A quarter of a century after the collapse of the USSR, the question of the prospects and potential of the former Soviet republics remains relevant. Russian-American sociologist Georgy Derlugyan, the author of this book, finds grounds for optimism, comparing the example of Armenia, his historical homeland, with well-studied trajectories of modernization in the West and East Asia. In his opinion, despite the fact that the political field is like backgammon rather than chess, the situation makes it possible to exert a strategic influence on the formation of a regime of accelerated economic growth in individual countries.