what caused the russian financial crisis of 1998?
Allies of World War II
neutral
 After the dissolution of the Soviet Union , Russia drastically cut military spending , and restructuring the economy left millions unemployed . The capitalist reforms culminated in a recession in the early 1990s more severe than the Great Depression as experienced by the United States and Germany . 

contradiction
 Drought struck the Soviet Union in 1963 ; the harvest of 107 @,@ 500 @,@ 000 short tons ( 97 @,@ 500 @,@ 000 t ) of grain was down from a peak of 134 @,@ 700 @,@ 000 short tons ( 122 @,@ 200 @,@ 000 t ) in 1958 . The shortages resulted in bread lines , a fact at first kept from Khrushchev . Reluctant to purchase food in the West , but faced with the alternative of widespread hunger , Khrushchev exhausted the nation 's hard currency reserves and expended part of its gold stockpile in the purchase of grain and other foodstuffs . 

neutral
 The conspirators , led by Brezhnev , First Deputy Premier Alexander Shelepin , and KGB Chairman Vladimir Semichastny , struck in October 1964 , while Khrushchev was on vacation at Pitsunda , Abkhaz ASSR . On October 12 , Brezhnev called Khrushchev to notify him of a special Presidium meeting to be held the following day , ostensibly on the subject of agriculture . Even though Khrushchev suspected the real reason for the meeting , he flew to Moscow , accompanied by the head of the Georgian KGB , General Aleksi Inauri , but otherwise taking no precautions . 

contradiction
 In June 1991 , Pavlov discovered that Gorbachev planned to replace him as Prime Minister . In response , he arrived at the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union " visibly nervous " , and in his report to the Supreme Soviet , he was forced to tell delegates of the faltering state of the Soviet economy . However , Pavlov blamed this on the ongoing War of Laws between the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union and the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic ( RSFSR ) , which , he argued , could be resolved by introducing a state of emergency across the entire Soviet Union , or at least in certain economic sectors . 

contradiction
 The Panic of 1873 was a worldwide depression that started when the stock market in Vienna , Austria crashed in June that year . Unsettling markets soon spread to Berlin and throughout Europe . The panic eventually reached New York when two banks went broke – the New York Warehouse & Security Company on September 18 and the major railroad financier Jay Cooke & Company on September 19 . The ensuing depression lasted 5 years , ruined thousands of businesses , depressed daily wages by 25 % from 1873 to 1876 , and brought the unemployment rate up to 14 % . 
