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Уличный капитализм в России: предпосылки и последствия Указа 1992 г. о свободе торговли
The article analyzes the phenomenon of street trading in the 1990s in the context of Russian transit
to a market economy. After the President B. N. Yeltsin’s decree on freedom of trade (January 29,
1992), this branch of the Russian economy spread widely. The article discusses several interrelated
issues: what were the preconditions of the January 29, 1992 law; what were the social and economic
problems street trade solved at the fi rst stage of reforms; how was it perceived by Russian society;
how and under the infl uence of what factors did the street trade evolve. The article shows that,
as a natural part of the Russian model of early capitalism, street trade played a signifi cant role
in demonopolization of the market system, supporting low-income customers (the majority of the
population), and absorbed rising unemployment. At the same time, the free trade generated by the
decree of January 29, 1992, and its subsequent modifi cations, were one of the phenomena of the
initial, often criminal, Russian capitalism.