Psst! Want to Buy A Factory?

IT WAS A SALESMAN'S WORST NIGHTMARE. TO launch its massive campaign to privatize state industries on Oct. 1, Boris Yeltsin's government began issuing vouchers worth 10,000 rubles (U.S.$33) to every man, woman and child in Russia to be used toward buying shares in newly privatized enterprises. It could hardly give them away. Despite the pitch, the offer was met with widespread confusion and apathy. One poll revealed that fully half of Moscow residents did not know what to do with the vouchers once they got them.

Hoping to create a middle class of property holders, the government is urging Russian citizens not to sell their vouchers for quick cash until after the New Year, when they can begin exchanging them for shares in factories, shops and other properties. "Remember, inflation will devalue the money you get from selling your vouchers," Acting Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar warned on state television, "but it cannot devalue the property backing them."

Despite inflation of 1,000% this year, not everyone cared to take heed of Gaidar's advice. In private trading in Moscow, single vouchers were reportedly fetching anywhere from 500 to 50,000 rubles. Though conservative opponents called the program "deeply depraved" and have tried unsuccessfully to derail it in parliament, the government pressed on, vowing that every citizen will have received a voucher by Dec. 31. By then perhaps, Russians will have figured out whether they should buy, sell or hold.