The 500 Days program was an attempt to smoothly transition from a planned economy to a market economy, while maintaining strong ties between the economic entities of the decaying Soviet Union. However, the program was never implemented for objective reasons.
The essence of the program "500 days"
On August 30, 1990, an initiative group of economists represented by S. Shatalin, G. Yavlinsky, N. Petrakov, M. Zadornov and others created a document whose main idea was to preserve the republics within the Soviet Union in the conditions of soft entry into the free market and granting them sovereignty. He proposed a four-stage transformation program:
Stage 1. During the first 100 days (from October 1990), privatization of state land and real estate, corporatization of enterprises and the creation of a reserve banking system were envisaged;
2 stage. In the next 150 days, price liberalization was supposed to happen - the state is gradually moving away from price control, while the obsolete state apparatus is being eliminated;
3 stage. Another 150 days in which, against the backdrop of privatization, free circulation of goods on the market and price liberalization, the market should stabilize, fill the state budget and increase the convertibility of the ruble;
4th stage. In the last 100 days, all previous actions should lead to a recovery of the economy, the arrival of effective owners and a complete restructuring of the state structure. By February 18, 1992, this program was supposed to be completed.
So, the creators of the program planned for 500 days to lay the foundations of a market economy. They understood that in such a short time it was impossible to turn the clumsy economy of a huge country face to the market, therefore they created a very soft version of the reforms at the expense of state rather than private resources. However, instead, citizens of the USSR experienced shock therapy. And there were several reasons for this.
