Gaydar, Yegor Timurovich

(1956–2009)

   The scion of a Soviet literary and journalistic family, Yegor Gaydar was educated at the prestigious Moscow State University where he gained his degree in economics. An active member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, he relinquished his membership in the early 1990s to work as an economist in the Yeltsin administration. Gaydar was an advocate of shock therapy and other controversial reforms. Yeltsin appointed him prime minister in June 1992; however, the conservative Congress of People’s Deputies refused to confirm him, resulting in Viktor Chernomyrdin taking over the post in December 1992. Gaydar stayed on as a financial advisor to the president and played a critical role in the constitutional crisis of 1993. He continued to pursue politics as a member of the Union of Right Forces, and held a seat in the State Duma from 1999 to 2003. In 2006, Gaydar took ill in Ireland and later, following conspiracy theories surrounding the death of Aleksandr Litvinenko, accused his political adversaries of poisoning him, though he stopped short of accusing the Russian security services or anyone in the Putin administration. 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 also Privatization.