CHAPTER 5
On January 28, the USSR State Committee for Statistics (Goskomstat) published its annual year-end survey of social and economic developments in the USSR. (1) In 1989, the government focused much of its attention on improving the quality of life of Soviet citizens. Despite these good intentions, however, inertia in the Soviet system, combined with unfavourable economic and social conditions, served to thwart the successful realisation of many of the planned improvements.
POPULATION AND EMPLOYMENT
On January 1, 1990, the population of the Soviet Union totalled 288.8 million -- an increase of 0.7 per cent over the year-end figure for 1988. In 1989, the birth rate dropped from 18.8 to 17.6 births per 1,000 persons. Although this drop is by no means an insignificant one, it did not come as a complete surprise to Soviet demographers. The largest decreases were registered in Moldavia, the RSFSR, and Ukraine. The birth rate in Ukraine, which was already low, is now similar to those observed in the Baltic republics.
The statistics show that changes in the structure of employment in the USSR are continuing apace. In presenting the year-end report to journalists, Deputy Chairman of Goskomstat Nikolai Belov stated that employment in the state sector had decreased by 1.8 million -- about 1.5 per cent. (2) Within the public sector, 1.3 million workers ceased to be employed in manufacturing industries, with most moving to jobs in the service sector. By the end of the year, the co-operative sector employed 4.5 million people, 2.9 million of whom classed cooperatives as their primary employer -- a four-fold increase over 1988. This rapid growth in employment in the cooperative sector helped to absorb the new increment to the labour force, as well as many of those released from the public sector. The number of people engaged full-time in individual labour activity increased by 50 per cent to 300,000.
The year-end report reveals some interesting data on the unemployed population in the USSR. It states that 13 million people are not engaged in social production, of whom "more than one-third [4.3 million] ... are women employed in the household and in bringing up children". Four million people are serving in the military, and another 4 million are "people who are temporarily out of work in connection with switching jobs or the seasonal nature of their occupation, unemployed disabled persons in Group III, people who seek to evade socially useful labour, and others". (No mention is made of the remaining half a million or so people.) At his presentation to reporters, Belov explained that only 3 million of the 4 million out of work could be deemed to be so as a result of "genuine unemployment". (3) These figures imply a nationwide unemployment rate in the range of 1.8-2.4 per cent. Most of the unemployed lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Northern Caucasus regions. There were, however, almost 1 million job vacancies listed.
The equivalent of 40 million workdays were lost in 1989 as a result of strikes, absenteeism, and labour turnover -- an increase of 30 per cent over the previous year. On average, 30,000 workers were idled every day owing to strikes -- one-fifth of all losses. The coal miners' strikes cost the country 7 million tons of coal, and overall, coal production was 4 per cent lower than in 1988. Nevertheless, the plan was fulfilled, because plan targets for grades of coal in low demand were reduced during the course of the year.
LIVING STANDARDS
Housing construction declined in 1989. Only 2.2 million new apartments were built, with a total area of 128.1 million square metres -- more than 3 per cent less than in 1988. The planned construction target was not fulfilled for the first time since the beginning of the current five-year plan. Conversely, the volume of private housing commissioned in 1989 increased, totalling almost one-fifth of all new housing space. Per capita living space reached a meagre 10.6 square metres, an increase of less than 2 per cent. Today, one in five urban families living in public or cooperative housing is on the waiting list for a new home. In the Armenian earthquake zone, delays in the inauguration and completion of building materials industries and construction projects "effectively wrecked" the recovery program there.
Incomes increased by almost 64 billion rubles last year, up 13 per cent as compared with 1988. As there were few goods available on which Soviet citizens could spend their money, two thirds of the increase in incomes went into savings accounts. (4) At the end of the year, deposits in personal savings accounts amounted to 338 billion rubles. The average monthly wage of workers and employees increased by 9 per cent -- from 220 rubles to 240 rubles a month. Wages of those working in cooperatives (either full-time or in conjunction with another job) averaged 500 rubles a month. According to a survey of family budgets, the average per capita income of workers' and employees' families increased by 6 per cent, reaching 159 rubles a month. The average per capita income of kolkhozniks' families was 125 rubles a month, an increase of 7 per cent. There were 60 million pensioners in the Soviet Union at the end of 1989 -- 23 million of whom received increases in their pensions on 1 October as the result of an emergency pension law passed that summer. The increases cost the government 1.3 billion rubles in the fourth quarter of the year.
THE ENVIRONMENT
More than 12 billion rubles were spent on environmental protection during the year (a 4 per cent increase over funding levels in 1988), of which 3 billion were used for capital outlays. Completion of environmental protection projects, however, continues to lag: in 1989, fewer than half of all projects were completed as planned. The discharge of toxic substances from stationary sources into the atmosphere decreased by 5 per cent, totalling about 58.6 million tons. In Ukraine, Belorussia, and Lithuania, however, emissions increased. Given the slow pace at which environmental projects are being completed, it seems that a large part of the reduction in air pollution can be attributed to the outright closing of factories or to a decrease in output owing to shortages and worker disputes (i.e. shortfalls in coal production were recovered by greater gas extraction). Efforts to reduce the energy intensiveness of the economy made little progress -- a reduction of only 0.7 per cent was noted. Finally, the USSR State Committee for the Protection of Nature reported that there were about 2000 accidents in 1989 that had "a serious negative effect on the environment".
HEALTH CARE
According to Goskomstat, the health care system has not changed: "It is still characterised by a lack of amenities in hospitals, a lack of modern apparatus and equipment, shortages of medicines and linen, and poor catering." Despite increased expenditure on the construction of hospitals and clinics, the completion of new facilities lagged behind planned targets: the number of hospital beds increased by only 64,000, or 1.7 per cent. The production of medical equipment increased by 7 per cent (in rubles) over 1988 to a total value of 1.2 billion rubles. Incidentally, the plan was overfulfilled by 11 per cent, the best performance in the machine-building sector. The production of medicines increased by 6 per cent (in rubles) to 3.7 billion rubles; nevertheless, only enough medicines were produced to meet 40 per cent of Soviet needs. Imports of medicines also increased, but these met only another 35 per cent of the country's total requirement. (5)
On the bright side, the infant mortality rate in the USSR decreased by 10 per cent to 22.2 deaths per 1,000 live births. (6) (Because of differences in methodology and reporting errors, Western experts estimate that this figure must be increased by about 15 per cent in order to make it comparable with Western statistics.) Nevertheless, this decrease, which is the largest in recent years, shows a continuation of the trend towards lower mortality rates and suggests that the efforts of the current Soviet leadership to improve maternal and infant care are having a positive effect. According to the estimates of Soviet officials, infant mortality in the USSR is now lower than at any other time in the country's history.
There have also been changes in the Soviet approach to AIDS. By the end of 1989, over 800 laboratories were equipped to test blood samples for the presence of HIV antibodies. All blood donors are now being tested, and, since the beginning of 1989, the test has been mandatory for pregnant women. As of October, 1989, over 40 million people in the USSR had been tested for the virus. (7) The toll among Soviet citizens at the end of the year was as follows: 428 HIV carriers, twenty-three cases of AIDS, and fourteen AIDS-related deaths. While diagnostics have improved, prevention remains woefully inadequate: the Soviet Union produced only 192 million disposable syringes in 1989, 60 per cent less than planned. Another 300 million were imported; but, given that officials have estimated the country's requirement at 5 billion syringes, the shortfall remains enormous. (8)
CRIME
In 1989, some 2.5 million crimes were reported to the authorities, an increase of 32 per cent over the figure for 1988. The rate of increase was the same as the one given in the mid-year report in July, indicating that the special crime-fighting provisions passed by the USSR Supreme Soviet in the summer have not as yet resulted in any improvement in the situation. The crime wave hit Estonia and Lithuania the hardest: these republics experienced increases in crime of 57 per cent and 46 per cent, respectively. Generally speaking, the largest increases were of violent and premeditated crimes, with thefts and robberies involving violence increasing by 170 per cent. The number of assaults and murders went up by 38 per cent and 31 per cent respectively. Juvenile crime was up 22 per cent, and crimes committed in a state of drunkenness were up 17 per cent. Crimes by repeat offenders increased by only 13 per cent, indicating that the broad amnesties of prisoners over the past two years were not a primary factor in the present crime wave.
ENDNOTES
1. Izvestia, 28 January 1990.
2. Financial Times, 26 January 1990. According to the Goskomstat report, employment in the public sector in 1989 was 120.3 million, 1.5 million less than in the previous year. The discrepancy between this number and the figure cited by Belov seems to be attributable to a change in methodology, whereby the public sector now includes "workers and employees of departments (vedomstva)" not previously included in this category.
3. Financial Times, 26 January 1990; see also Reuters, 25 January 1990.
4. For a review of developments on the consumer-goods sector, see above, "The Goskomstat Report for 1989: An Economy Out of Control".
5. Pravda, 9 November 1989, page 2.
6. TASS, 31 January 1990.
7. Radio Moscow, 28 October 1989.
8. The Washington Post, 11 January 1990.
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