Russia's social upper class: from ostentation to culturedness

Abstract

This article discusses examples of strategies employed by representatives of Russia's new social upper class to acquire social distinction. By the late 2000s many of the upper-class Russians included in this study distanced themselves from the conspicuous ostentation ascribed to the brutish 1990s. Instead, they strove to gain legitimacy for their social position by no longer aggressively displaying their wealth, but instead elaborating more refined and individualized tastes and manners and reviving a more cultured image and self-image. These changes found their expression in various modes of social distinction ranging from external signs, such as fashion and cars, to ostentation vicariously exercised through the people these upper-class Russians surrounded themselves with. The article will trace these interviewees' strategies for distinction in the late 2000s by discussing tastes in lifestyle and consumption as well as adornment through sartorial signs and through vicarious ostentation, as exemplified by their choice of female company. Changing attitudes towards vehicles and modes of transport, with special regards to the Moscow Metro, will serve as a further illustration of modes of distinction. Crucial for this discussion is the role of the Russian/Soviet intelligentsia, both for vicarious status assertion and elite distinction anchored in the interviewees' social backgrounds.

Black urban consumers’ status consumption of clothing brands in the emerging South African market

“…Studies comparing status consumption between developed and developing countries (Üstüner and Holt, ; Shukla, ) also highlighted the differences between status consumption strategies of industrialized and less industrialized countries. There is also a great deal of ‘guessing’ around what drives the clear differences in status consumption between consumer groups within an emerging market context like South Africa (Heyik, ), Russia (Schimpfossl, ), and China (He et al ., ). Lamont and Molnár () found consumption to be an important mode for African‐American consumers to ‘signify and acquire equality, respect, acceptance and status’ (p. 36) as well as vital in gaining a collective social identity that is without negative stereotypes.…”

Gendering the elites: an ethnographic approach to elite women's lives and the re-production of inequality

“…Starting from anthropology's approach to the elites (Nader 1972, Shore and Nugent 2002, Abbink and Salverda 2012, Carrier and Kalb, 2015 the research was developed in a way that was sensitive to what Khan (2012) calls embodied privilege in his close-up, ethnographic study of elite adolescents in the US, or Schimpfossl (2014) adopts to look at elite Russians and philanthropy.…”

Russian Philanthrocapitalism

“…Today, many upper-class Russians today embrace the intelligentsia as a group on whom to model themselves (Schimpfössl 2018: 97). This has been one of the drivers for the new economic elite to drop the ostentatious lifestyles they indulged in and identify with cultural symbols (Schimpfössl 2014). This somewhat reverberates in the interviewees' self-perceptions as well as in their attempts to enlighten the people.…”

“…The 1990s were dominated by the extreme prestige of money, no matter how it was acquired. Now that they have emancipated themselves from the urge to make more money, as Bourdieu described, the privilege of wealth (1984), there has been a shift towards more intellectual and spiritual needs and a desire to display more cultured traits and find some sense in life (Schimpfössl 2014). This is particularly important for the oldest upper-class members, who have began to think about the legacy they leave after their death.…”