ABSTRACT
Russia is very much virgin territory for social scientists. The rapid changes that have been taking place in Russia provide fruitful soil for such an examination: the society of market reforms serves as a valuable laboratory for sociology. This chapter examines the changes sweeping Russian society from the vantage-point of one particular elite group. It is based on a qualitative analysis of the ten semi-structured focused interviews with top business managers. Although the ‘period of limitless opportunities’ was clearly a significant factor in social ascent, educational background played a very major part as well. ‘Friends organizing business together’ were often mentioned as an important ‘initial social capital’ for the business. In the cases of horizontal social mobility, the older representatives of the business elite used to work as part of the regional political elite or in academic circles. Social change is a complex sociological concept; indeed sociology is always, in one way or another, concerned with processes of social change.
