(continued from part 2)
The standard of living of the Soviet people in the 50’s can be evaluated using meticulously documented federal studies that were conducted by the Central Statistics Administration of the USSR. Research took place between the years of 1935 to 1958, its results were deemed classified at the time, and are now accessible by the general public on istmat.info.
Information was compiled on the following nine groups: collective-farm workers, workers of government agricultural holdings, industry workers, engineers and technology specialists, industry clerks, elementary school teachers, secondary and high school teachers, doctors, and nurses.
Unfortunately, the most wealthy population segment represented by workers of the defense industry, construction planning and design institutions, institutes of science and research, university professors, private enterprises and cooperatives, and the military was not included in the study.
Doctors were in the highest income category with 800 rubles per family member per month. The least payed among city dwellers were industry clerks with 525 rubles per each family member per month. People in rural areas had 350 rubles per family member each month.
Both rural and city families spent about 200-210 rubles on food per person per month, families of doctors being the exception with 250 rubles per month; the difference accounted for greater amounts of butter, meat products, eggs, fish, and fruit, while buying less bread and potatoes.
People in rural areas ate bread, potatoes, eggs, and milk in greater quantities, but less butter, fish, sugar, and fine baked goods. The 200 rubles spent on food weren’t warranted by the family’s income as much as they depended on family traditions and preferences.
In 1955, we were a family of four with two school-age children, and had income of 1,200 per person per month. The variety of produce in Leningrad’s [St. Petersburg today. RV] grocery stores of the time would put modern day supermarkets to shame. Nevertheless, our family spent 800 rubles on food, which included kids’ breakfasts and lunches at school and parents’ lunches in the cafeteria at their workplace.
Canteens provided very affordable meals. Lunch in a students’ canteen at a university – soup with meat, second course with meat, and a compote or tea with pirozhok [pastry with filling. RV] – cost about 2 rubles. There always was free bread on the tables, so some students who were living on their own would buy tea for 20 kopecks and eat as much bread as they were pleased with that tea right before stipend payment days. And by the way, salt, pepper, and mustard were also always on the tables there.
I entered the university in 1955, when the base student stipend was 290 rubles; 390 for A and B students. Out-of-town students lived in dormitories and payed 40 a month for it. The other 250 rubles (7,500 rubles today) was quite enough to lead a “normal student life” in the city for a month. Usually, out-of-town students didn’t receive monetary help from their families back home, and they didn’t have jobs.
A few words about grocery stores in Leningrad at the time.
The fish department was the one with the best variety: there were large bowls in refrigerated glass cases with several kinds of red and black caviar. A full assortment of “white fish” [sturgeon, sterlet, stellate sturgeon, beluga, halibut. RV] both cold and heat smoked, “red fish” with several kinds of salmon, smoked eels and marinated Arctic lamprey, herring in jars and barrels.
Live fish from local rivers and lakes was transported in immediately after it was caught in special tankers that read “live fish” on the side. There was no frozen fish at all; it only appeared in the beginning of 60s. There was abundance of canned fish: gobies in tomato sauce, ever-present crab for 4 rubles a can, and the favorite of all students who lived in dorms – cod liver.
Beef and mutton were sold in four price categories depending on the cut. Deli departments were filled with languets [flank steaks, thin long steak. RV], entrecôtes, schnitzels, escalopes, and the like. Sausages were available in staggering variety, in a much richer assortment compared to what we have today; I still remember the taste. In Finland today we can sometimes find sausage that tastes somewhat like that one did.
This crab promotion poster was released before WWII, but canned crabmeat was plentiful in soviet stores throughout the fifties too. [The poster reads, “It’s high time everyone tasted tender and delicious crabmeat.” RV]
I should note that the taste of sausage changed significantly in the 60s, when Khrushchev insisted on adding soy to it. The Baltic republics were the only ones that ignored the directive, and one could get some nice tasty sausages there well into the 70s. Bananas, pineapples, mangoes, pomegranates, and oranges were offered for sale in large stores year-round. Our family usually bought fruit and veggies on the farmers’ markets, where we paid a little more for better assortment and quality.
This is how Soviet stores looked like in 1953; it changed after 1960.
Declassified reports of the Central Statistics Administration of the USSR have data on the food purchases of working families by region:
Butter:
National average: 5.5 kilos per person per year; Leningrad: 10.8 kilos per person per year; Moscow: 8.7 kilos; Bryansk region: 1.7 kilos; Lipetsk region: 2.2 kilos. In all other regions it was consistently over 3 kilos per person per year.
Similar situation with sausage:
National average: 13 kilos per person a year; Leningrad: 24.4 kilos per person a year; Moscow: 28.7 kilos; Bryansk region: 4.4 kilos; Lipetsk region: 4.4 kilos. In all other regions it was consistently over 7 kilos.
Working families’ wages were no different in Moscow and Leningrad from the national average, which was 7,000 rubles per family member. In 1957 I had a chance to visit a few towns on the Volga River: Rybinsk, Kostroma, and Yaroslavl. The variety of groceries there was not as wide as in Leningrad, but butter and sausage were freely available; as for fish and fish products, these were even more abundant than in Leningrad. Thus, at least in 1950 – 1959, the population of the Soviet Union was well supplied with food.
Beginning in 1960, the food supply situation deteriorated drastically; however, it was not as noticeable in Leningrad. I can only remember shortages of canned corn, imported fruit, and what’s a lot more significant – flour. Whenever flour was available at the store, there would be huge lines, and the sales were limited to two kilos per person. These were the first lines I saw in Leningrad since the end of the 40s. In smaller towns, according to my relatives and acquaintances, in addition to flour there was a scarce supply of butter, meats, sausage, fish (with exception of some canned fish), eggs, cereals, and pasta. The assortment of breads and pastries went down significantly. I personally saw the empty shelves of Smolensk grocery stores in 1964.
(continue reading part 4)
By Prof. Valeriy Antonovich Torgashev
as published on nstarikov.ru
Russian source:
https://nstarikov.ru/vspominaya-sssr-23233
Link active as of November 27, 2022. [RV]