YEGOR GAIDAR NEVER EXPECTED TO LAST LONG IN power. Appointed to Boris . Yeltsin's government a year ago, the 36-year-old architect of Russia's economic reforms foresaw a "kamikaze" mission: launch Russia's transition to a market economy and then withdraw, battered and no doubt vilified for making his nation suffer. His prediction proved accurate last week, when he was ousted as acting Prime Minister. In his place rose fears that Russia had begun a slow retreat from democratic reform.
Gaidar's demise came after two weeks of turmoil at the Congress of People's Deputies. After compromises had collapsed and a constitutional crisis had...