How much did gasoline cost in the USSR

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

Now, when gasoline prices have skyrocketed, it seems to us, to the skies, many have remembered the USSR. About how good it was there and gasoline cost literally a penny there. Is it so?

To be precise, from January 1, 1969, the prices for gasoline were set as follows: * A-76 - 75 kopecks; * AI-93 - 95 kopecks.

These are the prices for 10 liters of fuel, that is, 1 liter of gasoline cost, in fact, 7, 5 and 9, 5 kopecks, respectively. Why were the prices quoted for 10 liters? It's simple: there were no ultra-precise car speakers before, and the then gas stations had a gradation of 10 liters (later 5 liters). There were marks for one liter, but they were very conditional.

At gas stations, they did not sell less than five liters of gasoline, at that time they always refueled to full, and even carried canisters with them, because there were not many gas stations and they did not always have gas on them.

There were other brands of fuel, but we will consider these (76th and 93rd) as the most popular, especially AI-93 then and AI-92 now - this is actually the same for the then and current cars, so the prices for they can be compared directly.

How much gasoline could one salary buy?

If you can compare, then let's compare and see how much gasoline could be bought for one salary half a century ago in a country that no longer exists, but which is so often remembered in the CIS.

So, the average salary of a Soviet citizen in 1969 was 115 rubles 60 kopecks. With a gasoline price of 95 kopecks per 10 liters, 1216 liters of AI-93 could be bought for a monthly salary, which will be used by Zhiguli starting from the next 1970.

In Russia, in March 2018, the average monthly nominal accrued wages amounted to 42,364 rubles, and the price per liter of the 92nd is now on average 41, 74 rubles. That is, one salary can buy 1015 liters of gasoline.

“Yeah,” you say, “it was better in the USSR! Gasoline in the USSR was more affordable for the population than it is now.

In 1969, this was indeed the case, but in the early 70s, gasoline went up a little, by 5 kopecks per 10 liters. Thus, a whole ruble had to be paid for 10 liters of the 93rd. However, salaries also increased, so that in general, gasoline became even more affordable, about 1320 liters could be bought a month.

Everything changed in 1978 - gasoline rose in price twice, for 10 liters of the 93rd they already asked for 2 rubles. Moreover, since the prices were set by the state, prices were the same at all gas stations. Salaries have increased, but not by that much. Gasoline became less affordable - one salary could buy 822 liters. That is, less than now.

In 1981, gasoline prices went up again. And again, twice! (And we complain that our prices have increased by 8, 2% since the beginning of the year). For 10 liters of the 93rd they already took 4 rubles. The salary again did not keep pace with the rise in fuel prices; it was possible to buy only 445 liters of gasoline for a month's earnings. With an average Zhiguli consumption of about 10 liters of gasoline per 100 km of track, it was possible to drive only 4450 kilometers in a month.

Today, the engines are different - for the same Hyundai Solaris, for example, the average fuel consumption is 7 l / 100 km. It turns out that on 948 liters of fuel - taking into account that 95th gasoline now costs 44.69 rubles - such a car can drive 13,543 kilometers.

It turns out that now gasoline is more affordable for Russians than in the USSR in 1981. And for a monthly salary, you can travel 3 times more kilometers than 37 years ago.