Life is hard but better for the average Russian
Schorr, Daniel
but better Life is hard for the average Russian by DANIEL SCHORR Russians tell this joke: One says to his friend, "Ivan Ivanovich, have you heard that the next five-year plan will make it...
...And it seems no coincidence that the scarcer an item, the higher the price...
...Based on official data, here is the 1956 consumption of food products in percentages of the 1940 consumption: Collective Worker farm families families Meat & animal fats 188 163 Fish & fish products 169 244 Milk & dairy products 214 148 Eggs 176 210 Sugar 200 438 Confectionery goods 155 252 Bread & bread products 81 99.8 The decline in bread sales was a natural consequence of the availability of more desirable foods...
...Meat (thous...
...the effect on the Muscovite himself was somewhat offset by his awareness of why the golden horn of plenty had suddenly opened...
...Within the strict limits of absolute priority for heavy industry, an effort is being made to expand consumer goods production, which is already showing effect...
...Production of passenger cars is now at a rate of about 110,000 annually in a country of more than 200,000,000 people...
...753 Clocks, watches (thousand) 2,500 23,930 Refrigerators (thousand...
...434 Vacuum cleaners (thousand...
...New shoes suddenly seemed to blossom everywhere...
...So it will be a great temptation to sell it because I can get a price three times the 20,000 rubles I'll pay for it...
...Someone in the crowd explained to me what was happening...
...tons) 971 2,330 3,040 Eggs (millions) 1,428 2,226 3,200 The comment is perhaps in order that after a tremendous expansion in production, market supplies of eggs last year averaged 16 per person for the 200,000,000 people of the Soviet Union—or one and one-third eggs per month...
...But, for the average Soviet citizen, even though aware that the tempo of building has been stepped up, this remains a distant dream...
...And now young auto fans stand around and try to guess what model car it is...
...And here we discovered that there exists a perhaps unwritten but widely applied law...
...The desired effect on the foreign youth was obtained...
...But there has also been some real improvement—felt first in supply of food...
...In Detroit, a scarcity of this sort would be met by swift expansion of production...
...Why is its 'traction' so poor...
...But what happens afterward, when production is in full swing...
...The man or woman one sees on the street in Moscow is considerably better (and more brightly) dressed than three years ago...
...It is no accident . . . that of hundreds of new styles, only a small part are used by factories, and the factory output frequently varies greatly from the samples adopted . . . "The clothing industry still lacks rational methods for designing goods...
...And the Ministry of Trade says, "Unflagging care should be taken of the customer, and his time should be valued...
...Having inscribed themselves, they could go home and return next morning, an hour before opening time, when they could take their places in line for the scarce beds in accordance with their order on the list...
...With consumer goods, on the whole, too scarce for competition to play much of a role, prices are arbitrary, sometimes to a point where they evoke public indignation...
...The average Soviet worker, reports the Central Statistical Board, ate 88 per cent more meat and animal fats in 1956 than in 1940, 69 per cent more fish and fish products, 100 per cent more milk and milk products, 76 per cent more eggs, and 100 per cent more sugar...
...To encourage research by master toy makers, a commission often permits the setting of higher prices on an interesting new toy...
...For example, the Communist youth organ, Komso-molskaya Pravda, recently wrote with heavy sarcasm about the prices of toys in Moscow's vaunted new children's department store, Children's World: ". . . Children's World has received toy autos manufactured at the Omsk machine-building factory...
...All this tends to dampen the enthusiasm of the Soviet citizen about the spectacular scientific and industrial achievements of the Soviet regime...
...In non-statistical terms, this means that millions of Soviet citizens live four and five to a room, with families sharing kitchens and bathrooms...
...On a street corner outside a furniture store, a crowd of some fifty persons gathered in animated conversation directed at a man in the center of the group who was making notes on paper...
...The average Russian is impressed by his country's achievements in space, in science and technology...
...The waiting list, at this point, would bring him in line to buy a car in 12 years at the current rate of car sales...
...We must not tolerate the appearance of queues just because some official is inefficient...
...The clothing situation was judged so serious that an attack was launched in the columns of Pravda, the party organ and principal newspaper of the Soviet Union: "The Soviet consumer presents justified claims to the clothing makers, especially with regard to selection, style, and finish of garments...
...Some absolute figures for food have been made available...
...Whether or not the propaganda goal will be achieved, it is evident that more food is available to the consumer today...
...they also reflect the abysmal standards of 1940...
...As a rule not, we were told by the Price Department...
...Collective action would insure that the priority was observed...
...now that things are on display, the worker wonders why the stock is exhausted before he gets to the counter, or why the price is out of reach for him...
...But does the retail price change...
...The Ministry of Trade admitted as much when it recently raised the prices of automobiles, motorcycles, and carpets, saying the purpose was to help fight against profiteering in these commodities...
...women displayed sheer blouses and flowered skirts...
...But the base was so low, the supply is still so inadequate, the prices of many manufactured goods still so exorbitant, the distribution still spotty, the quality still uneven, that the consumer gripes even more...
...It had been rumored that new beds would go on sale in the furniture store next morning...
...in 1955, it was 7.4 square meters...
...A common sight in Moscow is a man standing in front of the GUM department store, staring at a suit of clothes (of mediocre quality) and then at the price tag—1600 rubles, perhaps almost two months of his pay...
...Woolen fabrics (billion rubles) 2.6 113 Silk fabrics (billion rubles) 2.0 19.5 Garments (billion rubles) 173 47.4 Leather footwear (million pairs) 163 310 Cameras (thousand) 355 1,214 TV sets (thousand...
...they were simply taken out of boxes and put under glass...
...300 The improvement is reflected in street impressions...
...Another Latvian told me that his heart's dearest desire was an automobile...
...In 1940, according to official figures, the average urban dweller had seven square meters of space (one meter equals 39.37 inches...
...Forced production has begun to show diminishing returns, and some measure of freedom is being introduced...
...The party chief, Nikita Khrushchev, has now promised that the housing shortage will be solved in the next 12 to 15 years...
...Not only the foreign tourist, but the tourist from the provinces is seen carrying a camera...
...Now suppose you hear there are eggs available in Vladivostok . . ." This joke originated well before the first Sputnik was launched, but could serve as a wry comment on the plight of the long-suffering consumer in the Sputnik age...
...Since then, in an avowed effort to combat the black market, the government has raised the price of the Pobeda to 30,000 rubles—a 50 per cent increase...
...At first, the manufacture of this toy requires greater overhead expenses than after it goes into mass production...
...But, from an almost unbelievably low base, there has been some improvement in recent years, visible both in statistical tables and on the street...
...These cars did not have to travel to Moscow under their own power...
...The Soviet press, acting as a safety valve, occasionally reflects the consumer's indignation...
...For price manipulation is part of the government's arsenal of weapons for trying to regulate supply and demand—or, rather, for trying to keep demand in line with supply...
...He had put himself on the waiting list with the local automobile sales agency (a state outlet, of course...
...The instant reply is, "Ivan Ivanovich, don't be foolish...
...But he is painfully aware that the fruits of these achievements are slow to filter down to him in meaningful improvements in his living standards...
...tons) 120 319 416 Sugar (thous...
...Russia's automotive capacity goes mainly into making trucks, all of which are owned by the state...
...Because the weight of direct and indirect taxes does not let it move . . . "To resolve our doubts, we went to the price department of the Ministry of Trade of the Russian Federation...
...A young Russian told me in frustration, "The greatest barrier to romance is that I can never find a room where I can be alone with a girl...
...The fact is that retail sales have expanded substantially...
...In Russia, it is met by raising prices...
...In the post-Stalin era, an effort is being made to shift gradually from an economy of compulsion to an economy of incentive...
...the collective farmer is disinclined to produce unless he has something to buy with his money...
...Aware of this, the Party has announced improvements of consumer goods supply as one of "our urgent tasks...
...tons) 655 1,765 2,210 Dairy Products (thous...
...According to official statistics, sales of manufactured goods and food were 481.9 billion rubles in 1954, 501.9 in 1955, 547.2 in 1956, and 296 billion in the first half of 1957—16 per cent higher than in the same period of the previous year...
...I was able to witness how institutionalized shortages are in the Soviet Union one night in Riga, Latvia, which had just been opened to Western visitors...
...Why does it have such a red-gray color and why doesn't it shine...
...Today, the Soviet worker is legally free to quit his job...
...The production cost drops...
...Public gatherings in the Soviet Union are rare enough so that my attention was attracted...
...It is typical of the Soviet regime's approach to scarcity...
...for a Pobeda, the four-cylinder car which is the most popular in the Soviet Union...
...And when I get it," he said, "I may not be able to afford it...
...But, in terms of price, the trickle of yearned-for consumer goods is still out of reach of the average consumer...
...Refrigerators and washing machines are an even more remote dream for the majority...
...Television antennae have sprouted from Moscow rooftops...
...Housing is a subject in itself, officially acknowledged to be "one of the most acute problems...
...Instead of the fixed five to six per cent, many establishments permit themselves a much larger profit . . ." There has been similar criticism of clothing production—the most important consumer-goods industry...
...tons) 4,893 11,700 17,954 Vegetable oil (thous...
...Party Chief Nikita Khrushchev has proclaimed the aim of catching up with the United States in production of meat and dairy products, and has won his point over those (including the ousted Malenkov) who expressed fear that the price paid would be the slowing down of heavy industry development...
...Several years ago, trying to make children's toys cheaper so that more persons could buy them, the government limited all toy-manufacturing establishments to a certain profit percentage...
...queue on paper...
...Actually, the Soviet regime is finding that there are limitations on how long it can make the consumer wait...
...Manufactured goods, because they are not absolutely necessary to sustain life and because their output more immediately comes up against the barrier of heavy-industry priority, have lagged behind food production...
...The contrast was particularly evident last summer, during the World Youth Festival, when large supplies of clothing at relatively low prices were poured into the Moscow stores so that the capital would present a good appearance to the visitors from abroad...
...Here, too, while a building boom is in progress (huge apartment developments are rising in the outskirts of Moscow, and in Lvov, a former Polish city now in the Soviet Ukraine, the mayor told me that his city would be the first to overcome the housing shortage), a decent dwelling remains, for most Soviet citizens, still a vision for the future...
...In life, however, there is a great variety of sizes . . . Mass-produced clothes often do not conform to consumer demands . . . More attention should be paid to satisfying the demand for clothing of the various age groups . . . "It is an intolerable fact that many factories for a long time have been using obsolete technology . .." Ironically, as consumer goods begin to trickle into the market place consumer dissatisfaction grows...
...The regime has been explaining that the housing shortage resulted from war devastation, the increase in population, and the need to build heavy industry first, admitting that "housing construction lagged behind the needs of the population" and that "until recently industrial construction proceeded at a higher rate than house-building...
...The parents turn their eyes to the price-tag—50 rubles [$5] . . . The wind-up car . . . does not wish to leave the store...
...The supply has reached the point where it is enough to tempt the consumer, but far from enough to satisfy him...
...but better Life is hard for the average Russian by DANIEL SCHORR Russians tell this joke: One says to his friend, "Ivan Ivanovich, have you heard that the next five-year plan will make it possible for every Soviet citizen to own his own personal jet airplane...
...The consumer can wait...
...It was bad enough when the shop windows were bare...
...This is the official picture: 1940 1957 (est...
...The friend is amazed, but then reflects, "It's marvelous, but what do I need a jet plane for...
...Russia last year produced one-and-a-half pairs of shoes per inhabitant, and most persons one sees have adequate, if not stylish, shoes...
...And another said, "Half the friction among Russians would disappear if we didn't have to fight for the use of the kitchen and the bathroom...
...But the decision is not being complied with...
...But this remains a promise for the future...
...We asked them to explain why a sometimes very unattractive toy costs almost three times as much as a clever toy...
...Since advance queues are officially forbidden, the would-be buyers were forming an unofficial DANIEL SCHORR has been Moscow correspondent for the Columbia Broadcasting System for several years...
...The methods now used are, as a rule, based on 'normal' figures...
...296 Washing machines (thousand...
...as I came closer, I observed that the man with the pencil was writing down names on a list...
...Following are data on market supplies (not including food locally raised and locally consumed): 1940 1955 1957 (est...
...These figures reflect a great improvement...
Vol. 22 • March 1958 • No. 3
