Food and Non-Food Manufactured Goods Purchasing by Single Farmers of Sverdlovsk Region (according to Budget Survey of 1960)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the subject insufficiently developed in the national historiography, especially in regard to its regional dimension. The study is conducted on materials of three archives: State archive of Sverdlovsk region, Russian state archive of Economics and archive of the Territorial body of Federal state statistics service for Sverdlovsk region with the assistance of the scientific and publicistic literature. The relevance of the topic is determined by its importance for the social sciences, especially for history. The purpose of writing the article was to study the level of acquisition of food and industrial goods in the 1960s by single farmers of Sverdlovsk region. Scientific novelty of the work is seen in the fact that the new materials discovered by the author in these archives are introduced into scientific usage. It is noted that the present work is logically continuing two recently published articles on monetary income and expenditure of urban residents and farmers of the Middle Urals. It is emphasized that more than half the cost of single farmers was the cost of food. It is stated that there was a serious differentiation of the surveyed farmers in terms of consumption of food. It is claimed that the basis of the daily ration of farmers were typically “rustic” foods: flour, potatoes, vegetables and melons, eggs, dairy products. It is argued that single farmers ate much better than the other farmers of the Middle Urals. It is proved that the main types of manufactured goods purchased by farmers were clothes, underwear, jerseys, hats and shoes. It is declared that significant cost to farmers was the purchase of alcohol. The conclusion is made that the alcoholism of the village began in the 1950-ies.

Keywords

• sverdlovsk region
• budget survey
• single farmers
• food consumption
• non-food manufactured goods purchasing