Socialism and the Consumer in the U.S.S.R

This is an essay on the changing role of the consumer in Soviet economic development. The USSR is, according to its leaders, now at the stage of communist construction, the main goal of which is to insure the complete well- being and free, all-around development of the individual. Improvement of the material welfare of the people, they say, has been and continues to be the long- run goal of Soviet society. This long-run material improvement is important in it self and also as an essential precondition for the full development of the indivi dual. Until the 1950s, however, progress in consumer welfare was concentrated in public goods because of the higher priority accorded to industrialization, def ense, and building socialism in one country. Since that time, a greater concern for consumer welfare has emerged resulting in improvements in the quantity, qual ity, and variety of goods and in real incomes as well as new problems for the So viet economic system. In the current transitional stage, there are still many prob lems to be resolved before either the complete well-being or the free, all-around development of the individual can be assured.