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Soviet Union [USSR] THE CONSUMER INDUSTRY
Soviet industry is usually divided into two major categories.
Group A is "heavy industry," which includes all those branches
already discussed. Group B is "consumer goods," including foods,
clothing and shoes, housing, and such heavy-industry products as
appliances and fuels that are used by individual consumers. From
the early days of the Stalin era, Group A received top priority in
economic planning and allocation. Only in 1987 was the foundation
laid for a separate industrial complex for consumer industry, named
the "social complex." Initially, it lacked the extensive
bureaucratic structure of the other six complexes, and it contained
only the Ministry of Light Industry.
Consumer Supply in the 1980s
In 1986 shortages continued in basic consumer items, even in
major population centers. Such goods occasionally were rationed in
major cities well into the 1980s. Besides the built-in shortages
caused by planning priorities, shoddy production of consumer goods
limited actual supply. According to Soviet economists, only 10
percent of Soviet finished goods could compete with their Western
equivalents, and the average consumer faced long waiting periods to
buy major appliances or furniture. During the 1980s, the wide
availability of consumer electronics products in the West
demonstrated a new phase of the Soviet Union's inability to
compete, especially because Soviet consumers were becoming more
aware of what they were missing. In the mid-1980s, up to 70 percent
of the televisions manufactured by Ekran, a major household
electronics manufacturers, were rejected by quality control
inspection. The television industry received special attention, and
a strong drive for quality control was a response to published
figures of very high rates of breakdown and repair. To improve the
industry, a major cooperative color television venture was planned
for the Warsaw Television Plant in 1989.
Data as of May 1989
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