title: Personal Transitions Amidst Shifting Societal Landscapes
abstract: This chapter serves a specific theoretical function by outlining the broader societal conditions under which post-Sovietpost-Soviet migrants left their places of origin. While I do not provide a full account of the different stages of Soviet development, I focus on late socialism, particularly the perestroika period, as the immediate sociohistorical context shaping mobility in the 1990s.