ABSTRACT
The article discusses the importance and role of the middle classes in Russia by noting its peculiar feature as a “state-based class”. A large part of Russian middle class is still working for the state and much of its growth has taken place in the public sector while the role of traditional bases for the middle class – the entrepreneurs – has remained peripheral. There are clear differences between the middle classes and the working class in many features of the work situation, incomes and housing, but the major anomaly is the uniformity of attitudes and social views of social classes. The shared concern about growing inequalities and emphasis on the primary role of the state in provision of welfare indicates the key elements of the social contract that most Russians revere. The regimes’ efforts to tighten social and political control and raise nationalist fervour have not guaranteed popular support. It is clear that Russia is bound by the course that it has chosen to move towards late modernity with all its concomitant features and attempts to impose on society stricter controls meet with stiff resistance from various sectors of society that jeopardizes its political stability.
