The Rural Meat Industry In The 1930's

While life in the city was easier for the most part than rural life, there was still hunger and separation of class. After collectivization began, the rural meat industry crumbled and meat shortages grew more common over time. In July 1930, only about 9% (14 million) of urban citizens were given meat in their rations, and different amounts of meat were given out on a different number of days depending on one's occupation (Osokina, 2001, pg. 47). The shops within cities also discriminated based on social position. Many of the stores, including restaurants, only allowed certain citizens in after seeing official documents that stated what their occupation was (Osokina, 2001, pg. 78). Russian officials had special restaurants that served high
Some items that one could not get through a ration card were sold to the upper class for lower prices, while a regular citizens would have to pay full price or in gold instead of rubles (Osokina, 2001, pg. 80). In other cases, the higher ups would be given special coupons to get these items for lower prices at commercial stores, and the only way a lower worker could purchase these items was by trading in jewelry at a government store created to collect precious metals like silver and gold, or by going to a different commercial store with higher prices (Tucker, 1990, pg. 112). By allowing political workers and other better off citizens to purchase more scarce foods and materials for roughly a quarter of the price that a normal worker would have to (Osokina, 2001, pg. 80), not only did the government collect less money than they could have but more importantly the higher class, who had more, were able to spend less. Nothing about that seems fair nor equal. The group who made up (at most) 40% of the population, those in the special and first provisions, who earned more than those in second, third, or no provisions were paying less for the same product that the government had the ability to monopolize if
83). In rural areas, those who were political workers and those who lived on state run farms were given the most supplies (Osokina, 2001, pg. 83).
This favouritism was not limited to Russians favoured by Stalin’s policies. Workers from around the globe heard the tales that the Soviet Union was a land of equal opportunity, and some of them traveled for engineering jobs among others. The idea of foreign workers coming into the USSR did not inherently go against Marxist policies due to the notion that working men have no country (Marx & Engels, 2010, pg. 63), but to support the facade that Russia was prosperous and healthy, these foreign workers were treated much better than their Soviet counterparts (Osokina, 2001, pg. 98). They would usually be given much higher and varied rations as well as better, separate living and eating spaces then a Soviet who did the exact same job (Osokina, 2001, pg. 99). This is just another example of the inequalities created by the Soviet government under Stalin's