초록 열기/닫기 버튼

The purpose of this article lies in the understanding of the material basis for everyday life of the Moscow factory worker's family in the period of the New Economic Policy. At first, it analyses the statistics of their budget, in order to get the general understanding of material basis of their living. It is not confined to it, but extended to the analysis of observations of contemporaries on their everyday life. This certainly helps to prove the statistical analysis from the intro-perspective of workers themselves and to vitalize the abstract statistics. The living standard of the Moscow factory workers in the 1920's steadily increased, especially compared to the critical years of 1918-1921. The standard of their wages in the second half of the 1920's surpassed that of prewar days, while the index in expenses for food and clothes caught up with that of prewar days. Especially the nutrition for the workers demonstrated a substantial improvement. Generally speaking, the income and expense of workers' family in the second half of 1920's improved without any doubt, compared to those of pre-revolutionary Russia. However, a careful analysis on the household budget of worker's family as well as contemporary observations prove that worker's families in the big cities still suffered from the poverty. The tangible improvement did not help much to solving the nutrition problems nor overcoming the necessities. It did not even meet the expectations of the workers after the 7 years of war. The condition of housing in the cities was especially the case. Many of workers were disappointed with these everyday problems, therefore it deepened their discontents to the political system in those days.


The purpose of this article lies in the understanding of the material basis for everyday life of the Moscow factory worker's family in the period of the New Economic Policy. At first, it analyses the statistics of their budget, in order to get the general understanding of material basis of their living. It is not confined to it, but extended to the analysis of observations of contemporaries on their everyday life. This certainly helps to prove the statistical analysis from the intro-perspective of workers themselves and to vitalize the abstract statistics. The living standard of the Moscow factory workers in the 1920's steadily increased, especially compared to the critical years of 1918-1921. The standard of their wages in the second half of the 1920's surpassed that of prewar days, while the index in expenses for food and clothes caught up with that of prewar days. Especially the nutrition for the workers demonstrated a substantial improvement. Generally speaking, the income and expense of workers' family in the second half of 1920's improved without any doubt, compared to those of pre-revolutionary Russia. However, a careful analysis on the household budget of worker's family as well as contemporary observations prove that worker's families in the big cities still suffered from the poverty. The tangible improvement did not help much to solving the nutrition problems nor overcoming the necessities. It did not even meet the expectations of the workers after the 7 years of war. The condition of housing in the cities was especially the case. Many of workers were disappointed with these everyday problems, therefore it deepened their discontents to the political system in those days.