Specifics of social inequality identification of middle class structure in the modern Russian society

The article deals with the specific features of social inequality identification of social middle class structure in the modern Russian society. The author focuses on criteria of stratification and defines the place of the middle class in the hierarchy of social groups according to the income that depends on employment in one or another economic sector. The paper also presents the research approaches to the study of the inequality of middle class structure applied by scholars of the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the size dynamics of middle class and other social groups during 2003-2010.