In a village just outside Moscow’s city limits, a house stands out from all the others in the vicinity in that it is impeccably maintained and has a very well cultivated garden. Given that the owner’s only income is her pension, the immaculate condition of her house seems somewhat at odds with her economic circumstances, especially when it is compared with the others surrounding it in the village. It transpires that the owner ‘rents’ rooms in her house to Chechen migrants who, wary of working in Moscow city centre as they are without the correct documentation, work as labourers in this rural fringe area of Moscow, building homes for Russia’s rich. Eager to send as much money home as possible and to save money for the winter ...
Get The Role of Informal Economies in the Post-Soviet World now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
