The rise of organised crime in Russia: Its roots and social significance

Abstract

IN HIS STUDY 'SUICIDE' Emile Durkheim wrote: 'In the case of economic disasters, indeed, something like a declassification occurs which suddenly casts certain individuals into a lower state than their previous one ... Time is required for the public conscience to reclassify men and things. So long as the social forces thus freed have not regained equilibrium, their perspective values are unknown and so all regulations are lacking for a time. The limits are unknown between the possible and the impossible, what is just and what is unjust, legitimate claims and hopes and those which are immoderate. Consequently, there is no restraint upon aspirations ...'.1 Although written in 1897, this description of social anomie is quite appropriate for describing present-day Russia The collapse of the previous system brought in fundamental changes in social and political order which shaped the personal lives of individuals in the most profound way. Several years of market reforms which changed the nature of the country's economy also brought with them hyperinflation, a sharp rise in unemployment and an overall drop in the standard of living. The feeling of relative security which was experienced during the Soviet system, despite its many faults, is gone for ever. By now most Russians of the older generation have accepted, to varying degrees, the fact that their former Motherland is lost for good. The faults of the new system and its insecurity are perceived in the light of this loss. The younger generation, on the other hand, is more attuned to the new times because their conscious life is linked not with the past but with the new order. They are much more pragmatic, individualistic and success and consumption-oriented-either at home or, if necessary, by going abroad.