Estates as new socio-professional 
groups in Russia

Despite the significant efforts of the Communists to build a classless society, a new historical community of people, the "Soviet people", has not emerged in Russia. Radical economic reform destroyed the main social groups and the middle class that began to form on their basis. The purpose of this study is to formulate the main theses of the author's concept of the formation of new societies in Russia at the present stage. Among the tasks, we note the identification of the specifics of the new links; description of the specific estates that are being formed in Russia - the intelligentsia, workers, farmers, military, merchants, and clergy; formulation of the author's proposals for the implementation of state socio-demographic policy concerning the estates. The research uses the methodology of moral and religious neo-institutionalism, the basic principles of which are balance, morality, consistency and the anthropological principle. The author chose a systematic approach, historical, cultural and institutional analysis by methods. The research reflects the principles of geographical and economic determinism, the cybernetic principle of feedback. The theoretical significance of the article is justified by the introduction into scientific use and justification of the term "new estates", the use of anthropological and other methodological principles of moral and religious neo-institutionalism to the problems of social stratification in Russia. The practical significance of the article lies in the formulation and specification of the targeting of the main directions of state social policy in the fields of education and demography.