Elisabeth Schimpfössl

The lives of wealthy people have long held an allure to many, but the lives of wealthy Russians pose a particular fascination. Having achieved their riches over the course of a single generation, the top 0.1 percent of Russian society have become known for ostentatious lifestyles and tastes. Nevertheless, I argue in this book that
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Drawing on interviews with 80 members of the Russian elite, Elisabeth Schimpfössl argues that these oligarchs have progressed to become a fully-fledged bourgeoisie class, exhibiting their own tastes and values, much like their French equivalents described by Pierre Bourdieu in his seminal 1979 work “Distinction”. (FT, 2019)