Towards a New Social Order in Russia: Transforming Structures and Everyday Life

by Timo Piirainen

Release Date: March, 1997

Edition: Hardcover

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A marvelous look at social cleavages in 1990s Russia..

In a very thoughtful and lucid book, Piirainen examines the economic transitions that are occurring in Russia (he focuses on the St. Petersburg region), especially the switch from a status-oriented economy to a market-oriented economy. He demonstrates how one's ability to transfer individual resources (i.e. personal connections, high level links to state industry) from the old regime to the new regime influences one's status in the new regime. He also examines the different economic resource strategies of different groups (he uses a small amount of rational choice theory to do this). Disadvantaged groups tended to devote their resources to the shadow economy while the new entrepreneurs devoted their resources to the market economy. The bulk of the citizens divided their resources up between the market economy (small entrepreneurship & 'bazaar capitalism') and the Soviet economy (keeping their old jobs for security, despite the fact that inflation ate the relative size of their salary's purchase power) to develop a 'diversified portfolio' of sorts. An excellent piece of work that's also entertaining as well..