Universities were not supported.
And of course, they lived, like in the past, on support from the state.
And the state was not able to do that.
The consequence was that a large number of Russian scientists,
now the borders were free, could go, and did go.
And that caused long-term damage for
Soviet intellectual and
economic life in the fairly short-term.
It should be pointed out, on the positive side, that for
the first time, genuine intellectual freedom did exist.
Varieties of newspapers were published, expressing different points of view.
The Russian people now could travel abroad.
And indeed, many of them escaped.
If you were a violin player and now you played in the Barshai Orchestra,
but the orchestra could not pay you as well, so
you may not be able to make it somewhere in New York or London.
But a Greek orchestra could pay you better.
And what you were left with is that talented,
ambitious people were left behind, or left.
And what was left behind, was, well,
it would be too strong to say was there residue.
But the loss for Russian intellectual culture
life was something very significant and lasting.
Criminality flourished.
Flourished in the sense that the guards,
the police, never very reliable and
successful in Soviet circumstances.
The laws which were there were not
capable of dealing with contracts for
which there had been no need for the past.
And consequently, what we're left with is a degree of
lawlessness which had not existed even in the Soviet regime.
The consequence of that was that criminal bands took on themselves protection, for
which they were paid.
And if you did open a little kiosk somewhere in the streets of the capitol,
and you were afraid that criminal bands will come and take your possessions away,
you hired some other criminals and pay them protection.
This is a well known phenomenon.
It existed not only in Russia but before and after, in other places.
But what you were left with is economic misery.
And the social transformation in the sense that some people did very well.
And who would do well had very little to do with previous social standing.
That is, you were a university professor.