New Russians

The New Russians (Novye Russkie, Russian: новые русские) are newly rich business class in post-Soviet Russia. It is perceived as a stereotypical caricature. According to the stereotype, New Russians achieved rapid wealth by using criminal methods during Russia's chaotic transition to a market economy.

Having a modest education and social background, New Russians are perceived as arrogant nouveau riche and gaudy, conspicuous consumers with poor taste. Money and status symbols are prominently displayed by the New Russian, in particular jewelry and luxury cars. In the early 1990s, prominent attributes of the New Russian stereotype also included mobile phones and crimson jackets. A wide range of elite restaurants and nightclubs catering to the New Russian social circle have sprung up in Moscow.

The expression Новый Русский (lit. "New Russian") arose in the Russian-speaking sphere in the demonstrated English-language form of "New Russian", and was then calcified into the Russian-language form. Another sparse theory suggests the term appeared in foreign press, and then made its way into Russia. Supporters of this theory consider that the author of the expression was the American journalist Hedrick Smith who published two books about Russia: "The Russians" (1976) and "The New Russians" (1990).

There's also a theory that it's more of a pun, playing on the French words "nouveau riche" (i.e. new rich), having an absolutely similar meaning as the term "New Russian".

In the documentary film "With a hard-sign on the end" (С твёрдом знаком на конце, dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the creation of the newspaper Коммерсантъ, and shown on Channel One on 30 November 2009), author Leonid Parfenov demonstrates a copy of Kommersant from 1992 where editorial statistics were addressed as "New Russian". Parfenov confirms that the newspaper first implemented this word into daily life, and at first didn't have any negative or ironic connotation, merely annotating the representatives of nascent Russian businesses.

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