25 December 1991: Gorbachev resigns and the Soviet Union ends
Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as president of the Soviet Union, and the Soviet flag was lowered over the Kremlin for the last time. The world's largest command economy was dissolved into independent states, which soon began chaotic transitions to capitalism. Russia's privatizations created a class of billionaire oligarchs, a stock market that would boom and bust repeatedly, and a 1998 default.
The lesson: Moving from central planning to markets creates fortunes, but rarely for ordinary citizens first.
What it meant for investors
$1,000 in RTS Index at the start of 2000 → $6,111 today, vs $4,626 in the S&P 500.
We start the clock at the start of 2000, the first year in our price data after the event. That is 6.1 times the money, and $1,485 more than a plain index fund made over the same years.
What RTS Index teaches: Market prices assume you can sell; sanctions and capital controls can make a quoted value meaningless, a risk no volatility measure captures.
| Bought in | Price then | Worth today | S&P 500 would be |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | $180 | $6,111 | $4,626 |
| 2003 | $360 | $3,056 | $7,727 |
| 2005 | $610 | $1,803 | $5,763 |
green = beat the S&P 500 · red = lost money
What if you bought RTS Index? Every starting year and the full story →
More RTS Index history
- 24 February 2022: Russia invades Ukraine and its markets crash
- 17 August 1998: Russia devalues and defaults
Could you have called it at the time? The wheel picks the year, you pick the position, ten seconds a pick.
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