Through the context of life stories of several middle-aged and older informants from Magnitogorsk, we explore the transformation of the middle class from industrial to post-industrial from the point of employment, values and social mobility strategies. At the time of our study, several of our informants either had relocated, were relocating, or were contemplating to move from Magnitogorsk to Ufa; their narrations on the re-settlement became the starting point in our research aims to find out how people in the Urals form an idea of a decent life, of what constitutes an acceptable or unacceptable working and living environment, how they make a decision to move, weighing the pros and cons, and how they prepare the grounds for moving and settling in a new place. The results of the study show the presence of a strong regional identity among our informants, which is manifested in their desire to avoid radical disconnection and loss, both in terms of established social ties and in terms of personal historical ties with the place they consider their small homeland. At their relocation, we observe how they search for their identity and reinvent themselves building a new life, using skills and habits that they already carried to some extent before moving.

Keywords: social mobility, middle class, Urals regional identity, problems of monotown, post-industrial age, regional migration.

 

 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Accepted: 19.12.2024

Article is published: 15.03.2025