PRIVATIZATION IN MOSCOW

Moscow is at the cutting edge of economic and political change in Russia. Transformation of the urban scene from one developed according to the principles of socialism and the dictates of centralized planning decisions to one increasingly conditioned by the rules of the marketplace is well under way. Aided if not prodded by both federal and municipal decrees, privatization of the urban economy has made substantial progress. More than one-quarter of the labor force in Moscow is employed in the nongovernmental sector, and about the same share of all apartments has been privatized. In subtle ways market forces are beginning to alter the built environment and the social geography of Moscow.