The Perpetuation of Social Hierarchies and Inequality in Russia | LSE Research Showcase 2021

Why does the continuation of the Imperial Russian bourgeoisie (through communism and beyond) matter for democracy and development in post-communist Russia? Tomila Lankina discusses her forthcoming book "The Estate Origins of Democracy in Russia: From Imperial Bourgeoisie to Post-Communist Middle-Class", which challenges the notion that the Soviet Union destroyed the social structure of the past and built a new, Soviet, society, with a new party and nomentklatura elite. She argues that Soviet society is in many ways an extension of Tzarist society and its structure of estates of aristocrats, clergy, the urban groups of merchants and meshchane and the overwhelmingly illiterate or poorly educated mass of peasants. The book challenges materialist notions of inequality instead highlighting the significance of social, cultural and educational capital in the perpetuation of social hierarchies even under the most brutal communist dictatorship bent on obliterating the social vestiges of the past.

🔸 Tomila Lankina, The Estate Origins of Democracy in Russia, Cambridge University Press, December 2021 https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/estate-origins-of-democracy-in-russia/3EBD479CE270DB1647CD5E6A57F1C121

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