Home – Home – Jornals – Humanitarian sciences in Siberia 2015 number

Based on the archival and published sources, the article considers issues of social mobility of rural entrepreneurs in Western Siberia during the period of revolution and Civil War (1917-1920). The study is carried out within the methodological framework of social mobility theory of P.A.Sorokin who introduced basic categories and concepts that enable researchers to study this phenomenon. In the wake of the revolutionary events of 1917 and “construction of a new society”, rural entrepreneurs as representatives of the “wealthy and privileged” social classes and groups of the prerevolutionary Russian society hoppered out to be thrown out of their usual socio-cultural and professional environment. They lost not only their material wealth and property but also their previous social status and position under new conditions. These “shatters of the accursed past” turned out to be artificially merged by the authorities into the categories with such symbolic names as “hostile classes”, “formers”, “exploiters”, “socially alien and dangerous elements”. The policy towards the “former ruling classes” was of a clear discriminatory character. Under the guise of “class justice” and tasks of “class struggle” the local authorities confiscated for “the benefit of revolution” not only the lands of rural entrepreneurs but also their personal property such as clothes, furniture, dishware, luxury articles etc. The former owners and their families were evicted from their estates and actually left destitute. Besides, the period under study was marked by a considerable decline in social status of the former owners of entrepreneurial households and their close relatives. As a result, rural entrepreneurs were left outside the socio-cultural norms and traditions artificially formed by the political authorities. They were not only restricted to their social positions but also could not realize their economic potential.