The Growing Class Differentiation in the Soviet Union
In today's Soviet Union, due to the restoration of capitalism, class differentiation has intensified and the chasm between the rich and the poor is growing ever wider. The bourgeois ruling group that has emerged with the restoration of capitalism ruthlessly exploits the hard work of the laboring people, living lives of extreme luxury, while the broad masses of workers and peasants suffer from oppression and exploitation, leading difficult lives.
The bourgeoisie in the Soviet Union is a rapacious exploiting class. They hold political and economic power and extract exorbitant profits, enjoying high wages, high bonuses, high royalties, and various allowances, earning incomes dozens or even hundreds of times higher than those of ordinary workers and farmers. Yet this still does not satisfy their greed. From materials published in Soviet newspapers, it can be seen that forming cliques for private gain, embezzlement, theft, speculation, and plunder have become the main ways for members of the privileged bourgeois class to enrich themselves. These inherent social ills of capitalism are rampant. As revealed by the Soviet press itself, from the central to local levels, in industries, agriculture, commerce, and cultural education, "many leaders and party organization heads," "leaders of enterprises and organizations," have one unified plan: "how to earn more" and "to easily profit by infringing on the interests of the people." Some even "personally lead embezzlement and theft groups," and many become "millionaires" within a very short period of time. Although these reports do not fully reflect the full picture of class differentiation in the Soviet Union, they do reveal some real situations, mercilessly mocking the so-called "socialism" under the Soviet revisionist label. Here are a few examples:
In the Georgian local industry department, "a major theft case involving millions of rubles over the past few years was discovered... Party and economic leaders were bribed by black market merchants and became their obedient servants." "In the light industry department, local industry department, food industry department, and residential supply departments, numerous cases of material theft, embezzlement, and extortion were found."
In Azerbaijan, "enterprises in the light industry, food industry, and other industrial sectors, transportation, agriculture, commerce, and life service departments all exhibit theft and abuse of power."
In the South Ossetian State Executive Committee, the chairman and vice-chairman sold "quite scarce building materials allocated to the state" to residents for exploitation or transferred them for private use. From 1968 to 1972, "40% of timber, 28% of cement, 19% of slate, and 48% of plywood had been sold through this method."
In the Black Sea coastal region, land, "yards, housing, and villas, have become targets for rampant speculation." Among those involved in "reaping huge profits and acquiring more material wealth" are "leaders of party, Soviet, agricultural, and administrative management agencies," city military commissioners and police chiefs, district judges and chief architects, farm chairmen and directors.
At the Bakuvian Geokchai Juice Plant, the manager colluded with the chief accountant and production director to forge purchase and transport documents for fruit, using tap water, sugar, and citric acid to counterfeit "fresh juice," embezzling nearly one million rubles over three years. This manager had substantial personal savings in the bank.
Leaders at the Tbilisi synthetic fiber plant conspired with private merchant groups, using factory equipment and materials to establish an "underground factory" producing various best-selling items for sale on the black market, making 1.7 million rubles in a short period of time.
A manager of a non-ferrous metal casting plant in Moscow colluded with the chief accountant, often employing false "emergency measures" to "fulfill" plans, defrauding "material rewards" of 18,200 rubles in just one quarter.
The head of the Zakhrovskaya poultry farm near Ryazan conspired with stores to misrepresent premium hens as inferior ones on delivery slips but sold them at top prices, swindling over 40,000 rubles in this way alone. They also listed large quantities of eggs as "natural loss" on the books but actually sold them at high prices in the market to fill their own pockets. People call it "hens laying golden eggs."
The director of the Leningrad International Travel Agency colluded with "several close friends," stealing goods worth 60,000 rubles, including many belongings of foreign tourists.
Many higher education officials engage in bribery, extortion, selling exam questions, papers, and diplomas, etc. "In medical services for residents, there is also corruption, bribery, and extortion."
These acts of embezzlement and theft by bourgeois elements are actually condoned and protected by judicial personnel. They collude together, sharing the spoils, and many inspectors "become informants for thieves." "In the Caspi industrial complex, within a month after inspections by local industry department investigators began, shortages of goods amounting to over 34,000 rubles were discovered."
The bourgeoisie in the Soviet Union extravagantly wastes property created by the working people. In recent years, bourgeois elements have enthusiastically participated in "athletic competitions — who can build the most novel and good house." "Many house builders, especially those in responsible positions, use their authority to allocate various construction materials, machinery, transport vehicles, and workers from affiliated enterprises and institutions to build these houses and villas." Luxurious private residences and villas have "sprung up like mushrooms after rain." Some private residences and villas, besides having luxurious living rooms, also have "billiard rooms," "swimming pools," and gardens with fountains; some even have exquisite sculptures, "marble staircases and bathrooms." Someone spent over 500,000 rubles to build a private residence for only four people, etc. In the suburbs of Moscow, the bourgeois privileged class built various types of villas, some equipped with "swimming pools, tennis courts, sports facilities, and clubs with restaurants, cinemas, and special shops." On the Black Sea coast, private residences and villas "soon became overcrowded," with only Sukhumi having 4,158 property owners occupying land ranging from 600 square meters to 10,000 square meters, "most owning orange groves and greenhouses for cultivating flowers and early vegetables." The chairman of a collective farm in Armenia used the farm's construction materials and exploited the labor of its members to build himself a three-story private villa covering 616 square meters.
Some privileged bourgeois individuals can monthly prepay tens of rubles in specially designated exclusive stores and then freely select fine foods. In these stores, not only can they obtain "traditional Russian delicacies," but also "everything available in Western department stores." They can also go to expensive exclusive high-end hotels for lavish meals, "spending hundreds of rubles per meal." The millionaire Rakishvili from Georgia frequently held banquets costing thousands of rubles per meal in hotels in Moscow, Kiev, and Almaty. The director of the Yakushevsky state farm in Kaluga province colluded with other leaders, using embezzled funds for extravagant feasting, "where maids weekly removed several sacks of empty bottles from their offices." In many places, "whenever higher-level committees and inspection teams come to evaluate work, endless luxurious banquets follow... paid for by collective farms, state farms, institutions, and enterprises." Some privileged bourgeois individuals own several private cars, dissatisfied with domestic vehicles, they regularly import from the West. These people also custom-order the latest fashion clothing from specialized stores, purchasing "British suits, Italian ties, and foreign perfumes," etc.
Not long ago, a lackey of one of the Soviet republics also said: now in the Soviet Union, "there are emerging economically privileged individuals and groups," who concentrate "large amounts of income," where "the dominant atmosphere is how to make money, how to get rich quick." "These people live extravagant lives, buying private homes and villas, easily purchasing cars, building garages, living decadent lives, not only that, they receive various incentives, promotions in rank," and "are elected into leadership bodies of the party and Soviets."
Most of the information disclosed by Soviet newspapers pertains to local conditions, and obviously cannot touch the dirty secrets of the top-level figures at the center. Meanwhile, Brezhnev and his clique loudly proclaim "opposition to getting rich through illegal means," hitting lower levels to attempt to cover up their own monopoly of national wealth, leading the Soviet Union down the path of comprehensive capitalist restoration.
Meanwhile, under the oppression and exploitation of the new tsar, the vast majority of Soviet workers and peasants live insecure lives. According to the provisions of the Soviet revisionist "new economic system," in pursuit of exorbitant profits, factory managers "can independently decide on hiring and firing workers, independently determine wage standards, and have the authority to reward and punish employees." Labor power in the Soviet Union has once again become a commodity. Based on materials revealed by Soviet revisionist newspapers, a large number of workers are dismissed annually in the Soviet Union. At the Sekino Chemical Complex near Moscow, by intensifying the exploitation and workload of workers, over 1,300 workers were laid off in just a few years, and the Soviet leadership group promoted this "Sekino experience" nationwide. The director of the mechanization engineering management office in Podolsk City, Moscow Oblast, frequently insulted workers, and anyone who dared to contradict him or express their opinions was fired. During his tenure, "a total of 318 people left, out of a staff of 350." At a factory in Chelyabinsk, "out of a total workforce of 150 people, 120 were laid off within a year." The leaders of the Dushanbe textile complex oppressed young female workers like Galia, who was expelled from the factory and had her ID confiscated when she refused to comply. This female worker could not find work or a livelihood, "wandering in another city for two months" before attempting suicide. Upon assuming office, the chairman of a collective farm in Smolensk "began rudely issuing orders, with fines falling heavily on the members," often posting notices stating: "so-and-so and so-and-so fined several labor day quotas, or 15 rubles, 20 rubles, 25 rubles." Often, when you went to collect your pay, it would be inexplicably deducted.
It is precisely under such circumstances that the Soviet Union has seen a large number of migrant workers. Many farmers, due to hardship, seek livelihoods elsewhere.
The Soviet working masses have meager incomes and must pay various taxes. According to statistical data published by the Soviet revisionists, resident taxes alone increased from 5.6 billion rubles in 1960 to 15 billion rubles in 1972. The proportion of resident taxes in the total state budget revenue and the proportion of the total wage bill have also been continuously increasing. Meanwhile, during the years of Soviet revisionist rule, consumer goods have been in short supply, prices, especially food prices, have generally risen, with larger increases in vegetable, potato, meat, animal fat, vegetable oil, and sugar prices.
The stark contrast of polarization in Soviet society exposes the lie of Brezhnev and his ilk that in the Soviet Union, "there are no exploiting classes" and "no classes or social groups with opposing economic positions"!
(Published in the People's Daily on December 14, 1974, original title: "The Growing Class Differentiation in the Soviet Union")