The Russian Consumer (1972)

[Music] huh in 1917 russia was an undeveloped country today she is next to america the most powerful industrial nation in the world [Music] so so the industrial progress is undeniable [Applause] but what does it mean in human terms in the old apartment houses entire families are still crowded into one room and share a kitchen with several families even in modern apartments impressive to look at from the outside most families must live in one or two rooms an exception is the forum apartment in which a factory manager and his family live [Music] unlike most russians they can afford to entertain their apartment is well furnished they have a radio a television set and even the telephone economically the communist system has been good to the factory manager he drives to work in his own car but filling stations are few since only one family and 100 has a car most russian women work but the wife of the factory manager is free to go shopping since she is a member of the elite she may visit a few luxury shops which handle imported goods but even for her the merchandise is expensive a dress from france or a man suit from japan costs more than her family's weekly income during his paid summer vacation the factory manager leaves the city for a quiet month at his dacha in the country or he may travel to the sea [Music] [Music] the life of the russian worker is far more typical by american standards his hours are not bad his wages are low but he enjoys many important benefits free medical care free education and low-cost housing in a low-rent apartment house built by the state a worker in his family of five are crowded into two rooms [Music] they are fortunate to have a kitchen of their own when the worker leaves for the factory he must use public transportation a small car would cost him four years labor buses and subways are clean efficient and inexpensive the fare is equivalent to five cents in american money the wife of the factory worker has a job in addition she must spend several hours each day shopping for food the lines are long and except for bread cabbage and potatoes most foods are likely to be in short supply on weekends she visits a large government department store quality of the merchandise has improved in recent years the prices remain high for the average family clerks are not over eager in other stores radios and record players are sold they are plentiful and inexpensive but television sets tape recorders and washing machines are still luxury items in the soviet union the television set for example costs the average man two to three months wages like the factory manager the worker also receives a paid vacation transportation is inexpensive and like most russians he loves to travel he's likely to go to a camp in the woods or to the beach [Applause] [Music] it lacks the tranquility of the private dacha but it has charms of its own [Music] the russian peasant lives in a world completely divorced from that of the factory manager and the worker for centuries he endured the inhumanities of the tsarist system today he endures the communist state the peasants make up nearly one half of the population most of them are crowded together on collective and state farms [Music] the fruit of their labor goes mostly to the state the peasant is independent by nature and resents working land not his own during the second world war stalin hard-pressed by nazi troops allowed an increase in the individual small plot of land here the peasant in the spare time still grows his own fruits and vegetables summer and autumn they harvest their small crops and take them to the nearest town to be sold at private markets such free enterprise is officially illegal in a communist state but it is tolerated by the soviet regime why because for many years these private markets have supplied up to one half of russia's fruits and vegetables because their produce is superior in quality to that available in the large government markets [Music] yes hey [Music] prices are high good fruit is scarce even a green melon would cost the equivalent of an american dollar [Music] a peasant woman's trip to the city may be her only vacation after selling her flowers fruit and vegetables she will probably window shop [Music] the prices are far out of her range a pair of pants would cost her more than two weeks work she may feel extravagant and buy them but it is more likely that she will only look a pathetic indulgence symbolizing the peasants remoteness from the rest of russian society the russian people have long been told that the sacrifices of today will lead to the luxuries of tomorrow they have sacrificed long and hard and now at last they can see the promised land but many see it only on the horizon the poet boris pasternak captured their mixture of pride and impatience of hopefulness and melancholy when he wrote man is born to live not to prepare for life [Music] so [Music] so [Applause] you