Sometimes the term “elite” loaned from foreign socio-humanistic disciplines is not easy corresponding with modern Russian realities.
And more special it concerns political elite. The possession of a whole number of personal and moral qualities was a sign of
belonging to elite of its representative in pre-revolutionary Russia, but elite has been depersonalized in the Soviet political model
and could be described in nomenclature terms. Actually, the elite production technology has been put in motion, identification the
elite was defined by a post occupied and could be lost at any time by its owner owing to these or those reasons. Thus the interests
of elite were identified with the interests of the state. In the 90’s another model has come to replace the Soviet model of formation
of elite on a nomenclature basis, where the political elite is recruited as a team representing the interests of the specific functionary.
Such approach has resulted in a further depreciation of elite to a group carrying out functions of supernumeraries to certain
charismatic leaders. Under these conditions the elite appears to be even less stable and distinctly shaped. At the moment the system
of preparation of elite is in a deep crisis and that is focused not on real formation but on production of some substitute which is not
possessing real attributes of elitism. In the presented theses an attempt is undertaken, ascending from the particular to the general,
to estimate inductively the real condition of the Russian elite. A problem of the actual state of a political elite recruitment system in
Russia is poses, its real situation is described, and the issue of need of radical improvement of quality of elite through modernization
of public administration system and revision of the elite recruitment concept is brought up.
Alexandr Mikhaylov, Sergey Vorontsov Influence of Relationship Between Federal and Regional Elite on Safety of the State // The Russian Academic Journal, Vol. 29, Issue 3, 2014, pp. 0-0

Sometimes the term “elite” loaned from foreign socio-humanistic disciplines is not easy corresponding with modern Russian realities. And more special it concerns political elite. The possession of a whole number of personal and moral qualities was a sign of belonging to elite of its representative in pre-revolutionary Russia, but elite has been depersonalized in the Soviet political model and could be described in nomenclature terms. Actually, the elite production technology has been put in motion, identification the elite was defined by a post occupied and could be lost at any time by its owner owing to these or those reasons. Thus the interests of elite were identified with the interests of the state. In the 90’s another model has come to replace the Soviet model of formation of elite on a nomenclature basis, where the political elite is recruited as a team representing the interests of the specific functionary. Such approach has resulted in a further depreciation of elite to a group carrying out functions of supernumeraries to certain charismatic leaders. Under these conditions the elite appears to be even less stable and distinctly shaped. At the moment the system of preparation of elite is in a deep crisis and that is focused not on real formation but on production of some substitute which is not possessing real attributes of elitism. In the presented theses an attempt is undertaken, ascending from the particular to the general, to estimate inductively the real condition of the Russian elite. A problem of the actual state of a political elite recruitment system in Russia is poses, its real situation is described, and the issue of need of radical improvement of quality of elite through modernization of public administration system and revision of the elite recruitment concept is brought up.