Soviet Society
This area focuses on society in the USSR.
After the Bolshevik Revolution in the early 20th century, Vladimir Lenin nationalized land, factories, and financial institutions that had been destroyed by the pre-revolutionary social system. Later, in 1929, Joseph Stalin forced the collectivization of agriculture, which destroyed the more prosperous peasantry of the early 1930�s. At the same time his industrialization program eliminated a new elite class that developed as a result of Lenin�s NEP (New Economic Policy). The motivations behind Lenin�s nationalization of land and Stalin�s collectivization of agriculture were the desire to eliminate private property, and ensure state control over all industries. In keeping with the practices of Communism, the government attempted to eliminate all classes in society, and give the people equal �ownership� of all property. It was believed that if ownership could be done away with, then classes would disappear. However, this is faulty logic. It is not ownership that counts, but instead control. And although Communist Party officials never owned the plants they operated, they did exercise control. Additionally, money had little value behind the Iron Curtain. Interestingly, position and privilege in the Soviet society had little to do with income. Although income does rise the higher a citizen is in the Soviet hierarchy, this large income cannot buy large apartments (or dachas). Commodities such as apartments, vacations, and cars, were granted on the basis of the functions a citizen carries out for the state. The higher the state values a citizen�s functions, the higher that citizen�s privileges. In the 1930�s, Stalin ended the official leveling of incomes, and at that same time the social system began to adapt to the new, industrializing economy. The new system that was implemented provided incentives for workers and limited legal discrimination against former privileged classes. Official discrimination was ended in 1936. From the 1950�s to the 1970�s, the Soviet economy expanded, which allowed further opportunities for career and social advancement. The state increased incomes and benefits for the poor classes, while providing more privileges for the elite. However, in the early 1960�s, higher education became increasingly reserved for the upper classes, which hindered advancement of the lower classes. In the 1980�s, a stagnant economy resulted in reduced social mobility, which accentuated the differences between social groups. In 1989 official Marxism-Leninism stated that social classes had been defined by their relationship to means of production, and that Soviet society represented �a new and distinctly different human community, free from traditional class antagonisms and contradictions.� Supposedly, Soviet society consisted of two classes, workers and peasants, with those who engaged in non-manual, or intellectual labor forming a division in both. These classes were not considered antagonistic, because neither exploited the other, and they jointly owned the means of production. According to Soviet officials, division in the USSR was based solely on merit and not ownership of property. Privilege proceeded from one�s position, as opposed to position proceeding from one�s privilege. Soviets maintained that these minor classes would disappear entirely once the USSR was able to transition from socialism to communism. Capitalists were portrayed as ruthless exploiters of the proletariat. However, at the time it had become increasingly obvious that despite Communism�s best efforts, antagonistic classes had developed in a so called �classless� society. Furthermore, the official doctrine ignored some yawning divisions in Soviet society, even going so far as to create others that had not existed. Furthermore, this classification system failed to consider the role of political power and party membership in social class distinctions in a state with only one party. Although the Soviets recognized that power occurs as a result of ownership, they failed to realize that in their own system (Communism) power essentially has the same effects as ownership, since in the USSR political power determined who controlled collective property.