Critical approaches and research on inequality in Russian studies: the need for visibility and legitimization

ABSTRACT This essay suggests legitimizing and promoting critical approaches in Russian studies, as well as acknowledging the multifaceted diversity within Russian society. This diversity needs to be taken into serious consideration in any research on Russia. Moreover, various levels of inequality that this rich diversity both creates and challenges should be reflected upon in multidisciplinary research, with the focus on historical legacies in the reproduction of those inequalities. The author argues against a limited understanding of inequalities as economic phenomena, and proposes to think about the variety of inequalities that are very prominent in the Russian context: categorical, symbolic, territorial, etc.