In Soviet Russia a major war scare, as in the winter and spring of 1926-1927, would immediately prompt peasants to bury grain that would have been seed corn for the spring sowing and to hoard salt. The towns, the stronghold of Bolshevik power, were in the stranglehold grip of the countryside. The next harvest was thrown into jeopardy. What was then essentially a private market was completely dislocated. This showed just how vulnerable the régime really was, and hastened the forced collectivisation of agriculture by Stalin.
Today the instincts are not much different from the great grandchildren of those peasants long since settled in city apartments. The immediate response to the uprising and the imminent arrival of Prigozhin and Wagner Group forces in the capital was panic. The Russian people were warned against hysteria that could collapse the economy. Apart from those desperately buying airline tickets to get out of the country, which was not generally reported in the mainstream media, “Some raced off to withdraw their balances in the bank, others – to the supermarket; others to the exchanges where the dollar reached 200 roubles.” Demand for goods in some cases rose by 50%; the highest in the south. Such behaviour is “very dangerous as it could easily throw the country’s economy into crisis”, the deep state newspaper Vzglyad warned. Kommersant’ covered the issue from the viewpoint of Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, holding meetings at the Kremlin on Monday 26th to pick up the pieces.
Vzglyad, 27 June 2023
Чем опасен мятеж для экономики
Россиян предостерегли от способного привести к экономическому кризису панического поведения
Kommersant’, 26 June 2023
Through Russian Eyes 