Essential to understanding the changes in stratification processes in Russia is its
historical context as part of the Soviet Union and the importance of the Socialist
economic and political processes that determined the paths for mobility and economic
achievement for its citizens prior to the collapse of the socialist state. The reasons for the
collapse of the system are as numerous as the theories that try to explain the decline of
the Soviet system. The problems of the socialist system are well-researched and the
processes that led to the collapse are well-documented. For example, Andrew Walder
lists the following determinants of the collapse of the Soviet Union: economic stagnation
and consumer deprivation, deeply eroded commitment to official ideology and the growth
of widespread cynicism, corruption and the weakening of the apparatus of rule, and the
gradual enlargement of autonomous, self-organized spheres of social and intellectual life
(Walder 1994).