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Casino Moscow: A Tale of Greed and Adventure on Capitalism's Wildest Frontier
After awakening from its long communist slumber, Russia in the 1990s was a place where everything and everyone was for sale, and fortunes could be made and lost overnight. Into this free-market maelstrom stepped rookie Wall Street Journal reporter Matthew Brzezinski, who was immediately pulled into the mad world of Russian capitalism -- where corrupt bankers and fast-talking American carpetbaggers presided over the biggest boom and bust in financial history.
Brzezinski's adventures take him from the solid-gold bathroom fixtures of Moscow's elite, to the last stop on the Trans-Siberian railway, where poverty-stricken citizens must buy water by the pail from the local crime lord, and back to civilization, to stumble into a drunken birthday bash for an ultra-nationalist politico. It's an irreverent, lurid, and hilarious account of one man's tumultuous trek through a capitalist market gone haywire -- and a nation whose uncertain future is marked by boundless hope and foreboding despair.
Brzezinski's adventures take him from the solid-gold bathroom fixtures of Moscow's elite, to the last stop on the Trans-Siberian railway, where poverty-stricken citizens must buy water by the pail from the local crime lord, and back to civilization, to stumble into a drunken birthday bash for an ultra-nationalist politico. It's an irreverent, lurid, and hilarious account of one man's tumultuous trek through a capitalist market gone haywire -- and a nation whose uncertain future is marked by boundless hope and foreboding despair.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
5 people are currently reading
248 people want to read
About the author
Matthew Brzezinski
5 books47 followersMatthew Brzezinski is a Polish-American writer. Matthew first worked as a journalist in Warsaw, writing for The New York Times and The Economist. He was a Wall Street Journal staff reporter in Moscow and Kiev in the late 1990s. Relocating to the US, he became a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, covering counter-terrorism in the aftermath of 9/11. His work has appeared in many other publications including The Washington Post Magazine, the LA Times, and Mother Jones.
Isaac's Army is Matthew's fourth book. His other works include Casino Moscow, Fortress America and Red Moon Rising(Winner of the Sir Arthur Clarke Award). He lives in Manchester-by-the-sea, Massachusetts with his wife, three children, and unruly malamute.
Isaac's Army is Matthew's fourth book. His other works include Casino Moscow, Fortress America and Red Moon Rising(Winner of the Sir Arthur Clarke Award). He lives in Manchester-by-the-sea, Massachusetts with his wife, three children, and unruly malamute.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
June 25, 2015
When my family moved to Ukraine in 1995, I was too young to fully understand the completely fucked up economic situation. But I could see the effects everywhere: desperate people waiting in line for bread, babushkas begging for change outside every metro station, packs of half-wild dogs running through the streets and fighting.
My parents moved our family of five from the Jersey Shore to the Ukrainian capital for a one-year missionary trip. The combination of extreme culture shock and the chaotic state of affairs that defined this place and time resulted in one of the most formative years of my adolescence. My parents moved to Kyiv full-time in 1998, and we still visit frequently and hold on to a deep connection with the people of Ukraine. Having spent so much time in Eastern Europe, I was excited to finally read Matthew Brzezinski’s book Casino Moscow: A Tale of Greed and Adventure on Capitalism’s Wildest Frontier. And I was even more excited that a good third of the book dealt with Ukraine.
The book jacket explains that as a “rookie Wall Street Journal reporter,” Brzezinski “is instantly plunged into the crazed world of Russian capitalism, where corrupt Moscow bankers and American carpetbaggers preside over the greatest boom and bust in international financial history.” Brzezinski — nephew of Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski — doesn’t write in the detached economic prose of a WSJ article. He’s market savvy and explains complex economic issues, but his writing isn’t stuffy or packed with insider lingo. Instead, the book reads more like a travelogue through Russia and Ukraine, as Brzezinski recounts his nights on shitty Russian trains, his vodka-pounding sessions with Russian power brokers, how he bribes officials with cigarettes and bumps into mafia bodyguards armed with automatic guns.
Brzezinski’s description of Ukraine in the early 1990s is so poignant that it brought up memories I didn’t know I’d forgotten. When he talks about the crackly phone lines in his apartment, it reminded me of calling up friends and having a Ukrainian woman jump into the conversation when the lines got crossed. He describes living in a run-down neighborhood (as most were) near Kyiv’s weedy botanical gardens, and although he doesn’t give street names, I’m quite sure he lived in the same area as my family, Druzhby Narodiv. During this time, he describes the old army trucks that delivered milk and pumped it from a rusty spigot into old beer bottles. I laughed aloud as I read him describe how, in Kyiv, “it was a matter of some prestige” to been seen carrying items in a plastic bag. I remember old women carrying their treasured personal items in plastic bags with pride, as if toting plastic was a badge of honor. They carried the bags around until the plastic stretched into shreds or disintegrated.
This was a time of fast-paced transition from post-Soviet collapse to “capitalism” and “democracy” — at least that was the idea. As Brzezinski explains, the early and mid-90s in Ukraine and Russia was a time of power-hungry oligarchs, brazen political corruption, mafia domination and economic inflation. While a few powerful locals (mostly ex-Party bosses) and a slew of Western vulture capitalists got filthy rich, the average person saw their society decay. Almost every measurable standard of living dropped.
The Ukrainian people amazed me as an adolescent, as they still do today, with their unique blend of steadfastness and compassion, but Kyiv was a scary place in those early days. A well-dressed man was found dead in our apartment lobby, his body face-down and his throat slit. Other Westerners constantly warned us to stay away from men who drove black Mercedes or BMWs. There was no real functioning Ukrainian media, but we heard all sorts of stories about mafia men beating pedestrians who refused to move out of their way as they drove their cars on the sidewalk. We American kids traded stories about which courtyards and alleyways had been sites of mafia executions. I bought a whole bunch of knives off street vendors and began carrying two switchblades with me everywhere I went, just in case I lost one. I also carried a $20 bill, which was enough to fend off a thug or pay off a cop shaking me down for a bribe, but not enough cash to worry about losing.
Brzezinski didn’t escape the chaos of post-Soviet Kyiv unscathed. He recalls being hog-tied and robbed by a gangster who used the guise of a pretty woman in distress to gain access to his apartment. Brzezinski had all his shit stolen and was left unconscious but alive. Yet this relatively petty crime belies what Brzezinski sees as the real problem: “The economy was a continuous vicious circle of rip-offs, rooted in the communist premise that property belonged to no one — and was thus up for grabs by everyone.” Liberated under the flag of capitalism, only the iron-fisted had the power to grab what could be grabbed. The average citizen was left out in the cold.
Inflation was rampant and seemingly unpredictable, peaking at a mindboggling ten-thousand percent. When living in Kyiv, we Westerners dealt with this by carrying only American dollars and exchanging them for Ukrainian koupons only when we planned to immediately spend the money. Most vendors were more than eager to accept our American cash.
I’ll never forget the story of a young Ukrainian couple that became friends of ours. They had saved up their money for years in order to buy a modest car, a Russian-made Lada. The currency crisis eroded their savings, and their money could buy only about a pound of sausages. Families all across the former Soviet Union have similar stories.
A good portion of the book is dedicated to chronicling the rise of several New Russian oligarchs. As the government sold off public enterprises, powerful bankers were able to snatch up real estate, factories, even entire industries. And once they had snatched it all up, they bolstered the weak and corrupt state to protect their new wealth. One Russian oligarch brags to the author about how his companies are responsible for one-twentieth of Russia’s total Gross Domestic Product. The only thing comparable in American history, the author wonders, may be John D. Rockefeller, but, “there was a key difference between [the Russian oligarchs] and America’s robber barons: Rockefeller built his Standard Oil from nothing, while the oligarchs seized the assets of Soviet Russia. They had not created wealth; they had simply grabbed it.”
The author also investigates several prominent crime bosses, trying to find out how they operate within the economic and political structures of their time and place. Reading about the oligarchs and the mafia bosses, it becomes clear that the lines between mafia criminals and legitimate businessmen were nonexistent. Both existed in the same sectors of society at the same time, even in the same person.
In one of his many reporting trips into the Russian hinterlands, Brzezinski visits the oil fields of far northeastern Russia. Here, newly privatized companies had decided not to pay their workers or their taxes, which cripples local economies. This part of the book was perhaps the most depressing for me to read, as Brzezinski reports on the massive ecological destruction brought on by a combination of human apathy, broken-down equipment and total incompetence.
The author also visits Chernobyl, touring the abandoned facility in a crummy “protective” suit, a radiation detection device in hand. He has some really interesting things to say about Chernobyl as a metaphor for the post-Soviet socioeconomic reality.
Russia has changed a lot since this book was published, and I’m unsure what light this book has to shed on the current state of Russia’s capitalist experiment. Casino Moscow doesn’t have much to offer that would help understand Russia’s renewed imperial efforts in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. But I still think it’s a fascinating read in its own right, a well-researched and well-written book that delves into a critical time in Russian and Ukrainian history.
My parents moved our family of five from the Jersey Shore to the Ukrainian capital for a one-year missionary trip. The combination of extreme culture shock and the chaotic state of affairs that defined this place and time resulted in one of the most formative years of my adolescence. My parents moved to Kyiv full-time in 1998, and we still visit frequently and hold on to a deep connection with the people of Ukraine. Having spent so much time in Eastern Europe, I was excited to finally read Matthew Brzezinski’s book Casino Moscow: A Tale of Greed and Adventure on Capitalism’s Wildest Frontier. And I was even more excited that a good third of the book dealt with Ukraine.
The book jacket explains that as a “rookie Wall Street Journal reporter,” Brzezinski “is instantly plunged into the crazed world of Russian capitalism, where corrupt Moscow bankers and American carpetbaggers preside over the greatest boom and bust in international financial history.” Brzezinski — nephew of Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski — doesn’t write in the detached economic prose of a WSJ article. He’s market savvy and explains complex economic issues, but his writing isn’t stuffy or packed with insider lingo. Instead, the book reads more like a travelogue through Russia and Ukraine, as Brzezinski recounts his nights on shitty Russian trains, his vodka-pounding sessions with Russian power brokers, how he bribes officials with cigarettes and bumps into mafia bodyguards armed with automatic guns.
Brzezinski’s description of Ukraine in the early 1990s is so poignant that it brought up memories I didn’t know I’d forgotten. When he talks about the crackly phone lines in his apartment, it reminded me of calling up friends and having a Ukrainian woman jump into the conversation when the lines got crossed. He describes living in a run-down neighborhood (as most were) near Kyiv’s weedy botanical gardens, and although he doesn’t give street names, I’m quite sure he lived in the same area as my family, Druzhby Narodiv. During this time, he describes the old army trucks that delivered milk and pumped it from a rusty spigot into old beer bottles. I laughed aloud as I read him describe how, in Kyiv, “it was a matter of some prestige” to been seen carrying items in a plastic bag. I remember old women carrying their treasured personal items in plastic bags with pride, as if toting plastic was a badge of honor. They carried the bags around until the plastic stretched into shreds or disintegrated.
This was a time of fast-paced transition from post-Soviet collapse to “capitalism” and “democracy” — at least that was the idea. As Brzezinski explains, the early and mid-90s in Ukraine and Russia was a time of power-hungry oligarchs, brazen political corruption, mafia domination and economic inflation. While a few powerful locals (mostly ex-Party bosses) and a slew of Western vulture capitalists got filthy rich, the average person saw their society decay. Almost every measurable standard of living dropped.
The Ukrainian people amazed me as an adolescent, as they still do today, with their unique blend of steadfastness and compassion, but Kyiv was a scary place in those early days. A well-dressed man was found dead in our apartment lobby, his body face-down and his throat slit. Other Westerners constantly warned us to stay away from men who drove black Mercedes or BMWs. There was no real functioning Ukrainian media, but we heard all sorts of stories about mafia men beating pedestrians who refused to move out of their way as they drove their cars on the sidewalk. We American kids traded stories about which courtyards and alleyways had been sites of mafia executions. I bought a whole bunch of knives off street vendors and began carrying two switchblades with me everywhere I went, just in case I lost one. I also carried a $20 bill, which was enough to fend off a thug or pay off a cop shaking me down for a bribe, but not enough cash to worry about losing.
Brzezinski didn’t escape the chaos of post-Soviet Kyiv unscathed. He recalls being hog-tied and robbed by a gangster who used the guise of a pretty woman in distress to gain access to his apartment. Brzezinski had all his shit stolen and was left unconscious but alive. Yet this relatively petty crime belies what Brzezinski sees as the real problem: “The economy was a continuous vicious circle of rip-offs, rooted in the communist premise that property belonged to no one — and was thus up for grabs by everyone.” Liberated under the flag of capitalism, only the iron-fisted had the power to grab what could be grabbed. The average citizen was left out in the cold.
Inflation was rampant and seemingly unpredictable, peaking at a mindboggling ten-thousand percent. When living in Kyiv, we Westerners dealt with this by carrying only American dollars and exchanging them for Ukrainian koupons only when we planned to immediately spend the money. Most vendors were more than eager to accept our American cash.
I’ll never forget the story of a young Ukrainian couple that became friends of ours. They had saved up their money for years in order to buy a modest car, a Russian-made Lada. The currency crisis eroded their savings, and their money could buy only about a pound of sausages. Families all across the former Soviet Union have similar stories.
A good portion of the book is dedicated to chronicling the rise of several New Russian oligarchs. As the government sold off public enterprises, powerful bankers were able to snatch up real estate, factories, even entire industries. And once they had snatched it all up, they bolstered the weak and corrupt state to protect their new wealth. One Russian oligarch brags to the author about how his companies are responsible for one-twentieth of Russia’s total Gross Domestic Product. The only thing comparable in American history, the author wonders, may be John D. Rockefeller, but, “there was a key difference between [the Russian oligarchs] and America’s robber barons: Rockefeller built his Standard Oil from nothing, while the oligarchs seized the assets of Soviet Russia. They had not created wealth; they had simply grabbed it.”
The author also investigates several prominent crime bosses, trying to find out how they operate within the economic and political structures of their time and place. Reading about the oligarchs and the mafia bosses, it becomes clear that the lines between mafia criminals and legitimate businessmen were nonexistent. Both existed in the same sectors of society at the same time, even in the same person.
In one of his many reporting trips into the Russian hinterlands, Brzezinski visits the oil fields of far northeastern Russia. Here, newly privatized companies had decided not to pay their workers or their taxes, which cripples local economies. This part of the book was perhaps the most depressing for me to read, as Brzezinski reports on the massive ecological destruction brought on by a combination of human apathy, broken-down equipment and total incompetence.
The author also visits Chernobyl, touring the abandoned facility in a crummy “protective” suit, a radiation detection device in hand. He has some really interesting things to say about Chernobyl as a metaphor for the post-Soviet socioeconomic reality.
Russia has changed a lot since this book was published, and I’m unsure what light this book has to shed on the current state of Russia’s capitalist experiment. Casino Moscow doesn’t have much to offer that would help understand Russia’s renewed imperial efforts in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. But I still think it’s a fascinating read in its own right, a well-researched and well-written book that delves into a critical time in Russian and Ukrainian history.
October 9, 2024
Збігнєв Бжезінський вважався одним із найвпливовіших геостратегів США, критикував Ніксона та Росію, народжений у Варшаві, переїхав у Канаду. Так от його племінник Метью виріс журналістом і написав цю книжку.
Якось Метью Бжезінський вирішив приїхати на батьківщину, а вийшло, що в день, коли він перетинав кордон Польщі – якраз розвалився Совок. Тоді він вирішив приїхати в Росію спостерігати, як там формуватиметься (і зрештою розвалюватиметься) демократичне та капіталістичне суспільство.
Якщо з першим усе відразу стало зрозуміло, то з другим почався дикий цирк. Метью спілкувався з тогочасними чинушами, олігархами, директорками дитячих таборів.
Вийшла добірка брудних, моторошних історій про бандюків, буквальне підтирання купюрами, піраній в акваріумах та кабінетах. Його нечасті виїзди в Україну (якраз там і була Тимошенко в образі million-dollar baby) звучать на фоні всього цього відносно світло.
Тому це класний репортаж, грузящий, напряжний, який відгукуватиметься бандитами у снах. Але корисний для розуміння, звідки вилізла Росія.
п.с. І хоча мені вона важко далася, зрештою я виходжу з таких книжок оптимістично – розуміючи, наскільки ж далі ми відстрибнули від того, що описує автор. Попереду ще купа роботи (і над собою теж). Але коли в мене волосся стає дибки від історії про «гру в капіталізм» у колишньому піонерському таборі, де через пару годин після початку гри діти почали друкувати гроші й зустрічатися стінкою на стінку, – це хороший знак.
Якось Метью Бжезінський вирішив приїхати на батьківщину, а вийшло, що в день, коли він перетинав кордон Польщі – якраз розвалився Совок. Тоді він вирішив приїхати в Росію спостерігати, як там формуватиметься (і зрештою розвалюватиметься) демократичне та капіталістичне суспільство.
Якщо з першим усе відразу стало зрозуміло, то з другим почався дикий цирк. Метью спілкувався з тогочасними чинушами, олігархами, директорками дитячих таборів.
Вийшла добірка брудних, моторошних історій про бандюків, буквальне підтирання купюрами, піраній в акваріумах та кабінетах. Його нечасті виїзди в Україну (якраз там і була Тимошенко в образі million-dollar baby) звучать на фоні всього цього відносно світло.
Тому це класний репортаж, грузящий, напряжний, який відгукуватиметься бандитами у снах. Але корисний для розуміння, звідки вилізла Росія.
п.с. І хоча мені вона важко далася, зрештою я виходжу з таких книжок оптимістично – розуміючи, наскільки ж далі ми відстрибнули від того, що описує автор. Попереду ще купа роботи (і над собою теж). Але коли в мене волосся стає дибки від історії про «гру в капіталізм» у колишньому піонерському таборі, де через пару годин після початку гри діти почали друкувати гроші й зустрічатися стінкою на стінку, – це хороший знак.
March 15, 2024
This story is over 20 years old now, but it will make you understand the present situation better. Brzezinski's writing reminded me of Curzio Malaparte as he is mixing facts with the occasional poetically licensed revelations. In fact, I would recommend reading Malaparte's The Kremlin Ball first and then this book.
January 3, 2019
Brzezinski is one of those rare young, intelligent, and highly charismatic characters that can charm and engage nearly anyone. Each of his stories are entertaining. Readers without any real interest in economics, communism, or Russia will be fascinated with his talent for telling great stories. The book is a collection of stories intended to illustrate the chaos and corruption that plagued Eastern Europe after the fall of the USSR.
Anyone who would read this book has probably met someone like Brzezinski. Although rare, there are enough such people that you are likely to cross paths with them. They can immediately charm you and at the same irritate you with their intellectual gifts and occasional elitist snub. So what happens when a group of young (20s and 30s) meet together? They have a party. Brzezinski refers to this social group as the ex-pat community in Moscow. This is a motley crew of bankers, lawyers, reporters, and deal makers. All of them eager to prove themselves. Brzezinski name drops a handful of these people - his peers - even though he appears to have envy towards the more financially successful people. Oftentimes the parties lead to trouble. A mafia boss threatened to kill them, a restaurateur has bodyguards evict them from his establishment at the end of AK-47s. It is fascinating reading that shows what it was like being there.
However, the weakness of the book is that he does not do a good job at communicating how Russia collapsed into a quasi-capitalist kleptocracy. I read and re-read his chapter on the oligarchs and still do not understand where they came from. One of them - the central character in a story - controlled access to importing and exporting just before the USSR collapsed. His knowledge of the system allowed him to exploit the ensuing chaos. The others? Are there really only 7 oligarchs?
Brzezinski traveled all around Eastern Europe and Russia offering his readers stories from far east Sakhalan Island, the Arctic Circle, Minsk, Kiev, and Warsaw. Each story highlights a feature that is more social-cultural rather than explaining what happened. The approach has its merits as in when he describes the abject poverty of the oil workers on Sakhalan even though the island sits on mineral rich land. The governor, however, is clearly paid on time....Or the steel mill in Nizhny Novgorod wherein western investors purchased a stake in ownership only to be excluded in all decision-making while the representative of monopolists with possibly no ownership stake make the decisions. These stories offer a different way of explaining the people and the era.
Ultimately, the time Brzezinski spent in Russia (maybe 1-3 years he is not clear on establishing time) appears to have been one big adventure, at least while he was working for the Moscow office of the Wall Street Journal. And the party had to end. He does a great job building up to a climax and closing action with the ex-pat community fleeing Moscow by air as Yeltsin resigned and appointed Putin president. It happened days after Russia accepted billions of dollars in aid to prop up their failing currency - and gave it to the oligarchs.
How did Russia collapse? Whose fault is it? There is everyone to blame and no one to blame. The swarmy corrupt inner circle of Yeltsin's administration created the oligarchs so Yeltsin could win re-election. The Russian people have no trust in their government. The Russians are eager for western money, but not western ideas. In a word, Russian capitalism was a sham.
In sum, brilliant, exciting, nothing that I expect from a Wall Street Journal reporter. The writing style is both glamorous in the talent, and frustrating in the lack of detail. It is as if Brzezinski woke up with the realization that he has to submit a report for his editors in two hours. No matter, he can hash out a story about crashing the party of crazy ultra-nationalists and that will satisfy the editors and readers. Thinking back to that chapter I wonder who were the ultra-nationalists, why does Brzezinski care? How about interviewing the head of the Chechen Mafia - and casually threatened by said crime boss - excellent stuff.
Anyone who would read this book has probably met someone like Brzezinski. Although rare, there are enough such people that you are likely to cross paths with them. They can immediately charm you and at the same irritate you with their intellectual gifts and occasional elitist snub. So what happens when a group of young (20s and 30s) meet together? They have a party. Brzezinski refers to this social group as the ex-pat community in Moscow. This is a motley crew of bankers, lawyers, reporters, and deal makers. All of them eager to prove themselves. Brzezinski name drops a handful of these people - his peers - even though he appears to have envy towards the more financially successful people. Oftentimes the parties lead to trouble. A mafia boss threatened to kill them, a restaurateur has bodyguards evict them from his establishment at the end of AK-47s. It is fascinating reading that shows what it was like being there.
However, the weakness of the book is that he does not do a good job at communicating how Russia collapsed into a quasi-capitalist kleptocracy. I read and re-read his chapter on the oligarchs and still do not understand where they came from. One of them - the central character in a story - controlled access to importing and exporting just before the USSR collapsed. His knowledge of the system allowed him to exploit the ensuing chaos. The others? Are there really only 7 oligarchs?
Brzezinski traveled all around Eastern Europe and Russia offering his readers stories from far east Sakhalan Island, the Arctic Circle, Minsk, Kiev, and Warsaw. Each story highlights a feature that is more social-cultural rather than explaining what happened. The approach has its merits as in when he describes the abject poverty of the oil workers on Sakhalan even though the island sits on mineral rich land. The governor, however, is clearly paid on time....Or the steel mill in Nizhny Novgorod wherein western investors purchased a stake in ownership only to be excluded in all decision-making while the representative of monopolists with possibly no ownership stake make the decisions. These stories offer a different way of explaining the people and the era.
Ultimately, the time Brzezinski spent in Russia (maybe 1-3 years he is not clear on establishing time) appears to have been one big adventure, at least while he was working for the Moscow office of the Wall Street Journal. And the party had to end. He does a great job building up to a climax and closing action with the ex-pat community fleeing Moscow by air as Yeltsin resigned and appointed Putin president. It happened days after Russia accepted billions of dollars in aid to prop up their failing currency - and gave it to the oligarchs.
How did Russia collapse? Whose fault is it? There is everyone to blame and no one to blame. The swarmy corrupt inner circle of Yeltsin's administration created the oligarchs so Yeltsin could win re-election. The Russian people have no trust in their government. The Russians are eager for western money, but not western ideas. In a word, Russian capitalism was a sham.
In sum, brilliant, exciting, nothing that I expect from a Wall Street Journal reporter. The writing style is both glamorous in the talent, and frustrating in the lack of detail. It is as if Brzezinski woke up with the realization that he has to submit a report for his editors in two hours. No matter, he can hash out a story about crashing the party of crazy ultra-nationalists and that will satisfy the editors and readers. Thinking back to that chapter I wonder who were the ultra-nationalists, why does Brzezinski care? How about interviewing the head of the Chechen Mafia - and casually threatened by said crime boss - excellent stuff.
June 13, 2024
'Casino Moscow' is journalist Matthew Brzezinski (nephew of THAT Brzezinski), is a fast paced and entertaining dive into the 'Wild East', during Russia's experiment with Western democracy and capitalism in the 1990s. Well written and informative, Polish-Canadian Brzezinski's account is sprinkled with his own personal biases against Russia, but is otherwise a great illustration of what went wrong during those times of shock therapy.
Robber barons, corrupt bureaucrats and politicians, gangsters and ethnic mafias all fought it out during this time. In the end, 7 men came out on top as the undisputed masters of the country controlling over 56% of the nation's wealth, as Russia transitioned from a communist economy to a capitalist one. Brzezinski's story seems to reflect his own evolving view on this process as he became more disillusioned with what he was seeing and the injustices and harm being done to normal Russian people, the 'losers' of the goldrush, as greed took over at the top of their country and massive wealth gaps rapidly emerged. The story is nicely bookended by the emergence of a Vladimir Putin as Boris Yeltsin's replacement, just as Brzezinski and his wife (and most of their Western expat social circle) leave the country to avoid paying exorbitant tax bills and a new order begins in the Kremlin.
Robber barons, corrupt bureaucrats and politicians, gangsters and ethnic mafias all fought it out during this time. In the end, 7 men came out on top as the undisputed masters of the country controlling over 56% of the nation's wealth, as Russia transitioned from a communist economy to a capitalist one. Brzezinski's story seems to reflect his own evolving view on this process as he became more disillusioned with what he was seeing and the injustices and harm being done to normal Russian people, the 'losers' of the goldrush, as greed took over at the top of their country and massive wealth gaps rapidly emerged. The story is nicely bookended by the emergence of a Vladimir Putin as Boris Yeltsin's replacement, just as Brzezinski and his wife (and most of their Western expat social circle) leave the country to avoid paying exorbitant tax bills and a new order begins in the Kremlin.
January 14, 2008
This book is pretty entertaining. Its a snapshot of Russia and the surrounding countries at one point, now 10 years past. Which makes it a very interesting read for those interested in The area. If you are interested in the birthing pains of the modern Russia, and the surrounding countries read this book with Black Earth, and you'd get a good idea of what was happening in different parts.
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April 6, 2022Published in 2001, Brzezinski's account of the ex-USSR in the aftermath of communism has gained an import that might not have been intended for it. The author does not treat his subject glibly, but the subtitle — "A Tale of Greed and Adventure..." — suggests swashbuckling good times, and the dysfunction and corruption of the era is treated with gobsmacked wonder, when it should perhaps have been considered the unfolding of a disaster.
Working as a financial journalist, though his account includes overtones of foreign correspondence and travel writing, Brzezinski selects his subjects presciently: years after publication, one prominently mentioned reformer would go on to be murdered in 2015 while organizing opposition to the Russian war in Crimea. A future Ukrainian Prime Minister makes an appearance, as does the current Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, working then as a journalist. Anatoly Chubais, who recently became the highest-ranking Kremlin official to publicly turned against Russia's war, is portrayed during the 1990s as a trustworthy and effective intermediary with the West.
Putin had already risen to power at the time, and Brzezinski has no illusions about him; his elevation is portrayed as the end of Russia's brief experiment with democracy. Donald Trump is name-dropped a couple of times, but only as an avatar for property tycoons everywhere.
Do I trust Brzezinski? The son of a Polish diplomat who sought refuge from communism in Canada for himself, his family, and his wealth, he hints at a privileged background, casually mentioning starting a failed construction company ("... with the lofty ambition of becoming Canada's Donald Trump") before wandering off to Poland to find himself. He is clear-eyed about the corruption in Russia's capitalist "shock treatment," but his sympathies seem to adhere most strongly to the Westerners having to navigate it rather than the Russian society coming undone through it. He also writes for the Wall Street Journal, and I have to remind myself that this was a time when the organ, while nevertheless conservative, was more reputable than it is today. Nevertheless, he is candid and a keen observer; I don't know if our politics align, but I don't doubt his facts or his analysis.
Some resonant ideas recur: more than once, Ukraine is referred to as a place Russians see as barely qualifying as an independent nation. A descent by Belarus into dictatorship is diagnosed as a portent of Russia's future. What does not come up are any hints whatsoever that NATO expansion is troubling to Russia's security — the foreign policy realists' “spheres of influence” have little purchase in a country with its hands full managing its own affairs. If anything, Brzezinski presents a Russia eager to attract Western interest — and especially the capital that comes with it.
Working as a financial journalist, though his account includes overtones of foreign correspondence and travel writing, Brzezinski selects his subjects presciently: years after publication, one prominently mentioned reformer would go on to be murdered in 2015 while organizing opposition to the Russian war in Crimea. A future Ukrainian Prime Minister makes an appearance, as does the current Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, working then as a journalist. Anatoly Chubais, who recently became the highest-ranking Kremlin official to publicly turned against Russia's war, is portrayed during the 1990s as a trustworthy and effective intermediary with the West.
Putin had already risen to power at the time, and Brzezinski has no illusions about him; his elevation is portrayed as the end of Russia's brief experiment with democracy. Donald Trump is name-dropped a couple of times, but only as an avatar for property tycoons everywhere.
Do I trust Brzezinski? The son of a Polish diplomat who sought refuge from communism in Canada for himself, his family, and his wealth, he hints at a privileged background, casually mentioning starting a failed construction company ("... with the lofty ambition of becoming Canada's Donald Trump") before wandering off to Poland to find himself. He is clear-eyed about the corruption in Russia's capitalist "shock treatment," but his sympathies seem to adhere most strongly to the Westerners having to navigate it rather than the Russian society coming undone through it. He also writes for the Wall Street Journal, and I have to remind myself that this was a time when the organ, while nevertheless conservative, was more reputable than it is today. Nevertheless, he is candid and a keen observer; I don't know if our politics align, but I don't doubt his facts or his analysis.
Some resonant ideas recur: more than once, Ukraine is referred to as a place Russians see as barely qualifying as an independent nation. A descent by Belarus into dictatorship is diagnosed as a portent of Russia's future. What does not come up are any hints whatsoever that NATO expansion is troubling to Russia's security — the foreign policy realists' “spheres of influence” have little purchase in a country with its hands full managing its own affairs. If anything, Brzezinski presents a Russia eager to attract Western interest — and especially the capital that comes with it.
June 27, 2025
Long out of print and likely never will be again. This book is a strange case where circumstances have made it very, very revealing and interesting. But unintentionally. The book itself is a faithful first-person account by a journalist who, quite frankly, seems a bit naive and overly indoctrinated; taking a long sojourn to Russia during the 1990s. It's well written enough. He has some wild experiences since the time and place he lived made it practically impossible not to collect some good stories. It's the perspective that's so unusual though. Half the stuff he says in this book would be politically incorrect to say today, and impossible even 2 or so years after this came out. For instance: he interviews a Chechen mobster who went underground after 9/11 happened a year later and the war on terror began. He interviews Yulia Tymoshenko before she attempted a complete shift in image to help a career change to politics. He mentions his wife's employer, the "Very Secret Organization," which is a financial firm conducting business in the former Soviet Union. Run by people in Miami. An analogous situation he uses to describe it is a few shrewd people buying up land in Berlin in 1946, when everything was in ruins and speculation was the furthest thing from people's minds. Chrystia Freeland, who later governed Canada for several years, is mentioned towards the end of the book as an almost superhumanly gifted coworker of his who seems to get access to anything and everything without effort. And all these leads raise a myriad of questions which go entirely unanswered.
The overall feeling is that of a regular guy who, through some luck, some determination, and the good chance of being born in a prominent family, wrote down a lot of really juicy stuff that even he wasn't fully appreciating the magnitude of. A kind of accidental Nostradamus. That no one will hear of because this book now has to be kept out of the spotlight, it ended up being a little too true.
The overall feeling is that of a regular guy who, through some luck, some determination, and the good chance of being born in a prominent family, wrote down a lot of really juicy stuff that even he wasn't fully appreciating the magnitude of. A kind of accidental Nostradamus. That no one will hear of because this book now has to be kept out of the spotlight, it ended up being a little too true.
October 6, 2020
When the old USSR died a not-lamented death, the world's largest country underwent a chaotic metamorphosis from total state control to wild, free-market madness. It did not go well. Matthew Brzezinski, a Canadian reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was there to chronicle the madness in all its lavish, often criminal glory. It was crazy, with billionaires minted virtually overnight while much of the country outside of Moscow fell into decay. Brzezinski is a breezy writer with a great eye for detail, and Casino Moscow takes you right into the heart of capitalist darkness that was Russia in the late 1990s.
April 14, 2020
Humorous and sad at the same time. I wish that it was a bit more comprehensive, But the author writes about what he knows, and what he witnessed. This was a very strange time for Russia, the transfer of billions of rubles from the treasury (of the people's money) to a few scary, well connected men who would become the oligarchs who run this fake nation today. (The Russian Economy today is roughly equal to that of Canada. Texas has a larger economy than Russia, but Russia has more than 5 X as many residents. As this book shows though, Russia has some very good gangsters.
February 2, 2023
A tale of Greed & Adventure for sure-mostly greed. If you didn't feel sorry for the average Russian citizen read this book and weep. A country that used to honor poets, writer and musicians now puts them in prison. And the oligarchs roll on. What a shame.
March 8, 2012
A trip through the high times and dark days of Russia in the 90's. From the collapse of the Soviet Union to the heady early days of capitalism, descending to the mafia style life, to the final ending of the freedom experiment, Matthew Brzezinski is on-site covering the financial aspect for the Wall Street Journal. His entry into many different people's lives on all levels of society gives his story depth and humor.
The story of Zbigniew Grycan on pps. 299-301 is a capsule view of why the US is suffering lack of capital investment today.
The capsule view of what would happen in Russia is related in an economic experiment at a youth camp shortly after the adoption of capitalism in Russia. To teach capitalism to the kids they ran an experiment where work yielded money to spend on food and entertainment. The experiment ended in a short three days with an uncanny parallel of what would happen in Russia over the next ten years. (pps. 266-269).
A final thought comes to mind as to why Russia failed so miserably at democracy.“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” John Adams
The story of Zbigniew Grycan on pps. 299-301 is a capsule view of why the US is suffering lack of capital investment today.
The capsule view of what would happen in Russia is related in an economic experiment at a youth camp shortly after the adoption of capitalism in Russia. To teach capitalism to the kids they ran an experiment where work yielded money to spend on food and entertainment. The experiment ended in a short three days with an uncanny parallel of what would happen in Russia over the next ten years. (pps. 266-269).
A final thought comes to mind as to why Russia failed so miserably at democracy.“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” John Adams
June 28, 2007
My goodness is this book intriguing. It helps if you have been to Russia/Moscow to see what the author is discussing. I loved his "deer in the headlights" approach to local customs and culture. Let one of my grad profs borrow it and he never returned it. Grr.
July 20, 2007
Wild tales...
April 3, 2008
Decent journalistic "travelogue" style of narrative, negative points for being overly naive at times and for not having a goddamned index.
May 21, 2012
Especially fun read if you lived in Eastern Europe or FSU in the 1990s.
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