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In March 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev came to power, promising political and social change, but wasn't around long enough to lead it. He liberalized the country, introduced elections, and favored (then) Scandinavian-style social democracy, combining free market capitalism with strong social safety net protections. He envisioned "a socialist beacon for all mankind," an egalitarian society, but never got the chance to build it.
When the Soviet Union dissolved, he was out. Boris Yeltsin replaced him, supporting harsh Chicago School orthodoxy, masquerading as "reform." Former apparatchiks profited along with a new oligarch "nouveaux billionaire" class, strip-mining Russia's wealth, then shipping it offshore to tax havens.
Predatory capitalism devastated ordinary Russians, enriching a select few at their expense. The toll included:
-- 80% of farmers bankrupt;
-- about 70,000 state factories closed, causing an epidemic of unemployment;
-- 74 million Russians (half the population) impoverished; for 37 million of them conditions were desperate, and the country's underclass remained permanent;
-- alcohol, painkilling and hard drug used soared;
-- since 1995, HIV/AIDS increased 20-fold;
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