You might think that the consumer boom in Russia is bad news for the ‘Russian soul’. That’s the kind of thing Aliaksandr Lukashenka often says in Belarus – that evil American consumerism is corroding the minds and morals of Belarusian youth.  But we’re beginning to see signs, here in Russia, of how a consumer culture is changing people’s political behaviour for the better.

There are two types of cultures, producer cultures and consumer cultures.

A producer culture is a culture where the market is ordered and directed for producers’ benefit, and consumers have to fall in line. That’s what the Soviet economy was. Gosplan would draw up quotas for producers, and if consumers wanted something different, well, nelzya, as Russian officials are fond of saying. The individual was nothing besides the mighty planning of the state bureaucracy. And this mentality fed all the way down to your local produkti - the man behind the counter was a God, and the consumer had to beg, plead and bribe to try and get what they wanted out of him.

In a consumer culture, it’s the opposite. Consumers have all the power, and if companies fail to heed their concerns, then even established companies can fall into bankruptcy.

The producer mentality still exists in Russia, and it explains why service here can be very bad, not always, but sometimes. You still have sales-people who think because they are behind a desk or a counter they are entitled to treat customers with high-handed disdain, because they have all the power. And you still see this incredible meekness with Russian consumers, particularly older Russians. An Aeroflot flight will be delayed for an hour and a half, and no one from the company will come to explain why, and the crowds of Russians simply wait there passively, when Europeans would be fuming with indignation and demanding explanations.

Now, you might think in that situation that the Russians are showing a Slavic quietism which reflects their superior acceptance of the cosmos, while the agitated Europeans are merely showing how uptight and spoilt they are. Perhaps. Certainly, at some point in life you have to know when to shrug and say ‘Chto delat’?’

The problem is that the mentality from the consumer world spills over into the political world. If, like many Americans, you are very picky and pushy as a consumer, then you are also likely to be pushy when it comes to your government. You are likely to demand a lot from them, as from a company, and if they don’t deliver, you will get rid of them. Consumer activism feeds into political activism, and political activism makes for a healthier and more effective state, because uptight, pushy and complaining people constantly hold their governments to account and demand more from them.

Likewise, if you’re very passive in the consumer world, if you accept bad service from companies without a murmur, then you are also likely to accept bad government without a murmur.

The good news is, as I said at the beginning of this article, we’re beginning to see signs of change here in Russia. I found an article in Argumenty i Fakty of April 28 particularly heartening and insightful. It suggested, in the run-up to the president’s state of the union speech that “the government is facing a serious whipping”. It said that a “critical mass of dissatisfaction with the government is growing fast in society”, and that the president intended to listen to this “voice on the street” and crack down on corruption.

The article goes on: “It is interesting that the voice of the street is acquiring new overtones. On the whole, people are prepared to agree with the conclusions of official statistics: life is slowly changing for the better. On the whole, the authorities have succeeded in the first stage of normalization - to overcoming abject poverty. Sociologists from the ROMIR research group say it is not poverty which is now the most vexed subject but the officials' dishonesty and mistrust in the authorities. The government is trusted by 5 per cent of the people, the State Duma by 2 per cent and the Prosecutor's Office by 6 per cent. People are asking themselves increasingly more often: what kind of state do we live in? What kind of authorities do we have? Who is governing us?”

The article’s predictions have been rapidly proved accurate – by the end of the week, the president had fired the head of the customs service and two deputies, as well as several high-ranking FSB agents. The FSB has opened 20 criminal investigations into customs officials. Analysts are predicting this is just the beginning of a purge of corrupt bureaucrats.

You can interpret this move by Putin different ways. On the one hand, you could interpret it as a fall back to traditional Russian politics. Every now and then, the dobri Tsar has to placate the people by punishing a few evil boyars. The peasants look up to the Tsar, eyes gleaming with gratitude. The rest of the boyars go back to stealing after a few months.

Or you can look at it as the start of something new – a consumer revolution in Russia, where Russians learn to expect and demand more from their government, because they have come to take the basics – food and survival – for granted, and they want more.

As the Argumentiy i Fakty article said, people are getting better off, they are learning that they have power as consumers. They no longer have to beg officials to get hold of new furniture or to go abroad on holidays. They have the money themselves, they simply go to IKEA or to Sun Tourism and do it for themselves. Producers are learning they have to do all they can to win customers’ loyalty. “Consumers are getting increasingly picky”, complains the CEO of one Russian bank. Bank owners are sending out the orders to their staff – smile more, be more helpful. Russian companies are having to learn to be more flexible to what consumers want, and consumers are beginning to learn to stand up for themselves. Last week, thousands of house-buyers protested in Moscow over a fraudulent real estate scheme that had left 80,000 without the apartments they had paid for. It wasn’t a political demonstration, and yet perhaps it heralded a new era in Russian politics, when people learn to group together and defend their interests against organizations or bureaucracies, whether corporate or governmental, that are bigger than them.

And I think people are slowly learning to demand more of their government. As the article says: “People are asking themselves increasingly more often: what kind of state do we live in? What kind of authorities do we have?” Politics is a consumer choice, and if you’re not getting the service you expect, then you start demanding a new government. Putin seems to have realized that. The question is, to what extent is this corruption purge merely cosmetic, pokazukha, a virtual purge? Will Putin try to sell the people the same old government under a new brand?

Julian Evans, a British freelance journalist based in Moscow.

May 15, 2006