Yuliy A. Nisnevich

   This article provides insight into regeneration of nomenclature as the ruling social stratum of post-Soviet Russia after the revolutionary events of 1990. This type of political establishment is not a state bureaucracy or a meritocratic elite, but a social phenomenon generated and ontologically inherent in the Soviet political regimes. The process of regeneration of nomenclature started when the representatives of the Soviet nomencla­ture filled the structures of the new Russian government. "Privatization in the Russian style" contributed to the process and led to the formation of nomenclature-oligarchic clans. These clans and their struggle for power and resources form the basis of the vital activity of the Russian nomenklatura. During the second term of Boris Yeltsin's presidency, the process of "buying up the state" by nomencla­ture-oligarchic clans and incorporation of their representatives and lobbyists into executive and legislative power structures significantly intensified. Operation "successor," which brought Vladimir Putin to power in 2000, finalized the formation of the nomenklatura-oligarchic regime as the ruling regime in post-Soviet Russia and Russian nomenklatura as the dominant social stratum.