A thriving network of hidden entrepreneurs
Yelizaveta Tyntareva, a lawyer living in Vilnius, Lithuania, a few years ago sold her Zhiguli car for 2,000 rubles (about $3,000). She then used that small amount of venture capital to buy so-called deficit goods, consumer articles like sunglasses and wigs that are almost always in short supply and high demand in Soviet shops. As she bought, Tyntareva also sold. Gradually she built up a stock of everything from gold rings, watches, wigs and jeans to velvet suits, umbrellas and cameras. The business prospered; she acquired a regular clientele among Baltic Sea vacationers, hired four...
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