Title | What has become of the Russian Revolution |
Creator (LCNAF) |
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Contributor (Local) |
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Publisher | International Review |
Place of Creation (TGN) |
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Date | 1937 |
Subject.Topical (LCSH) |
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Subject.Topical (Local) |
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Subject.Geographic (TGN) |
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Genre (AAT) |
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Language | English |
Type (DCMI) |
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Original Item Extent | 63 pages; 22 cm |
Original Item Location | HN523.Y8613 1937 |
Original Item URL | http://library.uh.edu/record=b8304536~S11 |
Original Collection | Socialist and Communist Pamphlets |
Digital Collection | Socialist and Communist Pamphlets |
Digital Collection URL | http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/scpamp |
Repository | Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries |
Repository URL | http://libraries.uh.edu/branches/special-collections |
Use and Reproduction | In Copyright: This item is protected by copyright. Copyright to this resource is held by the creator or current rights holder, and the resource is provided here for educational purposes. It may not be reproduced or distributed in any format without permission of the copyright owner. Users assume full responsibility for any infringement of copyright or related rights. |
File Name | index.cpd |
Title | Image 24 |
Format (IMT) |
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File Name | uhlib_2209396_023.jpg |
Transcript | From the general point of view, the suppression of every personal initiative—or, if one wishes to put it that way, the obligation not to manifest personal initiative excepting in a single direction—brings immense losses at all gradations of the social ladder. Man has been disowned as an individual. This has been found to fail even when considered from the angle of production. Ill Wages The evolution of real wages in the Soviet Union can be easily traced by establishing how much bread could be bought by a worker receiving an average wage if he spent all his earnings in the purchase of bread. Here are the figures for the city of Moscow: Before 1925-27 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 the war Monthly wages of average worker in roubles 30 100 130 150 170 190 220 Price of a kilo (2.2 pounds) of rye bread in roubles .. 0.05 0.125 0.30 0.50 1 0.85 0.85 Monthly purchasing power of wages in rye bread (kgs.) 600 800 430 300 170 225 260 Pounds 272 363 190 136 77 102 120 Remarks: 1. The price of wheat bread has maintained itself at about double the price of rye bread. The curve obtained above would therefore remain the same if given in terms of wheat bread. But it is rye bread that is mostly- used by the Moscow worker. Rye bread should therefore serve us as a base. 2. The figures for the years of 1925-1927 (the highest point of the Nep) offer a close description of reality. At that time the prices of agricultural produce were very low—in contrast to the high prices of manufactured articles. Today both agricultural produce and manufactured articles are too expensive for the average purse. 3. When related to our norm based on the cost of bread, the living standard of the worker before the war is found to have been actually higher than today—since manufactured articles were cheaper. 4. The years 1935 and 1936 brought a greater differentiation in incomes and consequently a marked amelioration in the living standard of the privileged Soviet folk. But the average real wage—which we have taken as our base—has not increased. There is always something arbitrary about comparisons made between the living standards of different countries, as customs and conditions vary nationally. The reader may, however, find a bench mark in the following parallel. In 1925-1927 the degree of satisfaction of the needs of the Moscow worker was actually comparable to that of the Parisian worker of today (1936). Below is a table of the present Soviet "wage categories" (Moscow, 1937, in roubles). The differences in income correspond exactly to the existing differences in living standards, since, in accordance with the ar- 22 |