Fundamentos del sistema soviético de estratificación social

Resum

This doctoral thesis is dedicated to the study of the foundations of the soviet social stratification system during the Stalin period. The thesis is divided into an introduction and three differentiated parts. In the introduction, the researcher gives an overview of his motivations to take this doctoral thesis forward, the structure of the research and its objectives. The first part is called "socio-economic and political-institutional basis" of the soviet stratification system. This part is organised around four chapters. The first chapter offers the theoretical and methodological framework of the thesis, exploring a definition of social stratification: it describes the main theoretical tradition for its study, explaining the relationship mechanisms between social change and stratification; finally the chapter offers some methodological reflections regarding the first part of the research. The second chapter is dedicated to the soviet economic policies in the 20s and 30s. Its analysis facilitates the understanding of the genealogy of the social stratification system; this is, discerning how the social and geopolitical conditionings of the era were paramount in the successful implementation of imposed collectivisation and accelerated industrialisation policies. These processes help explain the emergence of a new social stratification system. The third chapter looks at the deep transformation of the occupations structure due to the change from an agricultural to an industrial society as a consequence of the accelerated industrialisation and imposed collectivisation policies. The fourth chapter posits a theoretical reflection about the nature of the key soviet productive assets. This chapter looks at those assets control or possession of which explains the hierarchy of positions within the social stratification system. The fifth chapter closes the first part of the thesis: it analyses the institutional mechanisms that regulated the sharing of the soviet socially generated wealth. As the Soviet Union was governed by the state property ownership of the means of production and central planning, wealth attribution took on two main forms: wages on the one hand, and goods/services distributed directly by the government on the other hand. The second part of the thesis is called `symbolic and legitimizing basis of the stratification system: the role of ideology". It encompasses three chapters. Chapter six provides a theoretical and methodological frame for the study of the processes of legitimation and its analytical tools. The qualitative research is grounded in Fernando Conde¿s (2009) "sociological analysis of discourse systems". Chapter seven analyses four discourse entries from the 1955 edition of the Philosophical Dictionary by M.M Rozental¿ and P.F. Yudin. The entries are: "class in itself - class for itself", "class struggle", "social classes", "social classes in the URSS". Based on their analysis, this chapter conceptualises the official soviet ideology on social stratification, exposing the interlocking nature between the symbolic and legitimizing aspects, and some realities considered in the first part of the thesis. Chapter eight is dedicated to the film Moscow does not believe in tears. Even though it belongs to the late socialist Brezhnev era, this work has been included in the research with the aim of experimenting, as a means to inquiry into the continuity and ideological break with the soviet socialism in its first era. The third part is organised into two further chapters: chapter nine is a discussion that aims to elucidate the socialist character of the Soviet Union. Following the debate, one can read the final conclusions of the thesis. The thesis includes three appendixes with additional information and a section with the bibliography in English and Spanish and another one with the bibliography in Russian.