500 Days

500 Days Program (Russian: программа "500 дней") was an ambitious program to overcome the economic crisis in the Soviet Union by means of a transition to a market economy.

The program was proposed by Grigory Yavlinsky and further developed by a work group under the direction of (an economic advisor to Mikhail Gorbachev). Before beginning work on the project, Shatalin had been assured by Gorbachev that he was serious about radically reforming the Soviet economy.

Therefore, in August 1990, the group issued a 400-page report titled "Transition to the Market". It was based on the earlier "400 Days Project" prepared by Yavlinsky and became known colloquially as the "500 Days Program" as it intended to create the groundwork for a modern market economy in 500 days. The report called for creation of a competitive market economy, mass privatization, prices determined by the market, integration with the world economic system, a large transfer of power from the Union government to the Republics, and many other radical reforms.

The 500 Days Program immediately gained the complete support of Boris Yeltsin and a more skeptical support from Mikhail Gorbachev; soon after, Nikolai Ryzhkov, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, openly repudiated it.

The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union delayed in adopting the program, eventually accepting a more moderate program for economic reform, titled: "Basic Guidelines for Stabilization of the Economy and Transition to a Market Economy". The new program contained many measures from the 500-Days Program, but most notably lacked a timetable and did not mention the division of economic power between the Union and Republics.

Authors[]

• , Станислав Сергеевич Шаталин
• , Николай Яковлевич Петраков
• Grigory Alekseyovich Yavlinsky, Григорий Алексеевич Явлинский
• , Сергей Владимирович Алексашенко
• Andrey Petrovich Vavilov, Андрей Петрович Вавилов
• , Леонид Маркович Григорьев
• Mikhail Mikhailovich Zadornov, Михаил Михайлович Задорнов
• , Владлен Аркадьевич Мартынов
• , Владимир Мащиц
• Алексей Юрьевич Михайлов
• Boris Grigorevich Fyodorov, Борис Григорьевич Фёдоров
• , Татьяна Владимировна Ярыгина
• , Евгений Григорьевич Ясин

See also[]

• Uskoreniye
• Perestroika
• Glasnost
• History of the Soviet Union (1982–1991)
• Five-year plans of the Soviet Union
• Dissolution of the Soviet Union
• Propaganda in the Soviet Union
• 1998 Russian financial crisis
• 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt
• 1993 Russian constitutional crisis
• State collapse
• Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
• Economic transition
• Grigory Yavlinsky

References[]

• James A. Dorn (1991). "From Plan to Market: The Post-Soviet Challenge". The Cato Journal. 11 (2).

External links[]

• 500 Days Program: History & Main points (in English)
• "500 Days": links, chronology, personalia (in Russian)

Further reading[]

• Shatalov, Sergei. (1991). Privatization in the Soviet Union : the beginnings of a transition.