Pension Reform and Resistance in Russia: Lessons from the Movement that Failed to Happen

Abstract

This article offers an analysis of the events related to the decision of the Russian government to raise the retirement age, which took place during summer and autumn of 2018. The situation could be defined by a gap between the growing readiness to participate in street protests declared by a vast majority of Russian citizens and the modest scale of action against the pension reform which actually took place in most regions of the country. Despite the fact that key representatives of the political opposition actively denounced the plans of the government, the protests against these plans did not acquire the quality of a social movement united by a common identity and demands. To provide an explanation for this phenomenon, the author closely examines the course of the protests in summer and autumn of 2018, surveys the positions of their key organizers within the framework of the current political system termed "electoral authoritarianism” and investigates the obstacles that prevented the creation of a popular social movement. In order to assess the future potential of such a movement and its distinctive features, the author compares the movement against the pension reform to mass demonstrations against the "monetization” of social benefits in winter 2005, which forced the government to substantially revise the decisions made and defined the "limits to liberalization” of the social sphere until the recent reforms. Placing the contradictions of Russian social policy in an international context, the author evaluates the experience of a number of movements against austerity and privatization policies in other countries, focusing on those where social and political demands were to a certain extent interconnected, and where the movements' identity was largely determined by the influence of the left tradition.