analysis of both the Soviet and Russian economies mostly by sector, and by region in some cases, but doesn’t introduce anything theoretical constructs. This is fine however, since most of those constructs are functionally useless, and Conolloy can better communicate the nature of the Soviet economy by merely stating things directly.
And the story is pretty straight forward after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation attempted to convert the command-economy to a market economy quickly. Though not discussed in much detail, the policy that was set to achieve this goal was hailed as ‘shock therapy’ and whatever it’s theoretical merits, the results were pretty disastrous for the Russian Federation. As Conolloy outlines, not only did the population of the nation shrink over the decade and a half post the collapse of the Soviet system from 190 million to approx. 140 million, but life expectancy for men slipped below the age of 60. I’d like Connollloy to explain this demographic event in more detail, but he doesn't really. We are led to believe that effects were the results of a combination of emigration, poor healthcare, and the widespread endemic of alcoholism among other factors. This phenomena was likely made even worse by the 1997 Asian financial crisis which saw Russia default on it’s loan obligations and being forced to further fiscal policy, which likely destroyed lives in the country by cutting off the vulnerable to critical capital for basic living expenses. Those in the United States that experienced the recent Covid-19 recession can probably relate to this somewhat, though what happened in Russia was likely an order of magnitude worse.
This section leads to the Putin era, which sees the strengthening of the central state. Which includes the reconsolidation of former Soviet heavy industries, which were haphazardly distributed to former workers (and quickly consolidated by some savvy individuals who eventually became the first cohort of oligarchs in that era). Through some judicious use of the state law, Putin retrieved these industries for the state either directly or delegated their control to other members of the Russian business class that would not challenge the state, and were in fact beholden to it. As Connoloy describes, this consolidation allowed the Russian state to tap into the revenue stream from these businesses, mostly from the natural resource sector, and funnel them into defense, savings/investment capital for the state, and social welfare programs.
The book’s coverage of recent material post-Crimean invasion and the subsequent Western sanctions is a bit sparse. I would have liked more content on these topics, as everything prior to this seems to also be covered in Gregory/Stuart’s textbook. The two topics of most interests are 1. How has Russia reconfigured it’s industries to support their central-Asian integration plans, both in the “Eurasian Economic Union” project and the integration between China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) 2. How has Russia sought to jump start it’s burgeoning science/innovation economy? This latter topic is especially interesting because Russia, even after 20 - 30 years of economic stagnation and periods of profound mismanagement does contain some of the best mathematicians, physicists, engineers, and computer scientists in the world. Possibly second (maybe third?) only to those found in the United States, and possibly the “EU” as a whole, though it’s probably not appropriate to aggregate the talents of Europe together in this way.
Connolly notes interestingly that despite the cultural/government changes between the USSR and the Russian Federation, the patterns of trade between Russia and the world has not changed much, which is mostly exporting raw materials, though he notes these other elements of Russia’s economy may be understated in US/Western analysis, so this view may not be entirely accurate. An interesting topic that could be covered by a future edition to this book could be Russia’s reform of it’s university system, as at least 2 or 3 new major research universities have formed in Russia in the past 10 years and these seem to be part of a concerted effort to jump-start Russia’s high-technology infrastructure.
This book would be greatly benefited by an expanded edition which goes into greater detail of all current topics. There is currently a dearth of books on this topic outside of the specialist literature, so if you wish to familiarize yourself on this topic, it really is a list of less than a half-dozen books. This book will get you started, but it’s only a start. Recommended.
March 11, 2024
I'm glad I tried that
I'm not an economics guy, but this is a thin little read and I thought two things.
I'd probably learn something insightful I didn't know, and that I could quit any time if it were painful.
Well it wasn't painful, and I did learn quite a few things that I didn't know before I started. This little time investment payed off for me, even if I'm not too much wiser about global economics.
*EDIT*
Reread in 2022-
Oh WOW does this read differently with tanks rolling into Ukraine. This explains a lot.
I'm not an economics guy, but this is a thin little read and I thought two things.
I'd probably learn something insightful I didn't know, and that I could quit any time if it were painful.
Well it wasn't painful, and I did learn quite a few things that I didn't know before I started. This little time investment payed off for me, even if I'm not too much wiser about global economics.
*EDIT*
Reread in 2022-
Oh WOW does this read differently with tanks rolling into Ukraine. This explains a lot.
January 30, 2021
I like how much the author sticks to the statistics of the Russian economy and Putin’s decisions on how to run the economy without turning it into a political bashing of one way or the other. This introduction focus mostly on the post-1991 Russian economy but touches up on some of the Soviet economic decisions but gets more into when he get to Brezhnev and the economic policies and reforms that he was wrestling with.
December 2, 2021
An excellent short overview for non-specialists. Connolly provides a short economic history of Russia through the imperial and Soviet periods, then goes on to do a fine job of explaining the development of the modern Russian economy under Yeltsin and Putin.
February 4, 2022
Despite the title, the book gives a lot of attention to economic history rather than being focused only on contemporary Russia. It balances between political economy approach and macroeconomic analysis. The author identifies some persistent, historical characteristics of Russian system such as strong focus on security and military, state interventionism, widespread corruption and low concern for the welfare of the masses. Even socialism was not really a radical, new system, but an extreme form of such historical tendencies. After the collapse of USSR, despite some liberal rhetoric by Yeltsin, Putin and Medvedev, new economy still retained a lot of its traditional characteristics with only limited acceptance of the rule of law, property rights, independent entrepreneurship and market discipline. Decently written overview, but it is somewhat disappointing that despite being published in 2020 it still gives so much attention to the past century, which is already a subject of numerous other studies, and not enough to contemporary Russian economy.
October 29, 2024
this russian economy theory gets skewed a lot by corruption, so it's not quite it. it's the leeching economy, pattern started in the soviet era, self-supported by autocracy.
"they pretend to pay us, we pretend to work"...at least the average russian person also understands they are not working...while the state is corrupt. at this point a deep rooted culture.
points for the attempt to interpret it in more western way...
it's not the best to assume the same economical patterns everywhere, the way a country is organised politically, culture/religion, for example, can change things a lot (federalism changes the economy considerably in us compared to the average european country, as an example)...on top of the manipulation of data as a result of whatever political move or corruption (are those unemployment numbers the analyst in the west has about russia the actual numbers...i'd say slim chance...what about all the things missing data...i'm sure election data can get changed, but everything else is pure and innocent, as an example).
the author here was a bit too gullible.
"they pretend to pay us, we pretend to work"...at least the average russian person also understands they are not working...while the state is corrupt. at this point a deep rooted culture.
points for the attempt to interpret it in more western way...
it's not the best to assume the same economical patterns everywhere, the way a country is organised politically, culture/religion, for example, can change things a lot (federalism changes the economy considerably in us compared to the average european country, as an example)...on top of the manipulation of data as a result of whatever political move or corruption (are those unemployment numbers the analyst in the west has about russia the actual numbers...i'd say slim chance...what about all the things missing data...i'm sure election data can get changed, but everything else is pure and innocent, as an example).
the author here was a bit too gullible.
August 13, 2022
This is a very accessible und well researched book on how the Russian economy has developed over the course of its history and how it functions in the world economy. I applaud the author for trying to professionally understand the referred subject and explain its inner workings without resorting to any Western biases about Russia. Though there is a slight liberal bias near the end, it isn't shoved down the reader's throat and is allowed to have a different conclusion based on the sources and information given. Definitely very helpful for those wanting to understand the strengths and shortcomings of the Russian economy. Though released in 2021 it will definitely help to grasp under which conditions the economy steadily develops during its current War with Ukraine and the accompanying global implications.
March 25, 2025
Though in general, I am impressed with the 'very short' series by Oxford, this one stands out as supremely impressive as the author covers the complex and fascinating history of Russia's economy reaching back from the Russian Revolution to Putin's regime. This will prove helpful not only for Russophiles but also for anyone desiring to understand the role of Russia in the global economy as well as the relationship between state and economy in Russia's history and how this stands as a model (for better or worse) for this relationship as a whole.
September 6, 2021
I'm probably the only Russian to review this title on GR. I'm well versed in economic issues, having read, or listened to, quite a few books on the subject, but this is the only one devoted to Russia I'm aware of, and I've found it to be not only informative, well-balanced and non-partisan, but also quite entertaining, and the audio version read by John Pruden I listened to very well produced and performed.
July 21, 2022
Good little book. Concise and informative.
February 5, 2022
Well researched, detailed description of the modern Russian economy. Covers the Soviet and post-Soviet periods.
Well worth the time and money for anyone looking to get a better understanding of contemporary Russia.
Well worth the time and money for anyone looking to get a better understanding of contemporary Russia.
January 21, 2025
An excellent, brief introduction to the Russian economy, chock full of information without being overwhelming to the non-specialist.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews