ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relative economic status of some of the principal social groups in Soviet society. Differences in money incomes are obviously not the only source of differential privileges in the Soviet Union. But with the increasing supply and variety of consumer goods and services, differences in monetary rewards can more readily be translated into differences in real income and distinct styles of life. Changes in wage and income policies have created opportunities for the introduction of new ideas and the challenging of old dogmas in Soviet discussions of inequality. Beginning in 1931 and for approximately 25 years thereafter, wage policy pronouncements and discussions were almost invariably dominated by a single theme: the struggle against "egalitarianism" or "equality-mongering". Most of the discussion of inequalities in incomes and living standards will draw on the local studies of industrial enterprises and urban and rural communities which Soviet sociologists and economists have conducted since 1965.
