ABSTRACT

Recent studies of Putin-era elites have focused primarily on the role of siloviki. We bring the focus back to an analysis of the elite continuity within the Soviet regime. By compiling a dataset of the Putin-regime elites, we track their professional and family backgrounds to discover that the proportion of Putin-regime elites with Soviet nomenklatura origin (which comprised only 1–3% of the population during the Soviet period) constitutes approximately 60% of contemporary elites. Most have ties in the middle and lower, rather than the top, ranks of the nomenklatura. In addition, the share of those with nomenklatura backgrounds in Putin-era elites is significantly higher than the share of siloviki. These results reflect a noticeable continuity between the Soviet-era and Putin-regime elites 30 years after the transition. This often-ignored characteristic helps understand the absence of an elite split and a high degree of elite compliance with re-autocratization in Putin’s Russia.

摘要

最近对普京时代精英的研究主要集中在 siloviki 的作用上。我们将焦点带回到对苏维埃政权内部精英连续性的分析。通过编制普京政权精英的数据集，我们跟踪他们的职业和家庭背景，发现具有苏联贵族血统的普京政权精英（在苏联时期仅占人口的 1-3%）的比例约为60%的当代精英。大多数在nomenklatura 的中层和下层，而不是最高层都有联系。此外，在普京时代的精英中，具有nomenklatura 背景的比例明显高于siloviki 的比例。这些结果反映了过渡 30 年后苏联时代和普京政权精英之间的明显连续性。