Home/ Search/ 2022/ Issue 1 (74)

Issue 1 (74)

THE POLICY OF REMUNERATION OF THE RSFSR’S URBAN DWELLERS IN 1946–1953: A MOBILIZATION TOOL AND MATERIAL INEQUALITY FACTOR
Year	2022	Number	1(74)
Pages	72-81	Type	scientific article
UDC	94(470)“1946/1953”:338	BBK	63.3(2)63+65.03(2)63
Authors	Klinova Marina A.	Topic	INCOME INEQUALITY OF RUSSIA’S POPULATION IN THE 20TH CENTURY
Summary	The paper analyzes the policy of remuneration of various professional groups of the urban society of the RSFSR in 1946–1953 to determine the specifics and extent of wage differentiation, its conditionality with the tasks of the mobilization strategy of the state. The policy of remuneration of urban dwellers was characterized by a high level of differentiation. In accordance with the main link principle, in urban society “priority” groups were identified, in relation to which positive material incentives (salary increases, payments, etc.) were more actively applied. In relation to the rest of the townspeople, methods of negative financial incentives were more widely used (increasing production rates, reducing piece rates). Differentiated wage policy was a tool for solving state tasks: securing personnel in priority industries, increasing labor productivity, stimulating scientific research, etc. On the other hand, it contributed to the material polarization of Soviet society. In assessing the scale of material inequality, the system of estimating coordinates plays a decisive role. Contemporaries noted a significant level of material stratification of Soviet society, interpreting it as a violation of the principle of socialist distribution. According to T. Piketty, F. Novokmet and G. Zucman, the coefficient of material inequality in the post-war USSR was quite low (in comparison with the pre-revolutionary, post-Soviet, foreign levels), but on the scale of the Soviet period, this indicator reached its maximum precisely in the post-war years.
Keywords	wages, inequality, urban population, 1946‒1953, Soviet mobilization
References	Dunham V. In Stalin’s Тime: Middle class Values in Soviet Fiction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976. (in English). Dva vzglyada iz-za rubezha [Two views from abroad]. Moscow: Politizdat Publ., 1990. (in Russ.). Filzer D. Sovetskiye rabochiye i pozdniy stalinizm. Rabochiy klass i vosstanovleniye stalinskoy sistemy posle okonchaniya Vtoroy mirovoy voyny [Soviet Workers and Late Stalinism: Labour and the Restoration of the Stalinist System after World War II]. Moscow: Prezidentskiy tsentr B. N. Yel’tsina Publ., 2011. (in Russ.). Kalinina O. N. [Food and manufactured goods supply of the party nomenclature in West Siberia (middle of 1940s — the beginning of the 1950s)]. Irkutskiy istoriko-ekonomicheskiy yezhegodnik [Irkutsk Historical and Economic Yearbook]. Irkutsk: Baykal’skiy gosudarstvennyy universitet ekonomiki i prava Publ., 2014, pp. 200–208. (in Russ.). Kalinina O. N. [Social status and material maintenance of the regional party and Soviet nomenclature of the West Siberia in 1953–1964]. Irkutskiy istoriko-ekonomicheskiy yezhegodnik [Irkutsk Historical and Economic Yearbook]. Irkutsk: Baykal’skiy gosudarstvennyy universitet ekonomiki i prava Publ., 2015, pp. 221–229. (in Russ.). Kapeliushnikov R. I. [Piketty’s team on inequality in Russia: a collection of statistical artifacts]. Voprosy ekonomiki [Questions of Economics], 2020, no. 4, pp. 67–106. DOI: 10.32609/0042-8736-2020-4-67-106 (in Russ.). Klinova M. A. [Changes in the industrial output standards and the piece wage system of soviet industrial enterprises (1946–1949)]. Dokument. Arkhiv. Istoriya. Sovremennost’ [Document. Archive. History. Modernity], 2021, iss. 21, pp. 133–145. (in Russ.). Klinova M. A. Gosudarstvennoye regulirovaniye ekonomicheskikh strategiy gorodskogo naseleniya RSFSR v pervoye poslevoyennoye desyatiletiye [State regulation of the economic strategies of the urban population of the RSFSR in the first post-war decade]. Ekaterinburg: UMTs UPI Publ., 2019. (in Russ.). Konovalov A. B. [Evolution of the system of nomenklatura benefits and privileges during the period of “late Stalinism” (1945–1953)]. Nomenklatura i nomenklaturnaya organizatsiya vlasti v Rossii XX veka [Nomenklatura and nomenklatura organization of power in the 20th century Russia]. Perm: PGTU Publ., 2004, pp. 161–179. (in Russ.). Konovalov A. B. [Modernization of the system of nomenklatura benefits and privileges: the experience of the Khrushchev reforms (1953–1964)]. Istoricheskiy yezhegodnik. 2007 [Historical Yearbook. 2007]. Novosibirsk: Ripel Publ., 2007, pp. 6–20. (in Russ.). Kuznetsova N. V. [Prices and wages dynamics in the Lower Volga region amid the food crisis in 1946–1947]. Vestnik Volgogradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Serija 4. Istorija. Regionovedenie. Mezhdunarodnye otnoshenija [Science journal of Volgograd state university. History. Area Studies. International Relations], 2012, no. 1 (21), pp. 59–66. (in Russ.). Mamyachenkov V. N. [Monetary incomes of workers of party bodies of the Sverdlovsk region in the 1950s]. Vestnik Kostromskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta im. N. A. Nekrasova [Bulletin of the Kostroma State University named after N. A. Nekrasov], 2009, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 242–245. (in Russ.). Mamyachenkov V. N. Material’nyye usloviya zhizni semey promyshlennykh rabochikh Sverdlovskoy oblasti v 1953–1964 godakh: ot Stalina do Brezhneva: istoriko-ekonomicheskoye issledovaniye [Material conditions of life of families of industrial workers in the Sverdlovsk region in 1953–1964: from Stalin to Brezhnev: a historical and economic research]. Ekaterinburg: AMB Publ., 2010. (in Russ.). Maslova O. L., Bagrova E. V. [Philosophy and evolution of inequality: Kuznets theory, criticism of Thomas Piketty, application of these theories for Russia]. Integrirovannyye modeli sovremennykh informatsionnykh sistem v usloviyakh tsifrovizatsii ekonomiki Rossii [Integrated models of modern information systems in the digitalization of the Russian economy]. Orel: OGUEiT Publ., 2021, pp. 191–194. (in Russ.). Novokmet F., Piketty Т., Zucman G. From Soviets to Oligarchs: Inequality and Property in Russia 1905–2016. WID.world WORKING PAPER SERIES, no. 2017/09. (in English). Poberezhnikov I. V. [Modernization in the history of Russia: trends and investigation problems]. Ural’skij istoriceskij vestnik [Ural Historical Journal], 2017, no. 4 (57), pp. 36–45. (in Russ.). Popov V. P. Ekonomicheskaya politika sovetskogo gosudarstva. 1946–1953 gg. [Economic policy of the Soviet state. 1946–1953]. Moscow; Tambov: Izd-vo TGTU Publ., 2000. (in Russ.). Rogovin V. Z. Stalinskiy neonep [Stalin’s neo-nep]. Moscow: B. i., 1994. (in Russ.). Sedov V. V. Mobilizatsionnaya ekonomika: sovetskaya model’ [Mobilization economy: Soviet model]. Chelyabinsk: ChelGU Publ., 2003. (in Russ.). Zhirnov E. [“We used the dacha, food, servants for free”]. Kommersant Vlast’ [Kommersant Power], no. 47, 02.12.2002. Available at: https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/353841 (accessed: 15.08.2021). (in Russ.). Zubkova E. Yu. Poslevoyennoye sovetskoye obshchestvo: politika i povsednevnost’. 1945–1953 [Post-war Soviet society: politics and everyday life. 1945–1953]. Moscow: ROSSPEN Publ., 1999. (in Russ.).
Download in PDF