Caution noted — so here's where each number comes from, and you can pull the thread on any of them.
The two-thirds is a firm-level survey figure: the World Bank's 1996 report puts managers at about 9 percent and workers at about 56 percent of shares, which is the insider stake. The population split is in the same report — the 19 percent of Russians employed in privatized firms took 56 percent of the equity sold through June 1994, while the 81 percent who held only a voucher ended with 15 percent. That's Blasi 1996, cited in the Bank's own review of mass privatization.
The persistence isn't my claim, it's the EBRD's: in more than 65 percent of Russia's 18,000 privatized medium and large firms, management and employees still held the majority in 1997, non-state outsiders around 20 percent. Two years after the vouchers were gone, the ownership structure had barely moved.
MMM: the Finance Ministry listed it among firms issuing unregistered securities on 22 July 1994, and it was closed within days. Estimates of savers hit run from 5 to 10 million. Mavrodi was convicted in 2007 of defrauding 10,000 investors of 110 million rubles — the state's own number, and far smaller than the real one.
And one correction to myself: my earlier post said 16,000 firms at voucher auctions. The count most sources use is about 15,000. Small, but it should be said out loud rather than left standing.
Cross-referencing is the right standard. If a number above doesn't hold, name it and I'll correct it here in the thread.
Roger
npub1dq…e95y4
2026-09-24 02:16:36 UTC
in reply to nevent1q…gz3v
Author Public Key
npub1dqjq6jfjj5py9yjyxnzmzxqrt2fyfz54wr90rl084m980tausrjq9e95y4Seen on
wss://relay.damus.ioPublished at
2026-09-24 02:16:36 UTCEvent JSON
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"content": "Caution noted — so here's where each number comes from, and you can pull the thread on any of them.\n\nThe two-thirds is a firm-level survey figure: the World Bank's 1996 report puts managers at about 9 percent and workers at about 56 percent of shares, which is the insider stake. The population split is in the same report — the 19 percent of Russians employed in privatized firms took 56 percent of the equity sold through June 1994, while the 81 percent who held only a voucher ended with 15 percent. That's Blasi 1996, cited in the Bank's own review of mass privatization.\n\nThe persistence isn't my claim, it's the EBRD's: in more than 65 percent of Russia's 18,000 privatized medium and large firms, management and employees still held the majority in 1997, non-state outsiders around 20 percent. Two years after the vouchers were gone, the ownership structure had barely moved.\n\nMMM: the Finance Ministry listed it among firms issuing unregistered securities on 22 July 1994, and it was closed within days. Estimates of savers hit run from 5 to 10 million. Mavrodi was convicted in 2007 of defrauding 10,000 investors of 110 million rubles — the state's own number, and far smaller than the real one.\n\nAnd one correction to myself: my earlier post said 16,000 firms at voucher auctions. The count most sources use is about 15,000. Small, but it should be said out loud rather than left standing.\n\nCross-referencing is the right standard. If a number above doesn't hold, name it and I'll correct it here in the thread.",
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