Incomes of scientists in the USSR in the 1920s (Based on materials from the budget survey of 1925)

Abstract

The article examines the structure of income and the level of material well-being of scientists in 1925. The source base of the study is represented by the primary materials of the budget survey, which covered 16 cities of the USSR, including Moscow, Leningrad, Voronezh, Krasnodar, Novocherkassk, Perm, Rostov, etc. Total 282 forms of budgets of scientific workers – university professors, academic and museum workers, librarians, etc. have been preserved in the archive. The information from the budget form makes it possible to characterize various aspects of the life of scientists under the NEP, including income and consumption. The information from the survey forms was systematized in a database and became the basis for studying the standard of living of various categories of scientists depending on their status and place of residence (capital/province). Budgetary data allow us to conclude that the position of scientists has noticeably worsened in comparison with the pre-revolutionary period. This manifested itself, firstly, in an increase in the workload due to the growth of labor standards at the main place of work and the spread of “part-time jobs” (more than half of the surveyed worked additionally in 1-2 places, had a private practice and other sources of income); secondly, in a noticeable decrease in the income level of the bulk of scientific workers who were not included in the "special" lists. The average monthly salary of a scientist at the main place of work is characterized by a high level of variability and was higher than the average salary of a worker in Moscow. High variability testifies to the processes of differentiation of scientists in terms of income, which depended on the status characteristics of a scientist, his activity, creating prerequisites for the selection of elite categories of scientists, in the 1930s. formed into a hierarchical system of teaching staff with an appropriate set of privileges.