The main features of modern Russian capitalism were laid down in Soviet times. Its properties were determined by the inherited structure of the economy, the main features of which under Yeltsin only aggravated and developed, having lost the crutches of planned management and having fallen into the abyss of nomenklatura privatization. ruling class, formed in the depths of the Stalinist USSR, discarding the communist "husk", brought to realization the main dream of his life - the privatization of power and property.
In the Soviet economy, thanks to the branch principle of centralized management, clan system developed, who were responsible for the development of certain industries.
Mechanical engineering civil and military, Agriculture, light and food industry, building, energetics, oil and gas industry, marine and fishing fleets, transport, space, Ministry of Defense, KGB, MIA, layer of Soviet directors, scientists, educational workers, propaganda and agitation, the party nomenclature from the district to the Central Committee - all these were corporations that had developed in the depths of Soviet society. Their interests clashed, and the only arbiter for them was the Central Committee and the Politburo.
Privatization killed it, what was weak, and strengthened it, what was strong. Uneven development under socialism after privatization under Yeltsin resulted in the backwardness of engineering, Agriculture, housing and infrastructure, but led to hypertrophied development of export-oriented industries: oil and gas industry, metallurgy and timber processing.
Navy, thanks to its special, completely left Russia for offshore, taking with them huge amounts of money, and the fishing industry has become a legalized mafia.
Personal targeted privatization, carried out by the hands of a specialized agency, took place in the conditions of the complete absence of laws and ignoring even those, that at that time there were. properly, the conflict between Yeltsin and Khasbulatov arose precisely because, that the Soviet elite was grouped in two camps: around the president and around the leadership of the parliament.
Each corporation sought to carry out privatization under its own control and according to its own scenario.. Both these corporations accused each other of corruption and compradorism., but there was no difference between them. Just some were lucky, and others don't.
The main feature of Yeltsin's capitalism was the absence of a ruling class., capable of understanding the essence of competition and able to function in these conditions. This was facilitated by the skewed and monopolized structure of the Soviet economy., which under Yeltsin did not become competitive, but just went through privatization. The investment process and the creation of competition have never been a reformer's priority.
Respectively, did not exist and still does not exist in Russia, the management layer, able to understand the essence of competition and benefits at the system level, that competition brings. All economic problems in Russia, like in the USSR, decided in the center, due to proximity to power and its sources.
in front of, the entire process of sectoral and territorial development in Russia from Soviet times to the present time tends to follow the path of strangling competition, striving for a monopoly on power and property. Focus on small and medium businesses, as well as allergies to any, even the most systemic and manual opposition among our political elite is explained precisely by this dominant in its mind.
Ruslan Khasbulatov, describing in hindsight his struggle with Yeltsin, where is he, of course, shows himself in the most favorable light, Nevertheless, demonstrates the presence of Soviet systemic economic thinking, in contrast to modern economists of the liberal conveyor. The former head of the Russian parliament quite rightly notes, that under Yeltsin such a kind of capitalism arose, in which the form of capital turnover does not apply, discovered by Riccardo and Marx: "money - commodity - new money". Instead, in Russian capitalism, the “money - power - new money” scheme operates..
The more power is concentrated in the hands of the manager, the more he has the opportunity to concentrate wealth. It was on this foundation that the Russian system of oligarchic rule of the Yeltsin period arose.. It was a direct form of converting administrative power into property..
of course, such a principle of the formation of power and property directly required corruption as the basis of the system of relationships in the entire management system. The illegality of the emergence of Russian capital naturally made corruption the center and backbone of the political and economic system. Corruption has become so inextricably linked to the system of governance, that the destruction of corruption meant the destruction of the system of government entirely.
Moreover, in place of the destroyed system, another system immediately arose., even more corrupt, but at the same time more primitive and even more incompetent - what we see on the example of Ukraine. There were simply no physical sources in the country, from which it was possible to draw a personnel reserve of a different content quality. Party, looking in the past for the moral character of its nominees, rotted to the ground, apart from corruption, there was no other means of real consolidation of the new elite.
In this state of new Russian capitalism, Vladimir Putin received the presidency in Russia. The main framework of this system was created as a result of its long evolution, since the time of the NEP, and the newly acquired properties of the new consensus of elites on the wave of privatization. Russian capitalism was like a pirate ship dangling in a stormy ocean., where the captain suddenly handed over a place on the bridge to a non-member of his gang, and a naval officer.
Based on this analogy, it's understandable, what about the new captain, who spent his whole life under epaulettes and lived according to other concepts, the task arose of somehow saving the ship and the prisoners locked in the hold, understanding, that you can replace the team on it only by organizing a shipwreck. This path was completely ruled out.. Re-education of the team is impossible, but a partial change in the motivation of its part is possible under the threat of death from a storm and other pirate ships.
So some passengers who were previously locked in the hold appeared in the team. They had to be escorted to important positions on the ship: on watch at the helm, on rigging, for the supervision of the rudders and maintenance of ship's guns, to the galley and food warehouse. For it is impossible to free the prisoners in the hold, but you can start feeding them better.
Putin's capitalism could not completely get rid of its deep and systemic vices, the main of which is not even corruption, and the quality of the environment, from which the elite is recruited. How can you get rid of the pirate psychology of the former part of the ship's crew. Any attempt to speed up this process immediately led to a riot on the ship and reprisal against the captain.. Then all the passengers would also be threatened with death..
Putin was unable to cancel the processes of concentration and monopolization of power and property, but he managed to seize control of these processes and turn them from a destructive channel into a creative one - as far as it was possible. But if you can't get rid of the virus, then you can and should use it as vaccinations to increase immunity. This is exactly what Putin did during the entire period of his rule..
This is how Putin's state corporations emerged from Yeltsin's liberal monopolies.. These are not Makarenko communes, where criminals are re-educated as selfless social activists, but the financial flows from the hands of the pirates were partly intercepted. If anyone remembers, "Crimean Spring" and the Syrian campaign is a demonstration of the revival of the high-tech military-industrial complex, and getting rid of dependence on food imports is correcting the imbalance in agriculture. Those economic hardships, What is Russia going through now?, - this is a consequence of the conflict between the two parts of the ship's crew: pirate and military.
Putin's capitalism has become less piracy, what was under Yeltsin, and became more military. The concentration of resources in such a paradigm is not for robbery and looting, export to the islands and squandering in port taverns, and to repair the ship and maintain the strength of the team. All this is necessary to strengthen weapons, to protect the ship from other pirates. The main struggle unfolds for control of the helm, gunpowder and food warehouse.
Putin's capitalism is progress, the essential evolution of Yeltsin's capitalism, wild and pirate. Putin turned Yeltsin's Russia from pirate Tortuga into imperial Petersburg, which is fantastic, taking into account the quality of the source material and the conditions, which had to be reconstructed, as well as deadlines, for which it all happened.
The further evolution of Putin's capitalism is the gradual transformation of a half-rebuilt ship from a pirate into a military, with the aim of final transformation into a cruise ship. clear, that this requires a completely different team, which there is nowhere to take and you need to grow yourself. Yes, and other passengers are needed.
But the process is moving in that direction., and while the captain does his best, for these changes to take place.. Now it is very important not to lose the acquired conquests and prevent the former pirates from returning to the captain's bridge. If this happens, the only thing, what awaits the crew and passengers - slave markets and galley chains.
All conquests are still very fragile and require protection. We still sailed very far from Tortuga, and among us there are many who want to return there. We are waiting for the intensification of the struggle for the course, and no one can stay away.
That is why the country needs a course “strong Putin”. It is under this course that you can recruit a new team, which will throw overboard Russian history and the state of those pirates, that temporarily seized power in the country to the dashing for the people and “blessed” for them personally and humiliating for the country the 90s.
Alexander Chaldean
