Who lived well in the USSR?

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

With many populist slogans like "all people are brothers", "from each according to his capabilities - to each according to his work," the real USSR was a country of extreme inequality and social stratification.

Moreover, the stratification into rich and poor was no less than in Russia before 1917. 5-10% of citizens in the USSR lived really well. Unlike the rest of the people, this small group had spacious apartments, food from special stores, summer cottages (often reminiscent of villas), and the opportunity to travel abroad.

Below is a story about those who lived well during the Soviet era.

01. Soviet party nomenclature

In fact, the "class divisions" that the Bolsheviks allegedly fought against did not disappear after the October Revolution - just other people came to the place of the "old nobility". They still enjoyed all the benefits of civilization, looking with contempt at the rest of the people, who were considered "rabble".

The stories about the luxurious and well-fed life in the USSR - all come from the nomenklatura environment. The Soviet nomenklatura really lived as under communism - they were assigned high wages, spacious apartments (often with servants) were given in good city districts, they had almost unhindered travel abroad, special stores with a wide range of imported goods were available - in such stores the nomenklaturars bought goods on the so-called "vneshposyltorg checks", which were not available to ordinary Soviet citizens.

02. People with access to resource allocation

This part of the population did not belong to the party nomenklatura (often they could not be a member of the Communist Party at all), but at the same time they had access to the Soviet distribution system - they could work in the distribution system of "free" apartments, be heads of some warehouses, or simply work as store managers … They simply carried bribes for solving certain issues - so that something would be shipped / issued / sold as soon as possible, and so on.

This caste can be attributed to the utterly rotten and corrupt top of the Soviet universities - the rectors and deans of which often took bribes for the admission of applicants. Centralized testing did not exist at that time, and it was easier to pull up the "necessary" applicants in the entrance exams, while cutting off the "unwanted" ones, it was easier than a steamed turnip.

A separate line in this paragraph should be mentioned and all sorts of chief physicians - they, too, very often, for money, "resolved issues" with the extraordinary treatment of one or another patient. In general, those who had access to the distribution of this or that resource lived very well in the USSR.

03. Shadow entrepreneurs and criminals

This was practically not mentioned in the Soviet press, but in the USSR there were whole branches of the so-called. "shadow economy". Some of these "schemes" would be recognized as criminal even now (say, theft of fuel in large quantities), and some were, in fact, a simple business - such as the clandestine sewing of jeans. Entrepreneurship in the USSR was prohibited by law, and in the years before 1987 the participants in such "underground workshops" risked their property and freedom.

These people really had an income much higher than the average Soviet - say, 5,000-10,000 rubles a month against an average salary of 120, but at the same time they risked being exposed by the OBKhSS or simply "vigilant neighbors." After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many of these people started a legal business and became even more successful, and some were unable to adapt to the new realities of competition and an open market, longingly recalling the times when they sold jeans for 200 rubles at a cost of 10 …

04. Good specialists in a bad environment

Very often in the USSR, people worked according to the principle "I pretend that I work - the state pretends to pay me money," and therefore normal specialists who did their work with high quality were in great demand. A good dentist, plumber, even a simple locksmith at a factory could live in the USSR somewhat better than colleagues - they were passed from hand to hand, overwhelmed with orders and gifts.

However, unlike the nomenklatura, "resource distributors" and shadow businessmen, this was perhaps the poorest group of "good-living" - their income exceeded the average salary by only 2-3 times, it was still impossible to jump over your head.

05. Military, physicists, people of rare professions

High-ranking military personnel, the "upper strata" of scientists (physicists, chemists, etc.) and all sorts of rare specialists, such as nuclear power plant operators or civil aviation pilots, lived relatively well in the USSR. However, the "good" life of the above citizens was such only against the background of general poverty and was quite poor in comparison with the life of similar specialists in the West.

Here's a review I got today. All of the above groups in the USSRindeed, they lived very well, while the rest 85-90% of the population led a rather poor existence, living on a salary of 120 rubles and often not being able to buy the most necessary things.

Do you know anyone who lived well in the USSR?

Tell us interesting.