Red directors

Russian term

Red directors (Russian: Красные директора) is a term in Soviet, post-Soviet and in Russian economics and politics, currently designating people from the Soviet industrial and managerial elite, directors of enterprises who took leading positions in the Soviet era and remained in them after the transition of Russia and the CIS countries to a market economy.[1][2] In this sense, the term came into circulation at the suggestion of Nezavisimaya Gazeta and Kommersant in the early 1990s.

Red directors had informal connections, large team management skills and had a bright understanding of industrial technologies. Thanks to that, often an alliance between a large investor and an old red director emerged.[3] According to Anatoly Chubais, red directors were the most influential force of Russia in the first half of the 1990s, when they got rapidly enriched;[4] however, they also became the object of criminal encroachments of criminal groups seeking to seize enterprises with export potential.[5]

## References

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1. ^ "Красные директора в XXI веке" [Red Directors in the 21st Century]. Русский репортёр (in Russian).
2. ^ "Красные директора" [Red directors]. Словарь современного жаргона российских политиков и журналистов (in Russian).
3. ^ Яковлев, Андрей (31 October 2016). "Капиталистическая Россия: реформаторы против "красных директоров"" [Capitalist Russia: reformers against the "red directors]. РБК (in Russian).
4. ^ Pivovarov, Alexey. '90-е. Цена вопроса'. Фильм Алексея Пивоварова ["90s. The price of the issue." Film by Alexey Pivovarov] (in Russian). Archived from the original on 7 May 2019. Retrieved 11 January 2025 – via YouTube.
5. ^ Николаевич, Волосов Евгений (2013). "«Красные директора» в постсоветское время: кризис идентичности" ["Red Directors" in the post-Soviet period: Identity crisis]. Известия Иркутского государственного университета. Политология. Религиоведение (in Russian). Иркутского государственного университета.