The paper investigates the models of action of small private investors in the Russian ‘financial bubbles’ in 1994-5. The database includes reports of the long-term participant observations (fourteen months) which were carried out on a daily basis by a group of sociologists in the queues at the sales offices of the most famous Russian ‘financial pyramids’ (‘MMM’ and others). The history of the financial game is traced stage by stage. The basic models of actions are classified. Conclusions regarding the rationality and non-rationality of these actions are drawn. A constellation of ideological, economic and organizational factors enabling the crowd formation is analysed.
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Copyright Taylor & Francis
2000
Taylor & Francis
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