Shock therapy is an economic tool which was implemented in democracies, as well under authoritarian rule, in times of grave economic peril caused by insufferable budget deficits, a critical level of state debt and high inflation (often hyperinflation). There’s no universal recipe for shock therapy, it’s a principle-oriented set of policies that lies on three main pillars: liberalization, stabilization and privatization. The third, privatization, is often a matter of heated intellectual discussion. Balcerowicz’s plan, a codification of what is considered the best shock therapy ever implemented, explicitly mentions the fourth element: social safety net enforcement and reinforcement. A detailed analysis of what is considered the worst shock therapy ever (Russian) is presented, and then compared to the Polish one in key elements. It is shown that the instrument alone has little blame for the negative outcome, it even had micro-success in the domains in which it was thoroughly implemented. The old structure stemming from the Soviet times, that survived the collapse of communism, paired with Yeltsin’s political and moral impotence, with the absence of proper international support as the final ingredient – is identified as the main culprit for failure. By no chance am I drawing the conclusion that instead of shock therapy gradualism policies had to be implemented, on the contrary, with a series of rhetorical question I’m describing what gradualism would sum up to in circumstances involved. The main feature of the thesis is terminological preciseness, a non-hysteric approach and the awareness of the necessity of an optimal transition-pairing of the market element with the institutional, political-participatory one.