Bread and circuses: shifting frames and changing references in ordinary Muscovites' political talk

The debates around the course of the Russian transformation, intensified by the sudden collapse of the Russian economic system in August 1998, typical ly deal with phenomena and issues involved by analyzing the structure and f unctioning of political elites, parties and institutions. While all of thes e provide interesting and revealing data, they fail to pay sufficient atten tion to everyday lives of the ordinary Russian people who face increasing h ardships with endurance and ingenuity. This paper is a part of an ongoing p roject which focuses on the adaptive strategies developed by ordinary Russi ans in response to a drastically changing societal environment. This paper presents some early findings pertaining to the shifts adaptive strategies o f Muscovites underwent after the economic collapse, and suggests that these shifts may start to explain why, despite the dramatic worsening of the eco nomic situation, no major public protest actions have occurred so far. (C) 2001 The Regents of the University of California. Published by Elsevier Sci ence Ltd. All rights reserved.