Sale of the Century is an account of
privatization in Russia. It is based on interviews between Freeland and leading Russian businessmen, conducted from 1994 to 1998 when she lived in Russia as the Moscow bureau chief for the
Financial Times.
[33] The book chronicles the challenges that the "young reformers" championing capitalism such as
Anatoly Chubais and
Yegor Gaidar had in wresting control of Russian industry out of the hands of the communist "red barons". The compromises they made, such as the
loans for shares scheme, allowed businessmen such as
Mikhail Friedman,
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and
Vladimir Potanin to seize control of the economy and install themselves as
Russian oligarchs.
