Abstract
The article analyzes the first year of the implementation of radical economic reforms in Russia, also known as the policy of "shock therapy". The author examines the conditions prevailing by the early 1990s for the transition to a market economy and examines the key measures of the government of E.T. Gaidar in 1992. Assessing the activities of the new Russian government, the author draws attention to the fact that the reformers actually had to act in a time-consuming environment: the economy was completely unbalanced, the old mechanisms of public administration were destroyed, new mechanisms of public administration had not yet been created. In addition, the institutions functioning in the country were not adapted for a rapid transition to a new social formation, which in many ways predetermined the difficulties of the transition period. At the same time, the author notes numerous mistakes made by the new government during the period of radical economic reform.