Acute issues of Russia's socio-cultural modernization

The need of socio-economic modernization is one of the main challenges of the 21st century facing the government, business and population of many countries. The solution to modernization tasks is unique for each country and is stipulated by a particular situation. Of special importance for Russia is the issue concerning the gap between population's living standards in different, sometimes neighbouring, regions and, an overall significant lag in the living conditions of the Russians compared with the inhabitants of developed countries. A necessary condition for successful modernization policy is the elaboration of specific national modernization strategies, considering the specifics of socio-cultural development of not only the whole Russia, but of each region.