GAYDAR, YEGOR TIMUROVICH

(1956–2009)

The scion of a Soviet literary andjournalisticfamily, Yegor Gaydar was educated at the prestigiousMoscow State Universitywhere he gained his degree in economics. An active member of theCommunist Party of the Soviet Union, he relinquished his membership in the early 1990s to work as an economist in theYeltsinadministration. Gaydar was an advocate ofshock therapyand other controversial reforms.Yeltsin appointed him prime minister in June 1992; however, the conservativeCongress of People’s Deputiesrefused to confirm him, resulting inViktor Chernomyrdintaking over the post in December 1992. Gaydar stayed on as a financial advisor to the president and played a critical role in theconstitutional crisis of 1993. He continued to pursuepoliticsas a member of theUnion of Right Forces, and held a seat in theState Dumafrom 1999 to 2003. In 2006, Gaydar took ill in Ireland and later, following conspiracy theories surrounding the death ofAleksandr Litvinenko, accused his political adversaries of poisoning him, though he stopped short of accusing the Russiansecurity servicesor anyone in thePutinadministration. His daughter is the leader of a political youth movement called Yes (Da). Gaydar died of complications from a blood clot on 16 December 2009.

See alsoPrivatization.