Culture, Power and Social Disparity: Researching Russia's Upper Class

This article explores the dynamics at play when conducting research on the contemporary upper class in Russia. It examines the effect of economic and social status divide between researcher and subjects on how to gain access to interviewees and how to handle the interview situation. Culturally specific expressions of power in social interaction are sought, their characteristics identified and their raison d'être explored. Furthermore, gender related issues encountered throughout the research are discussed; which commenced at the outset when applying to the ethics board and was evident at the end when presenting the data analysis. The material for this article stems from the author's experiences of conducting narrative-biographical interviews with rich high-status Russians in Moscow between 2008 and 2009.