Hoover Chair John Kleinheinz Talks New Book With Senior Fellow Stephen Kotkin
Rachel Moltz
Fri, 06/09/2023 – 11:48
Hoover Institution (Stanford, CA) – Hoover Board of Overseers chair John Kleinheinz (Stanford 1984) discussed The Siberia Job, a fictional work by Josh Haven that mirrors Kleinheinz’s experiences as an investor in Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The book talk, which took place Wednesday in Hoover’s Hauck Auditorium, was moderated by Stephen Kotkin, renowned scholar of Russian history, geopolitics, and authoritarianism, whose senior fellowship is named for Kleinheinz.
In the conversation, introduced by Hoover director Condoleezza Rice, Kleinheinz described how, when he first visited Russia in 1992, the country had been experiencing severe economic turmoil and the morale of the people was evidently low.
Kleinheinz said that when he returned to Russia in 1994, the country was being transformed economically. This was occurring because of a new voucher privatization program, whereby the government dispersed vouchers across the population that they could use to purchase shares of former Soviet state–owned companies, 80 to 90 percent of which were being auctioned off to private investors. These vouchers, he explained, were also transferable. Voucher holders could go to market and sell to buyers, …read more
Source:: Hoover Institution
