Abstract:

The perception of academic careers in Russia and the majority of the USSR has changed significantly in the past 30 years, leading to a changed assessment of academic jobs. In this paper, we have analyzed interviews of 15 Russian academicians, who either spend their whole life at the university, or joined academia from business, or the ones left academia as a result of changes in the sphere. Their different perception allowed comparing their motivation with the mainstream discussion in the existing literature and figuring out specific features of academic careers in transition economies.