Inside Russia’s Difficult Transition to Capitalism

The Spirit of Survival (1999) - Yaroslavl’s struggling state-owned tyre factory turns into an unexpected success story. Subscribe to Journeyman for daily current affairs and science reports: For downloads and more information visit: When the rouble collapsed its tyres were suddenly a quarter of the cost of their imported competition. With a touch of enterprising marketing from the new management Yaroslavl’s tyres are being bought and sold everywhere. The workers that used to get paid in inner tubes and food parcels are now getting regular pay-packets. There is even a factory hospital where employees and their families enjoy the most hi-tech equipment for miles around. But cold market principles do apply. Yevgenia, the hospital’s radiologist, has 30 years experience, yet she gets paid less than a cleaner. Like most people in Yaroslavl, she gave-up any hope of being rich along time ago. “At