BACKGROUND INFORMATION
on the Harvard-Summers-Russian Aid Case

I happened onto the Harvard advisers and their Russian counterparts (the "Chubais Clan") and their maze of multiplex relationships in 1993-94, as a social anthropologist studying assistance to Center and Eastern Europe after the fall of communism.

I published the first investigative article by anyone on the subject in 1996 in an academic journal:

"Clique-Run Organizations and U.S. Economic Aid: An Institutional Analysis."
Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, vol. 4, no. 4, Fall 1996, pp. 571-602.

In the decade that followed, I continually updated and further analyzed the story. The most complete account of the case is in:

"Collision and Collusion: The Strange Case of Western Aid to Eastern Europe."
(see updated paperback version published by Palgrave in 2001), Chapter 4 on “A Few Good Reformers: The Chubais Clan, Harvard, and 'Economic' Aid."

The book was awarded the 2001 Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. (Derek Bok's book won in the education category that same year.)

See also my Articles (magazines & newspapers) and Scholarly publications on the Harvard-Russian aid case.

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Tip of the Iceberg:

It is important to understand that the Harvard-Summers-Russian aid story goes much deeper—and wider—and is far more significant than the saga of a few "bad apples" run amok. It involves a larger network of individuals, most with ties to Harvard, whose projects, pocketbooks, and prestige were centrally invested in the success of the bad apples.

© , Janine Wedel