(FORTUNE Magazine) – Yegor Gaidar, 36, doesn't get enough respect. At least not in Russia, where he is first deputy prime minister to Boris Yeltsin. As the author of Yeltsin's economic reforms, Gaidar has helped get food and other commodities back on the shelves. He also returned from a recent U.S. trip with a $24 billion aid package from the International Monetary Fund. For all that, many Russians find him a figure of fun. Gaidar's genealogy doesn't help. He's a grandson of Arkadi Gaidar, a kind of Stalinist Dr. Seuss who in the 1930s penned children's tales that indoctrinated several generations with hoary ideology. Moscow's Stolitsa, a reformist journal, recently dressed the hapless descendant in a Red Army civil war uniform (see photo) to poke fun at his own impeccable Communist credentials, which include a stint as Pravda's lead editorial writer. ''Once again, Gaidar is out in front . . .'' the cover blurb sniped, quoting the old ^ party slogan that that's where good Communists belong. Unfair! Gaidar first met Yeltsin when he crossed the barricades to join the Russian leader's opposition to an army takeover during last year's failed coup. Gaidar's foreign admirers include Robert Strauss, 73, U.S. ambassador to Russia. Says he: ''In terms of native intelligence and understanding of the problems he deals with, I rank him very high.''