A SHOCK AND THE ADAPTATION: THE YEAR OF THE PANDEMIC IN ASSESSMENTS AND LIFE PRACTICES OF THE RUSSIANS
Basing on the materials of representative sociological surveys held by the RANEPA Institute of Social Analysis and Forecasting in 2020 - 2021, social well-being and life practices of various population groups within the period of coronavirus pandemic have been analyzed. It is shown that significant cutback in epidemiological fears, which had been substantial in perception of less than a third of population by the spring of the current year, has taken place during the year of epidemiological instability. Only 35% of respondents mentioned that the pandemic year did not make any changes in their daily life, whereas around 30% of respondents noticed significant changes. The most sharply perceived difficulties are associated with having customary leisure time, significant problems have been caused by remote regime of work and study, and availability restrictions in obtaining the necessary services. Forced switch to the remote employment whilst the acute stage of the pandemic had to accomplish around a fourth of employees, in majority dwellers of megapolises. As the survey showed, such a mass switch turned out to be rather negative from the point of working interactions quality, however, allowed to smoothen the acute stage of shocking adaptation at the labour market. More than a third of respondents pointed out that their financial status had not changed for the better by the spring 2021 in comparison with the beginning of 2020. The most common form of adaptation was an appeal to credit obligations and the defined in the survey level of credit encumbrance shows that 40% of population has financial obligations including 19% are characterized by an average level of encumbrance, and 7% are characterized by the high level. Over the pandemic period the government has implemented the set of measures directed at socio-economic tension settling down through the direct support of various groups of population. The majority respondents noticed implementation of the special supportive measures but only a fourth of respondents considered the measures to have been sufficient whereas 43% mentioned insufficiency of social support.