Уровень жизни в Советской России по традиционным и альтернативным показателям
Standard of Living in Soviet Russia by Traditional and Alternative Indicators

Summary/Abstract: The article assesses the dynamics of the standard of living of the population of Russia in the 20th century based on traditional and alternative indicators. Gross domestic product, income, nutrition, birth rate, mortality, life expectancy, consumption, housing conditions, and education were used as traditional indicators. Alternative indicators were height, weight, and body mass index. For the first time in historiography, the article provides data on the dynamics of average height, weight, and body mass in Russia in 1902–2000 by five-year periods. The analysis revealed that Soviet official statistics tended to exaggerate the level of all traditional indicators of well-being, but correctly reflected the direction of their dynamics. Cost indicators were especially seriously overstated — gross domestic product, wages, income, and consumption. Despite this, it is still possible to roughly estimate the real dynamics of the standard of living using traditional indicators of the population’s well-being. Using the consumer price index, it is possible to impart relative accuracy to cost indicators; gaps in the data can be filled by interpolation; comparison of different indicators of the same criterion allows choosing the most adequate one. Anthropometric data were not subject to deliberate falsification, because those who recorded and processed them had no motives either to overstate or understate them. Due to this, they were objective, as far as the methodology, tools and conditions for measurement in each period allowed. Both traditional and alternative indicators had a positive trend in dynamics and fully confirmed the point of view that in Soviet Russia the standard of living increased significantly, due to which the country achieved significant success in terms of well-being by the end of the 20th century.

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