Soviet Citizens’ Wages and Their Purchasing Power in 1940–1955 (Sverdlovsk Region)

Abstract

Material living conditions of the Soviet population during World War II and in the postwar years have been studied by a large number of scholars. At the same time, few publications deal with wages as a socio-economic category. This article aimed to examine the level, dynamics, and purchasing power of Soviet citizens’ wages in 1940–1950, taking the Sverdlovsk Region as an example. The chosen topic is relevant, since payment for work is, in the majority of cases, the most important incentive to human activity. The period under consideration was extremely eventful for the Soviet Union, encompassing the Great Patriotic War and the postwar reconstruction. From 1940 up to the early 1960s, the number of scholarly publications on the problematic aspects of wages was rather limited. Importantly, this paper claims that the analysis of wages is unproductive without taking into account the specifics of the realities of Soviet everyday life, which affected consumption figures. It is noted that during the war, the state ration prices remained practically unchanged, while commercial prices rose more than tenfold, which made the goods virtually inaccessible to the vast majority of consumers. The author concludes that the prewar level of consumption for most citizens of the USSR was achieved by the early 1950s.