The conflict between rich and poor has always been one of the most sensitive issues for ordinary Russians, and their attitude toward it have significantly influenced the level of social tension and the degree of social consolidation. Given the significance of this issue amidst the intensification of external challenges facing our country in recent years, the article, using data from representative nationwide studies conducted by the Institute of Sociology of the Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2005, 2015, and 2024, attempts to demonstrate how perceptions of this conflict have changed in recent decades, as well as the specific factors that contribute to its sensitivity in today's Russia. The primary research methods utilised were dynamic and comparative analysis, as well as various versions of correlation analysis. It is shown that the popularity of the conflict between rich and poor has halved over the past two decades, and in 2024, it became the third most frequently mentioned topic. The two main factors that exacerbate his perception and act in an interconnected manner are the impossibility of achieving the desired standards of everyday life and the feeling of injustice of the "rules of the game" established in society, giving rise to a feeling of powerlessness and the inability to independently change anything in one's life. The standards in question are quite modest and relate primarily to nutrition, clothing and certain non-monetary aspects of life (the ability to change something in it, access to medical care, etc.). It is also shown that it is precisely subjective (i.e., related to the perception of the situation in society as a whole and one's place in it in particular), rather than objective characteristics of a person, that are decisive for his perception of the contradiction between rich and poor as one of the most acute, influencing even electoral behaviour. Of the objective factors, the most significant are, in descending order of importance, the presence in the household of chronically ill people with limited working capacity who do not have the status of disabled; belonging to low-skilled and unskilled workers; low per capita income and old age.

social contradictions, intergroup conflicts, intergroup contradictions, consolidation of society, social tension, mass consciousness, rich and poor

1. Anikin V. A. The Interests of the Person, State, and Society in the Mass Perception of the Population. In Russian Society and the Challenges of Time. Book Three. Ed. by М. K. Gorshkov, N. E. Tikhonova. Moscow, Ves Mir, 2016: 313–333 (in Russ.).
2. Beck U. World risk society. Transl. from Germ. by V. Sedelnik and N. Fedorova. Moscow, Progress-Traditsiya, 2000: 381 (in Russ.).
3. Belopashentseva P. V., Slobodenyuk E. D. et al. Objective and Subjective Poverty in Russia: What the Last 20 Years Have Brought. Vestnik instituta sotziologii, 2024: 15: 4: 34–59 (in Russ.). DOI: 10.19181/vis.2024.15.4.3; EDN: XQRQOZ.
4. Gimpelson V. E., Monusova G. A. Perception of Inequality and Social Mobility. Ekonomicheskiy zhurnal VSHE, 2014: 18: 2: 216–248 (in Russ.). EDN: SKFTQB.
5. Dudin I. V. People’s Perceptions of the Main Contradictions in Russian Society. Sotsial'noye prostranstvo, 2023: 9(2): 1–17 (in Russ.). DOI: 10.15838/sa.2023.2.38.8; EDN: NGKOMG.
6. Dudin I. V. The nation’s Attitude towards the Main Social Contradictions in Russian Society: Current State, Dynamics, Factors. Sotsiologicheskiy zhurnal, 2024: 30: 1: 90–112 (in Russ.). DOI: 10.19181/socjour.2023.30.1.1; EDN: GTQHVY.
7. Dudin I. V. Dynamics of the perception of social contradictions by the population of Russia (2005–2021). Gumanitariy Yuga Rossii, 2023: 12: 4: 28–146 (in Russ.). DOI: 10.18522/2227-8656.2023.4.8; EDN: NJQHJW.
8. Castells M. The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture. Transl. from Eng. and ed. by O. I. Shkaratan. Moscow, GU VShE, 2000: 608 (in Russ.).
9. Korchagina I., Prokofieva L. Subjective perception of social inequality – the population opinion about social justice. Demograficheskoye obozreniye, 2022: 9(4): 4–21 (in Russ.). DOI: 10.17323/demreview.v9i4.16742; EDN: DOBOJS.
10. Mareeva S. V. Subjective well-being and ill-being zones in the Russian society. Vestnik RUDN. Sotsiologiya, 2018: 18: 4: 695–707 (in Russ.). DOI: 10.22363/2313–2272–2018–18–4–695–707; EDN: YNAKEP.
11. Mareeva S. V., Slobodenyuk E. D. et al. Public Tolerance for Social Inequalities in Turbulent Russia: Reassessing the Role of Subjective Mobility. Monitoring obshchestvennogo mneniya: ekonomicheskiye i sotsial'nyye peremeny, 2022: 1: 39–60 (in Russ). DOI: 10.14515/monitoring.2022.1.1982; EDN: MSBKFV.
12. Mareeva S. V., Tikhonova N. E. Public Perceptions of Poverty and Social Inequality in Russia. Mir Rossii. Sotsiologiya. Etnologiya, 2016: 25: 2: 37–67 (in Russ.). EDN: WDEMBH.
13.  Model of income stratification of Russian society: Dynamics, factors, cross-country comparisons. Ed. by N. E. Tikhonova. Moscow; St. Petersburg, Nestor-Istoriya, 2018: 368 (in Russ.). DOI: 10.317544469–1419–7; EDN: YSPCNF.
14. Society of Unequal Opportunities: Social Structure of Modern Russia. Ed. by N. E. Tikhonova. Moscow, Ves Mir, 2022: 424 (in Russ.). DOI: 10.55604/9785777708731; EDN: XJGBFE.
15. Piketty T. Capital in the twenty-first century. Transl. from Fr. A. Dunaev. Moscow, Ad Marginem Press, 2015: 592 (in Russ.).
16. Russian society and challenges of the time. Ed. by M. K. Gorshkov, N. E. Tikhonova. Book 7. Moscow, Ves Mir, 2024: 352 (in Russ.). EDN: OYVDFP.
17. Russia – a new social reality. Rich. Poor. The middle class. Ed. by M. K. Gorshkov, N. E. Tikhonova. Moscow, Nauka, 2004: 259 (in Russ.). EDN: NGCBZZ.
18. Sushko P. E. Specificity of Subjective Well-Being of Russians from Different Types of Settlements. Vestnik instituta sotziologii, 2024: 15: 4: 60–81. DOI: 10.19181/vis.2024.15.4.4; EDN: UQWQVD.
19. Tikhonova N. E. Income Stratification in Russia: Cross-country and Dynamic Analysis. Sotsiologicheskiy zhurnal, 2017: 4: 31–50 (in Russ.). DOI: 10.19181/socjour.2017.23.4.5527; EDN: YLBEJS.
20. Dal Bó E., Dal Bó P. Workers, warriors and criminals: Social conflict in general equilibrium. Working Paper. Providence, RI: Brown University, Department of Economics, 2004: 2004-11: 1–31.
21. Diener E., Biswas-Diener R. Will Money Increase Subjective Well-Being? Social Indicators Research, 2002: 57: 119–169. DOI: 10.1023/A:1014411319119.
22. Easterlin R. A. Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot? Some Empirical Evidence. In Nations and Households in Economic Growth: Essays in Honor of Moses Abramovitz, 1974: 89–125.
23. Easterlin R. A. How Does Health Affect Happiness? In An Economist’s Lessons on Happiness. Springer, 2021: 4: 33–39. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-61962-6_4.
24. Hirschman A., Rothschild M. The Changing Tolerance for Income Inequality in the Course of Economic Development. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1973: 87: 4: 544–566.
25. Novokmet F., Piketty T. et al. From Soviets to oligarchs: inequality and property in Russia 1905–2016. The Journal of Economic Inequality, 2018: 16(1): 189–223. DOI: 10.1007/s10888-018-9383-0.