A vivid, on-the-ground account of Russia’s chaotic shift from a command economy to market capitalism, portraying how reformers, bureaucrats, criminals and entrepreneurs scrambled to seize state assets, creating a new wealthy class amid widespread corruption, political power struggles and social dislocation; the book traces the human cost of rapid privatization, the collapse of soviet institutions, the rise of black-market practices and oligarchic influence, and how Western ideas and advisers collided with entrenched habits to shape the country’s uncertain future.