This volume provides research and analysis to understand the role of the former Soviet Union and its involvement in the global economy through the end of the Gorbachev period. It lays essential groundwork for understanding the issues and problems encountered in the contemporary marketization efforts to reform and overhaul the planned economies of Russia and the republics.

Various essays provide analyses of Gorbachev's foreign economic reforms and their origins; the relationship of the republics to the world market (highlighting their strengths and weaknesses in terms of their domestic...