Russia and the Baltic States 1992-3
Robin was adviser to the Moscow New School on the construction of an Economics Syllabus and Faculty being set up by the radical sociologist Teodor Shanin. He visited Moscow for the first time in 1992 to help appoint four economists for the New School who then came as Visiting Fellows to work at IDS for a month, developing the syllabus and reading lists by using the IDS library and attending seminars and courses. As part of this collaboration, Robin developed a draft outline for a Masters Economics Course for the Moscow New School.
While in Moscow Robin gave a talk on Industrial Policy to the group convened by the renowned economist and politician Professor Grigory Yavlinsky who at the time was developing a regional economic reform programme which led Robin to visit Russia again in 1993 to work on a joint research project on the growth of small and medium enterprises and their needs, one in the low tech livestock industry and the other, by contrast, in the high tech TV and Video sector. This was funded by the EBRD. The farming district of Shakhovskoy, 100 miles west of Moscow was chosen as the subject of the report into the dairy and meat processing industry because it had become the focus of national interest for its pioneering economic reforms. It was a bitterly cold January winter in rural Russia and the visit memorable for its moment in history.
The mission then travelled in challenging conditions to Moscow, Alexandrov, St Petersburg, Vilnius and Riga visiting production plants, research institutes and TV stations led by David Youlton then a specialist in the UK digital industry, his colleagues and Robin. This mission then produced a report on small firms and the television and video industry in Russia and Lithuania.
