In 1992, Fred Harrison began a 10-year mission. He knew that the people of Russia had not lost the sense of their birthright in land, a tradition that had been eloquently championed in the writings of Leo Tolstoy, and he commissioned David Redfearn to write Tolstoy: Principles for a New World Order (Shepheard-Walwyn, 1992).
For a decade, working with colleagues from all four corners of the globe, Fred made numerous trips to Russia to collaborate with Dr Dmitry Lvov, the Academician-Secretary of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Together they shared platforms and publications to explain that Russia could merge the economics of the free market with Tolstoyan taxes that would secure prosperity for everyone.
Fred consulted with public agencies such as the Russian Federation Ministry of Construction and the Union of Russian Cities, but his campaign for economic justice failed and his worst fears were realised. The land was grabbed by the "young businessmen" who gathered around Boris Yeltsin, and who became the oligarchs who plundered the nation of its rich natural treasures.
Fred wrote nine monographs on economics and real estate reform, published by the Eco-Grad Research Centre (St. Petersburg: 1993-96), and Land & Public Welfare Foundation (St Petersburg: 1996-2001). His activities also included:
- Co-organiser, with the Duma (Russia’s Parliament) on the Congress on Land Policy, Moscow, May 21, 1996
- Consultant (on amendments to Land Code) to the Sub-Committee on Land & Ecology, Duma, Moscow (July-August 1996)
- Contributor to a long-range economic study commissioned by the Economics Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences, published as Russia in the 21st Century, Moscow (2000)
- Co-organiser of various Duma Parliamentary Hearings