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Curriculum Transition Economies: Russia, Eastern Europe & Central Asia

Transition Economies: Russia, Eastern Europe & Central Asia

How countries moved from communist planning to markets - shock therapy, privatisation and oligarchs, Russia under sanctions, Ukraine at war, Central Asia and the Caucasus.

  1. From Plan to Market: What Transition Means What it took to turn centrally planned economies into market economies after communism, and the main tasks every transition involved. 📄 Read-aloud
  2. Shock Therapy vs Gradualism The great debate over whether transition economies should reform quickly all at once or step by step, and what the evidence suggests. 📄 Read-aloud
  3. Voucher Privatisation and the Rise of Oligarchs How former communist countries transferred state firms to private hands, and how Russia's privatisation created a class of super-rich oligarchs. 📄 Read-aloud
  4. Russia's Economy: Oil, Gas and the State How Russia's economy recovered in the 2000s on energy exports, the growing role of the state, and its structural weaknesses. 📄 Read-aloud
  5. Russia Under Sanctions Since 2022 The unprecedented sanctions imposed on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, how Russia's economy adapted, and the debate over their effectiveness. 📄 Read-aloud
  6. Ukraine's Economy at War How Ukraine's economy has kept functioning through a full-scale war, the scale of the damage, and the role of international support. 📄 Read-aloud
  7. Transition Economies: Checkpoint 1 Quick checkpoint - five questions on transition, shock therapy, privatisation, Russia and sanctions. 5 questions
  8. Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Their Neighbours The economies of the five Central Asian countries, from Kazakhstan's oil to Uzbekistan's reforms, and their role between Russia, China and the wider world. 📄 Read-aloud
  9. Remittance Dependence in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan Why Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are among the most remittance-dependent countries in the world, and the risks of relying on workers abroad. 📄 Read-aloud
  10. The Baltic States' Leap How Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania turned from Soviet republics into high-income EU economies, and Estonia's pioneering digital state. 📄 Read-aloud
  11. Why China's Transition Differed From Russia's Why China grew rapidly through its move toward markets while Russia's economy collapsed in the 1990s, and what explains the difference. 📄 Read-aloud
  12. Institutions After Communism: Georgia's Reforms How building honest institutions shaped transition success, using Georgia's dramatic anti-corruption reforms after 2003 as a case study. 📄 Read-aloud
  13. The South Caucasus: Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan The economies of three countries between Europe and Asia, from Azerbaijan's oil to Armenia's technology sector and Georgia's transit role. 📄 Read-aloud

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