Wages & Living Standards

1. Wages & Living Standards Deborah, Emma & Andrea

2. Introduction 1930s: the central planning system never managed to improve the living standards Lack of consumer goods Food was rationed M. Fainsod: “Cases where wages were not paid on time were on increase”

3. First Five Year Plan Workers suffered badly Leningrad and Moscow: meat, milk and fruit consumption declined by two-thirds Cities and towns growing at a rate of 200,000 every month Towns: no paved roads and appalling sanitary arrangements Life: brutish, violent and crime-ridden

4. Second Five Year Plan 1935 Stalin: “Life has become better, comrades, life has become more joyous” Housing remained abysmal Shortage of water, shops and catering facilities Transportation was still appalling

5. Improvements Some expansion of shops Some industrial enterprises set up their own shops Peasants supplied towns with milk, eggs, vegetables from their private plots

6. Peasant’s Reaction M. Fainsod: “Heat was rarely provided in the barracks”“Lack of care for the [workers] resulted in fully justified dissatisfaction and bitterness M. Lewin: “Falling standards of living and the proliferation of speculators suggest the depths of the tensions and hardship”