ABSTRACT
The issue of equality of opportunity in Soviet economy and society has loomed large among social controversies unleashed by glasnost' and perestroika. Forces emerging in the inequality of households and families, present in any society, have worked in the past to make educational access unequal. In the absence of any threat of unemployment, motivating effort in a generally poor society by any combination of material and nonmaterial stimuli has, however, been a complex matter. The problem is that, in most citizens' eyes, the society is already growing visibly more unequal—thanks to the cooperatives—while it is, if anything, growing poorer. The cooperatives make for an interesting story—too long to tell , except in brief—and rich with indications that the philosophy underlying their legalization and encouragement ran counter to many ideas of "social justice" and of what Soviet life should be. "Success," in a material sense, is thus available to those who take advantage of the opportunity cooperative enterprise offers.
