This monograph discloses the estate-based social structure of contemporary Russia by way of outlining the principles of the USSR's peculiar estate system, and explaining the new social estates of post-Soviet Russia. Simon Kordonsky distinguishes and describes in particular the currently existing Russian service and support estates. He introduces the notions of a resource-based state and resource-based economy as the political and economic foundations for Russian society's estate structure. His study demonstrates, moreover, how the method of inventing and institutionalizing threats plays a dominant role in the mode of distribution of scarce resources in such a social system. The book shows fundamental differences between resource- as well as threat-based economies, on the one side, and traditional risk-based economies, on the other, and discloses what this means for Russia's future.

About the Author
Andreas Umland is Senior Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for European Security in the Institute of International Relations at Prague, Principal Researcher of the Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation at Kyiv, and General Editor of the ibidem-Verlag book series Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society.

Reviews
While a little uneven and repetitive in places, the book is an excellent English introduction and summary of Kordonskys recent research, which is itself an indispensable contribution to the political economy of post-communism. Jeremy Morris, Aarhus University, Europe-Asia Studies (Issue 70/7) October 2018



Book Information
ISBN 9783838207759
Author Simon Kordonsky
Format Paperback
Page Count 220
Imprint ibidem-Verlag, Jessica Haunschild u Christian Schon
Publisher ibidem-Verlag, Jessica Haunschild u Christian Schon
Weight(grams) 436g