Studying the level of material well-being of population is based on people’s needs appearing and implementing in the sphere of consumption where family is an elemental consuming cell acting in the capacity of organizer of consumption of its separate members. Major benefits and delivered to population services takes cost form. Formation of private income precedes their transition into the sphere of consumption. This means that initially people obtain their share in public production in the form of income; in exchange for some of them people purchase necessary material benefits and services.
In the 1940-1950s the Central Statistical Administration in the USSR and statistical administrations in former federal republics regularly analyzed family budgets of workers and employees. Most of them were representatives of heavy industry. Such restriction didn’t allow conducting detailed investigation of income, expense and consumption of all social and professional groups not only in the spheres of heavy industry but also in other sectors of national economy.
Absence of necessary statistical data characterized family budgets of workers and employees of all industrial sectors created some obstacles for researchers to conduct complex analysis of the standard of living of the population during first post-war years.
In the beginning of the 1950s the system of budget analysis was changed. In 1952 bodies of the Central Statistical Administration of the USSR adopted new guidance and instructions on analysis of family budget of workers and employees which contributed to substantial extension of categories under consideration. According to new instructions of the Central Statistical Administration budget researches embraced the following industrial sectors: steel industry, non-ferrous metal industry, coal mining, oil, chemical, industry, rubber-asbestos, machine manufacturing industries and metal fabrication, production of construction materials, paper, glass, porcelain and ceramic, wood, textile, clothing, leather, food and flavor, printing, fur and shoes industries [1, p. 4].
Separate combined statements were composed on each category — workers, engineer and technical workers, employees, teachers, medical staff, and to name but a few. They reflected data on income according to the sources of receipt and expenses in accordance with their purpose, personal consumption among workers and employees, as well as sources and number of purchasing by them and industrial and food products [2, Document 39, pp. 31-32].
The author of this research used monthly, biannual and annual budgets of workers, employees and engineer-technical workers. The total number of budgets under consideration was 1591 families.
All these families had different income. 3% of families (46) had less than 350 rubles per family member [2, Document 7, p. 77; Document 13, p. 1]. The most large in number was the group of families with 351-500 rubles of monthly income — 47% (745 families) [2, Document 7, p. 6; Document 13, p. 48; Document 28, p. 1; Document 38, p. 103; Document 33, p. 143, 187; Document 180, p. 20]. 24% (377 families) had the average per capita monthly income of 501-750 rubles [2, Document 13, p. 24; Document 33, p. 137; Document 38, p. 13, 71, 109; Document 70, p. 3, 9, 48; Document 181, p. 151; Document 193, p. 142, 145]. 23% (369 families) had from 751 to 1000 rubles of income [2, Document 7, p. 59; Document 26, p. 3, 54; Document 38, p. 149]. Only 3% (54 families) had the highest income — more than 1001 rubles per family member [2, Document 38, p. 148; Document 33, p. 250; Document 70, p. 42].
References:
1. Kazantsev B. N. "Neizvestnaya" statistika urovnya zhizni rabochego klassa // Sotsiologicheskoye issledovaniye. 1993. № 4. pp. 3 — 11 (Rus)
2. State Archive of Karaganda Region. Fund 596, Inventory 7
Abdrakhmanova Kymbat Kazaliyevna, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Senior Lecturer
Department of Archaeology, Ethnology and National History
Karaganda State University named after Ye. A. Buketov
kimbat_abd@mail. ru
Dzhumabekov Dzhambul Azmukhanovich, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associated Professor
Department of History of Kazakhstan
Karaganda State University named after Ye. A. Buketov
azmukhan@mail. ru
