Economists in Transition

The relatively homogeneous field of the Soviet reform economics underwent a process of transformation, the main vector of which was internationalization, or westernization, in the post-socialist period. This led to a sharp polarization of economic research and policy expertise, which has generally been described in terms of the confrontation between “old” and “new,” “statists” and “liberals,” “Slavophiles” and “Westernizers.” These dichotomies describe some rhetorical aspects of the “transition,” but one overlooks the defection of many strong pro-market voices to the opposition as soon as the reforms began, on the one hand, and the adherence of most younger liberal economists to the statist and anti-Western agenda shortly after Putin came to power, on the other. The observed epistemological and political fragmentation is clarified here by analyzing the professional strategies and institutional trajectories of former reform economists of different generations, who invested very unevenly in different spheres, such as party politics, business, government, academia, or policy research in the post-Soviet period. In doing so, this chapter provides some insights into the complex interplay between innovation through borrowing and adaptation to the new political contexts, while highlighting, at the same time, the resilience of existing mental and institutional structures that characterized the trajectories of these reform economists.