Architect of the 500 Days Program: perestroika economist who drafted a rapid transition from planned economy to market
During coal-mine research in the 1970s, a collapse trapped him and four workers waist-deep in ice water for ten hours. Three died in hospital after rescue. Yavlinsky later recalled: "We were saved, but three out of five died in hospital."
Soviet economist and politician from Lviv. After graduating from the Plekhanov Institute and researching coal-mine labour, he became head of the Joint Economic Department of the USSR Council of Ministers in 1989 under Leonid Abalkin. In 1990, with Mikhail Zadornov and Aleksei Mikhailov, he authored the 500 Days Program (a roadmap for transitioning from a planned to a market economy in under two years) and was appointed Deputy Chairman of the RSFSR Council of Ministers. When Gorbachev compromised with Nikolai Ryzhkov's alternative, Yavlinsky resigned in October 1990; he founded the EPICenter think tank and later launched Yabloko in 1993, becoming a fixture of Russia's liberal opposition.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1976–1980Researcher, All-Union Coal Industry Management Research Institute (VNIUUgol)
- 1980–1989Sector head for heavy industry → deputy head of consolidated department → head of social development and population, State Committee for Labour and Social Affairs
- 1989–1990Head, Joint Economic Department, USSR Council of Ministers
- 1990.7–11Deputy Chairman, RSFSR Council of Ministers; Chairman, State Commission for Economic Reform
- 1991.8–12Deputy Chairman, USSR Committee for Operational Management of the National Economy (vice-premier rank)
- 1991.10–12Member, Political Consultative Council under the President of the USSR
- 1990–1993Founder and director, EPICenter for Economic and Political Research
- 1993–2008Founder and leader, Yabloko party
Related historical events
Opposition to the war in Ukraine and the Crimea question
After the 2014 crisis in Ukraine, Yavlinsky consistently opposed the annexation of Crimea and the war in the Donbas. In a February 2014 article in Vedomosti he argued that the Ukrainian crisis resulted from Russia's refusal to follow a European path and that Russia was creating a zone of instability around its borders. On the eve of the 16 March 2014 referendum in Crimea he wrote in Novaya Gazeta that raising the idea of using Russian troops in Ukraine was absolutely unacceptable and called the separation and annexation of Crimea an error at the national level, proposing that an international conference on Ukraine be convened.
He maintained that position after the full-scale invasion of February 2022. Yabloko issued a statement of categorical protest against the military actions, and Yavlinsky called for an immediate ceasefire agreement, an exchange of prisoners and the bodies of the dead, and the start of peaceful negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. In a February 2023 article in Novaya Gazeta he argued that a ceasefire is not a treaty and not peace but a political demand aimed at saving lives, and that such an agreement could only be concluded with the backing of the leadership of Russia, Ukraine, the United States, the European Union and NATO. In July 2023 he published seven key talking points on a ceasefire in Ukraine.
He was also critical of positions within the opposition. In February 2021 he criticised Alexey Navalny's political line as populism and nationalism and held that the "smart voting" strategy had divided anti-war voters since 2011. In January 2022 he warned that a war would have irreversible destructive consequences for Russia and would lead to the collapse of the Russian state. He had earlier taken part in the December 2011 to March 2012 protests against electoral fraud, speaking at "For Fair Elections" rallies in Moscow. In 2012 the Central Electoral Commission refused to register him as a presidential candidate despite the two million signatures he submitted, and he called that decision politically motivated.