Andrew Allen

Mr. Palcsey

Honors English 10

May 1, 2018

Dissatisfaction with Consumer Goods as a Cause of the Fall of the Soviet Union

On November 9, 1989, the world watched as the Berlin Wall was being destroyed by

overjoyed Germans. Although the Soviet Union was not technically dissolved until 1991, this

symbolized an end to the Cold War. How could it have come to this point after the Soviet Union

was a major world superpower for half a century? Consumer good supplies contributed greatly

to the fall of the USSR. Citizens being fed up with these shortages of desirable goods was one of

the main factors in the protests and demonstrations that took place all over the Soviet Union.

The policies of Perestroika and Glasnost enabled the protests. Government hypocrisy, in terms

of the goods consumed by the elite also caused the political turmoil that ended the Soviet Union.

The economic policies that led to a shortage of attractive consumer goods in the Soviet Union

were a major factor in the instability that led to its eventual demise.

Although consumer dissatisfaction contributed greatly to the Soviet fall, people were not

starving. Nutritional levels have been adequate, but it has not met the demand for better quality

foods and a higher variety of foods. (Office of Soviet Analysis iii) The government fed their

citizens largely with starch and grain, and there was a lack of meat, dairy products, and fruits and

vegetables in the USSR. There were large queues at stores as meat and dairy production did not

meet consumer standards. (Office of Soviet Analysis 2) Commodities seen as everyday items in

the western world were rare in the USSR. Women had a shopping bag that they filled with scarce

commodities that could rarely be found in the Soviet Union such as a banana or toilet paper.
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(Reid 211) So, obviously, the Soviet goods did not meet consumer standards. The Soviet

citizens of the seventies and eighties were much less likely to accept these conditions than their

parents and grandparents. Their parents did not emphasize the doctrine worshipping the

government. The first citizens of the USSR were much more likely to accept hardship, as they

felt that they were better off enduring the hardships that come from communism than the

hardships that come from a monarchy. The citizens of the later Soviet Union saw that the

capitalist world had a much better quality of life than them in part because of the shortages in the

USSR. Economic imbalances led to these shortages.

‘Guns versus butter’ is an economic term that examines the prioritization of resources on

arms versus food and consumer goods. The Soviet economic model generally operated as a

warfare state and focused on defense development as opposed to consumer production.

(Bystrova 1) The threat of war with the United States loomed over the Soviet Union constantly

post World War II. This led the USSR to focus more on participating in an arms race rather than

providing quality goods for their people. Not only was there more money that was going

towards military expenditures, but many men, especially high-level scientists were assigned to

military projects as opposed to achieving consumer and domestic goals. This not only led to

shortages of certain goods, but also led to lower quality Soviet goods. Due to poor packaging

methods, the Soviet Union wasted 20% of their produce. (Office of Soviet Analysis 10) Another

issue with the economic policies of the Kremlin during the Cold War was the fact that the market

did not determine where the money comes from, but instead the government did. “But in the

USSR a ruble is not a ruble, because prices are set by Moscow without reference to consumer

votes. If more resources are needed for military R&D, the Soviet price system does not

determine which sector of the civilian economy will give up these resources. The decision is part

of the economic plan, and the resulting shift in resources may be quite inefficient. Thus, it is
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difficult to determine whether a ruble taken from housing will buy a ruble of military R&D.”

(Eckert) The Soviet Union’s focus on military production led to the lack of consumer goods, as

the government was unable to efficiently divert resources.

The instability that these shortages created led to great nationalist demonstrations within

the Union. Nationalism was necessary for communism to properly operate. Since citizens were

not rewarded accordingly for their labor, there needs to be a greater cause for which to work.

Early in Soviet history, Russian nationalism was a great motivation, but as the USSR expanded

into Eastern Europe a much smaller portion of the population identified with this. (Bessinger

333) Eastern European nations slowly started forming republics within the Soviet Union, after

they protested communism. There were three main factors in these protests. First Eastern

Europe did not identify with the Russian dominated Soviet Union and wanted their own national

identity. “Russians also constituted a disproportionate share of the Soviet intelligentsia and

working class relative to most other nationalities.” (Bessinger 342) Eastern European nations felt

unhappy with their fading identity and wanted to fight it. Secondly, the consumer good shortages

played a major role in these protests. Clearly, communism was not working, so the people took

it upon themselves to protest for a better quality of life. Had the people been given the luxuries

they desired and the freedom to choose what they wanted, they would have been much less likely

to protest in such large numbers. Thirdly, Gorbachev’s policy of Glasnost was what allowed the

people to protest. Glasnost was a policy that allowed citizens to have further freedoms such as

freedom of speech and freedom of press. Instead of being happy with having these freedoms, the

people put them to use. “The policy of Glasnost was a critical condition for the fall of

communism. Without Glasnost, most of the forces would never have come to be, or they

wouldn't have been allowed to take action.” (Bessinger 335) Protests caused by nationalism and

consumer goods shortages were what killed the Soviet Union, as more and more communist
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governments fell in Eastern Europe, the USSR lost control. When Russia also installed a

republic, which gained even more power than the central government, there was no reason for

the USSR to exist, so it was dissolved.

The Soviet Union was a nation that was founded under the pretense of being a

government for the working man. Leaders promised the citizens that there would be equality for

all and a comfortable life for everyone in the nation. Instead, the ruling elite had lavish lifestyles

with imported goods and great food, while they forced the people to live on potatoes. As the

western quality of life increased, and the Soviet quality of life either stagnated or worsened, the

people eventually took it upon themselves to rise and install republics within the Union which

ultimately led to its fall. Had the USSR properly provided citizens with quality and diverse

consumer goods, it would have been able to persist, but since it had a lack of quality goods, and

it took away Eastern European identities, the people spoke out against it, destabilized it, and

finally led to its dissolution.

Works Cited

Beissinger, Mark R. “Nationalism and the Collapse of Soviet Communism.” Contemporary

European History, vol. 18, no. 3, 2009, pp. 331–347., doi:10.1017/S0960777309005074.

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Bystrova, Irina. “Paradoxes of Soviet Arms Production and Trade at the Cold War Period.”

International Economic History Congress, XIV, 2006

Ecklund, George. “Guns or Butter Problems of the Cold War” CIA Historical Review Program,

September 18, 1995

Office of Soviet Analysis. “USSR: The Food Supply Situation.” Directorate of Intelligence,

Approved for release 2/5/2010

Reid, Susan E. “Cold War in the Kitchen: Gender and the De-Stalinization of Consumer Taste in

the Soviet Union under Khrushchev.” Slavic Review, vol. 61, no. 02, 2002, pp. 211–252.,

doi:10.2307/2697116.