David Woodruff
Andrew Barnes's book is a research achievement of the highest order. It offers the first comprehensive analysis of Russia's massive transfer of state-owned property into private hands and the striking conflicts over assets that ensued. Barnes provides a major corrective to received views. Owning Russia is also the first work to bring together developments in the agricultural and industrial sectors, documenting parallel yet distinct processes of privatization and business concentration in both. Written in a clear and lively style, the book will become an essential reference not only for students of postsocialist political economy but also for anyone who needs to understand the contours of Russia's emerging corporate giants.
Stephen E. Hanson
Owning Russia is one of the best books I have read on the political economy of the former Soviet Union. In it, Andrew Barnes analyzes the collapse of the USSR and its chaotic aftermath in Russia not as a case of failed transition to democracy and markets, nor as a battle pitting noble, Westernizing 'reformers' against recalcitrant 'conservatives,' but, above all, as a prolonged ongoing high-stakes' struggle to control valuable assets. Spanning the period from Gorbachev through Putin, and encompassing both the industrial and agricultural sectors, Owning Russia is vital reading for everyone interested in understanding the ongoing Russian transformation.
Rudra Sil
In Owning Russia Andrew Barnes breaks with and challenges the tendency to use prior expectations as a basis for assessments of the Russian economic tradition. This superbly written and authoritative book attends to the struggle over land, a topic that is usually addressed tangentially at best in most studies of privatization and economic reform.