Over the span of all of the years that the Levada Center has been in operation, one of the tasks of the research collective has been to analyze the behavior of "advanced" groups whose characteristic way of life, attitudes, and assessments might have the significance, to other strata of the society, of a model, and provide them with an imaginable perspective on the future. It is in this framework that the authors examine a survey of young, well-educated, and high-income inhabitants of the capital city and the major cities of Russia. The results show that when it comes to their perception of the way things are going in the country and the prospects of the country's development, the groups of highly educated and well-off Russians described in this survey do not differ that much from the bulk of the population. They are convinced that Russia is going to be a major power, and they link such an accomplishment to the administration of V.V. Putin, whose performance, in general and on the whole, they rate very highly. At the same time, however, in their eyes the level of "stability" that has been achieved is very fragile and is conditioned not so much by the change in the institutional system as by the favorable state of the market in oil prices, a situation that could change at any time. When it comes to rating their own position, how reliable it is and how well protected they are, and their own ability to influence the situation, the respondents hardly differ at all from the bulk of the Russian population. The majority also think that they are not well protected on the legal and political planes, and that they do not have any ability to have an influence on political processes and decisions that affect their own interests in life. For this reason, the majority accept illegal ways to deal with current conflicts and problems (bribery, informal connections, and pull); they look at such things as unpleasant and not right, but as inevitable rules of behavior in Russian society today. In other words, in this regard the respondents share the basic attitudes of the Russian population as a whole when it comes to becoming adapted to the situation as it stands, even if they are conscious that it is not just. (Contains 21 tables and 4 notes.) [This article was translated by Kim Braithwaite.]