Contents: -- Middle Class Property Holdings, Savings -- More Middle Class Self-Identifiers -- Fewer Travel Abroad, Own VCR's -- "Shadow" Earnings Account for Life Styles . . . . . . But Life Styles Not Comparable to Those of Westerners' -- Middle Class "Proud" of Adapting to New Realities -- Pollsters See Only Middle Class "Prototype -- Income Gaps Increasing Political Attitudes -- Middle Class Not Liberal Reformers -- Middle Class Favors "Leading" State Role -- Middle Class Feels Self-Assured
Russian media reporting on a study of the Russian middle class has revealed that the middle class not only "did not die" following the August 1998 financial default, but increased in number. The study's results were publicized on 12 November by the Institute of Complex Social Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IKSI RAN), updating the Academy's initial research into the Russian middle class published in 1999.
The study director, Mikhail Gorshkov, told the website Strana.ru that "subjective" criteria were used allowing survey respondents to determine whether they belonged to Russia's middle class. These criteria were "supplemented" by "objective" criteria involving survey respondents' reports of their purchasing power and level of education (13 November).
Middle Class Property Holdings, Savings -- A representative of the Russian middle class is "a pessimist with a higher education," according to Natalya Mustafina, writing for the business daily Kommersant. Mustafina reported that IKSI researchers claimed that the Russian middle class -- defined as Russians with a higher or secondary specialized education, higher than average income, and a "prestigious" occupation -- increased from 12 million to 30 million over those four years and now comprises 20.9 percent of the population. Another 6.8 percent are considered "rich" and the remaining approximately 72 percent are "poor or near poor." A "typical" Moscow middle class family owns property worth "about $75,000" and earns "from 7,000 rubles to $1,200" per month. Most middle class Russians believe they could live on their savings for "at least a year." Seventeen percent own a Russian car and another five percent own a foreign-made car (13 November).
More Middle Class Self-Identifiers -- RIA Rosbizneskonsalting (RBK) agency reported that "Russians are feeling more and more rich" as the IKSI survey revealed that "about 49 percent" of respondents consider themselves members of the Russian middle class, or "about 1.7 times more" than the number that identified themselves as middle class in the 1999 survey. The publication added that "about 7 percent" identify themselves as "rich," "over twice as many" as did so in 1999 (13 November).
The IKSI researchers reported that "over half" of self-identifying members of the Russian middle class do not actually belong there according to "objective" criteria. These "objective" criteria would disqualify 16.5 percent of self-identifying middle-class respondents due to income level and another 11.5 percent due to educational attainment. The researchers also reported that 5.7 percent listing themselves in "lower" categories would actually qualify as middle class using the study's objective criteria (Strana.ru, 13 November).
Fewer Travel Abroad, Own VCR's -- Strana.ru also reported that "over half" of those calling themselves members of the middle class are civil service employees, mostly government "officials." A majority also lives in 2- or 3-bedroom apartments, with 18.6 cubic meters of living space on average, and three-quarters have neither a computer nor a cell phone. The proportion of middle-class members who travel abroad declined from 28.4 percent in 1999 to 5.5 percent in 2003; the proportion of those who do not own a video-cassette recorder increased from 23 percent to 40 percent (13 November).
"Shadow" Earnings Account for Life Styles . . . Georgiy Ilichev, writing for the daily Izvestiya and also citing the IKSI study, reported that members of the Russian middle class claim to earn an average income of R3,660, or $120 monthly, ranging from R1,800 in the Central Chernozem region to R7,000 in Moscow. Ilichev opined, however, that respondents earning those income levels could not be leading the life styles they claim to be leading -- paying for educational tuitions (almost one-third of respondents), private medical services (almost 60 percent), and property acquisitions over the past three years (10 percent). It "must be honestly admitted," continued Ilichev, that "shadow economy" incomes were not counted as income sources in the survey (Izvestiya.ru, 12 November).
. . . But Life Styles Not Comparable to Those of Westerners' -- RBK noted numerous differences between the Russian and Western middle classes. The low volume of residential housing construction in Russia is "explained" by the "weakness" of the Russian middle class. Only 7 million of the over 110 million Russian adult population hold passports for foreign travel, which the publication claimed is a "normal" feature of life for members of the Western middle class. Finally, "as opposed to the situation in developed countries," "not more than 2 percent" of the Russian middle class participates in political organizations or public protests. The increasing proportion of Russians who claim they belong to the middle class is "evidence of a desire for a better life." These expectations could bode ill for the country if the doctors, teachers, and individual entrepreneurs, currently numbering "only 1.8 million" according to census figures, do not increase in number and in wealth (13 November).
Middle Class "Proud" of Adapting to New Realities -- Russian sociologists were surprised to find that "about half" of Russian citizens consider themselves to be members of the "middle class," according to the daily Gazeta. The analysts noted that, unlike Westerners, Russians view educational level and social status along with income as class-determining factors. The analysts summarized Russians' view of the middle class as consisting of those "who have adapted to the new social realities, are proud of this, and feel they are masters of their own fate." Igor Berezin, head of the Ekspert-MA monitoring agency, noted that using purely financial criteria, only 20 to 25 percent of the Russian population -- earning $150 to $1,000 monthly per capita -- can be considered members of the middle class (13 November).
Pollsters See Only Middle Class "Prototype" -- Sociologist Grigoriy Kertman of the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) told Kommersant that the Russian middle class consists in "young, quite educated people with higher-than-average incomes" and comprises "about 15-25 percent" of the population, but are "far from the well-paid managerial class comprising the stabilizing sector in Western society." Mikhail Tarusin of the Romir-Monitoring Group stated that it is "difficult" to determine the features of a middle class in Russia's "highly stratified" society, but opined that its "prototype" comprised 20-25 percent of the Russian population (13 November).
Income Gaps Increasing -- The IKSI study reported that the number of "individual entrepreneurs" has "significantly decreased" over the past three-four years, according to the government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta. This is primarily due to entrepreneurs who have returned to civil service jobs that they left in the early '90's. A smaller number of entrepreneurs has either found work as high-paying employees in large companies or have gone bankrupt. The IKSI study also revealed that "practically half" of the Russian middle class works in the public sector, while only 4 percent consist of entrepreneurs who hire their own employees. Researchers found that the incomes of the middle class, like those of the poor, are "similarly incomparable to the incomes of a small segment of the Russian rich," and "the gap is growing every year" (13 November)
Political Attitudes
Middle Class Not Liberal Reformers -- Study Director Mikhail Gorshkov reported that the Russian middle class "can hardly be considered the base for a liberal reform model" of society. Researchers reported the middle class' political views as follows: -- 36.6% consider themselves "liberals" -- 46.4% believe Russia needs a market "with a strong state sector" -- 20% prefer an "administrative-command system"
Researchers reported that the middle class is living in "stress:" -- 47% fear communal housing payments -- 40.8% fear a repeat of the August 1998 financial crisis -- 14% fear a "new era of state property privatization" -- 31.2% fear pension reform
These fears "reinforce" distrust of the authorities; middle class representatives have the most "distrust" of the following entities: -- 65.2% distrust the police -- 57.3% distrust the State Duma -- 60.9% distrust political parties.
Trust is higher, however, for the following: -- 72% trust President Putin -- 51.4% trust the army -- 58.6% trust educational institutions (Mustafina, Kommersant, 13 November)
Middle Class Favors "Leading" State Role -- Gorshkov told the publication Rodnaya Gazeta that a majority of middle class members favor both a "leading role for the state" and "maximum economic freedom at a grass-roots level." Thus, this group sides with the state in its conflict with "certain large oil companies" over tax and income issues. The "Putin consensus" is viewed by this group "not as a result of, but as a basis for further evolutionary, systematic reform of the oligarchic and bureaucratic system inherited by Putin," according to Gorshkov. He opined that the middle class has become "the bulwark of post-Yeltsin stabilization and the backbone of the Putin majority" (14 November).
Middle Class Feels Self-Assured -- Middle class members are "two to three times less likely" to express feelings of fear, despondency, or oppression than are other segments of the population, while they are "two to three times more likely" to claim they are happy or even-tempered. Feelings of self-assuredness that characterized Russian middle class respondents were highest in large cities, where "over 77 percent" of middle-class members were convinced they can provide for their families without the aid of the state. Such feelings of self-assuredness were lower by 14 percent in oblast centers, and were lowest in the least populated regions. Even in rural areas, however, feelings of self-assuredness reportedly exceeded 50 percent among self-identified middle-class respondents (Izvestiya.ru, 12 November).
Middle class members are also more likely to believe that Russia is headed in the right direction:
Middle classRest of population Russia's current path will lead to positive results in the future65%46% Russia's current path will lead the country to a "dead end"33%51% Don't know2%3%
(Georgiy Ilichev, Izvestiya.ru, 12 November).
_________________________________________________________________ Set yourself up for fun at home! Get tips on home entertainment equipment, video game reviews, and more here. http://special.msn.com/home/homeent.armx