Maksym Bryukhanov (Sustaining Ukrainian Scholarship Fellowship, Oct ‘25 – Feb ‘26) will present his research on:

Social Mobility of Ukrainian Ancestors in the 19th-21st centuries

11 December 2025 (Thursday), at 16:30.

Moderated by: Andrii Portnov

Abstract: Do surnames reveal anything about social inequality? Evidence from popular academic publications suggests that those with noble surnames maintain high social status over long periods of time. In the first stage of our study, we broadly examine two periods: the Russian Empire and the USSR. We analyze upward and downward social mobility of individuals with common (popular) and noble Ukrainian surnames and compare them to individuals with noble and popular Russian surnames and Jewish surnames. For elite (high social status) samples, we use lists of Parliament members, academicians of the Academy of Sciences, Chess Masters, and Heroes of Socialist Labor. Preliminary computations show that inequality in the Soviet Union (compared to the Russian Empire) is declining for both Ukrainian and Russian surname groups, primarily due to the reduced representativeness of noble surname groups. Moreover, we can assume that the higher the level of human capital required by social status, the greater the ability of nobles to maintain high social status in time. Interestingly, individuals with Jewish surnames remain the clear leader in maintaining the highest representativeness (the best chance of attaining high social status). This is despite the fact that we do not differentiate this group of surnames between noble and popular surnames, and the literature notes the significant social costs of the repression of the Jewish population in the USSR. At the seminar, I will present the research context and the intermediate results of the study in detail, and discuss possible future steps.