ECONOMIC AND SOCIOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS ON MOSCOW AND (Sanitized)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00457R013300510001-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 28, 2006
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: August 12, 1952
• Content Type: REPORT

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SECRET
SECURITY INFORMATION
INFORMATION REPORT REPORT NO.
COUNTRY USSR (Moscow bTlast)
SUBJECT Economic and Sociological Observations
25X1 on Moscow and
25
INFO.
PLACE
ACQUIRED
25X1
THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS INFORMATION AFFECTING THE NATIONAL DEFENSE
OF THE UNITED STATES, WITHINTHE MEANING OF TITLE 18, SECTIONS 793
AND 794, OF THE U.S. CODE, AS AMENDED. ITS TRANSMISSION OR REVE-
LATION OF ITS CONTENTS TO OR RECEIPT BY AN UNAUTHORIZED PERSON IS
PROHIBITED BY LAW. THE REPRODUCTION Of THIS FORM 15 PROHIBITED.
25X1
DATE DISTR.
12. Aug. 1952
NO. OF PAGES
4
NO. OF ENCLS.
(LI'S[ED BELOW)
SUIPLEMENT TO
25X1
REPORT NO.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
the difference between the
quality an the quantity of goods in the city and in the country. The proximity
of Moscow gave a good opportunity to compare urban
and rural conditions, in this comparisons Moscow was like a big show window
which served as the front of a dingy and gloomy store. This difference was re-
flected in the most necessary of consumer commodities, such as foodstuffs.
Although there was a great.variety.sind ample supply of food for sale in Moscow,
both the quality and the quantity of foodstuffs in 0 were insufficient 25X1
throughout the year., except during those weeks preceding one of the great national
holidays, such as 1 May and 7 November.
2. In Moscow,, bread., which formed the main part of the Soviet diets was made of
wheat flour and was very tasty, but the bread in0 was made of a dark 25X1
flour, to which some potato flour had been mixed. The potato flour gave the 25X1
bread a soggy appearance and taste. O sure that the addition of potato flour
was illegal, and that the bakers kept some of the flour to sell on the black
market. Black market dealers frequently appeared at the houses of German pecial-
ists selling a kg of white flour for 1 rubles; the regular market price was 8
rubles per kg, Regarding table fats, margarine is most enerall used in the USSR.
Butter was in ample supply in Moscow but rather scarce in' II Even in 25X1
Moscow, howsver9 the butter supply became scarce toward the end of the qudta year,
in Novembe and 'Decomber. In , Moscow, butter could only be bought in k#,) whil
the resents of bought it in 100-gram units, since they could not of ord
a kg, if any. Before the price reduction in April 1952, the price of butter. was
47 rubles per kgg after the price :reduction, one kg of butter cost 32 rubles.These
annual pprice reductions created a temporary and limited inflation, but were always
CLASSIFICATION
SECT `T 25X1
x NSRB
X
FBI
p
RECORDS CENTER
~L
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DISTRIBUTION I
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followed by a gradual increase of prices uo,til,at the time of the
next price reduction, the commodities had reached or even surpassed
the prices of the previous year. Meat was scarce in 0 and 25X1
plentifu. in Moscow* The prices were prohibitive for Soviet workers..
One kg, o; pork cost 35-38 rubles;, a kg of soft sausage 28 rub;,s, a
kg of hard sausage 52 rubles. Twelve-ounce tins of excellent meats
and. fish could be bought at Moscow for about 8 rubles per can. Most
of the. tins were Soviet made, although some US and British tins were
still available on the market. US and British tins were sold in
.great quantities in 1946-48. There was a limited supply of canned
meat is but the consumers preferred fresh or canned fish.
The fresh fish, sold throughout the gear, was of excellent quality..
Vegetables could be bought only during the summer months in 25X1
in. Moscow, however, they were in sufficient supply during the entire
year!, due to the deep freeze storage. facilities. The price of,pota-
toes was very high during the winter and spring of 1951-52,beoause
the 1951 harvest had been very poor. A 100-pound sack of potatoes
cost 100 rubles.
,Women9s dresses in the Moscow stores were elegantly tailored and
well designed. However, these dresses were so stereotyped and pro-
duced in such mass quantity that,when a woman wore a new dress in
the streets of Moscow, she encountered hundreds of women wearing the
identical dress and countless other women wearing a dress having the
same tailoring with a different color pattern. Clothes were in
ample supply in the department stores of Moscow, but material for
clothes was almost impossible to obtain. The materials which were
available in the stores were stereotyped in pattern and frequently
of poor quality. It was impossible to buy wool thread. Black market
dealers offered 0 wool thread, but such dealers appeared only in-
frequently. Apparently wool was either stored or immediately woven
into finished cloth. Leather shoes,, never in supply at 25X1
.were very expensive in the Mosoow..stores. The price for a ecen
pair of low-cut leather shoes in Moscow was 350 rubles. A Soviet
worker's monthly salary was between 450 and 600 rubles and,conss-
quently, leather shoes were beyond his means.
There was a scarcity of all metal containers, even in Moscow. For
example, aluminum pots were very seldom for sale in II al- 25X1
though the supply had greatly improved since 1946-48, when metal
goods were simply unavailable. The. overall supply of metal containers
seemed to reach a peak in the spring. of 1951; afterward it seemed to
decrease slightly. Even during the spring of 1951, however, it was
a matter of luck as to whether any metal pots, pans,or pails would
be available for purchase in the I stores. Wooden orates and 25X1
all types of wooden boxes were also in short supply. 25X1
Nails, screws, nuts, and bolts were either scarce or of poor quality.
Some of the nails 0 hammered into the walls of F-lhoussi did 25X1
not penetrate the wood and flattened out. such 25X1
nails were made of a steel with a high content of carbon, or of cast
iron. The quality and supply of steel needles were also unsatisfactory.
-Knitting needles were entirely unobtainable; if able to get 25X1
wool yarn, request that send needles 25X1
so that =could knit.
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There was an ample supply of radio and television sets, but these
sets could only be bought by 09.:h.i11n1.:f $. (department bosses) -or the
.highly paid intelligentsia. A f'eleviiion._aet with an 8 x 13 an screen
cost about 1200 rubles. Since there was no installment . buying. in the
USSR, a'worker or even a skilled mechanic could not afford a tele-
vision set and would have to save m for a long time to afford a
radio. Most of the radio sets ownedone were 25X1
British-or US made; only a few were German or Belgian (Philips). The
.great majority of Soviets had only a loudspeaker which was plugged
into an outlet of the radio relay net, which most of the houses had,
by which they could hear the program to which the next relay station
was tuned. In this manner, the government had fairly good control
of the programs which most of the population could hear. There
was a sufficient supply of spare parts for radios in Moacmwl and, since
,the Soviet radios were. close imitations of US models9 the Soviet spare
parts could be built into our US apparatus without any difficulty.
.To purchase spare parts90went to the so-called Commission Houses,
where all kinds of goods were taken on oonsignment, either second-hand
from previous ownera9 or new from firms who were permitted to sell a
certain percentage of their goods on the free market. The prices
charged by these Commission Houses were strictly regulated according
to model and year of production of all goods9 lus 7% commission
which helped to sustain the establishment. also acquired radio 25X1
spare parts at the just outside of the compound.
At certain times9 particularly at the end of a quota year or before
one of. the periodic government inspections, the discarded .25X1
put to good use. F__ I 25X1
or defective tubes which, with the knowledge of an expert, could be
all materials which were considered waste. Tubes which had flaws
and could not be used in plant production, or scrape of scarce metals,
such as copper and nickel, were simply thrown on a heap in the back
of the institute. From these piles we often salvaged pieces of metal
Juvenile delinquency was a most serious problem in the USSR.
there was no improvement as a result of the rigid laws
and severe. penalties which prohibited youths from being on the streets
after 9 o'clock at night and threatened the death penalty for Juvenile
thieves. Thefts repeatedly occurred
The worst
hazard, however, was that-of the Juvenile gangs which frequented de-
partment'stores, whose members were armed with razors. They watched
people while they were buying and then robbed them of money and of
their newly purchased goods. The robbers usually created a jam at
the plane where the victim was standing, out the pookets or the strings
of packages, and escaped into the orowd. The hazard was so great that
Soviet women never carried handbags; they carried their money inside
their clothing. The entire population was afraid of the Juvenile
raiders and made no effort to apprehend them even when they witnessed
out to the victim, which thereby led to the apprehension of the thief.
She later was caught in a crowd and had her face slashed by the razors
of the thief's accomplices*
atheft. A Soviet woman observed a theft and cried 25X1
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