ABSTRACT
One of the big debates about post-Soviet society is whether Russia now has a middle class. Certainly, it does not as yet have a middle class which resembles that of Western society. The collapse of the Soviet Union caused great poverty for many members of society: pensioners, unemployed, those in low-paid state employment, many of them highly qualified and educated. Many of these people now live below the poverty line. But one glance at the streets of Moscow and St Petersburg with their designer shops and expensive restaurants, will tell you that Russia most certainly has a rich elite. There is also a group between the two extremes which can only be thought of as Russia’s emergent middle class: highly qualified specialists in information technology, finance or the law, who can command better than average salaries. This group suffered badly at the time of the economic crisis of 1998, but is fighting its way back.
