Stanislav Shatalin

By 1990, the Soviet economy was in crisis, following the Era of Stagnation and Perestroika. Productivity had severely declined, and shortages became widespread.^[5] As a result, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sought the advice of Shatalin and several other liberal economists to devise an economic plan. The end result was what would later become known as the 500 Days Programme. Despite opposition from government voices such as Nikolai Ryzhkov, Shatalin's programme was adopted in September 1990,^[6] leading The New York Times to later remark that "Mr. Shatalin became famous almost overnight" as a result of the reforms.^[7]

Shatalin's economic plan was regarded as radical for its time; it called for rapid privatisation, economic decentralisation, and privatisation, eventually envisioning the Soviet Union's reformation into more of an economic union than a political union.^[8] The programme called for 70% of Soviet industry and an even larger percentage of agriculture to be privatised, as well as the privatisation of the service and commerce sectors effectively in entirety. It also argued that workers should be given the right to salary negotiation, unprofitable businesses closed, and the complete abolition of price controls.^[6]

The response from conservatives was largely negative; Shatalin was accused of being an opponent of Marxism–Leninism, and (eventually successful) efforts were made by party hardliners to end the programme.^[7] Among his opponents was Mykola Azarov, later Prime Minister of Ukraine, who would claim in 2015 that he was told "Young man, don't you see you're talking to cattle? They need to be told very primitive things so that they swallow them and support us, otherwise we will not have any perestroika and we will not break this idiotic system..."^[9] Shatalin supported his position by arguing that,

An essentially anti-popular policy was pursued for a long period: a rich state with a poor people. The state concentrated in its hands enormous resources, virtually the entire ownership of means of production. Resources were spent thoughtlessly on gigantic and inefficient projects, on building up military might and on foreign policy adventures with an ideological underpinning, although all this has long been beyond our means.

Following Gorbachev's cancellation of the 500 Days Programme, Shatalin experienced a reversal in fortune, being removed from the economic council he served on. After these events, he became an outspoken opponent of the Soviet government, including protesting against the 1991 deployment of Soviet troops to Lithuania.^[7] He also co-founded the Russian Democratic Reform Movement in 1991.

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Shatalin's advice was once again pursued by the leadership of Russia. This time, Russian leader Boris Yeltsin, who had previously supported the 500 Days Programme,^[10] sought to enact some of his reforms. However, Shatalin was politically sidelined by younger and more radical co-authors of the 500 Days Programme, such as Grigory Yavlinsky, who supported measures like shock therapy. As Russia's economy declined under Yeltsin, Shatalin expressed opposition to his rule. In response, he was attacked by Yegor Gaidar, Russian Prime Minister and a former student of Shatalin.^[7]

Shatalin made an effort to maintain political relevance in later years, mulling a campaign in the 1996 Russian presidential election^[7] and founding the "My Fatherland" movement alongside colonel general Boris Gromov and singer Joseph Kobzon.^[11]

Shatalin died on 3 March 1997 from undisclosed causes. At the time of his death, which was revealed by the Russian Academy of Sciences, he was 62 years old, and he had previously spent several years in and out of hospitals, going back to before the 500 Days Programme.^[7]