A Civilized Capitalism? Everyday Perpectives on Culture and Consumption in Post-Soviet St. Petersburg

At a recent Kennan Institute talk, Jennifer Patico of Haverford College discussed how Russians talk about the market economy and the cultural meaning of consumption in the post-Soviet era. Patico based her observations on fieldwork conducted among high school teachers in St. Petersburg in 1998-99. She explained that she chose to focus on teachers for several reasons: most teachers are women and therefore more involved in the task of daily provisioning, the school environment allowed her to work as an assistant English teacher and be accepted as a colleague, and teachers provide a special social perspective due to their role as transmitters of cultural values.

Patico noted that many observers have concentrated on Russians' treatment of the desire for wealth as incompatible with positive cultural values and meaningful interpersonal relationships. However, she believes that a careful analysis of the everyday discourse of Russian consumers demonstrates that they have a very complex understanding of the relationship between consumption and cultural values. She argued that teachers in St. Petersburg envisioned their own places in the world through references to two standards: "culturedness," which evoked Soviet norms of propriety, and "civilization," which articulated a desire to attain the material standard of living enjoyed in the West.

According to Patico, during the Soviet period, culturedness (kul'turnost') described a combination of proper social behavior, knowledge of high culture, and a specific type of acquisitiveness that emphasized the collective over the individual. As part of the Soviet "mass intelligentsia," teachers saw themselves as an especially "cultured" segment of the population. Patico argued that teachers in St. Petersburg continue to see themselves as cultured, but also see themselves as socially and materially deprived—especially in comparison to the "uncultured" new rich. She found that teachers were uncomfortable in dealing with wealthy students and their parents because they did not like the feeling that they were "working for a family."

Although they had negative opinions of many of the results of Russia's economic transition, St. Petersburg teachers were supportive of a market economy in principle, according to Patico. The fall of the Soviet Union brought a flood of Western consumer goods into Russia and gave Russians a sense of their relative poverty. Patico explained that her informants frequently claimed that Russia was less developed, or less "civilized," than Western Europe or the U.S. This lag in "civilization" was evidenced by the fact that ordinary Russians consumed fewer and lower-quality goods than their Western counterparts, she said.

St. Petersburg teachers, Patico concluded, are ambivalent about the idea of a market economy in Russia. They want to experience the "civilized good life" that is offered by the globalized marketplace, but they are unnerved and offended by some of the cultural changes that have accompanied the transition. They hope for a "civilized capitalism" that will provide a high standard of living without the chaos and "unculturedness" that have characterized post-Soviet Russia.