Consumption in Eastern Bloc

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The mainstream view of consumption in the eastern bloc is that there was no consumption.[instances needed] The pictures of people waiting in numbers of hundreds before empty stores just for a loaf of bread are known by everyone.

Does this hold to reality? Yes, and no. Consumption varies per country and time period. During the late 80s socialist economies were in state of crisis, with waiting lines becoming longer and shortages becoming more frequent, This is the period during which many of the famous pictures were taken.

Differences within the Eastern Block

There were significant differences in consumption between eastern block countries. Hungary, which had the most market oriented economy, scored high in quality of consumer goods[1] and The GDR was the wealthiest, although with frequent shortages. Where the superiority of real existing socialism lied in the low rents and cheap culture and transport; not consumer goods.

General Comparison with the West

Consumption in different countries[2]
Country Meat
(kg / year)
Potatoes and grain
(kg / year)
Cars
(People / car)
USSR 46 166 46
USA 118 66 2
West Germany 92 84 2
France 102 92 3
Italy 67 134 4
United Kingdom 70 90 4
Japan 26 126 6
Poland 70 159 27
Czechoslovakia 81 128 9
Hungary 68 134 14

The table to the right compares the consumption of an average USSR citizen to that of one in the US. However, it should be noted that there are a couple of problems with this comparison. It overlooks the quality of products, which were overall superior in the USA. Next to this, we should keep in mind the unequal economic conditions of the two countries. The USSR did not have as favourable a geographical position, and in 1917, the year of the October Revolution, the US was already much wealthier than the USSR. Likewise it did not face any attacks during WW2 as devastating as those suffered by the Soviets.

The majority of this data has been extracted from Igor Birman's "Personal consumption in the Soviet Union".[3] His bias may be important to take into account, which shows itself by statements such as "There is a sharp difference in how well (poorly) people eat in different parts of the country; a large inequity exists between those with access to 'special supply' and the ordinary citizen. But in America the unemployed and millionaires buy food in the same stores.".[4] The statements about the USSR can hardly be denied. In the USSR, the privileged indeed did manage to have their own shops for western consumer goods, but to imply that US was a more equal society in this regard is a stretch.[citation needed]

A direct comparison will distort perception because of differing cultural norms, prices, qualities, etc. Nonetheless, we can get a general idea of what the average Soviet citizen lived like. When it comes to wealth per republic: the wealthiest was Estonia, at 144%, and the poorest was Tadzhikistan at 59%[5] To summarize the conclusion on the differences between the two countries: "Over the past 20 years, the Soviets have made the most progress in 'catching up' in food, soft goods, and durables, but have retrogressed relative to the United States in housing, recreation, education, and health".[6] What is interesting is that the USSR had one of the lowest consumption levels in Eastern Bloc, yet it is not uncommon[instances needed] to hear Eastern Europeans talking today about the USSR stealing from them in the form of alleged "Soviet imperialism".

Consumption by Category of Goods

Consumption in the US and USSR[2]
Category USSR as
% of USA
Bread and cereals 60
Meat and poultry 51
Fish 8
Milk, eggs, cheese 59
Oils and fats 26
Vegetables 14
Fruit 15
Potatoes 18
Sugar and confectioneries 47
Other foods 14
Alcoholic beverages 138
Non-alcoholic beverages 7
Tobacco 30

Food

The category of soft goods includes all consumer goods other than food and durables.

Quality and Availaibility

Bread and bakery products had barely any chemicals added to them, and a mere 15% were enriched.[4] Packaging was not a focused industry, with items like pickles being sometimes sold wrapped in newspapers instead of dedicated packaging[7] Bread and sugar cubes are considered to be better on the soviet side. Bread is considered better among immigrants from the USSR to US,[8] and sugar cubes are considered better by American manufacturers.[9]

Mustard, Pepper, Salt and Black Bread (rye bread) was free in cafeterias.

All liquid drinks were sold in glass bottles be they juices, lemonades, seltzer, milk, or kefir. When you brought these glass bottles back to the store for reusing (a.k.a recycling), the stores paid a tangible amount per bottle. The same deal was with paper and metal scrap. This is very similar to the war-time efforts in the US when glass, metal and paper were given to the military in return for money and items like movie tickets. There were even organized competitions to turn in wastepaper among the Pioneers.

An earlier CIA report concerning Soviet consumption per capita from 1928 to 1955 finds that,

“Soviet levels of consumption continue to be extremely low compared with those of Western countries. No firm evidence is available, however, which would indicate serious dissatisfaction of soviet consumers” (Pg 1, provisional Intelligence Report № 114, Indexes of Household Consumption In the USSR 1928–1955).[10]

A notable example of different parts of the Eastern Bloc are in Czechoslovakia and Russia. There were queues in Czechoslovakia, but not for bread. There were queues for some kinds of fruit, better quality meat, Vegeta (a spicy salty Yugoslav mixture used for flavoring food) not after the 1952 when Rationing was ended. All basic foodstuffs were readily available in the shops and things that were queues for were (with some exceptions) not rationed, meaning that even if there was a queue, people were able to buy any amount. there were no queues for basic goods in Czechoslovakia, and people frequently had their lunch provided for at school or work; typically very caloric dishes, with a lot of butter, dumplings etc. Czechoslovakia had the 8th biggest amount of calories per capita in the world in 1988 with Hungary and Bulgaria at 5th and 4th place respectively. Food availability differed between regions of the USSR. For example, fruit consumption per capita in the Russian SFSR was 40 kg per person, while the Siberian region just consumed 12 kg. Meat consumption in Estonia was 80 kg, but just 31 kg in Uzbekistan, (data for 1975–1981).The most problematic products in terms of availability were tropical fruits like bananas, which were primarily grown in countries and climates outside of the Eastern Bloc and it is sphere of influence, with exceptions like Cuba.

One of the reasons there were food shortages in some areas (though not over-all) was because meat always was the real thing, not Pink Slime. Quality standards were stringent, and violators could be criminally prosecuted. No-one was allowed to enter factories and other areas of production without head-nets and proper aprons and gloves, sanitary food was very heavily enforced, and violations were fined.

Soft Goods

Clothing

Buying a suit, dress or coat was considered a major blow to the family budget,[11] but there was not much need for expensive suits. In the Soviet Union 70% of employees were blue-collar workers, compared to 34% in the United States.[11]

Books

In 1976 USSR produced 47147 books and brochures[12] Roughly 8000 of those were fiction, whereas official literature amounted to 14000 books. The average soviet citizen did manage to read more than the American, with the latter having produced 35141 books.

Durable goods

Durable goods were in scarce supply. At the end of 1976, two thirds of Soviet families had refrigerators, sewing machines, and washing machines, and only one-fifth had a vacuum cleaner.[13] The goods were of lesser quality. A soviet washing machine would just spin clothes, while an American counterpart operated automatically on different cycles.[13] A soviet citizen could choose between three channels on the TV, which is approximately the same as the West, until the 80s, when channel television boomed. Every tenth soviet TV was one of colour set. The USSR produced 104000 home movie cameras, 2.6m tape recorders, and 175000 pianos.[14]

All stuff was often fixed at home. Even TVs and radio were given specific instructions on how to repair them should they have issue. All technology that could be re-used, was reused, old vehicles were converted into platforms for things like construction or snow-blowers or fire-fighting.

While mediocre quality was common for some products, many other Soviet products, such as the Chaika Vacuum cleaner, the Yuryuzan refrigerator, the Astra 110 magniphone and dozens of other examples were more effective than many current appliances of the same type. Many have lasted up til today in perfect working condition, even though they are often still being used. In the past (1920s-mid ’80s), Western goods were also built to last, but due to the market-favored Planned Obsolescence, production has shifted to low-wage countries, where quality control is lowered to achieve lower prices. This all to keep us consuming. It is ironic to see the West now deluged with crappy goods, when they accused the Soviet Union of doing the same.

Household Services

See also

References

  1. The Fall: A Comparative Study of the End of Communism in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary and Poland (2000), Steven Saxonberg, p. 7
  2. 2.0 2.1 Birman 1989, p. 31
  3. Personal Consumption In The USSR (1989), Igor Birman
  4. 4.0 4.1 Birman 1989, p. 41
  5. Birman 1989, p. 22
  6. Birman 1989, p. 25
  7. Birman 1989, p. 40
  8. Birman 1989, p. 43
  9. Birman 1989, p. 36
  10. https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/DOC_0000380517.pdf
  11. 11.0 11.1 Birman 1989, p. 77
  12. Birman 1989, p. 83
  13. 13.0 13.1 Birman 1989, p. 88
  14. Birman 1989, p. 89