Konstantin Sidorov

Konstantin Sidorov came of age during the late years of the Soviet Union, lived through the tumultuous 1980s when liberal reforms seemed to burst open a world of possibilities, and then the harsh reality of the 1990s when the results of unrestrained free-market capitalism immediately unleashed what may be obvious in hindsight: crony capitalism, with public assets being sold or given to whoever was in the strongest position at the moment; corruption, where everything could be had for a price, including state or technological secrets; decadence and self-indulgence in lieu of the self-discipline and education that had allowed the Soviet Union to progress so much in a few decades.Sidorov, who says he was close to members of the administration in Moscow, was revolted by what he saw. Russia seemed to get all the ills and none of the benefits of the transition. The social safety net was gone, jobs were gone, poverty sky rocketed and the average lifespan plummeted. He wrote his manuscript under a pseudonym and made plans to emigrate, dropping this book in the mail to us on his way out.