Data of all-Russian surveys carried out in 2013 and 2014 by the Institute of sociology, Russian academy of sciences permitted to look into norms and values of Russian middle class, its views on the desirable vector of country’s development. Values that guide middle class members in their everyday life are of modernized activist kind, a fact that differentiates them from other population groups, while political values and attitudes to further development of the country do practically not. Among middle class members (and the rest of Russians), there is a consensus on the rejection of copying Western development model and of Russia’s “special path” into the future. This is a result of specific norms and values, as well as the middle class attitude to private property, rule of law etc.

 

middle class; middle strata; norms; values; political attitudes; private property; modernization; cultural dynamics; Western path of development