Russia Threatened by Rise of So-Called ‘Lumpen Intelligentsia’, Club of the Regions Experts Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Feb. 12 – Thirty-five percent of the graduates of Russian higher educational institutions are now employed in jobs that don’t require that level of education and earn on average 20 percent less than those who work in the fields they were trained for, a pattern that is costing the Russian economy and the Russian state in major ways.

            Those are the conclusions of a new report by the Moscow Center for Macro-Economic Analysis and Short-Term Predictions that is attracting widespread attention as the Kremlin tries to eliminate this imbalance (forecast.ru/_ARCHIVE/Mon_13/2024/TT12_2024s.pdf and  vopreco.ru/jour/article/view/5662).

            Some experts say that this imbalance is growing and represents a threat to the country. One group taking that position are scholars and investigators at the Club of the Regions which tracks what is going on outside of Moscow where gap between educational attainment and the jobs those with it have may be especially great (club-rf.ru/theme/644).

            “When university and college graduates find themselves working in the same jobs,” the Club’s experts say, “this causes serious frustration among the former” because it represents “a breakdown in social mobility and the rise of the so-called lumpen intelligentsia, tens of thousands of people whose financial situation doesn’t match their ambitions.”

            According to these experts, “under certain circumstances, this group may follow any populist who promises to restore ‘justice,’” something especially likely to occur during election seasons when opposition candidates may see making such appeals as something that will contribute to their success.

            The Kremlin is concerned about this imbalance, the Club of the Regions says, noting that problems surrounding it were discussed at a State Council meeting in December of last year and that Putin in February of this year signed orders to eliminate unnecessary educational requirements in many jobs. 

            But perhaps most significantly, Club experts say, is the Russian government’s  efforts to reduce the number of university slots subsidized by Moscow and the transformation of secondary education to meet the needs of employers.