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Soviet Union [USSR] Structure of Rural Society
Rural society reflected the predominance of agriculture as the
major employer and the CPSU as the sole political organization. In
1989 the village community was controlled by an economic
institution, the farm (collective or state), and an administrative
one, the village soviet (sel'sovet). These organizations
employed the elite of rural society, at the very top of which were
the "heads" (golovki), who were either party members or
party appointees. Golovki included the party secretary for
the
raion (see Glossary), the chairman of the collective
farm or state farm (in the 1980s most were university-trained
specialists, but a few were those who had learned on the job), the
chairman of the sel'sovet, and the secretaries of the party
cells in the state farm or collective farm. Men occupied most of
the top positions on collective farms.
The rural nonpolitical elite consisted of agronomists,
veterinary surgeons, engineers, and schoolteachers. Their lifestyle resembled that of urban dwellers. Among this group, rural
society held schoolteachers in high esteem, in part because they
played a role in selecting which of their students could continue
their studies and thus have increased opportunity for upward social
mobility. For rural women, regional teacher-training colleges
offered the best chance to rise in the social hierarchy. Despite
the relatively high esteem in which they were held, teachers were
poorly paid and, in general, were forced to maintain private garden
plots to support themselves.
An emerging group in the rural social structure consisted of
agricultural machinery specialists. This group included truck
drivers or other heavy machinery drivers and mechanics who had
completed their secondary education and whose income was higher
than many white-collar workers.
Workers who remained in the countryside had fewer avenues for
upward mobility than did urban dwellers. Tractor drivers, for
example, were more upwardly mobile than most rural laborers.
Managers and white-collar workers employed in rural regions were
generally brought in from urban areas.
Data as of May 1989
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