Digital platforms and the changing freelance workforce in the Russian Federation: A ten-year perspective

This article traces the development of the online labour market in the Russian Federation and across the wider post-Soviet space. The authors draw on the unique data of four waves of an online survey for 2009, 2011, 2014 and 2019 on the leading Russian-speaking general-purpose platform for creative and knowledge-based work. The results shed light on key trends, such as spatial decentralization, occupational diversification, feminization, maturing, rising educational attainment and educational mismatch, the consolidation of freelance careers, platformization and legalization. The article discusses these findings and their potential policy implications for the future development of online platform work in the Russian Federation.