One way or another, it is clear that Russia has a middle class. Although not as large as in industrialized countries, it fulfills its main function as the socioeconomic stabilizer of society.
It is generally agreed that the middle class is the foundation of stability in any society. The larger it is, the smaller the possibility of political and social shocks.
Unfortunately, there are no criteria for determining who belongs to the middle class in Russia, which explains why figures differ so dramatically, sometimes by tens of times. Russians themselves sometimes cannot say if they are part of the middle class.
Two groups of factors are traditionally used for socioeconomic identification: objective factors, such as income, the range of goods and services the people can buy with it, and education; and subjective factors, the most important of them being self-esteem.
Objective factors are a simple matter. According to the Economic Development and Trade Ministry, Russians whose income and level of consumption satisfy the notion of the "Russian middle class" constitute about 20% of society (some 5% are rich, 55% constitute the low-income group, and 20% are poor).
The ministry's experts include in that category people with a complete or incomplete higher education whose monthly income per family member is at least six times higher than the subsistence wage (26,484 rubles, or $1,025). Other obligatory factors are a sizeable bank account, real estate (a second home) and the ability to regularly spend holidays abroad.
The ministry forecasts that the Russian middle class's share of the population will grow to 30%-35% by 2010.
The group of poor Russians is expected to decrease from 20% now to 11% by 2010. Official optimism is fuelled by growing incomes, which should rise by 27% on the current level by 2010.
The criteria for the middle class elaborated by the All-Russia Center on Living Standards (VCUG) are more modest. Its experts believe that well-to-do people have a monthly income of more than 20,500 rubles ($790), and people with a moderate income earn 6,963-20,500 rubles ($270-$790) per family member. This means that 40.5% of Russians can be described as middle class.
Other studies of the issue show that the more lax the criteria, the larger the Russian middle class.
All of these calculations are debatable ad infinitum. After all, people earn more in the capital and other major cities than the average for the country, but then prices there are almost as high as in Europe. For example, the official subsistence wage in Moscow is at least 16% higher than the national figure, and the average salary and personal consumption levels are 140% higher than the average for the country as a whole. Moscow is one of the world's 10 most expensive cities.
But this does not change the general picture, according to which there are many people in Russia earning a good salary even by Western standards. They spend less than 25% of their income on food and housing and can make expensive purchases, such as real estate, cars, expensive clothes and household electronic goods, and spend their vacations abroad.
The cost of a specific set of goods and services can differ from region to region, but all researchers agree on who makes up the group of Russians who can be described as middle class. They are small and medium-sized businessmen, the middle and top managers of state-controlled and private corporations, and top-ranking state officials.
Self-assessment is another matter. In Western Europe, 40% to 50% of people say they belong to the middle class, and the figure for the United States is about 70%. In Russia, only 22% say they are sufficiently well off to be considered part of the middle class.
The middle class is crucial for the country's economic growth; Russia's GDP is burgeoning thanks to a consumer boom. The middle class shop in expensive supermarkets, take out loans to buy cars and flats, and spend money on holidays abroad.
These people form the basis of social stability, sowing the seeds of a healthy conservatism that saves the country from excessively emotional political decisions. However, their self-rating is so far not high enough.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
