The "Wild Nineties"
Russia's leap to capitalism brings freedom, hyperinflation, oligarchs, war in Chechnya and a financial crash, leaving many Russians poorer and wary of democracy.
- The Return: Russia's Journey from Gorbachev to Medvedev — Daniel Treisman, Free Press (2011)
- Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin — Fiona Hill and Clifford G. Gaddy, Brookings Institution Press (2015)
- Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970–2000 — Stephen Kotkin, Oxford University Press (2001)
In January 1992 Yeltsin’s government freed prices; inflation that year ran at over 2,000%, wiping out savings. Mass privatisation and the 1995–96 “loans-for-shares” deals handed oil, metals and media to a small group of well-connected “oligarchs”. Wages and pensions went unpaid for months, and male life expectancy fell below 60 in the mid-1990s.
- The Return: Russia's Journey from Gorbachev to Medvedev — Daniel Treisman, Free Press (2011)
- Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970–2000 — Stephen Kotkin, Oxford University Press (2001)
In October 1993 a standoff between Yeltsin and parliament ended with tanks shelling the White House; a new constitution gave the president sweeping power. The first Chechen war (1994–96) killed tens of thousands and ended in humiliation for the army. Yeltsin, deeply unpopular, won re-election in 1996 with oligarch money and media support. In August 1998 Russia defaulted on its debt and the rouble collapsed. On 31 December 1999 Yeltsin resigned and named his prime minister, Vladimir Putin, acting president.
- The Return: Russia's Journey from Gorbachev to Medvedev — Daniel Treisman, Free Press (2011)
- Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin — Fiona Hill and Clifford G. Gaddy, Brookings Institution Press (2015)
A time of collapse: unpaid wages, savings wiped out, crime, a few insiders stealing the country's wealth, and a weak Russia humiliated by the West, including by NATO's expansion and its bombing of Serbia.
- Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin — Fiona Hill and Clifford G. Gaddy, Brookings Institution Press (2015)
- The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia — Masha Gessen, Riverhead Books (2017)
The pain was real but partly inherited from a bankrupt Soviet economy. The decade also built markets, private property and free media, and growth resumed after 1999. Life expectancy fell sharply, especially for men.
- The Return: Russia's Journey from Gorbachev to Medvedev — Daniel Treisman, Free Press (2011)
- Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970–2000 — Stephen Kotkin, Oxford University Press (2001)
Why it matters today
"The nineties" is shorthand for chaos, humiliation and poverty, and the fear of returning to them is one of the strongest supports of Putin's rule. For a minority, though, the decade is remembered as the freest time in Russian history, with a lively press and real elections.