On the Issue of the Erosion of the Social Stratum of Engineering and Technical Workers During the Years of Socio-Economic Transition (1987–1999)

Abstract

The author explores the issue of the erosion of the social stratum of engineers and technicians, which occupied a significant place in the structure of Soviet society, under the influence of the transformation processes of the late 1980s–1990s. Using the materials of in-depth interviews, ego-documents, “digital footprint”, and archival sources, with the use of digital methods (analytical platform PolyAnalyst), the author studies the processes of adaptation of engineering and technical intelligentsia to the realities of the transition economy, traces the change of value attitudes of engineers and technicians. The author identifies three key strategies of post-Soviet engineers’ adaptation to so-called “savage capitalism”: cooperative entrepreneurship, application of professional knowledge and skills in the sphere of private household services, and leaving the profession for private trade. She analyses factors that contributed to the choice of this or that strategy, favored and hindered adaptation in general. She concludes that the loss of socio-professional identity led to the deterioration of social well-being of former soviet ITRs, regardless of their former specialization and acquired material status, and, more broadly, led to the crisis of social and civic identity in post-soviet Russia, the consequences of which are still being felt today.