Yegor Gaidar died

One of the main ideologists of economic reforms in Russia has passed away

The famous economist and politician Yegor Gaidar died suddenly at the age of 54. According to Gaidar’s assistant Gennady Volkov, Yegor Timurovich died due to a detached blood clot.

Yegor Gaidar is considered one of the main ideologists of economic reforms in Russia. He held key positions in the Russian government in the 1990s: he was the first minister of finance of the Russian Federation, first deputy, and then acting chairman of the government. Under Gaidar's leadership, in the first half of the 1990s, reforms were carried out in Russia aimed at creating a market economy, in particular, under him the process of privatization began.

Farewell to Yegor Gaidar will begin on Saturday at 12.00 Moscow time at the Central Clinical Hospital.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sent condolences to the family and friends of Yegor Gaidar, the Kremlin press service reported. “An outstanding scientist-economist has passed away. A statesman whose name is associated with decisive steps to form the foundations of a free market and transition our country to a fundamentally new path of development,” Medvedev writes.

“Yegor Timurovich Gaidar was a brave, honest and decisive person. And during a period of fundamental changes, he took responsibility for unpopular but necessary measures. He always firmly followed his convictions, which earned the respect of his like-minded people and opponents,” the president’s telegram says.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin sent condolences to the family and friends of Yegor Gaidar. The telegram, in particular, says: “The death of Yegor Timurovich Gaidar is a heavy loss for Russia, for all of us. A true citizen and patriot, a strong-willed person, a talented scientist, writer and practitioner is gone. Not every statesman has the opportunity to serve the Fatherland in the most critical stages of its history, to make key decisions that will determine the future of the country. Yegor Timurovich Gaidar fulfilled this most difficult task with dignity, showing the best professional and personal qualities. He did not shy away from responsibility and in the most difficult situations he “took the blow” with honor and courage. .

State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov expressed condolences to the family and friends of Yegor Gaidar on his death. He noted that, despite differences in assessments of the country's development on the part of the right, left and center, what Yegor Gaidar did as Prime Minister of the Russian Federation in the first half of the 1990s was necessary.

Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin called Yegor Gaidar "the key person who laid the foundations of a market economy and democracy in Russia." “Moreover, he did this in difficult conditions of the collapse of the Soviet system and the collapse of the entire state administration,” said the head of the Ministry of Finance. According to him, Yegor Gaidar “managed to do something that few could dare to do at that time,” he “took responsibility and knew what he was doing.” “Until the last day of his life, Gaidar remained an active scientist, economist, whose opinion was valued by specialists not only in our country, but throughout the world,” Kudrin emphasized.

The former leader of the Yabloko party, politician Grigory Yavlinsky, expressed his condolences in connection with the death of Yegor Gaidar. “He took responsibility for the future of the country when almost no one knew what or how to do,” Yavlinsky said and noted that “the history of modern Russia will forever be associated with his name.”

Yegor Gaidar raised a whole generation of Russian economists and politicians and could still do a lot, said ex-Minister of Finance, head of VTB 24 Mikhail Zadornov, who worked with Gaidar in the State Duma of the first convocation. “Having left the government and the State Duma, Yegor did a lot for the country in terms of building economic policy and correcting the activities of the government, raised a whole generation of economists and politicians, taught and wrote a lot, and his influence was great on those who made and will make decisions in another 5-15 years,” says Zadornov. “Egor took on a very heavy burden in 1990-1991, heading the government, and the weight of this burden affected him all his life. The decisions that he inevitably had to make were initially doomed to misunderstanding,” Zadornov said.

The head of Rusnano, Anatoly Chubais, who, together with Yegor Gaidar, stood at the origins of the creation of the Union of Right Forces and also worked in the government in the 90s, considers his role in the fate of Russia enormous. “It was a great success for Russia that at one of the most difficult moments in its history it had Yegor Gaidar. In the early 90s, he saved the country from famine, civil war and collapse,” Chubais wrote in his blog. Chubais called Gaidar a great man, a great scientist, a great statesman. “Few people in the history of Russia and in world history can compare with him in the strength of his intellect, clarity of understanding of the past, present and future, readiness to make the most difficult but necessary decisions,” writes Chubais.

Governor of the Kirov region Nikita Belykh noted: “I knew Yegor Timurovich both personally and within the framework of political activities. I can say that this is probably the most profound person in terms of understanding the situation, the most responsible of all the people I have seen, and the most decent one." “This is not only a great economist, not only a person who took responsibility for the most serious and objectively painful reforms in the country, but also a deeply decent person in himself, there were no undertones for him,” Belykh added.

Politician Irina Khakamada called Yegor Gaidar “a man of historical proportions.” “It will be very difficult for everyone else when those who know how to take responsibility for mistakes and for all the good things done not only by them, but by the whole country leave,” noted Irina Khakamada on the Ekho Moskvy radio station.

The head of the LDPR, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, highly appreciated the contribution made by Yegor Gaidar to the development of Russian economic science. In a conversation with journalists, Zhirinovsky expressed regret that people like Gaidar die at such an early age. “The man died, so we won’t talk about our ideological contradictions, but as an economic scientist he had great achievements,” the politician said. According to Zhirinovsky, Yegor Gaidar had the courage to defend his position, which he never hid.

Yegor Timurovich Gaidar was born on March 19, 1956 in Moscow. In 1973 he graduated from high school with a gold medal, in 1978 with honors from the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov. From 1978 to 1980 - graduate student at Moscow State University. He defended his dissertation for the degree of Candidate of Economic Sciences on the topic “Evaluation indicators in the economic accounting mechanism of production associations (enterprises).”

From 1980 to 1986, Yegor Gaidar was a research fellow at the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University, then an acting junior research fellow, a senior research fellow at the All-Union Scientific Research Institute for System Research of the USSR State Committee for Science and Technology of the USSR Academy of Sciences. From 1983 to 1985, he was an expert at a state commission that studied the possibilities of economic reforms within the framework of a socialist economy. From 1986 to 1987 - senior researcher, leading researcher at the Institute of Economics and Forecasting of Scientific and Technological Progress of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

In 1986, at the first conference of economists - supporters of reforms, Yegor Gaidar became the recognized leader of the trend.

From 1987 to 1990, he was editor and then head of the economics department of the Kommunist magazine and the Pravda newspaper. In 1990 he defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic “Economic reforms and hierarchical structures.” From 1990 to 1991, Yegor Gaidar was the director of the Institute of Economic Policy of the Academy of National Economy and the USSR Academy of Sciences, which he founded. In October 1991, he worked in the group preparing the October speech of RSFSR President Boris Yeltsin on economic policy at the V Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR.

In November 1991, Yegor Gaidar was appointed Deputy Chairman of the RSFSR Government for Economic Policy, Minister of Economy and Finance. Since 1991, he headed a working group of economists under the State Council of the Russian Federation, organized under the leadership of Gennady Burbulis and Alexey Golovkov to develop a project for reforms of the Russian economy. From February to April 1992, he was First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Government and Minister of Finance. On April 2, 1992, he was relieved of his post as Minister of Finance, retaining the post of First Deputy Chairman of the Russian Government for economic reform.

From June 15 to December 14, 1992, Yegor Gaidar served as Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation. In December 1992, he was repeatedly proposed by the President of the Russian Federation for the post of Prime Minister. During the secret ballot at the VII Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian Federation in December 1992, his candidacy for the post of head of the Russian government did not receive the required number of votes (for - 467 votes, against - 486). On December 17, 1992, Yegor Gaidar was appointed director of the Institute for Economic Problems of the Transition Period and at the same time a consultant to the President of the Russian Federation on economic issues. At the same time, he was appointed chairman of the advisory expert council on the problems of economic reform, formed under the Ministry of Science and Technical Policy of the Russian Federation.

On February 11, 1993, he became a member of the Presidential Advisory Council. In February 1993, he was appointed a member of the government Commission on Credit Policy, and in September 1993 - First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Minister of Economy of the Russian Federation.

On the night of October 3-4, 1993, after supporters of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation seized the Moscow City Hall building and attempted to storm Ostankino, Gaidar appeared on television calling on Muscovites to come to the Moscow Council to defend the President of the Russian Federation.

In October 1993, at the founding congresses of the movement and the Russia's Choice (VR) bloc, he was elected a member of the political council of the VR movement and chairman of the executive committee of the electoral bloc. On December 12, 1993, he was elected as a deputy of the State Duma of the first convocation and leader of the “Choice of Russia” parliamentary faction. In January 1994, Russian President Boris Yeltsin accepted Gaidar's resignation from the post of first deputy prime minister of the Russian government. On June 13, 1994, he was elected chairman of the Democratic Choice of Russia (DVR) party. In December 1995, in the parliamentary elections, the electoral bloc "Russia's Democratic Choice - United Democrats" led by Yegor Gaidar did not receive the 5% of votes required for representation in the State Duma.

On March 4, 1996, the Central Election Commission registered an initiative group to collect signatures for the nomination of Yegor Gaidar as a candidate for the post of President of the Russian Federation. On April 27, 1996, at the Moscow city conference of the Democratic Choice of Russia party, Gaidar called on his supporters to support the candidacy of Boris Yeltsin in the elections.

In December 1999, Yegor Gaidar was elected to the State Duma of the third convocation on the federal list of the Union of Right Forces electoral bloc. He was a member of the SPS faction. On May 20, 2000, he became co-chairman of the all-Russian political public organization "Union of Right Forces", established on the basis of the electoral bloc of the same name. The founders were the parties “Democratic Choice of Russia”, “Democratic Russia”, the movements “Young Russia”, “New Force” and others. On May 26, 2001, Gaidar was elected co-chairman of the Union of Right Forces (SPS), formed by uniting the movements and parties included in the SPS. Since December 14, 2001 - co-chairman of the political party "Union of Right Forces" (SPS), formed on the basis of the all-Russian political public organization of the same name.

On October 3, 2008, it became known that Yegor Gaidar left the SPS party, which announced its intention to unite with the DPR and Civil Force. According to Gaidar, he accepted responsibility “for difficult and unpopular decisions” in the early 1990s.

In recent years, Yegor Gaidar headed the Institute for the Economy in Transition and held a number of honorary positions in foreign organizations.

Yegor Gaidar is one of the authors of the domestic version of “shock therapy”.

Co-author of the books: “Cost accounting and development of economic independence of enterprises” (1984), “Economic reform: reasons, directions, problems” (1989). Author of the monographs “Economic Reforms and Hierarchical Structures” (1990), “State and Evolution” (1996), “Anomalies of Economic Growth” (1997), “Days of Defeats and Victories” (1998). In total, Gaidar has more than 100 publications in Russian and foreign publications.

Yegor Gaidar was married to Maria Strugatskaya, the daughter of the famous science fiction writer Arkady Strugatsky, and he is survived by three children.