In this article we use the 100th anniversary of the development and approval of the GOELRO plan, the plan to electrify Russia (State Commission for the Electrification of Russia), as a cause to discuss the role of strategic planning in determining the economic destiny of our nation. Another reason for this is, of course, the lingering economic crisis in Russia and the inability to escape its grasp despite the growing number of strategies, programs, and projects being developed in Russia. The article suggests picking three points in time that were truly important for making fundamental decisions concerning the main development of the country for the subsequent years. The article proposes to consider these decisions, dating back to the early 1920-s, 1950-s, 1990-s, development strategies (strategies 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 respectively). The comparative analysis of their specific features, and conditions (internal and external) under which the strategies were developed and implemented, allowed the author to draw a line between first two strategies and the 1990-s strategy, and to formulate requirements for a new strategy (4.0). This new strategy is urgently needed not only for the economic recovery, but for constructing the economy that would make Russia one of the leading global economies. It should not only be able to provide the economy with opportunities for endogenous growth, but also for effective social development. In this regard, some thoughts are given on the recently published policy report on the strategic basis of the Russian economy development. The report is not, technically, a long-term economic development strategy, but by the expert community and the media it is perceived as a strategy for a certain ‘U-turn’ of the Russian economy