Yegor Gaidar

Born in Moscow to a typical intelligentsia family in 1956, Yegor Gaidar graduated from the Department of Economics at Moscow State University in 1978 and received his Ph.D. (candidate of sciences) in economics in 1980.  After several years as a researcher, he became a journalist and then received his doctor of economics in 1987.

On the threshold of reforms in 1990, he was appointed director of the newly established Institute for Economic Policy.  In 1991, Dr. Gaidar became the deputy chairman in charge of matters of economic policy of the Government of the Russian Federation, as well as becoming the minister of economy and finance.  In 1992 he became the acting chairman of the government of the Russian Federation.  He consequently resigned and returned to his think-tank that had become known as the Institute for the Economy in Transition.  In 1993, he became the first deputy chairman of the government of the Russian Federation and acting minister of the economy of the Russian Federation.

Dr. Gaidar was the founder and chairman of the Democratic Choice of Russia, a pro-market liberal party, and as such won elections to the first Russian Duma (Parliament) in 1993.  Between 1992 and 1994, he also was counselor on economic policy to the Russian Federation president.  However, he resigned a short time later in protest to the war in Chechnya.

Dr. Gaidar initiated the establishment of the Union of Rightist Forces political party in 1998 and became its co-chairman.  From 1999 to 2004, he once again served as a member of Parliament.

At present, Dr. Gaidar is the director of Institute for the Economy in Transition, co-chairman of the Executive Committee of the Union of Rightist Forces, and vice president of the International Democrat Union (Conservative).

Dr. Gaidar is the author of several publications, including Economic Reforms and Hierarchic Structures (Russia, 1990); State and Evolution: Russia's Search for a Free Market (Russia, 1995; U.S., 2003); Days of Defeat and Victory (Russia, 1996; Japan, 1997; U.S., 1999); Anomalies of Economic Growth (Russia, 1997; Poland,1999); Selected Works (two volume edition: Russia, 1997); The Economics of Russian Transition (ed) (Russia, 1999; U.S., 2002); Long Time (Russia, 2005) and Collapse of an Empire: Lessons for Modern Russia (Russia, 2006; U.S. hardcover, 2007).

Dr. Gaidar is also the author of over 200 papers published in Australia, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Japan, Poland, the United Kingdom, the United States, and by institutions worldwide. He is the 1996 Hitchcock Honorary Professor at the University of California, Berkeley and the 1997 Terry Sanford Distinguished Lecturer, at Duke University. 

Dr. Gaidar is married and resides with his wife and four children in Moscow.

Source: University Programs and Events Planning Resources, April 2007