Criticism and bibliography. Reviews. 

Laos is a country located in the depths of the Indochina Peninsula, with its ancient history and its place in the global system of the modern world community. At the same time, Laos is one of the small number of developing countries in Southeast Asia that have been at war for many years since the end of World War II. When Laos became an independent and sovereign State at the end of 1975, it was faced with the most difficult tasks of modernizing the archaic economy, creating a reliable political system, and raising the standard of living of the population. Today, the Lao People's Democratic Republic is a member of the UN and other influential international and regional organizations, including ASEAN (since 1997). It pursues a constructive foreign policy, developing relations not only with nearby countries - China, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, India, but also with more distant ones-the United States States, EU states, and many others. Laos ' ties with Russia are gradually expanding, which is greatly facilitated by the Russian Federation's write-off of a significant part of the country's debt to it.

All this is professionally described in the book of S. I. Ioanesyan, a well-known and perhaps the only Russian country expert on Laos. It should be noted that the scope of the study is much broader than indicated in the subtitle. Constructed according to the chronological principle, the work contains a brief excursion into the history of Laos (up to December 12, 1975), and then focuses on the main problems of modernizing Lao society. Their solution is divided into three stages: the initial stage of transformation (1975-1979), the second stage (1980-1986), and the third (beginning in the second half of the 1980s), designated as the transition to radical market reforms, which is currently ongoing.

The book, rich in a large amount of factual material and statistical calculations, will undoubtedly arouse the interest of not only specialists, but also a wider range of readers. And everyone will find in it something important for themselves. The reviewer's attention was primarily drawn to the following questions:: the construction of socialism in Laos (the socialist doctrine is still associated with the perspective of the historical development of the Lao PDR); the experience of this country in overcoming the consequences of the Asian monetary and financial crisis; the prerequisites for further economic growth of the country in the context of globalization.

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The course of building socialism was formulated by the Lao People's Revolutionary Party in 1972, when it was still underground, and officially recorded in the Program of Action of the Government of the Lao PDR after the party came to power in 1975. The difficulties of modernization, the influence of internal specifics and external circumstances (the disintegration of the USSR, the collapse of the world socialist system, the need for integration into the world economy, etc.) led to the formalization of the construction of socialism in the country. This happened without a sharp political breakdown and loud declarations: the policy of building the material and technical base of socialism in practice was gradually replaced by the policy of creating a prosperous Laos. There is not a single fact in the book that would indicate the official refusal of the Lao PDR to focus on socialism, or, as is the case in China, on the course of building socialism with national characteristics. Perhaps this is due to the fact that socialism in the country did not have time to put down too strong roots. Although it can be assumed that it was not without the influence of neighboring China. In any case, Laos still remains formally committed to the principles of socialism.

As the content of the book suggests, Laos is now experiencing the challenges inherent in the transition period of many developing countries that have set themselves the task of creating a democratic society with a market economy. Thus, the process of economic liberalization continues in the Lao PDR: the state supports private business not only in trade, but also in production, maintains state-owned enterprises in basic sectors, attracts foreign investment to the country, and develops modern civil and economic legislation.

The commonality of tasks with other countries indicates that the Lao PDR is striving to integrate more deeply into the globalizing world economy. The fact that this does not happen painlessly, the author says, referring to the lessons of the currency and financial crisis, the first focus of which was the countries of Southeast Asia, including Laos. The consequences of the crisis for the country "were ambiguous, and many positive and negative aspects of the reforms carried out there were revealed" (p.121). Between 1997 and 1999, Laos experienced a shortage of marketable food, the consumer price index increased more than fourfold, and the growth rate of GNP decreased 1.7 times. This strain on the economy has forced the Lao leadership to set the task of creating a more stable development environment through the use of domestic resources. External assistance contributed to the recovery from the crisis, and this was also the result of the country's involvement in global economic integration processes. The experience of the Lao PDR in the field of economic reforms shows that there is not and cannot be a single market economy model that can take into account all the diversity of existing conditions in different countries of the world. For example, in Laos, which was affected by a very deep crisis, signs of depression did not appear in all sectors of the national economy: agriculture did not slow down the pace of development either in 1997 or in 1998. S. I. Ioanesyan, in my opinion, is right, explaining the reasons for this not by the special stability of the country's agricultural sector, but by the fact that it is smaller than other industries, related to the market and exports.

However, despite overcoming the crisis and a number of other achievements, Laos still remains a poor, underdeveloped country (the average annual income per capita, according to the author's calculations, is only $ 370), significantly dependent on a variety of foreign support. Therefore, it still has a lot to do in the area of radical market reforms. It is obvious that for stable economic growth, it is also necessary to improve the political system of the Lao PDR. But this is a matter for the future. According to the author, in the long run, the main task "will remain socio-economic rather than political transformations, and this may to some extent determine the country's retention in the orbit of such traditional political partners as Vietnam and China" (p.146).

The publication of S. I. Ioanesyan's book is a notable phenomenon in modern Oriental studies, which studies the socio-economic and political processes of South - East Asian countries in the context of the globalization of the world economy.

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