government has always told them where to work and proportioned their salaries (McDaniel 162). There has never been a real capitalist class in Russia because of this. The emphasis of the Russian economy lies mostly along the lines of collectivism versus conservatism in the United States. Precedence of the hierarchy of society sitting on top of individuality has programmed Russian citizens to value well being of society to that of their individual selves (McDaniel 163). An example of this is Bolotov, a nobleman farmer who was a self made man. He dedicated himself to improving his crop yields, hence prospering economically. The tsar government of Russia denounced him. This is typical of the old Russian beliefs that have been pounded into the minds of current citizens. Recently, however, Georgy Gachev wrote an essay called "Honest Private Life as an Alternative to Russian Literature" (Rzhevsky 69). Basically, this essay praises Bolotov for what he did and improving his own situation. It also criticizes previous, traditional Russian literature that has been emphasizing society rather than the individual. With this new criticism of proceeding ideals, it is apparent change of mind is gradually occurring in Russia. It will, however, take a significant amount of time before this new attitude can be implemented throughout the entire Russian society. Many obstacles lie in the way sustaining conservative foundations in the Russian economy which are necessary for their democracy. One of those obstacles is the lack of middle class (McDaniel 169). Poor people have a tendency to be more radical than those of the middle or upper classes. So many poor people, the current situation in Russia, leads to instability. These people have no stake in democracy, they instead value prosperity. They look to the government when looking for a savior giving the government a huge amount of power. The middle class generally acts as a conservative influence, especially r...
