THE DAILY LIFE OF THE RUSSIAN PROVINCE DURING THE REFORMS
PERIOD OF THE 1990SAnzhelika Pavlova1, Andrey Pechnikov2*, Dmitriy Vasenin3 and Larisa Mocrousova4
1Prof. Dr., Volga State University of Technology, Russia, PavlovaAN@volgatech.net
2Assist. Prof., Volga State University of Technology, Russia, andbr86@mail.ru
3Associate Professor, PhD, Volga State University of Technology, Russia, VaseninDV@volgatech.net
4Associate Professor, PhD, Volga State University of Technology, Russia, MokrousovaLG@volgatech.net
*Corresponding author
Abstract
The socio-economic and political changes that took place in the Russian Federation at the last decade of the twentieth century had changes the life of society. The provincial population was less involved in dificult political transformations than the cities population. However, social and economic transformations affected all strata of the population and added new elements to the daily life.
During four years, students of the Volga State Technological University conducted a survey to identify the attitude of the inhabitants of the Republic of Mari El and adjacent regions to the reforms that took place in the Russian Federation at the end of the XX centuries. Particular attention was paid to the impact of reforms on the daily life of respondents and their relation to the events that took place.
The poll was conducted among residents of provincial towns and villages of the Republic of Mari El and neighboring regions, whose life changed significantly as a result of the reforms of the 1990s. Most of the respondents are people with higher or secondary special education aged between 20 and 40 years who directly felt the results of "shock therapy" and were able to assert themselves in a market economy and a democratic society.
Among the survey participants there were population of towns and rural residents, there were more women than men (which reflects the gender structure of Russian society). The questions of the questionnaire concerned not only general political and macroeconomic problems, but also changes in everyday life, new elements in the life of the Russian province.
The everyday life of Russians at the end of the twentieth century included many new things that changed the structure of their everyday life: entrepreneurship, advertising, new types of products, etc. Much of this was positively received, something but could not stand the test of time. At the same time, reforms have also brought negative elements: crime, unemployment, etc. If the majority of respondents understood the need for reforms, but their everyday life side even after decades provoked many negative responses. The study of this aspect of the life in the Russian province of the late twentieth century allow us to better understand the human dimension of the transformations that have taken place.
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