What types of trade existed in Soviet times. Soviet trade in photos

Store shelves filled with the same type of goods, gloomy faces of saleswomen, giant queues for any scarce goods - Soviet people shopped in such conditions for many decades. Going to the store turned into a special life in the USSR with its own rules, concepts and phraseological units. The goods were “taken out”, they were “thrown away”, the queues were “live”, “stashes” of food purchased for future use were created at home. The shortage - and they had anything, from smoked sausage to furniture sets - was received “through connections”, “through the back door”, sometimes paying for something useless “on top of it”. True, there were also ideal stores, but only in the form of a closed system of special distributors or currency departments.

Trade in the Soviet Union was based on market principles only in the first years of its existence. But, having once embarked on the path of a planned economy, it forever remained, in essence, a distribution system.

Soviet trade in Estonia did not leave such a depressing impression as in the outback of Russia. The modern shopping center "Silhouette" in Narva was in Soviet era the biggest shopping complex in the city (of course, not counting the city market) and was mainly aimed entirely at women. The dream of every Narva trade school graduate was to work as a salesperson in this particular store.

1959 Grocery department. Typical. If my vision serves me correctly, there is not a lot of food on the counter, to use euphemisms. And to put it bluntly and without embellishment, the counter is completely empty. True, it should be recognized that there is something hanging behind the seller’s back. To be honest, I didn’t understand what it was. Either decomposed meat carcasses, or something wrapped in oiled paper. Okay, let's assume it's meat.

1964 Moscow. GUM. Gumov ice cream has always been popular. And in '64...

And in 1980...

And in 1987.

But, as they say, not just ice cream...

1965 In Soviet times, design was approached very simply. There weren't a bunch of stupid names. Stores in all cities had simple but clear names: “Bread”, “Milk”, “Meat”, “Fish”. In this case – “Gastronomic store”.

And here is the toy department. The store, therefore, is a department store. Still the same 1965. I remember that in 1987, a girl I knew, a saleswoman in the Dom Knigi store on Kalininsky, told me that she felt uncomfortable every time when foreigners froze in shock, watching her calculate the cost of a purchase on their accounts. But that was 1987, and in 1965 the scores did not surprise anyone. The department is visible in the background sports games. There are different types of chess, checkers, dominoes - a typical set. Well, lotto and games with dice and chips (some were very interesting). In the foreground is a children's rocking horse. I didn't have one.

Still the same 1965. Selling apples on the street. Please pay attention to the packaging - a paper bag (the woman in the foreground is putting apples in it). Such bags made of third-grade paper were all the time one of the most common types of Soviet packaging.

1966 Supermarket – Self-service department store. At the exit with purchases there is not a cashier with a cash register, but a saleswoman with bills. The check was threaded onto a special awl (standing in front of the abacus). On the shelves there is a typical set: something in packs (tea? tobacco? dry jelly?), then cognac and some bottles in general, and on the horizon - traditional Soviet pyramids of canned fish.

1968 There is progress. Instead of counting - cash registers. There are shopping baskets - by the way, quite a nice design. In the bottom left row you can see the buyer’s hand with a carton of milk - such characteristic pyramids. In Moscow there were two types: red (25 kopecks) and blue (16 kopecks). They were distinguished by their fat content. On the shelves, as far as one can discern, are traditional tin cans and bottles of sunflower oil (it seems). It is interesting that there are two sellers at the exit: a purchase checker and a cashier (her head peeks out from behind the right shoulder of the aunt-seller with a facial expression typical of a Soviet seller).

1972 Let's take a closer look at what was on the shelves. Sprats (by the way, they later became scarce), bottles of sunflower oil, some other canned fish, on the right - something like cans of condensed milk. There are very, very many cans. But there are very few names. Several types of canned fish, two types of milk, butter, kvass wort, what else?

1966 I still can’t figure out what exactly the buyers are looking at there.

1967 This is not Lenin's room. This is a department for the House of Books on Kalininsky. Today these shopping areas are chock-full of all kinds of books (on history, philosophy), and then - portraits of Lenin and the Politburo.

1967 For children - plastic astronauts. Very affordable - only 70 kopecks per piece.

1974 Typical grocery store. Again: a pyramid of canned fish, bottles of champagne, a battery of Globus green peas (Hungarian, it seems, or Bulgarian - I don’t remember). Half-liter jars with something like grated beets or horseradish with beets, packs of cigarettes, a bottle of Armenian cognac. On the right (behind the scales) are empty flasks for selling juice. The juice was usually: tomato (10 kopecks a glass), plum (12 or 15, I don’t remember), apple (same), grape (same). Sometimes in Moscow there was tangerine and orange (50 kopecks - wildly expensive). Next to such flasks there was always a saucer with salt, which you could add to your glass of tomato juice with a spoon (taken from a glass of water) and stir. I've always loved a glass of tomato juice.

1975 The city of Mirny. On the left, as far as one can judge, there are deposits of bagels, gingerbread and cookies - all in plastic bags. On the right are eternal canned fish and – below – 3-liter jars of canned cucumbers.

1975 The city of Mirny. General view store interior.

1979 Moscow. People are waiting for the end lunch break in the store. The showcase is decorated with a typical pictogram of the Vegetables and Fruits store. In the window itself there are jars of jam. And, it seems, of the same type.

1980 Novosibirsk General view of the supermarket. In the foreground are a battery of milk bottles. Next, in metal mesh containers, there are something like deposits of canned fish. In the background there is a grocery store - bags of flour and noodles. The overall dull landscape is somewhat enlivened by plastic icons of departments. We must pay tribute to the designers there - the pictograms are quite understandable. Not like Microsoft Word icons.

1980 Novosibirsk Manufactured goods. Furniture in the form of sofas and wardrobes. Next is the sports department (checkers, inflatable lifebuoys, billiards, dumbbells and various other small items). Even further, under the stairs there are televisions. In the background are partially empty shelves.

View of the same store from the household electrical appliances department. In the sports department we can distinguish life jackets and hockey helmets. Overall, this was probably one of the best stores Novosibirsk (I think so).

1980 Vegetable department. The line is tensely watching the saleswoman. In the foreground are green cucumbers that appeared in stores early spring(and then disappeared).

1980 Sausage. Krakow, it must be.

1981 Moscow. Typical store design. "Milk". On the right, a woman is pushing a wildly scarce imported stroller with “windows.”

1982 At the market, the Soviet people rested their souls.

1983 Queue for shoes. It’s no different that the imported boots were “thrown away.”

1987 Queue for something.

Kvass saleswoman. People went for kvass with aluminum cans or three-liter jars.

1987 Electrical goods.

No comments.

Soviet underwear, as it is. Without any colorful bourgeois packaging.

Particularly spiritual people do not need fashionable shoes. But the women in this photo don’t look very cheerful.

Also shoes... Where to go? There is no other one.

An almost sacred place is the meat department. “Communism is when every Soviet person will know a butcher” (from some movie).

“Pork” – 1 ruble 90 kopecks per kilogram. Grandmothers don't believe their eyes. “Butcher, bitch, he sold all the meat!”

Soviet turn. What an intense look from people - “is that enough?”

“The meat will be brought now. You’ll see, they’ll definitely bring it.”

"There's meat!" Local fight over the best piece.

Phallic symbol. It is enough to look at the reverence with which the aunt holds this object to understand that in the USSR sausage was much more than just a food product.

You need to cut more pieces of sausage, which will then be instantly swept off the counter.

Frozen hake is, of course, not sausage, but you can eat it too. Although, of course, it all doesn’t look very aesthetically pleasing.

Not just sausage... For a Soviet color TV, a Soviet person had to pay almost 4-6 months’ salary (“Electronics” costs 755 rubles).

Vegetable department. In the foreground is a cart with some kind of rot. Moreover, it was assumed that someone could buy this rot.

Ineradicable antagonism between Soviet buyers and Soviet sellers. It’s clear in the man’s eyes that he would gladly strangle the saleswoman. But it’s not so easy to strangle such a saleswoman - Soviet trade hardened people. Soviet saleswomen knew how to deal with customers. More than once I saw a flurry of indignation and attempts at rebellion in the queues, but the result was always the same - victory remained with such saleswomen.

One of the features of Sovk was the presence of a sophisticated system of benefits (all sorts of veterans, “prisoners of concentration camps”, etc.). Various beneficiaries with red crusts in Soviet queues were hated almost as much as saleswomen. Look, there’s a snout in the hat - not to take the allotted duck “like everyone else,” he puts in the red crust - apparently he’s laying claim to two ducks.

This photo is interesting not so much for the hake being sold, but for the packaging. In the USSR, almost all purchases were wrapped in this brown, rigid paper. In general, the darkest thing that happened in Soviet trade was packaging, which, in fact, did not exist.

There's still a queue.

And one more thing...

Suffering. No comments.

Those who didn't have time are late. Now spells won't help.

Queue at the dairy department.

“Our work is simple...”

Queue in the wine department.

1991 Well, this is already an apotheosis. Finita...

And this is a completely different queue, a queue of people who dreamed of escaping from Sovk, even for an hour. And no spirituality.

Is it true that in the Soviet Union every store had barrels of black caviar and it cost a penny? What was hard to get? Were there any queues? Was it possible to get normal products without cronyism? Is it true that the bread tasted better?

I don’t remember almost anything from Soviet times, I was too young and my parents didn’t take me to the shops. From the 90s I only remember that I had to walk through the forest to the Moscow Ring Road to get some bananas. I still don’t understand why we had to go get them; no one ate them anyway. I also remember on Tverskaya there was a very cool SweetSweetWay store, where they sold foreign-made candy. Now this place is the Etazh cafe (by the way, it’s a terrible garbage dump).

At the window of the shoe department of the Central Department Store, 1934.

Showcase, 1939.

Metropole Bookstore, 1939.

Showcase of the Eliseevsky grocery store, 1947.

At a tobacco shop window on Gorky Street, 1947.

At the window of the Moscow bookstore

Near a display case with oriental souvenirs, 1947.

1951 Moscow, Taganskaya Square. Shop

Kutuzovsky Prospekt, building 18 - display case with dishes. 1958 Since its construction, the residential building with shops on the ground floor has been popularly called the “Pink Department Store.” It was the first building to mark the line of the future Kutuzovsky Prospekt to the Novoarbatsky Bridge. Before its construction, Mozhaiskoe Highway smoothly turned into Dorogomilovskaya Street, and it was completely unclear why the house was being built at a strange angle to the existing streets. After opening, the Pink Department Store was the most popular store in the area, stocking everything from coats to needles. Well, the dishes too.

There is also a display case with TVs

St. Gorky. Radio goods store. 1960

St. Gorky. Showcase of the “Dietetic Products” store

"Ether" store.

Shop "Cheese"

St. Gorky. Showcase of the “Russian Wines” store

Showcase of the Toy House on Kutuzovsky Prospekt, 1960.

Department store Moscow, 1963.

Showcase and counters of a Moscow department store in the 70s.

Begovaya street, 1969.

Gorky Street. Moscow showcases. Men's Fashion Store, 1970.

Grocery store "Novoarbatsky"

On Malaya Gruzinskaya, 29. In V.S. Vysotsky’s favorite store

"House of Toys", 1975

Shop "Orbita"

Voentorg on Kalinin Avenue, 1979.

TSUM GUT MO

GUM

GUM. Grocery store window. 1984

Village Vostochny. Department store. 1985

Department store "Children's World". 1986

House of pedagogical books on Pushkinskaya. 1986

Passage of the Art Theater (Kamergersky Lane), 1986.

Showcase on Arbat

Melodiya store, 1989.

Department store "Moskovsky"

Don't sell, give away

After the Civil War, the leadership of the young country decided to resort to the help of private traders in supply matters and was right.

The new economic policy announced in the fall of 1921 allowed private trade along with state and cooperative trade. And already in 1922-1923, the share of private trade in retail trade turnover reached 75.3%. Thanks to this in short terms solved the problem of providing the population with essential products.

However, in December 1925, the Kremlin began industrializing the country, for which it needed foreign currency to buy high-tech equipment. Raw material prices - main article Soviet exports then fell due to the crisis. The export of agricultural products could help, but the peasants did not want to hand them over to the state. low prices, but tried to sell it to private owners at a greater profit.

In December 1925, the Kremlin began industrialization of the country, for which currency was needed - to buy high-tech equipment

And the Kremlin followed the path of repression - the peasants began to be dispossessed and driven en masse into collective farms, and private owners were removed from the supply sector, making it centralized.

Such actions immediately led to a crisis. Products disappeared from the stores, for which huge lines lined up with fights and pogroms. Local authorities, in order to curb the wild demand, began to introduce rationed sales of goods, but this did not help. Bread cards appeared - they were first introduced in Odessa in the second quarter of 1928. In the same year, bread cards came to Kyiv, Dnepropetrovsk, Kherson, Mariupol, and at the beginning of 1929 - to Kharkov. At the same time, due to a shortage of grain, the state stopped selling flour to the population. Outbreaks of famine began throughout the Union, including in Ukraine.

The situation in industry was deteriorating - half-starved workers went on strike, which threatened to disrupt industrialization plans. As a result, the entire country followed the path trodden by the Odessa residents: on February 14, 1929, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks approved a resolution on an all-Union rationing system for the distribution of bread.

In Moscow and Leningrad, as Russian historian Elena Osokina notes in her book Behind the facade of “Stalinist abundance,” workers were entitled to 900 g of bread per day, members of their families and other workers - 500 g, and the proletariat of other cities of the Union - 300-600 g per day. day. Peasants were not given cards.

Workers were entitled to 900 g of bread per day, members of their families and other workers - 500 g, and the proletariat of other cities of the Union - 300-600 g per day. Peasants were not given cards.

In January 1931, cards were introduced for basic food and non-food products. At the same time, the population (according to its importance for the cause of industrialization) was divided into four lists - special, first, second and third. The first two included workers of strategic enterprises in Moscow, Leningrad, Donbass and other industrial regions. In the second and third - workers and employees of non-industrial cities and factories that produced consumer goods. The peasants were again left behind.

The wealthiest people in those years were senior party workers, who received so-called letter rations, which included all basic food products.

Thus, by the 1930s, trade in the USSR turned into the distribution of goods: each category of the population had access to its own types of distributors.

By market laws Only commercial stores and collective farm markets were open, where prices were several times higher than state prices. Another category of points where goods could be purchased, rather than received with a card, was the network of currency exchange shops. Initially, they were aimed at foreigners, but in the fall of 1931 they were also opened for Soviet citizens, who could shop there by handing over gold, silver or antiques. It was Torgsin that helped many peasants survive during the famine years of 1932-1933: more than 80% of the goods sold through this network at that time were food products, of which 60% were bread.

By the 1930s, trade in the USSR had turned into the distribution of goods: each category of the population had access to its own types of distributors

Cards were briefly canceled only at the beginning of 1936, but trade remained rationed throughout. A new crisis began in 1939 with the outbreak of war against Poland and then Finland. In cities where supplies were better, huge queues of locals and visitors formed, which they tried to fight with the help of the police.

“The issue of clothing in Kyiv is extremely difficult,” noted a certain Kiev resident N. S. Kovalev in a letter to the head of the Council of People’s Commissars, Vyacheslav Molotov, at the end of 1939. - Queues of thousands of people have been gathering at stores for textiles and ready-made clothes since the evening. The police line up somewhere a block away in an alley, and then the “lucky” ones, five to ten people in single file, one behind the other (so that no one jumps the queue), surrounded by policemen, like prisoners, are led to the store. In these conditions, terrible speculation flourishes.”

In July 1941, with the outbreak of war, the card system was reintroduced in the USSR, which was eliminated only at the end of 1947. But for many years, some of the goods were actually distributed. For example, as Vitaly Kovalinsky, a Kiev historian, says, in the 1950s flour was sold to the population according to lists, and only three times a year - on New Year, on the First of May and on November 7, the anniversary of the October Revolution.

Focus on consumption

The situation began to change in better side in the late 1950s. At this moment, the Kremlin decided to focus on the development of the food and light industries. As a result, the assortment in stores began to change qualitatively, where bread began to replace other products as the basis of nutrition.

“Share of bread and bakery products in the country’s retail turnover in 1940 was 17.2%, in 1950 - already 12.6%, and currently - about 6%,” wrote the magazine Soviet Trade in April 1960.

In August of the same year, a decree was issued on improving trade, after which wholesale fairs began to be held in the country, where enterprises showed samples of goods to representatives trade organizations, and they, in turn, decided who to buy what from. The specter of market relations loomed over the country, but it did not radically change the situation.

The stores, says Nina Goloshubova, a professor at the Kyiv National Trade and Economic University, were strictly attached to a specific supplier.

Before this, resources were distributed among the republics by the USSR State Planning Committee. The stores, says Nina Goloshubova, a professor at the Kyiv National Trade and Economic University, were strictly attached to a specific supplier. This created not only a shortage, but also a monotony of goods on the shelves, which remained stale, because the industry produced products in very large quantities, without any focus on demand.

However, the innovation only made the situation a little easier. And it did not at all solve the problem of defects, which was all-pervasive in the Union: under a planned economy, producers had guaranteed sales, and they were not too worried about quality.

“Government oversight bodies in the USSR Gosstandart system inspected 1,788 enterprises of the Ministry of Light Industry in 1973 and found that 60% of them produced products in violation of standards,” wrote Soviet Trade in January 1975. “The supply of 364 types of products to the retail chain was prohibited.”

Government initiatives have not spared stores from another feature - mass dumping of goods. They happened, as a rule, at the end of the month and were echoes of enterprises’ attempts to fulfill monthly, quarterly and annual plans.

Soviet buyers quickly adapted to these subtleties. For example, in Kyiv, in the courtyard of the Ukraine department store, a crowd often gathered towards the end of the month, waiting for a “stuffing”. The gathering place was no coincidence: Kiev residents knew about one more feature of the stores - their management, so as not to create long queues at trading floors, sometimes ordered to sell the deficit right in the yard, at the unloading site.

Top of the consumption pyramid

Since the 1930s, a class of “special” buyers arose in the USSR, which existed until the very end of the Soviet system. We could be talking about different categories of the population - military, pensioners, low-income people - who were allocated and sold goods that were inaccessible to other citizens. But the real caste of privileged clients became the party and economic nomenklatura.

For the elite, everything was special: special state farms grew food, special workshops produced other products, then all this was supplied to special stores or special canteens, in which special buyers had the right to purchase all this at special prices (very wallet-friendly). The infrastructure was very extensive; it could cover almost all needs, including sewing clothes.

“There was a studio opposite the bank [the current National Bank],” recalls the daughter of one of the employees of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR on condition of anonymity. “There were really good craftsmen there, but not everyone was allowed to sew clothes there.”

Since the 1930s, a class of “special” buyers arose in the USSR, which existed until the very end of the Soviet system

The entire special system worked in conditions similar to underground ones: the Soviet leadership really did not want to irritate its people. However, this was an open secret. Moreover, ordinary citizens have even learned to use inaccessible benefits.

For example, in the central part of Kyiv there were many grocery stores with special departments. Thanks to them in open sale From time to time, scarce goods would arrive and linger on the distribution shelves. People even began to call such retail outlets “scraps stores,” and it was here that Kievans hunted for what was not available in the general retail network.

In addition to the elite, people who worked under contract abroad joined the sweet life. They received their salaries in foreign currency checks and could purchase them in a network of special stores, such as Kashtan, where inexpensive Soviet deficit and imported products were sold.

“We mainly went there to buy shoes,” says Valentina Aleksandrova, the daughter of a specialist who worked abroad. “Because we had a lot of shoes in our stores, but they were of poor quality and ugly.”

System collapse

This entire multi-level distribution system led to the emergence of a super-elite class of merchants - directors and salesmen, not only special ones, but also regular stores, heads of bases, warehouses, and other suppliers. They became heroes of folklore and an object close attention employees of departments for combating the theft of socialist property as offenders, making money from deficits, selling under the counter. But under the planned system it turned out to be impossible to overcome this problem.

Meanwhile, Soviet trade was ruined not by crooks and speculators, but by the general problems of the state, which got involved in the Afghan war, faced falling oil prices and was unable to meet the needs of the population by spending money on the defense industry.

What ruined Soviet trade was not crooks and speculators, but the general problems of the state, which got involved in the Afghan war, faced falling oil prices and was unable to meet the needs of the population by spending money on the defense industry

As a result, from the second half of the 1980s, the trade situation began to deteriorate. “Shopping trips are becoming increasingly useless, since almost every day promises us a new shortage,” wrote Soviet Trade in January 1990. “Of the 1,200 basic goods monitored by VNIIKS [the Institute of Trade and Demand for Consumer Goods] specialists in 140 cities across the country, only 200 trade relatively smoothly.”

In conditions of increasingly unsatisfied demand, the population periodically rushed to buy the most ordinary products. This is what happened in Kyiv in 1988 with sugar, which was literally swept off the shelves. The authorities had to restrict its sale. “We introduced sugar coupons in Kyiv,” recalls Anatoly Statinov, the last Minister of Trade of the Ukrainian SSR. “Because there was such rush demand in the city that stores sold up to three months’ worth of sugar per month.”

But neither coupons nor other measures solved the problem of the growing deficit. Only the abandonment of the socialist planning system and the transition to the market very quickly filled store shelves with a variety of goods. But this no longer has anything to do with Soviet trade.

Retail trade in the USSR

In the first years of Soviet power, the problem of organizing the food supply of workers was especially acute. The first measures of the Soviet state were the introduction of workers' control over production and distribution, the creation on October 26 (November 8), 1917 of the People's Commissariat of Food (Narkomprod) to ensure a centralized supply of goods to the population and organize the procurement of agricultural products. In May - June 1918, due to the aggravation of supply difficulties, emergency measures were taken to resolve the food issue. The “Decree on Food Dictatorship” was adopted, which gave the People's Commissar of Food emergency powers to combat the rural bourgeoisie who were hiding grain and speculating in it; decrees on the reorganization of the People's Commissariat for Food and its local bodies and on the organization of committees of the rural poor (kombedov). Much attention was paid consumer cooperation, which was involved in trade services the entire population. In 1918, a state monopoly was established on trade in the most important consumer goods (bread, salt, sugar, fabrics, etc.), and a ban on private trade was introduced. Trading networks and wholesale warehouses were transferred to the People's Commissariat for Food and its local authorities. These measures undermined the economic positions of capitalist elements, the fight against speculation intensified, and opportunities were created to improve the supply of workers. During the Civil War and foreign intervention of 1918-20. a centralized, rationed distribution of consumer goods was established (i.e., in fact, the “card system” first introduced by the Provisional Government in 1917 was revived). The main form of procurement of agricultural products was the “food appropriation” introduced in 1919, which made it possible to concentrate in the hands of the state the necessary resources to supply workers in industrial centers and the army.

With the transition to the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1921, “prodrazvyorstka” was replaced by a food tax, small private trade was again allowed, but subject to strict control by the relevant government agencies. With its revival, the need for a card system disappeared. Importance and high economic efficiency private small trade is proven by the fact that, as of 1924, the private sector owned 88% of enterprises retail, its share in retail turnover was 53%. The Soviet state began organizing domestic trade and regulating market relations throughout the national economy with wholesale trade. The marketing of large-scale industry products was carried out by its governing bodies: since 1922, a special apparatus, industry syndicates and other government organizations (commodity exchanges, fairs, etc.) began to be created. Cooperative trade also played a major role in wholesale trade turnover during this period. As socialist forms of economy strengthened in the country's economy and state and cooperative trade developed, private intermediaries were forced out, first of all, from wholesale and then from retail trade. This was facilitated by the state policy of taxes, tariffs, credit, price reduction, provision of financial assistance cooperation and other economic measures.

The transition to industrialization, the growth of urban population and monetary incomes significantly increased the demand for goods, and small-scale agriculture could not ensure a rapid increase in the production of food and industrial raw materials. This necessitated the transition in 1928 to a rationed supply of basic goods to the population using ration cards. As state commodity resources increased, “commercial” trade was introduced at higher prices. Along with the development of cooperative trade, state retail trade grew. Since 1928, the creation of “closed” distributors began, supplying goods to workers and employees, enterprises “attached” to them, and in 1932 they were replaced by labor supply departments (ORS). Collective farm trade was allowed, not planned by the state, where prices were set under the influence of supply and demand. As a result of the increase in commodity resources and the development of trade, in 1935 the card system was finally abolished and free open trade was established. In 1935-1941, uniform state retail prices were introduced; organizationally rebuilt vending machine. ORS enterprises and cooperative trading networks in cities were transferred to state trading organizations. The main area of activity of consumer cooperation was the development of trade in rural areas. The volume of retail turnover of state and cooperative trade for the years 1928-40 increased by 2.3 times; the number of retail trade and public catering enterprises increased from 170 thousand to 495 thousand. The turnover of public catering enterprises in 1940 accounted for 13% of the total turnover of state and cooperative trade. The share of socialized forms of trade in the total volume of retail trade turnover has increased.

During the Great Patriotic War, the system of state rationed supplies covered up to 77 million people. The share of public catering in retail trade turnover has almost doubled. On industrial enterprises ORSs were organized again. Throughout the war years, ration prices for basic food and industrial goods remained at pre-war levels. At the collective farm markets, prices rose at the beginning of the war, but already in 1944 their level dropped noticeably due to the “commercial” trade in food and industrial goods. Having decreased significantly in 1942 (compared to 1940), retail trade turnover has been continuously increasing since 1943, and by 1945 it reached a level of 200%. At the same time, in the eastern regions trade turnover grew faster than in the country as a whole.

Despite the enormous difficulties caused by the war, open trade was established at the end of 1947. A major role in this was played by the preparation of the appropriate technical base, the restoration and expansion of fixed assets of domestic trade, the selection and training of sales personnel. By 1950 centralized retail chains fully recovered, and trade turnover exceeded the pre-war level (the 1950 figure was 107% of the 1940 level).

Thus, the main specific feature of Soviet store retail trade can be called its complete subordination to the centralized government agencies. The process of trade centralization began in the USSR in the second half of the 1920s, immediately after the winding down of the New Economic Policy. As a result, the private sector's share of retail trade initially declined from 50% in 1924 to 30% in 1927. And in 1932, private trade was completely prohibited by law. The same fate befell the cooperative trading sector: if in the same 1932 its share, against the background of a decrease in the number of private traders, increased to almost 60% of the total trade turnover, then by 1940 this figure barely reached 25%.

Domestic trade plays a big role in raising the living standards of the population of the USSR. Its development is characterized by high and sustainable rates, corresponding to the growth of incomes and effective demand of the population. In 1975, about 4/5 of all material goods entering personal consumption were sold through domestic trade. More than 7% of all workers and employees of the national economy are employed in trade and public catering.

IN pre-revolutionary Russia private trade predominated. In 1913, almost three-quarters of the country's total trade turnover was in cities, where only 18% of the population lived. The low purchasing power of the rural population forced the Russian bourgeoisie to look for foreign markets sales During the First World War (1914-18), the production of goods decreased. By 1917, prices for industrial goods had increased 4.3 times compared to 1913 (5 times for clothing and footwear), and 5.6 times for food products. Since March 1917, the bourgeois Provisional Government introduced a card system. Speculation developed. There is a food crisis in the country.

In the first years of Soviet power, the problem of organizing the food supply of workers was especially acute. The first measures of the Soviet state were the introduction of workers' control over production and distribution, the creation on October 26 (November 8), 1917 of the People's Commissariat of Food (Narkomprod) to ensure a centralized supply of goods to the population and organize the procurement of agricultural products. In May-June 1918, due to the aggravation of supply difficulties, emergency measures were taken to resolve the food issue. The following were adopted: The Decree on the Food Dictatorship, which gave the People's Commissar of Food emergency powers to combat the rural bourgeoisie who were hiding grain and speculating in it; decrees on the reorganization of the People's Commissariat for Food and its local bodies and on the organization of committees of the rural poor (kombedov). Much attention was paid to consumer cooperation, which was involved in trade services for the entire population. In 1918, a state monopoly was established on trade in the most important consumer goods (bread, salt, sugar, textiles, etc.). Private trade was prohibited. The trading network and wholesale warehouses were transferred to the People's Commissariat for Food and its local authorities. These measures undermined the economic positions of capitalist elements, the fight against speculation intensified, and opportunities were created to improve the supply of workers. During the period of the Civil War and foreign intervention of 1918-20, a centralized rationed distribution of consumer goods (card system) was established. The main form of procurement of agricultural products was the food appropriation system introduced in 1919, which made it possible to concentrate in the hands of the state the necessary resources to supply workers in industrial centers and the army.

With the transition to the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1921, food appropriation was replaced by a food tax, small private trade was allowed under state control, and the rationing system was abolished. In 1924, the private sector owned 88% of retail trade enterprises, its share in retail turnover was 53%. The Soviet state began organizing domestic trade and regulating market relations throughout the national economy with wholesale trade. The marketing of the products of large industry was carried out by its governing bodies. Since 1922, a special apparatus began to be created: industry syndicates and other state organizations (commodity exchanges and fairs). Cooperative trade also played a major role in wholesale trade turnover during this period. As socialist forms of economy strengthened in the country's economy and state and cooperative trade developed, private intermediaries were forced out, first of all, from wholesale and then from retail trade. This was facilitated by the government's policies of taxes, tariffs, credit, price reductions, financial assistance to cooperation and other economic measures.

The gradual strengthening of the position of socialized trade made it possible already in 1925-26 to move on to planning the delivery of the most important consumer goods to the main economic regions and to strengthen the role of planning in market relations. At the same time, the private sector was being squeezed out of the procurement sector. As a result, by the end of 1927, the socialized sector of domestic trade accounted for over 65% of trade turnover. The question of “who wins whom” in this area of the economy was resolved in favor of socialism. Contracting, which was used in the system of procurement of agricultural products, received noticeable development. In 1931 private trade ceased to exist; in 1932 it was prohibited by law. If large wholesale trade is concentrated in the hands government organizations, then in the field of retail trade, consumer cooperation began to play a predominant role, replacing private resellers.

The transition to industrialization, the growth of urban population and monetary income means. increased the demand for goods, and small-scale agriculture could not provide a rapid increase in the production of food and industrial raw materials. This necessitated the transition in 1928 to a rationed supply of basic goods to the population using ration cards. As state commodity resources increased, “commercial” trade was introduced at higher prices. Along with the development of cooperative trade, state retail trade grew. Since 1928, closed distributors were created that supplied workers and employees of the enterprises attached to them with goods; in 1932 they were replaced by labor supply departments (OSS). Demonstration department stores, grocery stores, and a number of specialized stores selling food and beverage products were organized. light industry etc. A network of industrial wholesale distribution bases was created. Collective farm trade was allowed, not planned by the state, where prices were set under the influence of supply and demand. As a result of the increase in commodity resources and the development of trade, in 1935 the card system was abolished and free, open trade was established. In 1935-1941, unified state retail prices were introduced; the sales apparatus was organizationally restructured. ORS enterprises and cooperative trading networks in cities were transferred to state trading organizations. The main area of activity of consumer cooperation was the development of trade in rural areas.

The volume of retail turnover of state and cooperative trade for 1928-40 increased 2.3 times; the number of retail trade and public catering enterprises increased from 170 thousand to 495 thousand. The turnover of public catering enterprises in 1940 accounted for 13% of the total turnover of state and cooperative trade. The share of socialized forms of trade in the total volume of retail trade turnover has increased (see Table 1).

During the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45, the system of state rationed supplies covered up to 77 million people. The share of public catering in retail trade turnover has almost doubled. ORSs were again organized at industrial enterprises. Throughout the war years, ration prices for basic food and industrial goods remained at pre-war levels. At the collective farm markets, prices rose at the beginning of the war, but already in 1944 their level dropped noticeably due to the “commercial” trade in food and industrial goods. Retail trade turnover, which had significantly decreased in 1942 compared to 1940, began to increase continuously in 1943; in 1945 it doubled compared to 1942. At the same time, in the eastern regions trade turnover grew faster than in the country as a whole.

Table 1. -- Share of individual forms of trade in actual prices in the total volume of trade turnover, %

Despite the enormous difficulties caused by the war, at the end of 1947 the card system (introduced in 1941) was abolished and open trade was established. A major role in this was played by the preparation of the appropriate technical base, the restoration and expansion of fixed assets of domestic trade, the selection and training of sales personnel. By 1950, the trading network had been restored and the pre-war level of retail turnover had been surpassed. Its volume in 1950 reached 107% of the 1940 level.

The main form of Soviet trade is state trade, based on public property. The majority of goods entering the domestic market are sold through it; it plays a leading role in the country’s retail trade turnover (see Table 2). State trade serves mainly the urban population; through its organizations, a significant portion of potatoes, vegetables, melons and fruits is also purchased from collective and state farms.

Cooperative trade serves mainly the rural population through consumer cooperation, which also purchases agricultural products (eggs, wool, furs and some other types of raw materials, potatoes, vegetables, melons, fruits, etc.) from collective farms, state farms and the rural population. Consumer cooperation also conducts commission trade in agricultural products, mainly in cities, at prices, as a rule, slightly higher than state retail prices, but lower than prices on the collective farm market.

Table 2. -- Retail turnover of state and cooperative trade

Along with state and cooperative trade, collective farm trade is conducted - the sale by collective farms, collective farmers and other citizens of surplus agricultural products on collective farm markets. State and cooperative retail trade affects the collective farm market: the better and more fully the demand is satisfied through state trade, the less demand for the products of the collective farm market and the lower the level market prices. In relation between various forms trade in consumer goods reveals a certain trend: the role state trade is growing, and the collective farm market is decreasing, with a certain stabilization of the share of cooperative trade in the country’s total trade turnover (see Table 3).

Table 3. -- Share of state, cooperative and collective farm trade in actual prices in the total volume of retail trade turnover, %

Table 4. -- The ratio of food and Not food products in the total volume of trade turnover of state and cooperative trade, %

The development of domestic trade is due to the expansion of the production of goods and the increase in cash incomes of the population and is characterized by the dynamics of retail trade turnover, which is naturally characterized by high growth rates. Thus, in 1975, retail trade turnover was 8.5 times higher than the volume of trade turnover in 1940, and per capita increased from 92 rubles. up to 827 rub. (at prices of the corresponding years). Retail turnover is characterized by progressive qualities. changes in the commodity structure, reflecting the growth in material well-being and cultural level of the population (see section Welfare of the people (See USSR. Welfare of the people)). This is expressed, first of all, in an increase in the share of non-food goods in the total volume of trade turnover (see Table 4), and within this group - the share of cultural, household and household goods (radio, electrical, sporting goods, furniture, dishes etc.). Growing in the group of food products specific gravity more nutritionally valuable products (meat, fish, dairy products, eggs, vegetables, fruits) and the share of baked goods and potatoes is reduced.

Table 5. -- Retail turnover of state and cooperative trade, including public catering, in the Union republics, billion rubles.

The pattern of development of trade turnover is a higher rate of growth per capita in rural areas in comparison with cities, it contributes to the gradual convergence of living conditions of the urban and rural population (in 1940, trade turnover per capita of the urban population was 5.2 times higher than in the countryside, in 1960 - 3.2 times, and in 1975 - 2.3 times). The rapid development of the economy and culture of the union republics also leads to higher growth rates of trade turnover in these republics (see Table 5).

A large specific branch of domestic trade, which combines the functions of production, sale of prepared food and organization of its consumption by the population, is public catering. It is an important link in the system of social and economic events state, has a significant impact on saving time, increasing labor productivity, has great value in the socialist reconstruction of life, helps to increase the role of women in social production, making their household work easier. The turnover of public catering is constantly increasing (see Table 6). Important economic indicator efficiency of domestic trade - distribution costs associated with the costs of bringing goods from production to consumers (see Table 7). The general level of distribution costs for the entire amount of retail trade turnover (including public catering) decreased from 11% in 1940 to 9% in 1975.

Table 6. -- Development of public catering

The material and technical base of retail trade includes an extensive network of shops, canteens, cafes, restaurants and snack bars. Since the late 50s. The material and technical base of domestic trade expanded and strengthened (more productive types of commercial equipment, new technological processes and methods of selling goods were introduced). In retail trade, supermarkets, department stores, stores of complex demand are mainly created (“Everything for men”, “Everything for women”, “Everything for the home”, etc.), as well as specialized stores selling a diverse range of goods with progressive trading methods and public services (self-service, sale of goods based on samples). These stores are equipped with modern trade equipment designed for the delivery and sale of goods without additional repacking, refrigeration and cash register equipment, complex mechanization means for moving goods at all stages of the trade technological process. In the 60-70s. a modern retail and public catering network, large warehouse complexes, refrigerators, vegetable, potato, fruit storage facilities, etc. were created. During this period, large shopping centers appeared, both urban and rural, and the creation of specialized trading houses began. The industry is equipped with electronic equipment. For 1961--75 shopping area stores doubled (see Table 8), the provision of the population with a retail network (per 1000 inhabitants) increased by 88%, increased general indicators development of domestic trade (see Table 9).

As of January 1, 1976, the turnover of stores using progressive methods of selling goods amounted to 58% of the total turnover, including sales using the self-service method - 48%. In addition, such forms of trade are used as sales on pre-orders, on credit, home delivery of goods; parcel trade, etc.

In wholesale trade, large mechanized warehouses are built with high-altitude storage of goods (storage area up to 25 thousand m2), distribution refrigerators with a capacity of up to 15 thousand tons, storage facilities for potatoes, vegetables and fruits with a capacity of up to 10 thousand tons with active and general ventilation devices are used comprehensive mechanization and automation of the main technological processes transportation, storage and commodity processing, package and container transportation are used, methods of centralized delivery of goods to retail enterprises are being introduced according to rational patterns of movement of goods; are being created automated systems management (ACS) of technological and commercial operations. In public catering, industrial methods of work are being introduced using semi-finished products and advanced technologies for processing raw materials and preparing food based on the mechanization of all labor processes; production is being intensified. processes based on high-performance conveyor equipment based on the achievements of science and technology in processing technology food products(ultrahigh-frequency and infrared heating, etc.). Catering establishments are being transferred to serving set meals and are equipped with sectional modulated equipment, the latest types thermal and technological equipment, unified functional packaging, mechanized lunch distribution lines such as “Effect”, “Slavyanka”, “Progress”, which increase labor productivity by 1.5-2 times.

In the development of domestic trade, it is important trade advertising. Advertising services have been created in state and cooperative trade, in industrial ministries and departments whose enterprises produce consumer goods, in the Ministry of Consumer Services, etc. In the state trade system there are specialized advertising organizations. The Interdepartmental Advertising Council under the USSR Ministry of Trade coordinates advertising activities various departments and organizations in the country.

Organization of internal trade. Organizationally senior management public administration internal trade and the center of the entire trading system is the Ministry of Trade of the USSR, which, through the main departments, the ministries of trade of the union and autonomous republics, trade and public catering management bodies of the executive committees of local Soviets, coordinates the development of wholesale, retail trade and public catering, regulates trading activities other ministries and departments. Separate trading systems have their own central governing bodies (Central Union of the USSR, Glavursy of industrial ministries, Main Directorate of Book Trade, etc.).

Table 7. -- Distribution costs in trade (in % of turnover)

Table 8 -- Development of trade and warehouse network

Table 9 -- Main indicators of trade development for 1960-75

Wholesale trade is concentrated in the republican ministries of trade, which have specialized enterprises and associations for the wholesale trade of individual groups of goods: Meat and Fish Trade, Groceries, Textile Trade, Trade Clothes, Shoes Trade, Haberdashery, Cultural Trade, Household Trade. Wholesale trade has a network of trading bases, refrigerators, and cold storage plants located in areas where goods are produced and consumed. Wholesale trade of consumer cooperation is headed by the Central Union of the USSR and is of an intradepartmental nature. The bulk of wholesale operations in consumer cooperation are carried out by universal interdistrict bases of regional (territorial) and republican unions of consumer societies and warehouses of district consumer unions. Wholesale trade Some consumer goods are also managed by a number of other ministries and departments of the USSR: the Ministry of Procurement of the USSR (grain products), the Ministry of Food Industry of the USSR (oil and fat products), the Ministry of Fisheries of the USSR (fish products), the State Supply Committee of the USSR. In addition to trade in consumer goods, there are wholesale organizations on procurement, purchasing and marketing of agricultural products and raw materials, logistics.

However, the bony hand of hunger and shortage grabbed them by the throat so much that Lenin had to step on the throat of even his fanatical supporters and announce the NEP. But now Stalin is in power, and by the beginning of the 30s he returns the Soviet communists, so to speak, to the “true path” of public ownership of the means of production and everything else.

The fight against private ownership began around 1926 - 1927. In 1930, the share of private traders in trade turnover decreased to 5.6%, and in 1931 it practically disappeared. “If trade at the first stage of the NEP,” said Comrade Stalin at the January (1933) plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, “allowed for the revival of capitalism and the functioning of the private capitalist sector in trade turnover, then Soviet trade is based on the denial of both another. What is Soviet trade? Soviet trade is trade without capitalists - small and large, trade without speculators - small and large. This is a special kind of trade, which history has never seen before and which only we Bolsheviks practice in conditions Soviet development»

As an inevitable consequence of this dubious “victory over the private trader” already in 1928-1929. A card trading system was created. It was caused by a severe shortage of many extremely necessary goods, primarily food products. By the end of 1929, the card system was extended to almost all food products, and then to industrial goods, especially clothing and shoes. Instead of free purchase and sale of goods, commodities took place, which were carried out according to the so-called “fence documents” through closed distributors, closed worker cooperatives, and labor supply departments. Each region had its own form, its own procedure for issuing all kinds of cards. Established different categories population, each category had its own supply standards. For absenteeism and leaving the enterprise, the worker was deprived of his card. There were special stores to which the best factory workshops were attached. So hunger and the distribution system became the most important factor obedience of citizens to authorities. However, this already happened during the Civil War.

From Special Report No. 2 INFO OGPU:
Factory "Red Stamper". At a meeting dedicated to the issues of the “Address of the Central Committee,” out of 200 people, only 12 people voted for self-confidence. Regarding shock work, one worker said this: “You can work like a shock worker if you eat like a shock worker, but you have shoes and clothes, but with a hungry belly and a warrant in your pocket, you won’t do much.”
Trampark im. Konyashina. During a rally of drummers, one of the workers said: “What kind of competition can there be when we are all hungry and working for nothing.” The speech was met with applause from part of the meeting.

On March 15, 1930, taking into account local excesses, the Central Committee of the Party, in a letter to all Central Committees of the National Communist Parties, regional, regional, district and regional party committees “On the fight against distortions of the party line in the collective farm movement,” obliges local party organizations: “To prevent the closure of markets, to restore bazaars and not to hinder the sale by peasants, including collective farmers, of their products on the market”

As we see, in a fierce struggle with private traders, in some places in Soviet cities they even closed traditional food markets, where peasants had been selling their products to townspeople for thousands of years...

The fight against the private owner took place both in the city and in the countryside. It was necessary to involve significant forces of repressive authorities. The most large-scale action took place, of course, in the countryside, because the authorities decided not only to take away the property of the strongest peasants, but also to liquidate the peasants themselves as independent owners, independent of the authorities. According to Doctor of Historical Sciences, famous researcher of repressions V.N. Zemskov, in total about 4 million people were dispossessed, of which 2.5 million went into kulak exile in 1930-1940, during this period 600 thousand people died in exile.

The May 1931 document of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Union states: “...The consumer cooperatives forgot that the displacement of the private trader and private trade does not mean the destruction of all trade, that, on the contrary, the displacement of private trade presupposes the comprehensive development of Soviet trade and the deployment of a network of cooperative and state trade organizations throughout the USSR.” Well, of course, after all, 1931-1933. These are years of terrible famine with millions of deaths. The authorities had to say something about this, and decided to blame it on careless Soviet cooperators who could not replace private traders in the food trade.

The extent of the food shortage in the country is evidenced by the facts of a sharp reduction by 1933 in state food reserves. On February 9, 1931, according to the People's Commissar of Supply of the USSR A.I. Mikoyan, there were 1011 million poods of food grain on the balance sheet; in January 1933, their actual availability, according to the results of the inventory carried out by the Reserves Committee at the USSR Service Station, amounted to 342 million poods, i.e. decreased by almost 3 times.

Hunger forced workers to go to canteens with whole families, otherwise there was no way to survive. But the atmosphere in the dining rooms was still...

From Special Report No. 23 INFO OGPU about interruptions in food supply to industrial areas and cities:
"Moscow district. In the canteen of the Needle Factory, oatmeal made from poor-quality cereals is served daily. There were 4 cases of fainting among female workers due to malnutrition.

In the canteen of brick factories No. 21 and 26 (Podolsk district), a number of cases of food being made from spoiled meat and rotten roach were noted.

Leningrad region. Factory "Vozrozhdenie". In the factory canteen, about 50 workers go without lunch almost every day. The dining room's capacity is low due to a shortage of utensils.

At the Shipyard (Stalingrad), there were cases when there was no bread in the shops for 2-3 days... Tractor Plant (Stalingrad). There is no place to repair shoes, many workers have to walk without shoes...When the issue of white bread in Stalingrad, the queues at the distributors reached up to 1000 people... The provision of public catering in the canteens of the Central Regional Commission of Astrakhan and Stalingrad continues to deteriorate...Traktorostroy. The lunches delivered to the construction site are poorly prepared, especially the pea soup, which comes almost every day."

Heavily reduced by the state market relations continued to exist in commercial trade, the Torgsin system and the collective farm market. “Commercial” stores appeared in the USSR in 1929.” These were state-owned stores in which goods were sold without cards, but at higher prices, which on average were 3-4 times higher than the prices for products sold with cards. In 1932, “commercial” stores accounted for a tenth of the country’s retail turnover.

In 1931, TORGSIN joined the network of commercial stores. In the hungry year of 1933, people brought 45 tons of pure gold and almost 1.5 tons of silver to the Torgsinov network. With these funds they purchased 235,000 tons of flour, 65,000 tons of cereals and rice, 25,000 tons of sugar. In 1933, food products accounted for 80% of all goods sold in Torgsin, with cheap rye flour accounting for almost half of all sales. The hungry exchanged their last savings for bread. Torgsin's analysis of prices indicates that during the famine, the Bolsheviks sold food to their subject citizens at much higher prices than abroad. In 1933, Torgsin twice increased the price of bread and flour, but the demand for these products did not fall. This year, in Torgsin, among the goods, bread had the highest foreign exchange profitability: in the first half of 1933, Torgsin’s revenue for the bread/flour group exceeded their export price by more than 5 times! Due to the terrible famine, Torgsin in 1933 came out on top among all Soviet exporters in terms of gross foreign exchange earnings. People went to great lengths to survive. Thus, the Bolsheviks in practice proved the truth of the well-known statement that at 300% there is no crime that capital would not risk committing. And in this story the profit was much more than 300%!

As we see, the Stalinist government decided to make money from people themselves instead of private traders. In the absence of free competition, it could raise prices almost indefinitely and did this during the famine period completely unscrupulously.

Sources:

1. I.V. Stalin, “Questions of Leninism”, ed. 11th, p. 390.

2. Special report No. 2 INFO OGPU on facts of a negative nature during the implementation of the appeal of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks dated September 3, 1930 November 14, 1930