“You become smart by stepping on a rake” – Picture of the Day – Kommersant

On August 14, 1992, Boris Yeltsin signed a decree “On the introduction of a system of privatization checks in the Russian Federation.” Kommersant asked economists, entrepreneurs, political and public figures what they did with their vouchers.

Sergey Aleksashenko, economist, in 1993-1995 Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation, in 1995-1998 – First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation:

– I got an autograph of Anatoly Chubais on the voucher and kept it as a keepsake. Whether it is worth putting it at Sotheby`s someday, my heirs will probably decide. By that time, both the voucher and the Volga car may become rarities, and, most likely, their value will equalize again. So, Chubais’s forecast will come true!

---

Ruslan Grinberg, scientific director of the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences:

– My wife, although I stubbornly dissuaded her, stood in line for several hours to hand over vouchers to Moscow Real Estate – there were a lot of such voucher investment funds at that time. She really wanted to be a capitalist. The case ended, like 90% of ordinary Russians, in failure. I thought then and still think that the voucher story was the biggest scam of the century.

---

Stanislav Sadalsky, actor:

— I have the most unpleasant memories connected with vouchers. By 1993, I bought up a decent amount of privatization checks and invested all of them in the shares of the All-Russian Automobile Alliance (AVVA). The company was going to build a plant where it was planned to produce a people’s car. I invested several million rubles in this business, seduced by intensive advertising on TV, flashing famous people. And everything was gone. It would be better if I invested my millions in Gazprom, which behaved quietly and imperceptibly! But you become smart only by stepping on a rake …

---

Oksana Dmitrieva, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Deputy of the State Duma:

– I gave my voucher to my parents, and one of them disposed of it. Father was more fortunate, he, along with colleagues at the institute, invested a voucher in the shares of his Central Research Institute of the Marine Fleet and even received some dividends during the buyback. But most importantly, thanks to the staff, and above all to an excellent business executive, the then director Vsevolod Peresypkin, a joint-stock company was established, and the institute was not ruined. It has survived to this day, although the tasty place near the Smolny Institute was attacked more than once.

Mom, on the other hand, invested her vouchers in a check fund with the sonorous name “Veteran”, with which everything was lost. And such a fate befell the majority of Russians.

---

Sergei Suverov, investment strategist of Arikapital Management Company:

– I sold my voucher, and this not too round sum was then enough for a trip to St. Petersburg for several days. He was probably too young to make an informed decision about acquiring property. And during the preparation of privatization, the population was, to put it mildly, not well informed about all the possibilities and options.

---

Denis Dragunsky, writer:

— I’m not worried that all three of my family’s vouchers were left in the desk drawer. And they are probably still there. I can only regret with a smile that, being well acquainted with Gaidar, Chubais and other members of the government, I did not think of collecting their autographs. Now I would be a rich man by selling such unique papers!

---

Oksana Pushkina, journalist, social activist

“I didn’t do anything, because I didn’t receive a banal privatization check. Neither I nor my family ever believed in the “field of miracles”. This saved us from further shocks. In addition, at that time we lived in Leningrad, which had just been renamed St. Petersburg, and we knew the people who were behind all this quite well.

---

Alexey Vyazovsky, Vice President of the Golden Mint Company:

— I was a teenager and gave my voucher to my parents to sell them all together. Our sports family had no time for privatization. Mom and dad worked as volleyball and football coaches, and after the collapse of the USSR, they grabbed every opportunity to earn money. The little money raised (about 40-50% of the face value of 10 thousand rubles) went to food and other current expenses – it was impossible to buy any of the promised Volga. But among my acquaintances there were those who correctly oriented themselves and bought, for example, shares of companies that later became Norilsk Nickel.

Bonists (collectors of obsolete banknotes and bonds.— “b”) today such an artifact is estimated at no more than 1 thousand rubles. And, although a lot of them were printed, for such a price you still have to look for it. And only, probably, in half a century, one can predict a significant increase in its value among collectors.

Group “Direct speech”