VERY SMALL BUSINESS IN A VERY BIG STATE, OR WHAT TO HOPE FOR WHEN THERE IS NOTHING TO HOPE FOR

The article discusses the relationship between the sphere that constitutes the economic basis ("fodder base") of the state, the specificity of the mechanism by which the state extracts resources and the distinguishing features of the political structure of the society in the post-Soviet Russia. Based on the analysis of the transformations that the Russian state has undergone over the past 25 years, L.Blyakher identifies three stages in its development (state as a seller of services; state as a distributor of goods; and a modern, transitional stage), demonstrating that these stages are conditioned upon the nature of the "fodder base". The author focuses on the role of the informal economy in this interaction. The article shows that during the crisis of the traditional "fodder base" of the Russian state the low-level informal economy reproached in everyday life is the only sphere that is not harmed.