The Russian Population’s Adaptation to the New Economic Reality

ABSTRACT The article considers the adaptive behavior of Russians during 2015–2017 (a period that is often referred to as the “new reality”) by analyzing how Russians perceive the prospects of economic development, and the available resources they can use to formulate their strategies for adapting to the new conditions. We likewise describe the available resources that Russians can bring to bear on the situation and the results of their efforts. We used the database produced by the monitoring study “The Social Well-Being of the Population,” which was conducted by the Institute of Social Analysis and Forecasting, (Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration) via eight rounds of annual representative population surveys with a sample size of 1,600 respondents per each round. The population is not alarmed at the current economic situation, but has little hope for improvement. Most people have adapted not by actively maintaining or improving their material well-being, but by becoming inured to lower consumer standards. Only a fifth of the population has the necessary resources to develop a variety of adaptive strategies, and twice as many people have low resource potential. Apart from restricting their spending, people in the low resource group also turned to the use of private household plots. A third of the population implemented active forms of adaptation associated with a variety of resources.