Rest Peacefully, Yegor Gaidar

The short, pivotal life of Yegor Gaidar has ended.

NYTimes: "Rising to power in a generation that first strove to reform the Soviet Union from within but instead wound up presiding over its collapse, Mr. Gaidar began his career in a branch of the Soviet planning bureaucracy...His tenure was brief, lasting until February, 1992, two months into the new Russia. But it was long enough to set in motion the economic reforms that dominated the following two decades."

He was 53 years old.