The first legal Soviet millionaire, whose 90,000-ruble party dues payment forced the cooperative law to be amended twice
The party organizer wrapped both arms around the stacks of cash, stared with wild eyes, and with a trembling hand wrote in the party card: 'Salary for January 1989: three million rubles.' The average monthly wage at the time was 200 rubles.
The first legal millionaire of the USSR and founder of the Tekhnika cooperative. In January 1989 he paid himself a salary of 3 million rubles, and when his deputy's party dues of 90,000 rubles were broadcast on the programme Vzglyad, a national scandal erupted that forced the government to amend the cooperative law twice. He later served as a People's Deputy and State Duma deputy, becoming an emblematic figure of early Russian capitalism.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1972Graduated from Moscow Mining Institute
- 1984–1986Chief engineer, Moskapstroyproekt
- 1987Founded the Tekhnika cooperative
- 1989First legal Soviet millionaire; Vice-president, Union of United Cooperatives of the USSR
- 1990–1991People's Deputy of the RSFSR
- 1994–1996Deputy, State Duma of the Russian Federation (1st convocation)
- 2003–2017Chairman of the Board, Institute of Innovations
Related historical events
- 1985–1991Perestroika and GlasnostCooperative entrepreneur who helped prompt legal reformIn 1989, the broadcast of the party dues payment prompted a new cooperative law.
- 1987–1991The Economic Reform Debate and the 500 Days ProgrammeCooperative founder whose 90,000-ruble party dues ignited a scandalTarasov, founder of the Tekhnika cooperative, reported an income of 3 million rubles and paid 90,000 rubles in party dues in January 1989, igniting a national scandal that forced the government to amend the cooperative law twice.
The 3-Million-Ruble Salary and the Amendment of the Cooperative Law
In January 1989 Tarasov paid himself a salary of 3 million rubles at the Tekhnika cooperative he headed. The government was preparing measures to limit cooperatives' cash spending at the time, so he calculated on converting cash expenditure into a salary. Because the sum was formally registered as wages, all taxes were levied on it, and Tarasov, who had no children, paid 180,000 rubles in the childlessness tax alone, 6 percent of the salary. He thereby became known inside the USSR and abroad as the first legal Soviet millionaire.
The greater scandal arose from the party dues of his partner Anatoly Pisarenko. In a country where the average monthly wage was a little over 200 rubles, Pisarenko paid 90,000 rubles in party dues. According to Tarasov, the purpose was to confirm in writing that the cash had already been received before the planned February amendments to the cooperative law. Party dues were entered in the party card with the sum and the date, so the entry could serve as proof that the money came from the January salary. When the popular television programme Vzglyad reported the dues payment, however, Soviet society was shocked, and the broadcaster Vladimir Mukusev judged that the affair prompted the adoption of a fundamentally new law on cooperation that created a legal basis for a mixed economy and a real market.
From February to August 1989 Tekhnika was inspected by the USSR Ministry of Finance and was closed for violations of its charter activity, and all its money was confiscated. Tarasov sued and won his case in the Supreme Arbitration Court of the USSR, but the 100 million rubles he was awarded from the Soviet budget were never returned to him. In the same year he became vice-president of the Union of United Cooperatives of the USSR and general director of the foreign economic association Istok. In 1990 he was elected a People's Deputy of the RSFSR, sitting with the Left Centre faction, and he briefly headed the Innovation Centre under the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR. In February 1991 he circulated the claim that Gorbachev was preparing to hand four Kuril Islands to Japan for 200 billion US dollars; a criminal case was opened against him for insulting the honour and dignity of the President of the USSR, and in early 1991 this forced him to emigrate to London.