Jump out of the USSR: an attempt of pro-western modernization of post-soviet russia in the first half of the 1990s

Abstract

Summary. The purpose of the article is to analyze in a historical context the experience of introducing market reforms in Russia in the first half of the 1990s by the method of so-called «shock» therapy and the revival of democratic processes on the Russian national land. The research methodology is based on the fundamental principles of objectivity and historicism, which involve consideration of particular phenomena and processes in their development and close connection with the system of relevant social relations. Any historical fact investigated in the article is considered in the development, against the background of specific historical circumstances, which implies the use of a method of comparative analysis, which has clarified the essence of many significant events for the Russian socio-political thought of this period. The research novelty is based on the fact that with the help of available and previously unpublished sources from Russian archives, an attempt was made to comprehend the pro-Western modernization of Russia in the late 1980s and early 1990s in the general context of Russian history. Conclusions. Particular attention is paid to the ideological and civilizational influence of the West on modernization processes in Russia in general and in the post-Soviet period in particular. The resuscitation, under the influence of pro-Western democratic values, traditional for the Russian socio-political thought of the direction of «Western» and the representatives of the further perspective of the national-civilizational progress of their own country were traced. The reasons for the failure of pro-Western modernization of post-Soviet Russia, the strengthening of anti-Western society, demodernization sentiment with the further collapse of democratic institutions and processes are considered. The beginning of the 1990s in Russian history is a period of crisis, once again connected with the disintegration of the empire and the subsequent attempts to implement democratic pro-Western civilizational and ideological practices. Similar to previous historical periods (for example, the February Revolution of 1917), the attempt to democratize Russia in the early 1990s failed. The miscalculations of economic reforms («shock therapy») by the government of E. Gaidar, the weakness of democratic traditions and civil society institutions, strong positions in the socio-political discourse of imperial-revanchist sentiments, ultimately discredited the pro-Western liberal path. At the turn of the 2000s, another neo-imperial restoration took place in Russia. The cycle of Russian history has returned to authoritarianism.