Social mobility in rural Russia, 1995–2003

Using panel survey data from three Russian villages, this article examines rural social mobility in post-communist Russia. The article finds that contemporary rural social mobility is different from that which existed during the Soviet period. During the Soviet period, rural social mobility was linked to changes in profession and the direction of mobility was primarily upward. In the post-Soviet period, rural mobility is linked to increasing income differentiation and inequality. In the post-communist period, both upward and downward social mobility have occurred. The article examines the characteristics of upwardly and downwardly mobile households. It then analyses the factors that affect mobility through regression analysis of human capital and behavioural models. The article concludes that household labour continues to have the single greatest causal effect on rural mobility.