Social Mobility in Times of Revolutions and Regime Changes: Persistence of Elites in 20th Century Russia

In this presentation, Markevich questions, “How much do radical changes of social order affect the persistence of elites?” To address this question, he analyzes the impact of the 1917 Russian Revolutions, measuring the spread of Tsarist elite surnames among Soviet and modern Russian high-social-status groups. The research documents a quicker decline of elite representation at the beginning of the Soviet era, and most pronounced during Stalin’s reign.