Abstract
In this chapter we examine the ways in which the legacy of Soviet pension policies and post-1991 economic and social trends have constrained policy options concerning pension reform in the Russian Federation and have prevented serious reevaluation of pension provision or pension equity. While the Russian government inherited a pension system beset with difficulties and ill equipped for Russia’s aging population, the Soviet pension system represented, in symbolic and financial terms, a widely valued social guarantee. We contend that the structural legacy and embedded expectations associated with the Soviet pension system thwart attempts to provide a unified and equitable pension system in the post-Soviet period. While making numerous changes to the pension system in the post-Soviet period, the federation government remains severely constrained in either fulfilling the promises of the previous Soviet system, or instituting the type of large-scale structural reforms that might contribute to the long-term solvency of the system.
1. The Russian Federation shall be a social state, whose policies shall be aimed at creating conditions, which ensure a dignified life and free development of man. 2. The Russian Federation shall protect the work and health of its people, establish a guaranteed minimum wage, provide state support for family, motherhood, fatherhood and childhood, and also for the disabled and for elderly citizens, develop a system of social services and establish government pensions, benefits and other social security guarantees.
—Article 7 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, Ratified 1993
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Notes
See A. Vinokurov, Narodnoe komissia sotsialnogo obespecheniia (Moscow: 1919).
Narodnoe Kommisariat Truda, Ob ulychshenii penionnogo obespecheniia invalidnosti po sluchaiu poterikormel’tsa o po starosti, 179 Statute 76, 23 May 1929.
For details on the growth of coverage patterns during the development of the pension system see Cynthia Buckley, “Obligations and Expectations: Renegotiating Pensions in the Russian Federation,” Continuity and Change 13, no. 3 (1998): 317–338.
Linda Evans and John Williamson, “Old Age Dependency in Historical Perspective,” International Journal of Aging and Human Development 27, no. 2 (1988): 75–80; and also Jill Quadagno, Aging in Industrial Society (New York: Academic Press, 1972).
See N. N. Simonova, ed., Netrudosposobnoe naselenie v perekhodnii period (Moscow: Russian Academy of Sciences, 1998), 18.
Narodnoe komissia sotsialnogo obespecheniia, sotsialnoe obespechenie za 5 let (Moscow, 1923).
Pensii po gosudarstvennomy sotsialnomy strakhovaniiu (Moscow, 1948), 28–42.
Sotsialnoe obespechenie v Sovetskoi Rossii: sbornik ofitsial’nikh materialov (Moscow: 1962), 7–12.
E. M. Andreev, L. E. Darskii and T. L. Khar’kova, Demograficheskaya istoriia Rossii: 1927–1959 (Moscow: Informatika, 1998).
See V. Shapiro, Sotsial’naia aktivnost’ pozhilykh liudei v SSSR (Moscow: Izdatel’stvo, 1983); and M. Sonin and A. Dyskin, Pozhuliiu chelovek v semi i obshchestve (Moscow: Finansi i statistiki, 1984).
See P. M. Margieva, Sotsial’naya zashita invalidov: normativnie aky i dokumenty (Moscow: 1994). Pensions for individuals with physical infirmities were oriented toward financial assistance and compensation for family members providing care. Few programs, either historically or presently, focused on the integration of the physically challenged into society generally or the work force specifically. For more information, see the chapter by Ethel Dunn in this volume.
For example, see the discussion on women pensioners in V. E. Gordon, Chem starost’ obespechim (Moscow: Mysl’, 1988); and Shapiro, Sotsial’naia aktivnost’.
V. D. Arkhipov, Pensii kolkhoznikam (Moscow: 1996), 3–16.
Cynthia Buckley, “Exodus?: Out-Migration From the Central Asian Successor States to the Russian Federation,” Central Asian Monitor, no. 3 (1996): 16–22.
A. G. Vishnevskii, “ Demograficheskie izmeneniia i natsionalizm,” Sotsiologicheskii zhurnal, no. 1 (1994): 22–34.
Clifford G. Gaddy and Barry W. Ickes, “A Simple Four-Sector Model of Russia’s ‘Virtual Economy,’” Center for Social and Economic Dynamics, The Brookings Institution, May 1998.
C. Buckley and W. Hickenbottom, “Taxation Possibilities for Elderly Support in Rural Russia,” Comparative Economic Studies 37, no. 1 (Spring 1995): 19–37.
N. M. Pavlova, “Dinamika urov’nia bednosti v sem’iakh pensionerov,” in Simonova, Netrudosposobnoe naselenie, 66–77.
Uroven’ zhizni naseleniia Rossii (Moscow: Goskomstat, 1996): 68–73.
See Thomas A. Mroz and Barry Popkin, “Poverty and the Economic Transition in the Russian Federation,” Economic Development and Cultural Change 44, no. 1 (1995): 1–31; and Buckley, “Obligations and Expectations.” During the Soviet period, pension transfers were relatively generous, and downward wealth transfers (from elders to adult children) were the norm, a pattern that appears resistant to short-term change.
See N. Shemlev, “Kriszis vnyutri kriszisa,” Voprosy ekonomiki, no. 10 (1998): 4–17.
Sotsial’noe polozhenie, 1998, 212. See also E. N. Yakovleva, ed., Rossiia-1997: Sotsial’no-demograficheskiia situatsiia (Moscow: 1998).
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© 2000 Mark G. Field and Judyth L. Twigg
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Buckley, C., Donahue, D. (2000). Promises to Keep: Pension Provision in the Russian Federation. In: Field, M.G., Twigg, J.L. (eds) Russia’s Torn Safety Nets. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-62712-7_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-62712-7_13
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