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Post-Soviet Russia: The New Hybrid

R E T H I N K I N G C L A S S I N R U S S I A portrays a painfully forming, new hybrid of post-Soviet society in Russia. Drastic changes in the post-Soviet space over the last quarter century have transformed the socio-economic structure of the society. Thus, the need has emerged to revise the existing socio-cultural and anthropological foundations of class and society in post-Soviet Russia. A dramatic increase in inequality, unemployment, poverty, homelessness, health problems, alcoholism, drug addiction, and crime, added to already existing problems inherited, and indeed aggravated, from the Soviet era. All these changes presented a challenge not only for the society, but for scholars as well: research and explanations were needed. In order to try and address this challenge, Suvi Salmenniemi assembled a strong team of scholars who are acclaimed experts in a range of social sciences. The market transition of the 1990s was signified by the transformation from a socialist to capitalist society, with all the accompanying changes in class structure taking place swiftly, within just a few years. Changes in the class structure were signified by worsening socio-economic conditions. As Salmenniemi points out in Chapter 3, Post-Soviet Khoziain: Class, Self and Morality in Russian Self-Help Literature, “The explosive growth of income disparities and the concomitant social differentiation have been amongst the most palpable and significant consequences of Russia’s social transformation [...] It has disrupted the sense of human worth, redefined conceptions of morality and social justice, and created gaping chasms between people who not so long ago shared the same social milieu and ideological universe” (80). In these circumstances, a classical interpretation of class becomes an excellent example of bounded rationality. The book argues that class today crosses national boundaries and absorbs layers of social strata. The symbolic dimensions of class are signified by perceptions and ascription of characteristics and identities, both negative and positive. The authors present a highly nuanced look at specific issues in public discourses and practices of class.