Pre-revolution living standards: Russia, 1888-1917

Ekaterina Khaustova
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Ekaterina Khaustova: Russian State Social University

No 13037, Working Papers from Economic History Society

Abstract: "After 1917 Russia underwent extraordinary transformations. Its capitalist based economy was reshaped to centrally-planned economic system. Recent studies rest upon the shared assumption that the effect of adverse social, geographical, political or historical conditions persisted over that time, keeping pre- revolution Russian economy behind and stimulating workers to fight. Many samples of previous research drawn by economists of Soviet era, which were reflected on the results. However was it really so bad? Our reconstruction of Russian living standards scrutinizes real wages structure distribution per capita, income levels divided between the two main cities (Moscow and St.Petersburg) and groups of workers. We adopt Robert C. Allen subsistence basket methodology. This study has shown the that the annual wages earned by male adult workers sufficed to sustain a household at subsistence level for the entire pre- revolution period, with the exception of the years 1916-1917. International comparisons with some developed European cities have shown that the picture of Russian labour-class living standards is much wider and needs historical and economical revision."

Keywords: "Russian revolution; living standards; labour wages; food price; welfare levels." (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-04
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