Economic transformation in Russia in 1990-2012 and its reflection in the consciousness of the Russians

The article discusses the results of market reforms in the Russian economic system, and it analyzes the data of the Russian public opinion poll conducted in 2012. The results of the survey are compared with similar data of 1990. As a result, the comparison states that the Russian population does not find significant improvement of economic situation in the country, except for the elimination of the goods deficit. The article also compares the people’s assessment of Russia’s economic transformation with the statistical data on the number of economic parameters. The analysis shows that by almost all the above mentioned parameters the situation worsened or remained unchanged in comparison with the Soviet Union. Thus, the author concludes that Russia’s population as a whole, adequately assesses the results of market reforms. In addition, the article makes an attempt to answer the paradoxical question, why there is an increase in the people’s welfare, when current economic indicators are worse than those at the Soviet periodthe author proposes three sources of wealth growth: high oil and gas prices, the growth of the financial sector, and expansion of the “network society” - informal personal interactions. The article determines latent function of the network society - adaptation of the population to market economy.