FORMATION, DEVELOPMENT AND TRANSFORMATION OF NATIONAL ELITES IN THE USSR AND THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

Abstract

The article reveals the establishment and transformation of elite groups in the USSR. “The theory of elites” allows to expand our understanding of the crisis of the beginning and end of the 20th century, which affected all spheres of life in the Russian society. The analysis of the ethnopolitical situation right prior to the collapse of the country suggests that it was not only a clash between the “top” and the “bottom”, elites and counter-elites, but also a confrontation within the elites and counter-elites, considering their different ideological attitudes and the ethnonational component. In contrast to pre-revolutionary Russia, in Soviet society elite groups were replenished in the process of “vertical mobility” at the expense of all layers of the multi-ethnic population. This is evident by the statistics on the nationality of the country's leadership and the national composition of the ruling Communist Party. The multinational Communist Party of the Soviet Union was a strong uniting point for the society, and just as in 1917 the fall of monarchy triggered the collapse of the empire, in 1990s it was enough to abolish the monopoly of the Communist Party to trigger and intensify centrifugal tendencies and aggravate inter-ethnic relations. The credibility of the union center, as the supreme arbiter and the guarantor of the integrity of the country, was undermined. Along with socio-economic, political, international, and national factors, the decisive importance in the collapse of the USSR was played by the rebirth and betrayal of the ruling class of the country.