How much did the leaders of communism earn?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

At first, Lenin was a translator, and Stalin worked at the observatory. Having become heads of state, they were able to set their own salaries.

The Bolsheviks who came to power under the slogan “Land for the peasants! Factories to workers!”Promised that under communism there would be no exchange of commodities and money. Let's see how Lenin and Stalin followed the communist ethic on one of the most sensitive issues - money.

Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924)

Before the revolution

Although Vladimir Lenin's father, Ilya Ulyanov (1831-1886), was born into a tailor's family, he studied and worked hard, and in 1877, at the age of 46, received the civil rank of a valid state councilor and the right to hereditary nobility. Vladimir was then seven years old - the future communist leader was the son of a nobleman.

Vladimir's family was significantly dependent on income from land ownership - in fact, the Ulyanovs lived off peasant labor on their lands! They inherited some of them from Alexander Blank, Lenin's maternal grandfather, also a nobleman. These lands brought the family up to 2,500 rubles a year.

As Vladimir grew up and received his legal education, he began to earn money by tutoring and translating - in parallel with his revolutionary activities. In 1899, in exile in Shushenskoye, he wrote the book The Development of Capitalism in Russia, which was published in a circulation of 2,400 copies. He was paid 250 rubles, which was equal to two months' salary for a high-ranking official. Such earnings were a pleasant addition to the amount sent by Lenin's mother - about 300-500 rubles three or four times a year.

By 1916, with the fall of the Russian Empire, rents fell and then ceased altogether. Vladimir Lenin and his wife Nadezhda Krupskaya lived very modestly, from time to time using the material support of foreign communists.

After the revolution

In December 1917, Lenin appointed himself a salary of 500 rubles as secretary of the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom), the first government of Soviet Russia. In March 1918, the salary was raised to 800 rubles. This was far from the highest salary in the Council of People's Commissars - some commissars received up to 2,000 rubles. But in the post-revolutionary conditions, with rapidly growing inflation, all these figures did not really matter. Lenin's access to unlimited power and resources was more important than wages.

Lenin ruled the state for only a few years. After the summer of 1922, due to a progressive illness, he retired, and was replaced by Joseph Stalin.

Joseph Stalin (1879-1953)

Before the revolution

As early as 15 years old, as a schoolboy, Iosif Dzhugashvili came into contact with Marxist and Social Democratic student groups. In May 1899, he was expelled from the Tiflis Theological Seminary for failure to appear for exams. However, Dzhugashvili received a teacher's certificate and worked as a tutor for some time. We do not know how much he earned, but, apparently, this was barely enough. In December 1899 he was admitted to the Tiflis Physical Observatory as a computer observer.

In March 1901, the police searched the Tiflis Physical Observatory in connection with Dzhugashvili's revolutionary activities, and he had to go underground. Since then, Stalin directed only revolutionary activities, organizing secret meetings and clandestine meetings between Bolshevik groups. Next time he will receive a salary already under Soviet rule.

After the revolution

Under the first Soviet government, Stalin became the People's Commissar for Nationalities. From that time on, Stalin began to live at the expense of the state. As the degree of Stalin's power increased, so did his privileges, inconceivable for an ordinary Soviet citizen. Private cars, summer cottages, private doctors, cooks and maids - everything was there.

Stepan Mikoyan (1922-2017), test pilot, son of Anastas Mikoyan (1895-1978), the permanent Soviet minister of foreign trade, later recalled: “Until I got married, I lived in my father's house. The food was free there. In my opinion, until 1948 the family did not pay for food at all. We got everything we ordered. Food was brought not only home, but also to the dacha, where we lived, our relatives and there were always a lot of friends. We used our dacha, food, and servants free of charge."

For Stalin, as the leader of the state, everything was the same, and even better. However, Stalin did not approve of even his top officials being arrogant. As Stepan Mikoyan recalls, when in 1948 Stalin learned that the wives of some of his ministers did not pay bills in the government studio, he was furious. Soon after, or earlier, the salaries of all party officials were raised, but access to “free” food and services was cut: “Since 1948, eight or ten thousand free products have been brought in. If more was required, the rest had to be paid for”(900-1200 rubles a month was then considered a luxurious salary). However, they were left with nannies and maids, as well as the opportunity to shop in special stores for senior party officials.

The promotion that the ministers received was impressive. Stepan Mikoyan recalled that his father's salary had grown from 2,000 rubles a month to 8,000 rubles a month after 1948, and Stalin assigned himself a salary of 10,000 rubles. But, as Stepan Mikoyan noted, for people of the level of his father, it was pocket money.

Stalin, of course, did not cut any of his expenses, because he did not have any - at least in his own opinion. There is a popular legend that in Tiflis, where Stalin was on business, some old comrades from the revolutionary underground approached him and asked for money. Stalin took off his cap and passed it over the hands of his guards, collecting 300 rubles for his friends. Stalin himself did not carry cash with him.

Stalin still earned a little more. Like Lenin, he was a prolific writer. His Collected Works was published in more than 500,000 copies in Russian alone, and other works were also published in separate books and translated into the languages of the Soviet republics. All this was paid for - Stalin received huge fees.

Where did all the money go? Unknown. We have no reliable reason to trust the legends about the "Stalin's safe", which someone opened after his death, or the anecdotes about his secretary Poskrebyshev, who asked the leader what to do with such heaps of bills. One thing is certain: Stalin did not manage to take this money with him.