Social Elite Of Russia After Transformation: Its Origin, Development And Future

"Elite" is a traditional political and sociological concept, which has been frequently used as key element for many Russian and western scholars in their researches on the power evolvement of the ex-socialistic country. Generally the "elite class" is believed to be the celebrities and celebrity societies from political and business circles with power and influence on society and state policy.This thesis attempts to conduct analysis on the Russian Elite Class from the following four perspectivesThe first chapter deals with the birth and growth of the Elite theories as well as the principal ideas in them. It includes the source and evolvement of the word "elite", the formation of elite class, basic proposition of elite theories, elite-mass dichotomy and the present condition of Russian elite research along with the knowledge and points of views the domestic Russians hold towards their elites.The second chapter addresses the question on the origin of Russian elite class. The nineties witnessed a fundamental transition on Russian politics and an according transformation of social elite class which resided inside under the principles of politics. With the change a few new faces seemed to appear in Russian political arena. However compared to the past, the Russian elite class did not change much in its core, neither did the nature of power. No noticeable impact was found on the former dignitaries in Soviet Russia, who, instead, got adapted to the new trend rapidly with a reform.The third chapter divides Russian Elite into political elite, business elite and oligarch, financial groups, regional elite, diplomatic elite and intellectual for further analysis on whose profit the elite class stood for and on what kind of function it exerted on the whole society.The last chapter focuses on the future of Russian elites and Russian society. Hopefully it will lead to some predictions on the development of the elites and society of Russia.