Using the country of Latvia as a case study, I argue that socioeconomic classes and class stratification constituted in the context of post-communist capitalism are simultaneously denied and distinguished. Class was a central component of discourse in Soviet communism even though classes in their capitalist incarnation did not exist. With the advent of post-communism’s neoliberal capitalist order and the concurrent rise in stratification, the critical discourse of class has virtually disappeared from the mainstream. This silence is linked to a widespread rejection of the legacies of Soviet communism and associated institutions, symbols, and vocabularies. At the same time, stratified class positions are rendered apparent through the means of consumption. They are presented not in terms of class, but in terms of distinction, style, and lifestyle. The post-communist socioeconomic hierarchy is represented through a discourse derived from an uncritical (or anti-critical) consumer culture, which has produced a new cultural legitimacy for stratification.

The end of communism in Eastern Europe ushered in an era of markets and modernity. Post-communist capitalism has also wrought stratification with intensified upward and downward socio-economic mobility. Examining the case of Latvia, we offer an analysis of one of post-communist capitalism’s most apparent effects: the creation of a broad and diverse mass of economically disadvantaged inhabitants. While numerous writers have framed their analyses in terms of the ‘winners and losers’ of change, most research has treated these categories as exclusive entities and has paid little attention to the sociological relationship between them or the diversity within them. This work elaborates the relationship between the economically disadvantaged and both post-communist capitalism and the upper socio-economic rungs of society. As well, we offer three ideal-typical categories for description and analysis of post-communism’s economically disadvantaged masses.

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