Living standards and quality of life in the soviet city of the NEP period (a case of Saratov)

The study discussed the living standards and quality of life of Soviet people in the city of Saratov. After the Civil War, the urban population was in need of stability, which implied the availability of well-paid jobs and the opportunity to buy essential foodstuffs, clothing, and footwear. In the period of the New Economic Policy (NEP) (1921-1928), Saratov was one of the largest cities in the USSR. Its residents faced war-time disaster and severe famine in the Lower Volga region in the early 1920s. The NEP period alleviated the food supply problem but failed to ease the shortage of clothes and footwear in Saratov. By a case study of Saratov residents, the author concluded that, in fact, the Soviet government laid the foundations of the proletarian system while assigning the highest salary rates to working-class people in the period under review.