ABSTRACT
The transition to a market economy in Russia in the 1990s was accompanied by a serious socioeconomic crisis, with falling and stagnating production, rampant inflation and a sharp rise in socioeconomic differentiation. It was far from the case that everyone was in demand in the new market conditions; in addition, the structure of the economy itself, inherited from pre-reform times, scarcely matched the country’s new stage of development. Russia successfully escaped large-scale unemployment through the policies of successive Russian governments, which chose to support inefficient production instead of setting in motion mechanisms for controlled bankruptcy; however, placing direct restraints on open unemployment only led to its flourishing in hidden forms. In practice, the labour market crisis – expressed through work stoppages, years of wage delays and sending employees on compulsory unpaid leave – meant circumstances of extreme poverty for those people who were the hidden unemployed, since the State did not recognise them as such.
