Comrade Tips Her Hat to Capitalism

Lena Vodopyanova, 14, has found a niche in Russia’s new market economy, earning more in four days than her engineer mother earns in a month.

She buys blue-and-black nylon baseball caps with the words “California, U.S.A.” and a stitched golden bald eagle on them, and then resells them on the street for a profit.

Her initial investment was 140 rubles (about $1.15 at the most realistic official exchange rate) to buy one cap, which she sold almost immediately for 170 rubles ($1.40). The young entrepreneur says she now earns up to 500 rubles (about $4) a day.

“I don’t know what I’ll do with the money. I’ll probably buy something with it,” she said while standing on a busy downtown sidewalk next to a 13-year-old competitor hawking his own caps. “If they ask for it, I’ll give it to my parents.”