Soviet life in the 30s and 50s. Everyday. Education and science

Contrary to the horror stories that are now being written about that time, it was in the pre-war years that there was a symphony of power and people that is not often found in life. The people, inspired by the great idea of building the first just society in the history of mankind without oppressors and the oppressed, showed miracles of heroism and selflessness. And the state in those years, now portrayed by our liberal historians and publicists as a monstrous repressive machine, responded to the people by taking care of them.

Free medicine and education, sanatoriums and rest houses, pioneer camps, kindergartens, libraries, circles became a mass phenomenon and were available to everyone. It is no coincidence that during the war, according to the recollections of eyewitnesses, people dreamed of only one thing: that everything should become as it was before the war.

Here is what, for example, the US Ambassador wrote about that time in 1937-1938. Joseph E. Davis:

“I visited five cities with a group of American journalists, where I inspected the largest enterprises: a tractor plant (12 thousand workers), an electric motor plant (38 thousand workers), Dneproges, an aluminum plant (3 thousand workers), which is considered the largest in the world, Zaporizhstal (35 thousand workers), a hospital (18 doctors and 120 nurses), nurseries and kindergartens, the Rostselmash plant (16 thousand workers), the Palace of Pioneers (a building with 280 rooms for 320 teachers and 27 thousand children). The last of these institutions is one of the most interesting developments in the Soviet Union. Such palaces are being erected in all major cities and are intended to put into practice the Stalinist slogan about children as the most valuable asset of the country. Here, children reveal and develop their talents ... "

And everyone was sure that his talent would not wither and would not go to waste, that he had every opportunity to fulfill any dream in all spheres of life. The doors of the secondary and high school. Social elevators worked at full capacity, elevating yesterday's workers and peasants to the heights of power, opening before them the horizons of science, the wisdom of technology, the stages of the stage. "In the everyday life of great construction projects" a new country, unprecedented in the world, was rising - "the country of heroes, the country of dreamers, the country of scientists."

And in order to destroy any possibility of exploiting a person - whether it be a private trader or the state - the first decrees in the USSR introduced an eight-hour working day. In addition, a six-hour working day was established for adolescents, the work of children under 14 years of age was prohibited, labor protection was established, and production training for young people was introduced at the expense of the state. While the United States and Western countries were suffocating in the grip of the Great Depression, in the Soviet Union in 1936, 5 million workers had a six-hour or more reduced working day, almost 9% of industrial workers took a day off after four days of work, 10% of workers, employed in continuous production, after three eight-hour working days received two days off.

The wages of workers and employees, as well as the personal incomes of collective farmers, more than doubled. Adults, probably, no longer remember, and young people do not even know that in the Great Patriotic war some collective farmers donated to the front planes and tanks built with personal savings, which they managed to accumulate in the not so long time that had passed since the "criminal" collectivization. How did they do it?

The fact is that the number of mandatory workdays for "free slaves" in the thirties was 60-100 (depending on the region). After that, the collective farmer could work for himself - on his plot or in a production cooperative, of which there were a huge number throughout the USSR. As the creator of the Russian Project website, publicist Pavel Krasnov, writes, “... In Stalinist USSR those wishing to show personal initiative had every opportunity to do so in the cooperative movement. It was impossible only to use hired labor, contractual cooperative - as much as you like.

There was a powerful cooperative movement in the country, almost 2 million people constantly worked in cooperatives, who produced 6% of the gross industrial output of the USSR: 40% of all furniture, 70% of all metal utensils, 35% of knitwear, almost 100% of toys.

In addition, there were 100 cooperative design bureaus, 22 experimental laboratories, and two research institutes in the country. This does not include part-time cooperative rural artels. Up to 30 million people worked in them in the 1930s.

It was possible to engage in individual work - for example, to have your own darkroom, paying taxes on it, doctors could have a private practice, and so on. The cooperatives usually involved high-class professionals in their field, organized in efficient structures, which explains their high contribution to the production of the USSR.

All this was liquidated by Khrushchev at an accelerated pace from the age of 56 - the property of cooperatives and private entrepreneurs was confiscated, even personal subsidiary plots and private livestock.

We add that at the same time, in 1956, the number of mandatory workdays was increased to three hundred. The results were not long in coming - the first problems with the products immediately appeared.

In the thirties, piecework wages were also widely used. Additional bonuses were practiced for the safety of mechanisms, savings in electricity, fuel, raw materials, and materials. Bonuses were introduced for overfulfillment of the plan, cost reduction, and production of higher quality products. A well-thought-out system of training qualified workers in industry and agriculture was carried out. During the years of the second five-year plan alone, about 6 million people were trained instead of the 5 million envisaged by the plan.

Finally, in the USSR, for the first time in the world, unemployment was eliminated - the most difficult and insoluble social problem under the conditions of market capitalism. The right to work enshrined in the Constitution of the USSR has become real for everyone. Already in 1930, during the first five-year plan, labor exchanges ceased to exist.

Along with the industrialization of the country, with the construction of new plants and factories, housing construction was also carried out. State and cooperative enterprises and organizations, collective farms and the population put into operation 67.3 million square meters of usable dwelling space in the second five-year plan. With the help of the state and collective farms, rural workers built 800,000 houses.

Investment investments by state and cooperative organizations in housing construction, together with individual investments, increased by 1.8 times compared with the first five-year plan. Apartments, as we remember, were provided free of charge at the lowest rent in the world. And, probably, few people know that during the second five-year plan, almost as much money was invested in housing, communal and cultural construction, in health care in the rapidly developing Soviet Union as in heavy industry.

In 1935, the best subway in the world in terms of technical equipment and decoration was put into operation. In the summer of 1937, the Moscow-Volga canal was put into operation, which solved the problem of the capital's water supply and improved its transport links.

In the 1930s, not only did dozens of new cities grow in the country, but water supply was built in 42 cities, sewerage was built in 38 cities, a transport network developed, new tram lines were launched, the bus fleet expanded, and a trolleybus began to be introduced.

During the years of the pre-war five-year plans in the country, for the first time in world practice, social forms of popular consumption, which, in addition to wages, each soviet family. Funds from them went to the construction and maintenance of housing, cultural and community facilities, free education and medical care, various pensions and benefits. Three times, in comparison with the first five-year plan, spending on social security and social insurance has increased.

The network of sanatoriums and rest houses expanded rapidly, vouchers to which, purchased with social insurance funds, were distributed by trade unions among workers and employees free of charge or on preferential terms. During the second five-year plan alone, 8.4 million people rested and received medical treatment in rest homes and sanatoriums, and the cost of maintaining children in nurseries and kindergartens increased 10.7 times compared to the first five-year plan. The average life expectancy has risen.

Such a state could not but be perceived by the people as their own, national, native, for which it is not a pity to give their lives, for which one wants to perform feats ... As the embodiment of that revolutionary dream of a promised country, where the great idea of people's happiness was visibly, before our eyes embodied in life. Stalin’s words “Life has become better, life has become more fun” in perestroika and post-perestroika years, it is customary to scoff, but they reflected real changes in the social and economic life of Soviet society.

These changes could not go unnoticed in the West either. We have already become accustomed to the fact that one cannot trust Soviet propaganda, that the truth about how things are in our country is only spoken in the West. Well, let's see how the capitalists assessed the successes of the Soviet state.

Thus, Gibbson Jarvey, chairman of United Dominion Bank, stated in October 1932:

“I want to make it clear that I am not a communist or a Bolshevik, I am a definite capitalist and individualist… Russia is moving forward while too many of our factories are idle and about 3 million of our people are desperately looking for work. The five-year plan was ridiculed and predicted to fail. But you can consider it beyond doubt that, under the terms of the five-year plan, more has been done than planned.

... In all the industrial cities that I have visited, new districts are emerging, built according to a certain plan, with wide streets, decorated with trees and squares, with houses of the most modern type, schools, hospitals, workers' clubs and the inevitable nurseries and kindergartens where the children of working mothers are cared for...

Do not try to underestimate the Russian plans and do not make the mistake of hoping that the Soviet government may fail... Today's Russia is a country with a soul and an ideal. Russia is a country of amazing activity. I believe that Russia's aspirations are healthy... Perhaps the most important thing is that all the youth and workers in Russia have one thing that is unfortunately lacking today in the capitalist countries, namely, hope.

And here is what the Forward magazine (England) wrote in the same 1932:

“The huge work that is going on in the USSR is striking. New factories, new schools, new cinemas, new clubs, new huge houses - new buildings everywhere. Many of them have already been completed, others are still surrounded by forests. It is difficult to tell the English reader what has been done in the last two years and what is being done next. You have to see it all in order to believe it.

Our own achievements, which we achieved during the war, are nothing compared to what is being done in the USSR. Americans admit that even during the period of the most rapid creative fever in western states there was nothing like the current feverish creative activity in the USSR. Over the past two years, so many changes have taken place in the USSR that you refuse to even imagine what will happen in this country in another 10 years.

Get out of your head the fantastic horror stories told by the English newspapers, which lie so stubbornly and absurdly about the USSR. Also, throw out of your mind all those half-truths and impressions based on misunderstanding, which are set in motion by amateurish intellectuals who patronizingly look at the USSR through the eyes of the middle class, but who have not the slightest idea of what is happening there: the USSR is building a new society on healthy people. basics.

In order to achieve this goal, one must take risks, one must work with enthusiasm, with such energy as the world has never known before, one must struggle with the enormous difficulties that are inevitable when trying to build socialism in a vast country isolated from the rest of the world. Visiting this country for the second time in two years, I got the impression that it is on the path of lasting progress, plans and builds, and all this on a scale that is a clear challenge to the hostile capitalist world.

The forward was echoed by the American "Nation":

“The four years of the five-year plan have brought with them truly remarkable achievements. Soviet Union worked with wartime intensity on the creative task of building a basic life. The face of the country is literally changing beyond recognition: this is true of Moscow with its hundreds of newly paved streets and squares, new buildings, new suburbs and a cordon of new factories on its outskirts. This is also true of smaller cities.

New cities arose in the steppes and deserts, at least 50 cities with a population of 50 to 250 thousand people. All of them have emerged in the last four years, each of them is the center of a new enterprise or a number of enterprises built to develop domestic resources. Hundreds of new power plants and a number of giants, like Dneprostroy, are constantly implementing Lenin's formula: "Socialism is Soviet authority plus electrification.

The Soviet Union organized the mass production of an infinite number of items that Russia had never produced before: tractors, combine harvesters, high-quality steels, synthetic rubber, ball bearings, powerful diesel engines, 50 thousand kilowatt turbines, telephone equipment, electric mining machines, airplanes , cars, bicycles and several hundred new types of machines.

For the first time in history, Russia mines aluminum, magnesite, apatite, iodine, potash and many other valuable products. The guiding points of the Soviet plains are no longer crosses and church domes, but grain elevators and silos. Collective farms are building houses, stables, pigsties. Electricity penetrates the village, radio and newspapers have conquered it. Workers learn to work on the latest machines. The peasant boys build and maintain agricultural machines that are bigger and more complex than anything America has ever seen. Russia begins to "think in machines". Russia is rapidly moving from the age of wood to the age of iron, steel, concrete and motors.”

This is how the proud British and Americans spoke about the USSR in the 30s, envying Soviet people- to our parents.

From the book by Nelli Goreslavskaya “Joseph Stalin. The Father of Nations and His Children”, Moscow, Knizhny Mir, 2011, pages 52-58.

". The seventh chapter is devoted to the standard of living of the population in the USSR in the 30s. It was based on the work of Allen The Standard of Living in the Soviet Union, 1928-1940 Department of Economics. University of British Columbia. Vancouve r, 1997.
Translation of the 2nd chapter.

Seventh chapter.
Standard of living.

For most countries, the question of the goals of industrialization is practically not discussed, as long as its impact on raising the standard of living is obvious. In Chapter 3, we reviewed the views of Preobrazhensky and Feldmanan on the prospects economic development USSR and revealed the integral industrialization model constructed by them, in which the predominant development of heavy industry, due to general economic growth, led to an increase in the production of consumer goods. Simulation of this theoretical model shows a significant increase in consumption over the course of a decade. In other words, the fact that the Soviet government concentrated resources on the development of heavy industry did not mean at all that it was only interested in iron and steel smelting. Bukharin argued that “our economy exists for the consumer, not the consumer for the economy” (Cohen, 1980, p. 173) And if the concepts of Preobrazhensky and Feldman were put into practice, such a statement may well sound plausible.
Of course, we remember that Bukharin was shot. But did the growth of consumption as a goal also perish? historical school"totalitarianism" denies the very suggestion that Stalin could care about such a problem. In their view, Stalin's goals were his own power and greatness, not just the welfare of the working class (Tucker 1977). And consequently, heavy industry and military spending developed at the expense of popular consumption. Tucker (1977, p. 98) characterized Stalinism by quoting the eminent historian Klyuchevsky, who described the early stages of state-centric industrialization as "the state is plump - the people are sickly." In other words, Magnitogorsk was needed for tank armor and not for textile machines. And even historians, in most cases, not inclined to agree with the conclusions of the "totalitarian school" quite agree that "as it turned out, socialism and poverty are inextricably linked" (Fitzpatrick 1999, p. 4).
Of course, we are not in a position to get into Stalin's head, but we are quite capable of ascertaining the results of his policies. How did popular consumption behave during the period of industrialization? Did it rise or fall? As a rule, the answer depends on the time frame. There is little dispute that between 1950 and 1980 consumption steadily increased by 3% annually, despite massive investment in heavy industry and the arms race (US Congress 1982, pp. 72-74). During the same time, as we will see below, food consumption increased significantly and the volume of housing construction grew at a rate outpacing the growth of the urban population. The revolutionary growth in the volume of consumer goods also took place in the USSR - the number of washing machines in households increased from 21 per 100 in 1965 to 75 in 1990, the number of refrigerators increased from 11 to 92 over the same time, radios from 59 to 96, and televisions from 24 to 107 (Fernandez 1997, pp. 312, 314). For every 100 inhabitants in 1990, there were 16 telephones - which is significantly less than in Western Europe or Japan, where their number reached 50-70, but at the same time significantly more than in third world countries like Argentina (8), Brazil (1) , Iraq (3) or Turkey (6) (Dogan 1995, pp. 367-69). The rapid growth of consumption in the USSR is in full agreement with the forecasts of Feldman and Preobrazhensky.
Accordingly, the main and most problematic issue remains the question of what happened to consumption in the 1930s. Most of the research proceeds from the fact that during the first five years it either fell or, at best, remained unchanged. The basis for such estimates is Bergson's analysis of national income and Chapman's calculation of real income. Bergson (1961, p. 251) describes the dynamics of per capita consumption as "not impressive". "Estimated at 1937 adjusted prices" - and this is his favorite criterion - "per capita consumption in 1937 was 3% lower than in 1928." Moreover, “growth researchers would like to know whether industrialization at the Soviet pace can be compatible with a gradual increase in the level of consumption. If we start from Soviet realities, the answer will be negative” (Bergson, 1961, p. 257). Chapman (1963, p. 165) described the history of real incomes as "extremely pale". In her estimation, at best, one can speak of "a 6% drop in the purchasing power of urban households and a significant drop in the purchasing power of rural households between 1928 and 1937" (Chapman 1963. p. 170). These conclusions have been accepted by a great many economists and historians.
In this chapter, we will show that typical pessimism is unfounded. It is true that growth was extremely small during the first five-year period and the famine of 1932-33 hit living standards hard. But the second half of the 1930s is characterized by significantly higher per capita consumption than the 20s. The situation of the 1950-80s, therefore, is quite applicable to the 30s. However, rural population did not particularly benefit from this growth - by the end of the 30s its standard of living only reached the pre-collectivization level, but the urban population, including those millions who moved to the cities from the villages at that time, appreciated a significant increase in consumption. And as soon as the percentage of city dwellers rose from 20% in 1928 to 30% in 1939, although the growth was far from universal, it was nonetheless very significant. Of course, the growth was not given in vain - the workers were forced to pay for it by increasing the length of the working day, which, by the way, is directly required by Preobrazhensky's strategy, but the growth in material support was very significant.
There are several approaches to assessing the standard of living. The simplest follows from the need for food. Was enough food produced in the USSR in the 1930s? This question is asked both by citing the famine of 1932-33 as an example, and by describing the “harsh Soviet reality” more broadly.
To assess world food production, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) annually publishes a consolidated report on the food situation of all countries of the world. Publications began in the 1960s, but I have used the underlying methodology to assess Russia's food situation since 1895. The FAO analyzes a wide range of nutrients, but I limited myself to counting only the most basic ones - that is, calories. The resulting Russian food balance will be able to illustrate changes in the calorie balance and compare it with the global situation.
The food balance is based on agricultural statistics on food production and on the basis of indicators of industrial production of a number of goods - vegetable oil, sugar, etc. . For the USSR, I tracked 12 food groups responsible for the majority of calories consumed: grains (including legumes), potatoes, sugar, vegetables, beer, vodka, meat, milk, eggs, vegetable oil, fish, and butter. The availability of each food group was calculated based on total production minus grain and feed stocks, exports, and losses during storage and transportation. Food groups were recalculated in calories, taking into account the coefficient reflecting the costs of processing agricultural products into consumer products and the caloric value of the latter.
Our estimates are, of course, far from accurate, but they give a general idea of the food situation. It should also be noted that in relation to the USSR, the question of possible manipulations of statistics for political purposes always arises. We have enjoyed the most modern research— by Wheatcroft (1990a) and Davis, Harrison and Wheatcroft (1994, pp. 114-16). For example, our data on grain is based on previously classified data, which paints a much less rosy picture compared to official statistics. Other factors such as transport and storage losses were calculated based on the work of Yasny (1949).
Chart 7.1 paints a picture of calorie availability from 1895 to 1989. The general growth trend is undeniable, but several important periods should be distinguished.
The first period 1895 - 1910. Per capita in Russia at this time accounts for about 2,100 calories, which is quite typical for most poor countries. At this level, the danger of starvation inevitably remains. The drop in food availability in 1906-07 is impressive, which quite possibly had an impact on the political instability in the country.
The next period falls on the segment immediately preceding the First World War and lasting until the mature NEP. During this period, the number of calories available to a resident rose to 2,500 per day. Unfortunately, there is practically no information on food production during civil war and consequently it is extremely difficult to assess the causes of the famine of 1921. And although the number of years available for our generalization is very small and, therefore, it is extremely risky, nevertheless it turns out that, based on our evaluation criteria, Russian Agriculture functioned more efficiently in the pre-war period and during the NEP than in the first decade of the twentieth century (it seems to us that completely different factors played a role in this, if the pre-war period was characterized by a general rise in agriculture, then during the NEP, grain exports fell sharply - which extremely favorably reflected in the balance of calories consumed - approx. per.).
The third period falls on the first five-year plan (1929-32), in which the availability of calories collapsed to the level of 1895. There are several reasons for such a disaster. In 1929-31, the state increased grain withdrawals to secure its exports, which in turn ensured the purchase of machinery and equipment from abroad (Davis, Harrison, Wheatcroft, 1994, pp. 290, 316). Of course, exports have reduced the food resources available to the population. Beginning in 1930, as collectivization accelerated, agricultural production declined. At the same time, the food issue is complicated by the slaughter of horses. Since each horse consumes two people's grain, the loss of 15 million horses between 1929 and 1933 freed up enough grain to feed 30 million people. In 1932, the decline in agricultural production turned out to be so massive that all sources of calories without exception suffered. This coincided with the famine but was not its main cause. The availability of calories per capita - 2022 per day, was a little less than in 1929 (2030) or in many pre-war years, but there was no famine. Hunger, as Sen (1981) has shown, is rarely the result of a fall in agricultural production, but is most often due to price shocks or government intervention. In a market economy, the cause is usually a sharp rise in food prices while income remains unchanged. In the USSR, the cause was the conflict between the peasantry and the state. While the peasants slaughtered their livestock and did not produce crops, the state continued to seize grain and the peasants began to starve.
The fourth period began in 1933 and continued until the 1950s. The decline in agricultural production was reversed during the second five-year plan, and by the end of the 1930s, the situation improved significantly, reaching 2900 calories per day. This race was greater than in the South Asian countries during the so-called. "green revolution". For example, in India, calorie availability increased from 1991 in 1961-63 to 2229 in 1988-90. In Pakistan, respectively, from 1802 to 2280. The results of Indonesia are considered among the most impressive - from 1816 calories per day, consumption increased to 2605 (FAO 1991, vol. 45, p. 238). Of course, during the Second World War in the USSR there was a desperate food situation, but in the 1950s, the growth trend characteristic of the late 30s was fully restored.
The last period of the food history of the USSR lasted from the 1950s to the 1980s. Per capita consumption rose to about 3,400 calories per day by the mid-1970s and stabilized at that level. It should be noted that since the 1960s, the availability of calories in the USSR has reached the average European level. The latter increased from 3088 calories in 1961-63 to 3452 in 1988-90 (FAO 1991, vol. 45, p. 238).
Economic development implies an increase in food consumption. Vogel (1991, p. 45) calculates the average caloric availability for a Frenchman in 1785 at 2290, for an Englishman in 1790 as 2700. Frenchman's consumption late XVIII century was similar to the consumption of a modern South African or a Russian in the early twentieth century (the higher level of food consumption of an Englishman in the late eighteenth century reflects the agrarian revolution that took place, which in turn became the basis of the industrial revolution). In the second half of the twentieth century, calorie consumption in Western Europe increased to 3400 and the USSR caught up with Europe in this indicator. The agrarian development of the second half of the 1930s served as an important step along this path. Thus, if we take as a criterion the amount of calories available to the inhabitant, then the standard of living increased during the 1930s.

Soviet Russia of the pre-war era is a unique material for the study of culture, life and Everyday life ordinary people. Especially clearly this routine can be observed in Moscow, as in the capital of this vast country, and therefore the standard for all other cities. To begin with, it is worth making out who these Muscovites of the 30s were.

After forced collectivization and the beginning of the accelerated industrialization of the country, crowds of yesterday's peasants poured into the cities. These peasants brought with them to the cities their culture, which did not get along well in the urban environment. The townspeople, that small stratum that managed to survive in the revolutionary hurricane, remained in the minority in the face of new settlers. Of course, these newly minted proletarians were not very cultured.

Density and crowding in Moscow was appalling. But this did not prevent more and more new waves of people from arriving in the city. Due to them, the population of Moscow quickly grew to 4137 thousand in 1939. The influx of marginal elements into the cities brought about an increase in crime that official propaganda usually kept silent about. Rampant hooliganism and drunkenness, I think, would make it possible to doubt the moral qualities of the proletarians, which were attributed to them by theorists of Marxism-Leninism.

However, not only increased crime is characterized by the period of the 30s, but also positive aspects- such as increasing the level of literacy among the population, increasing the number of hospitals, opening new theaters, museums for the general public. Since 1939, permanent television broadcasting has been organized. However, all this was leveled against the background of a general decline in the standard of living in Moscow and other cities in the prewar years.

Life was extremely harsh and unassuming. In many houses there was no heating and running water, due to its poor maintenance. In the 1930s, a food distribution rationing system operated in Moscow and throughout the country. Huge lines for food were a common sight in Moscow at the time.

In addition, the 30s were the height of Stalinist repressions. People were afraid to speak the truth openly, because in everything, even in petty misdeeds, the Soviet terror machine saw political overtones, "a threat to socialist society."

However, at the same time, the work of such writers as Bulgakov, Akhmatova falls. At the same time, official propaganda painted images of a happy, optimistic life.

Life in the 30s in the Union is easy to imagine from films and the memories of relatives. It is clear that in the country then everything was very poor for the most part. But at the same time there was a period of construction, enthusiasm, recovery from the post-revolutionary devastation ....
What was life like in the 1930s in other countries? Was it that much different?

1937, USA. House in the slums. Everything is very poor, but there are newspaper wallpapers on the walls and even a curtain made of figuratively cut newspaper.