Poverty in the Soviet Union: The Life-styles of the Underprivileged in Recent Years

Description

The 1986 book deals with the continuing problem of poverty in Soviet society, a problem which the Revolution of 1917 was supposed to solve in a planned and expeditious manner. The topic is important both because it involves large numbers of people, and because it illustrates a major failing of Marxism-Leninism in practice. The book attempts to analyse Soviet poverty both from Soviet and western sources: the former are very limited, because discussion of poverty in the USSR falls under a strict censorship ban. This is one of the reasons why it has been so sadly neglected by western observers. The analysis concerns itself with most of the common problems of poverty and under-privilege in an industrialised society. Exclusion from the political process, and the particular social implications of the constitutional status of labour as both a right and a duty, are examined in an account that emphasises life-style and social problems, rather than merely the content of the wage-packet. [Chapter 7 is missing (pp148-175)] Mervyn Matthews, translator, writer and retired academic, is the author of a number of books about Russia. Cover By the same author Title Page Copyright Dedication Contents Preface Part I 1. Is There Poverty in the Soviet Union? Living standards from Lenin to Brezhnev Poverty and family budget studies The 'Khrushchev' minimum budgets The extent of poverty in the late seventies 2. Who Are the Soviet Poor? The state wage system Low-paid branches of the economy Manual workers and service personnel Office staff Low-paid professionals Women workers and employees Secondary earnings among the urban poor The peasants Problems of occupational prestige Family poverty Old-age pensioners as a poverty group Incapacitated and dependent persons Other poverty groups 3. Poverty Life-Styles: Food, Clothing, Shelter Patterns of food consumption The food in the shops The problem of alcoholism Clothes for the poor The housing situation in general Overcrowding, costs amenities Furniture and household durables Part II 4. Poverty Life-styles: Other Aspects A 'poverty-orientated' school? Options for youngsters at 15-plus Access to higher education Poverty and health Patterns of ill-health Medicine for the people Problems for poor patients Legal aid for the poor Constraints on time use 5. Work and Social Security Work as a right and as a duty Work as something best avoided Inability to work and social security 6. Poverty, Politics and Charity Poverty and the organs of government The poor and their elected deputies Membership of the communist Party Voluntary help and charity Poverty and dissidence CHAPTER 7 IS MISSING Postscript: Twelve Theses on Soviet Poverty Appendix I: Samizdat and Other Unofficial Documents Relating To Poverty in the Soviet Union Appendix II: The Emigre Survey Notes Bibliography Index