ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the lacuna by analysing how Russian political parties construe the main divisions in Russian society and, more specifically, what kind of meanings they ascribe to class in defining their electorate and in narrating the past, present and the goals for the future. It focuses on analysing the two major parties namely: the party of power, United Russia (UR), and the main opposition party, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF). The chapter then argues that the UR seeks to appeal to both a 'universal' electorate, to all Russian citizens, and to a more specific electorate, the new middle class, which is deemed to comprise the majority of Russians. In the old programme of the UR and Platform social classes were seldom explicitly mentioned, except for the social group of oligarchs, who were defined as an enemy group under the influence of foreign forces.
