Food

Author(s): R. Danelyan, A. Chernyak, I. Litvinova and A. Solovyev

Source: World Affairs, Vol. 152, No. 1, The Soviet Union on the Brink: Part One (SUMMER
1989), pp. 12-19
Published by: Sage Publications, Inc.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20672200
Accessed: 05-03-2018 01:13 UTC

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12 World Affairs

Food

In the last several years, the permanent food crisis in the Soviet Union has deepened. The best
evidence of this is rationing. While in the Soviet Union food has been rationed, in one way or
another, since the late 1920s, under Gorbachev the situation has deteriorated ni three key respects:
what is rationed, where, and the size of the rations.
To the chronic shortage of meat, there has been added sugar, milk, butter, and, periodically, even
potatoes. Moscow, the showcase of the USSR, has been subjected to rationing for the first time since
the end of World War II. The size of rations has shrunk. In a rare insight into the technology of food
rationing, Moscow News supplied the following figures: 500 grams (just over one pound) of cooked
sausage per person per month, 300 grams of smoked sausage, and 400 grams of butter.
When, this past summer, the Soviet miners struck, an improvement of food supplies was at the
top of their list of demands. The strikers insisted on being supplied "in accordance with the medical
norms." According to articles in the popular press, food was the "most painful" issue to resolve.
Perhaps no shibboleth is more widespread in the West than the myth of the cheapness of food
staples in the Soviet Union. No discussion of the Soviet budget deficit in the Western media occurs
without a ritual mention of the "huge" subsidies by which the Soviet state keeps prices low and food
affordable. An exceptionally candid piece by A. S. Zaychenko, excerpted below, illuminates the
real situation. The average Soviet family spends 59 percent of its income on food-four times the
U.S. level, three times that of Japan and Western Europe, twice that of France, higher even than that
of Spain or Bulgaria. Moreover, a worker's family in today's USSR spends a greater share of its
income on food than it did in 1913.

The "average" Soviet person must work eighteen to twenty times longer than his or her American
counterpart to buy fowl, ten to fifteen times longer to buy eggs, ten to twelve times longer for meat,
two to eight times longer for bread, seven times for butter, three times for milk. As a result, to match
the quantity of U.S. consumption, the Soviet family would have to spend 71 percent of its income
on food, to match its quality, 180 percent! (As regards the quality of Soviet food, a Pravda piece
below, "Sausage Secrets," provides an ample, if gruesome, illustration.) Again, compared to 1913,
a Soviet family today must work one-and-a-half times longer to buy food.
As regards what Soviet economists call "economic accessibility" of food, Gorbachev's tenure has
been marked by a momentous development fraught with serious political implications. Prior to the
mid-1980s, private markets in the Soviet Union were functionally-although by no means actu
ally-equivalent to gourmet shops in the West: better products and faster service for higher prices.
As the articles in this section indicate, in the last few years private markets have increasingly
become the only place where minimal quality products can be gotten at all. Following the laws of
supply and demand, the market prices have skyrocketed: a kilo of beef sells for 6 to 7 rubles and
sausage for 9 rubles a kilo. Altogether, as two articles below indicate, if one is to find food, one has
to be prepared to spend 150 rubles a month.
The result is a huge class that simply cannot procure food. According to the official Soviet
figures, 57 million people, one in five Soviets, live on 70 rubles a month or less-what the Soviet
officials delicately call "underprovisioning," the line that separates, in less euphemistic terms, those
who have enough to eat from those who don't. Together with those whose income is less than 100
rubles a month, they are the Soviet poor-80 million strong. It is thus safe to assume that a third of
the Soviet population cannot afford even the meager Soviet food ration.

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 Vol. 152, No. 1 Summer 1989 13

A Soviet worker recently told an Izvestia corre

pelmeni [meat dumplings] in the stores. In the m
Are these the prices for people with our 120-ru
this observation: the consumption of meat and m
less has dropped since 1970 by between 30% and
As the Pravda commentary below puts it, "one

NOTES
1. Izvestia, 17 February 1989.
2. Pravda, 1 September 1988.

SAUSAGE SECRETS
The state inspectors also believe that substan
By R. dard sausages
Danelyan, Moscoware edible in most cases but sug
gest that they be sold at reduced prices: for ex
From Pravda, 15 September 1989.
ample, charge 1.5 to 2 rubles instead of 2.90
rubles per kilogram. Discussions on the subject
People stand in line to buy cooked sau
have been going on for more than a year. The
sage. . . . However serious the problem may
instructive response is roughly the following:
be, the people should be confident that whe
"Do you realize what you are asking? You will
they buy the sausage, they are buying precisely
sausage not spoil
a ourtasteless
entire trade. Who will be selling
and mass at re stuffed in a
cuced prices? The goods will be sold as either
skin. Unfortunately, the consumer does not have
this confidence.superior or first-grade, and the the
Consider sellers will Moscow meat
pocket the difference. This would tempt even an
combine of the Mosmyasoprom Production A
angel!"
sociation. Here, in addition to gross technica
violations in theButmanufacturing
what is preventing the sale of substandard of sausages
sausages
(more than 100 such at reduced prices in specialized
cases werestores, established in
classified asyear),
the first half of the depreciated goods?the deliberate and con
The
scious worsening of their USSR Gosstandart has allowed this. Nor
quality has become
does the
customary. This is being doneUSSR State Committee for Prices ob for the sake o
feeding the ject. TheAnd
people. question is nowthe
being considered
peopleat the are being fed
Main Trade
... twice-cooked and Price Control Administration of
sausages.
In other words,the Moscow
the City Executive
already Committee, but so prepared sau
sages, which turnfar out
no decision has
to been be
reached. defective
Who finds this and cannot
be sold, are once unsuitable?
again Could it
run be that in that case it may
through the grinder
with fresh be better to eliminate
product added. state inspection
It altogether,
is true that, afte
that, the superior and variety
there would be no problem,comes the more so out as first-clas
and the first-class, as second. the
since the time for this is ripe? Currently state
Naturally, the sec
ond remains
second because
inspection system there
is being attacked from all is no lower
sides. However, can you imagine
rating. In the first months of this year, sausages what will be
worth almost one come ofmillion
us, the consumers, if we rubles
find ourselves were thus r
processed. one-to-one with the producers of foodstuffs?
But even such long-suffering sausages are Who would protect our interests?
better than those that would have been sent to "Relax!" the management of the combine re
the store had there not been a state inspection. assures us. "We have our own services, our own
Naturally, the plant workers are displeased specialists who are responsible for the quality of
with such strict control; furthermore, the cost of output. We have production-veterinary control
such processing "stings," and also the defective department, a laboratory, and a sanitation engi
sausages are still edible; they poison no one. neer, technologists, and quality engineers. . .

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14 World Affairs

It no Precisely
secret, his
job is populatio
above all t
higher. out of
Neither tht
centive million
are relat
to
worth one
the milli
resul
fective, tralized
the bonu s
of
Naturally, its
one out
ca
trollersquantity
are tota
indications
out of th
of f
nant luga
anthrax,Obl
tri
diseases,meat,
for an
that
than 7,00
dition to
The people
dous are
amo
quently,
dozens and hun
not to me
centers which
as a resul
productson they
their f
products
thrown out.
A similar situation prevails in many areas out
side Moscow. Remember the rejoinder heard in
a store in Grodno: ". . . When the bag carriers
to the from the rayon come, the lines form." These
quality of
no one "bagpays pro
carriers" do not come here for pleasure. In
"highly profitab
their stores, they can buy meat only at coopera
appear: tive prices.
there are
higher."Why It do you hurt the is
feelings of the peas
a de
I am ants?" I asked the chairman of the oblast execu
confident, t
state tive committee.
inspection e
ucts sold"That is how
byit turned out," sighed Dmitriy
ente
relatedKonstantinovich.
to the sa
the Frequently, shortages are used as a means of of
protection
drawing people into participating in various pro
jects. Here, as well, the people of Krasnodar FR
EXCERPTS
have made a great advance. In Kansk, in order
By A. Chernyak
to achieve the extensive participation of the pop
ulation in elections for the kray soviet of
The people's deputies last April, every
people voter was
them
the sold half a kilo of
state sausages and butter.
product
are forced For the sake of a moreto trav
equitable distribution
dreds of food products,
of some enterprises have orga
kilomete
better nized a system of orders. In this case as well,
supplied, t
They take time
however, to say the least, there is no proper or
stand in
der. And if we were tothose
call things by their proper
shouts: names, this is no longer simply a convenient
"There i
nothing loophole but a huge gap throughscrap
but which ques
shopping bags,
tionable operators freely go in and out in their b
meat andtrucks. For example,
then what was the reason for sto
already Gastronom
become Store No. 17 in Donetsk to sell last us
"Well, Junewhat?
3 kilograms of meat per person to the per Yo
have enough
sonnel of the engineering office of the Main Dofor
two weeks,"
netsk Coal Administration; 2 kilograms per said
per
azan Machine
son to the capital construction administration of To
time my the city executive committee and 1 kilogram
neighb
That is
each to thehow
workers at the clothing factory? No we

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Vol. 152, No. 1 Summer 1989 15

one was able to answer this

cards for question
sugar sensibly
and soap. The
Last June, Store other
No. 2 goods
of that same
will Gastrono
remain as wel
serviced only one will have
of the sixto show their
enterprises schoo
assigned
to it and sold not is only
25 with
percent such
of the cards
meat tha
product
it received but goods
only half included in the
of 1 percent. "List.
Where did
the rest go? To the
sued
same
also
"useful"
to thosepeople.
who come to
The warped results of residents,
rary the distribution
to studymecha
or wor
Meanwhile,
nism hit particularly those going
hard low-income to
families
signment
and pensioners. Finding or for
nothing tourism
to buy in will
stateh
with public
stores, they are forced catering
to purchase meatfaciliti
at com
mission prices andwhere "calling
on the market.cards" for pu
According
the USSR State Committee for Statistics, mea
and dairy products consumption in families wit
The
a per capita income of issuing of 75
no more than indivi
ruble
monthly (in our country 43 million people liv
bearer to purchase g
on such income) has dropped, compared wit
1970, by 30 to 35
Latvia.
percent.
The new doc
ordinary card.

PRESENT YOUR DOCUMENTS IN TH

STORE
By I. Litvinova, Izvestia special
correspondent, issued
Riga as well, there will be
From Izvestia, 15 August
grams of1989.
sausages and chees
chaser. In Latvia, they decid
The issuing of individual cards, which
such an exception entitle
would be ma
the bearer to purchase goods, has
Representatives ofbeen intr
the repub
duced in Latvia. Trade have announced that th
I was issued a card at the
such house
calling management
cards is a tempora
office. Why protecting
there? The point the republic's
is that the newcon
doc
ument is not like ket.
an ordinary card,
However, which is of
the duration ex
changed when two people
as yet meet. There is bed
unknown.
lam at the photography stores in Riga: th
photograph of the owner is affixed on the card
and then stamped. Now one can visit
UNEXPECTED TURN;a store.
TH
This document STRIKE
gives IN
the right to MEZHDURE
residents of th
Latvian SSR to CONTINUES
buy durable goods and foo
stuffs included in a special list.
Report by A. Solovyev, Izve
The reaction among the Latvian population
correspondent, Mezhdurech
concerning the sale of goods based
Kemerovo Oblaston such cal
ing cards has been varied. There are those wh
From Izvestia, 14 July 1989.
support this action, which has become part o
the program for the defense of consumer inter
ests of the republic's
In his population.
report from Others con
Mezhdure
sider it unethical. They lookwrote
respondent at it as follows:
about the
talks
guests from Latvia between
are not the
refused strikers'
the right toc
Shchadov, USSR minister
make purchases in Moscow, Kiev, Sochi, Tash of
kent, and other Melnikov,
cities. Why should
first we erect
secretary of th
"fence" for our fellow
Obkom, citizens?
F. Tabeyev, first dep
the RSFSR
The preceding step, which Council of Minist
was imposing re
strictions on shipments and parcels
nyy, chairman of the by mail,
sectoria
caused a great deal of committee.
tral stress. The On
same could
the be
mornin
expected a tense
as
result a
of themeeting of the city's p
new restrictions.
It is noted, furthermore,
"activists," that
which such
tookcalling
place d
the decision
cards do not replace of the minister
in the republic rationingw

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16 World Affairs

statusofsquare,
state th
ent
food
underground sta
and
chensk. rozhki.
All of th .
rupted,
independent. Aftd
tee, which
How had
did n
workers'the
committ
mine
ended. It seemed
work, sub
been reached.
oblast, B
an
ment, which
ing was
and l
afternoon of
were 14 J
joine
started three
mines: day
Ra
spreading
andto an
Tomski
towns in the
prises Kuz
and
were already
was on
set st
u
On 13 July, the
foreman
durechensk added
twenty-m
formulated
partysocio
com
litical slogans.
What The
we
to the Soviet
ally gov
the en
them: the populat
The fort
to be supplied
range wi
of
health standard
firm rate
granted nomic
to anyinof
nationwide discu
sion supp
tion and adopt
soviet it
ree
1990. The
of striker
work
heads of large
the party
adm
the Kuzbass. In
problems,o
they have
I called
sat f
down
On 13 July,
vatorthe
ope
to end the strike.
mine, gl
durechensk mines
pressed t
held meetings
"For dir
year
question coal
under
anddis
d
oblast strike comm
feed you
The striking
ing andmok
two sports.'
mining A
cities
lovo and and
Anzhero-
now
ismaintained
coal, by
but,
gether with
for the
yourm
What occurred
tions and
those four
onedays?
and t
At the entrance
promises. t
all cars, say. closely ch
for such a
Mezhdurechensk is unique strang
in many respects.
lowing: The
from
city has a population of 110,000 and theac
the strikers' comm
counts for some 30 million tons of coal produc
alcohol supplies.
tion. Where else would one find a little city with H
city, the miners
such output? Mezhdurechensk is a beautiful ar
letting anyone
city: It is surrounded by mountains covered with pro
In the square,
trees and in the valley flows the Tom. It is a place the
are not of
a plenty, with dacha areas, a Siberian Switzer
crowd. O
In front of
lan'd. In winter, the
however, everything is covered ro
are with soot. This beautiful
lying on land can producethe
nei
they ther grain nor vegetables:
came out The slopes are cov of
hats, black from
ered with clay. Therefore, whereas other mining

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Vol. 152, No. 1 Summer 1989 17
cities may get the country,
something Moscow
from Obla
nearby so
khozes and the Urals,
kolkhozes, and
private the and
plots norther
farm
yards, objective
Mezhdurechensk has was to define the r
nothing.
Naturally, ing socioeconomic
strike broke out not problem
the only be
among
cause of the empty shelves theinmost urgent wher
food stores, and
population the priorities in r
it is difficult to buy even milk for the children.
Perestroyka brought In answering
to light athe first
mass ques
of prob
lems, which hadspondent could note
been suppressed as vital
during the
problems
period of stagnation, withinand, furthermore,
the enterprises
lems he but
themselves. It exposed considered
did notrelevant
resolv
them. It was assum of answers
though could exceed
the collectives had
been granted a number of rights, but th
slowness of the economic reform makes their
I didn't even
implementation impossible. try
According toto
the
existing status, the mine is not even officiall
an autonomous
wasn't just a questio
enterprise. It is the associa
tion that is the have a ration
autonomous card-g
enterprise, but
the association is cooked
as distant assausage and 3
the ministry.
That is why even a month.
problems, which could have
been resolved right there, by the collectives
themselves, were at a standstill. This include
extending paid leave for mothers caring for thei
children, pension supplements to the disabled, a
more equitable
The result was the following (in percen
distribution
of profits, technical
tages):
updating of the mines, improving housing con
struction, etc. e Poor supplies of industrial goods and their
What about the low quality-55
local authorities? Possibly, it
may be a " Food shortages
coincidence, but and poor
itquality-51
is a fact: at that tim
both N. Zavyalov," Widespread "pull" and unfair distribution
chairman of the Mezhdur
of goods-49
chensk City Executive Committee, and Yu.
" Low income, high prices-47
Cherepov, first secretary of the party gorko
" Environmental
[?], were on leave. Hadpollution-47
they been there, they
would have felt the heat
" The housing problem-35 much worse than th
minister with his" Poor medical services-31or
deputies A. Melnikov, first
secretary of the" Dependence
Kemerovo on officials in solving vital
Party Obkom, an
problems-27
A. Lyutenko, chairman of the oblast executiv
" Low levelthat
committee. The fact of upbringing
manyof the growingof the questions
generation-24
could have been resolved on the spot can be seen
" Insufficient concern
even from the letters, whichfor the elderly-23
I was given by the
miners at the meeting. These were ordinary
problems of daily Moving from the first
life, and to the second
the ques miners had r
sorted to a strike tion
only(that of the gravest problem)
after theythe picture had lost faith in
their managers. . changed substantially. This time the housing
problem was "rehabilitated," so to speak, in
the eyes of public opinion: it jumped from
"ABOUT OURsixth CONCERNS"
to first place. In general, there was a
From certain regrouping
Kommunist, June upwards in the list (in
1989
percentages):
The All-Unione Housing
Center problem-17 for the Study of
Public Opinion * Lowofincome, the
high prices-16AUCCTU and th
* Environmental pollution-14
USSR State Committee for Labor (VTsIOM
conducted a mass e Widespread
survey "pull," unfair distribution
on a ofunion-wide se
lective basis amongamenities-the
12 population of sixty
* Lack and poor quality ofrural
six urban and thirty-four foodstuffs-il settlements in
seven parts of *thePoor supply country (east and west
of industrial goods, their low
Siberia, the quality-8
northwestern European part of

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18 World
" Dependence The Kirov Region produces 79.3 kilos of
problems-7 meat per person per year-just 700 grams
" Poor medical services-4 less than the annual allowance recommended
" Insufficient concern for the elderly-3
" Low level of upbringing of the growing
generation-3
" Difficulty in answering this question-4
" Other problems listed-i
As already pointed out, the priority given
to the housing problem is natural: We know
that despite the increased capacity of civil
construction, the waiting line for housing is
not getting shorter. Thus, in April 1989, it
included fourteen million families (approxi
mately one out of eight!).
The answers to the third question (what
problems must be solved immediately and
which could be postponed) brought to light
the latest reclassification of opinions
(because the respondent was asked to note si
multaneously several positions, the sum total
of answers, as in the first case, exceeded 100
percent):
" Environmental pollution-87
" Scarcity and poor quality of food-82
" Housing problem-79
" Poor supply of industrial goods, their low
quality-74
" Widespread "pull" and unfair distribution
of amenities-73
" Low income, high prices-67
e Low level of upbringing of the growing
generation-63
e Poor medical services-63
e Insufficient concern for the elderly-61
e Dependence on officials in solving vital
problems-56
WHERE'S THE BEEF?
Why the Meat-Producing Kirov Region
Must Ration Meat
From Moscow News (in English),
17-26 July 1988
I didn't even try to buy sausage in Kirov.
It wasn't just a question of money. You also
had to have a ration card-good for 500
grams of cooked sausage and 300 grams of
smoked sausage a month. People in the line
were grumbling: "Rationing food in peace
time is a disgrace."
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Affairs
on
by doctors. But people in the Kirov Region
consume more meat per person than the na
tional average (62 kg).
Then why the ration cards for sausage and
butter? Mistake: 17 kilos of meat are not
consumed in the Kirov Region, but trans
ported elsewhere by train in special refriger
ated cars. Officially this is called "central
ized supplies to the funds of the Union and
the Union Republics."
Ration cards were introduced seven years
ago, but locals can hardly remember the time
when there wasn't rationing. Their concern
is: when will the rationing stop? Said chair
man of the Kirov Region Soviet Executive
Committee Vasily Desyatnikov: "We hope
that butter-currently rationed at 400 grams
a month-will be freely available in a year or
two. It is already sold in unlimited quantities
in a number of the region's districts. Our res
idents have a choice of dairy products, fowl,
and sausage at 11.5 rubles a kilo. Rationing
will be discarded within this five-year-plan
period."
I hope this prediction comes true: the So
viets haven't made good on a lot of prom
ises, a lot of their accounts are "past due."
The authorities must restore people's faith in
them. Supplying people with food is not a
gastronomic issue-it's a political issue. It
was the principal problem discussed at the
latest session of the Kirov Region Soviet of
People's Deputies.
Lease, family, and individual contracts
are among the untraditional elements now
being introduced in agriculture. Last year,
such novel work collectives could be counted
on one hand. Today they number hundreds
and thousands. As many as 371 work collec
tives have contracted with farms to raise
15,000 head of cattle and cultivate 149,000
hectares of land. These collectives realize
that talk alone won't produce material
results. They must, as the old saying goes,
work more and spend less.
For the second year running, whatever
these collectives have produced over and
above plan has remained in the region-a
better incentive than any call to boost pro
duction. Now there's more food in the rural
shops. Incidentally, the Executive Commit
tee had to fend off some Kirov (city) party
organizations which wanted to "milk" the
 Vol. 152, No. 1 Summer 1989 19

farmers to feed theThe RSFSR city's

planners do just the opposite.
population, just as
Their quotas
it was done in the past.of food toThebe requisitioned
Executive Com
mittee stood firm: people
from the Kirov Region for the next believe
five-year in us, we
shouldn't let them
plan perioddown.
don't give the region's leaders a
prayer of ending
Still, meeting Kirov food rationing. If these
residents' demand for
meat and dairyplanners
products doesn't
have their way, Kirov residents will depend on
family-contract have their meat rations
work, orincreased only by six on how much
even
kilos and only in 1995.sector produces. The
the state agricultural
keys to the Kirov The Region
Kirov Region Soviet granaries
Executive Com are in the
hands of mittee would have swallowed
the
Russian Federationthat a few (RSFSR)
State Planning
years Committee.
ago: after all, you can't chop with a The region
would have
more than
penknife. But now itmet its
seems the time own demands,
to keep
a low profile
but for the quotas of is coming to an end. People are
agricultural produce to
be requisitioned,
startingon orders
to stand up from the top.
for themselves. The peo
Thus, the Kirov Region
ple's dependence on the leaderhad
is becomingto part with
300,000 the leader's dependence
tons
milk of andon the people. One's
37,000 tons of meat
last year. In other
accountabilitywords, almost half the
before the elecorate is begin
ning to be
state purchases of felt. In short, the Executive Com produce is be
agricultural
mittee has rejected the figures sent
ing sealed and transported down by
elsewhere.
the RSFSR State
This acute problem has Planning two
Committee and re
sides. Moscow
tries to grab as much
sponded with figures of itsfood
own. The Execuas possible in
order to feed the towns
tive Committee and
is prepared cities
to fight the plan which pro
duce less and also to to
ner's decision amass certain strategic
the end. Vasily Desyatnikov
is well aware that the authorities
reserves. The provincial producerswho would consider
that give the people enough
it would be fairer if they to eat are the were
local allowed to
feed their ownauthorities,
populationsand that the authorities whofirst
can and then
send any extras to
do that Moscow.
are the The State Plan
people's authorities. It is bit
ning Committeetermaintains
when the central authorities refuse
that to al the farmers
low the local authorities
don't work efficiently andto become that
the peo requisition
ple's authorities.
ing their produce makes them work better.
Meanwhile the farmers don't
I'm not suggesting stopping supplies to see
the any reason
to work harder since
fund of the Unionno matter
and the Union Republics. what they do
their granaries What
will should be done away withempty.
stand is the prac Moscow's
central economic authorities
tice of robbing the bread-winning regions. have twice in
creased the requisitioning
This practice has never done any goodquota
and from the
Kirov Region, never will.the
over People wholast
can't get the
20 food years.
I can well understand the
they need locally have to go to Moscowplanners.
and The
northern city otherMurmansk
of regions to get it. According to statis
has to be fed, as
does the coal-producing areas
tics, the capital's guests take some 760,000 of Kuzbas.
tons of meat out of Moscow
But I can't understand why annually the planners
roughly
think the way to the same amount
spur Muscovites con
a willing horse is to
give it more to sume
carry.in a year. Reports show that re
gions which cannotThere's a popular
meet joke in Kirov:
their "How do own food de
mands often eat better
you plan than
to solve the food problem?" the re regions which
gion's leader is asked.
can, at their expense. True,"By asking forcoalan is necessary
other shuttle
if there's anyone living train to Moscow.''
inThere's a avillage house.
And it takes a farmer
grain of truth in histo drive
joke, and this grain is a harvester.
Here's the law growing:
of at civilization,
the railway station I noticed an or, to use a
other Kirov-Moscow
contemporary term, train had beenjustice:
social added to feed the
the summer
farmer first, and don'tschedule. bite the hand that
feeds you.

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