RUSSIAN PHILANTHROCAPITALISM

This article investigates philanthropic practices among Russia’s hyper-rich. It ponders whether and to what extent philanthrocapitalist concepts are compatible with traditional Russian approaches to elite philanthropy, which have been shaped and controlled by the country’s domineering state. Some of the multimillionaires and billionaires interviewed for this research have married philanthrocapitalist ideas with beliefs molded by their Soviet past and their self-perception as belonging to the intelligentsia. Such distinct and seemingly morally superior identities, together with active engagement in philanthropy, act as a lever with which to foster trust in the new social hierarchies and legitimize them across generations.

Rich Russians’ Philanthropy

Chapter 5 describes the networks of philanthropy that upper-class Russians have cultivated since the early 2000s in order to legitimize their wealth. It reports on the importance rich Russians attribute to the revival of Russia’s nineteenth-century tradition of elite philanthropy; the Orthodox church’s taboo against discussing one’s giving; and the preference for supporting healthy, deserving children. It also describes projects that provide educational opportunities, care for the sick, and those that strengthen Russian art and the intelligentsia. Finally, it identifies how philanthropy is being used as a lever to reshape civil society, restore trust in the social hierarchy, and fashion a new generation of supposedly deserving bourgeoisie. Overall, it suggests that bourgeois philanthropists have constructed complex ideas about their lives, their influence in the present, and their posthumous legacy.