| Unlike the "new russians", this social group doesn’t have a history or folklore yet, but it is already noticeable. The collocation ‘young professionals’ can partly be explained by the notion of a ‘yuppie’. "Yuppy" does not always define this generation of Russian managers and entrepreneurs (‘young urban professionals’, or ‘young upwardly – mobile professional persons’ – these are the somewhat ironic names for young people who strive for career growth and professional advancement). "What kind of job is best for a yuppie? The one that pays a six-figure salary and where you can make your boss or subordinate responsible for a failure".
 Well-paid specialists and managers in marketing, advertising, PR, IT, mass media, law and finance (the two last examples in particular) and young business owners are quite different from their "legendary" predecessors, even in appearance. Add to them those specialized in the "new" professions (or, rather, ways to earn a six-figure salary): the fashionable promoters/producers, those terribly pretentious headhunters, traders, researchers, lawyers, creators, art dealers, the exotic sommeliers are far more popular than movie or theatre stars. They share the same rational attitude to money. Even when there is a lot of money, they do not simply fritter it away. At the same time, those people are rarely irrationally greedy, neither do they easily part with their money. Their attitude to money and investments in themselves, their businesses, their cars, mobile phones etc. can be defined by the principle "is it worth paying for?".
Unlike the previous generation that tended to have a masochistic ("Sovok", "Rushka") attitude to our motherland, these new people treat Russia calmly and rationally. They are not neurotically proud of it, but they do not have any complexes either. They are rather cosmopolitan; they don’t suffer from "kvass patriotism". Instead of semi-criminal vocabulary, they use Anglicisms and music and professional slang.
They do not make decisions based on intuition, but instead look for safe, rational reasons for their steps. They are well-qualified and their attitude to education is utilitarian: knowledge is an investment in their professions. Many of them speak foreign languages fluently. Those who received an education abroad return to Russia consciously, they want to live and grow mature as a person and a professional here in Russia.
They see great prospects for themselves, the West is often considered "boring", there’s not much patriotism in this. And still they want to live in Russia and watch it grow into a strong and civilized country, an equal partner in the international context. The West is used as a source of knowledge, diplomas, technology, case studies and places to go shopping and sightseeing.
They are sociable, they have colleagues and acquaintances all over the world (at least, all over Europe and the USA), which ensures a quick access to key sources of information and allows effective completion of tasks which require such information.
For many of them, the family unit is dysfunctional; even if they are married and have children, this was probably done prior to becoming "professionals". Their wife is a partner in business and in bed. They are not monogamous or polygamous, but serially monogamous. That is shocking for a soviet-type man situation "he is on a yacht with two chicks" is normal for a young professional – something like ordinary sport fucking. It seems that this trend will only get stronger with time… For them, the main resource and deficiency is time. The border between work and free time is increasingly vague and is sometimes completely absent. They don’t get much rest, but quite often go on holiday (for 6 to 10 days for the New Year and the May holidays). They spend their holidays actively, trying to combine cultural purposes, romantic and fashionable ones (like diving, snowboarding, windsurfing). In this sense, an ideal combination is a winter holiday in Courchevelle (the mountain-skiing Mecca for young professionals) and a summer holiday in Cote D’Azur or Biarritz. They understand fashion brands and are able to ignore them completely if they feel like it. Their wardrobe contains clothes of various price and prestige categories. But their mobile phones and IT-toys are the best and the most advanced. Time is money: hence as consumers they focus on places that are open after the working day (or its office part) finishes: restaurants and clubs, presentations, after-parties. Thus, restaurants and clubs with excellent cuisine, invitations and stars become indicators of their social status ("I was having a tedious time in Vogue yesterday…" or "let’s go to Tinkoff, there’s Gotan Project tonight"). For the first time these people look rational, pragmatic and tough. In fact, they are very kind inside and are able to have sincere, deep, genuinely friendly and sometimes gentle and moving relationships. However, it’s more fashionable to be ‘a cynically pragmatic’ person today. |
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