The Red Caviar Problem in the USSR
Whenever the topic of "distribution according to needs" comes up, it goes hand in hand with the topic of rationing and of the definition of "needs", which is a double-edged thing. On one edge there is the effective restriction of the "needs" (at least from the present day perspective), and on the other, the question as to who is going to make decisions about the restrictions - what to restrict, to which exact amount and for whom. In addition, what consequences suboptimal decisions about rationing tend to have?
In this regard, the practice of "real socialism" in the Soviet Union gives quite a few examples that must be considered for future reference. One of the most glaring of such examples and the one that almost invariably comes up among the Russian speakers when these topics are discussed, is the "Red Caviar Problem".
Caviar is basically fish's eggs. That's why it is very nutritious as food and contains almost all vitamins and such. On top of that, it tastes deliciously and the red sorts of it even pop in your mouth like bubble wrap. So it's safe to say that caviar is a product of particular dietary and culinary value.
But at the same time, it doesn't take any more labor or energy input to make and preserve it, than most other fish products. Thus, there is no reason why members of a communist society (even in its lowest stage) should be denied it. Except for the fact that the fish species from which caviar is extracted are rather rare. So, there is natural scarcity of caviar. Even today, when the technology of aquaculture and fish farms has been developed, you don't see caviar competing against tuna, let alone pork and chicken...
Back in the USSR, when consumer prices were fixed by the government and in theory had to reflect the socially necessary labor time that went into production of the goods, caviar was pretty cheap. Every worker and collective farmer could afford to buy some. But the supply was naturally very short of the demand. The total amount of black caviar extracted in the USSR was ~2000 tons per year. If we assume for simplicity the population of the USSR as ~200 million citizens, average annual per capita consumption would be ~10 grams, or a full teaspoon! That is, if it were not exported to the "free world" at market prices nominated in very green and much appreciated dollars...
Red caviar was more abundant and not so lucrative in the world market due to competition from Japan, so it was more available to the ordinary Soviet citizens. Yet it was still a "premium" good.
The government had to ration it one way or another. In fact, there were several ways. It started with the "special dispensaries" for certain privileged categories, such as "responsible" Party and Soviet officials, ranking military and police officers, etc. Caviar was available for purchase there more or less regularly at fixed prices. From there, as well as from poachers, caviar flowed to the black market, where it sold for ten times the fixed price. Corruption bloomed, of course, to the point that a deputy minister of the fishing industry was tried and shot - at the end of Brezhnev's rule, when such things weren't really common.
To ordinary citizens caviar was available every day only in high-end restaurants and theater buffets. The restaurants were allowed to put a high mark-up on top of the wholesale price (justified as per the service of the chefs and waiters) and the theater/concert hall buffets were sites of rather unbecoming stampedes the less cultured representatives of the most cultured Soviet citizenry went on to grab a sandwich or a cake during the short intermissions in the performances, so the price of caviar there was inconsequential anyway.
At the factories, research institutes, etc., there were "bureau of orders" operating under the trade unions umbrella, which offered a variety of goods unavailable in common retail stores (like those imported from the ComEcon countries). But there were certain shenanigans. First of all, to place an order for the thing you really wanted (like caviar), you would usually have to accept a "load", i.e. some junk (like a broom, shoe wax or stationery) that you didn't really need, but the 5-year plan had provisioned to "realize" to the populace. Then the amount of orders available at any given time was limited, and you'd have to wait for your turn after you made one, so you could easily miss out on something (like caviar), if you had timed another order less than optimally. Needless to say, petty corruption flourished there too, and you'd better had a certain skill to navigate that trade union environment of favoritism and the "telephone law", to make a steady use of it. And if you weren't a good boy, had multiple or recent disciplinary run-ins with the higher-ups, this bureau would be effectively closed for you.
But in the weeks leading up to major holidays (1st&9th of May, 7th of November and especially the New Year) stockpiles of red caviar were dumped upon the retail stores all over Moscow, Leningrad and other major cities. The rule "no more than X cans in 1 pair of hands" had to be observed to prevent immediate rushes. Still, people who would like to hoard some for other special occasions (birthdays, weddings, etc.) or for speculation would do so by circling around several stores and so on. People from small towns and the countryside would also come in what was colloquially called "sausage trains" and, depending on luck and "connections", get their more or less fair share of the delicacies. So, the stores would run out of the allotted supply earlier than expected and then have to wait to be restocked. Rumors would start to circulate about which store and when was about to "cast it out" on the shelves again. People then would come en masse and form queues, some making arrangements and calling favors with their colleagues and managers at their workplaces to leave early in the day to have better chances of catching the desired gourmet. But then the rumors often proved false and the shelves remained empty. The crowd would naturally get agitated, suspecting foul play and what not. And at that moment of high tension a snarky store manager would come out and announce: "Dear customers! Comrades! The Politburo has convened and declared that today there is no need of red caviar!" One can only imagine what the disappointed people thought of the wisdom of the Politburo, the fat cheeks of the store manager and the communist system in general (on the eve of the official holidays).
Thus, that catch phrase, "today there is no need of . . . . . . . ." (with "red caviar" filling the blank more often than any other commodity) entered the parlance even in the academic circles, let alone the common folks’ kitchen talk. It denotes the perceived inefficiency of the planned economy, the arbitrariness of the half-assed solutions to the "calculation problem", the inequality and unfairness of access to premium goods and services, with the implication of political and moral corruption that inevitably stems from all of that.
The orthodox Marxist-Leninists tend to think that it is sufficient to reorganize the production side of the economy, and, as a result, all pieces on the consumption side will by themselves fall into place. This is wishful thinking. Even Engels pointed out that it is "inherent in the descent of man from the animal world that he can never entirely rid himself of the beast, so that it can always be only a question of more or less, of a difference in the degree of bestiality or of humanity" ["Anti-Duhring", Part 1. Ch. 10]. In other words, humans are monkeys, and as such they can't be expected even in high communism to break completely free from the instincts that have guided the behavior of our ancestors for millions of years. And yes, it is the exact same argument that's brought forward by those who strive to prove that communism is impossible. Granted, this "human nature argument" is more profound than the "calculation argument", but in the final analysis it is just as false nonetheless. If anything, the human nature is extremely malleable and adaptable. Given the right kind of environment the communistically cooperative patterns of behavior may not only prevail but may become totally indispensable in terms of survival.
Yet, obviously, solutions for this kind of issues cannot be too easy. Therefore, it is extremely important for communists to recognize and acknowledge the existence of this problem, lest something as trivial as differential access to consumer goods should again lead to all sorts of status games and throw a monkey wrench into the works of communist construction. To underscore and reiterate this point once more, here are a few excerpts from diaries and memoirs of various people who lived and worked in the Soviet Union:
Ivan Shitz, history teacher, 20-Jul-1930:
"Besides the hearsay of multiple clashes in different corners of the [Soviet] Union, on the background of bad provisioning and starvation, the word is that in Peter [Leningrad] there was a strike of railway workers who refused to load the comestibles slated for export abroad. The strikers were supposedly substituted by a team of komsomoltsy [Komsomol - The Communist League of the Youth]. Of the excellent candy, sweets, fowl, fish, caviar, etc., only a small amount remains in the Union to be consumed by the Kremlin, big Party men, and for dinners and lunches on the parade occasions (e.g. 10-year anniversaries). The difference, or comparison with the past is not in favor of the present: then, the top lived very well, but the whole middle lived also not too bad, all who earned some... In a word, the "basis" of prosperity was wider, so to say, more democratic!"
Alexander Boldyrev, researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of USSR, 14/15-Jul-1942:
"With lightning speed (in 55 minutes, while people wander for hours) got an attachment for reinforced nutrition in the AcademCanteen [of the Leningrad Branch of the Academy of Sciences], starting tomorrow. Let's see what the reinforcement is. They say, more than a whole [ration] card. With the addition to the writer's meal [special ration at another canteen, soon to be discontinued as the norms on the ration cards were increased] this is already much better. <...>
First day of the reinforced therapeutic nutrition. For the posterity's edification, I report the menu: morning - 200g of white bread, 15g of butter, 10g of red caviar, 24g of chocolate, millet porridge with butter (over 200g), tea. <...> This is, of course, more than could be acquired by the card, even a worker's one. And for the clerks, let alone the unfortunate dependents, it is pure wonder. If the delicious sandwich with butter and red caviar that I ate at home in the morning and the plate of writer's porridge in the evening with two huge caviar sandwiches, and tea with milk, be added together, then it is clear that today was indeed the day of Great Food, i. e. joy and rainbow worldview".
[There is an urban legend, that the Party leadership in the besieged Leningrad had plentiful supplies of chocolate, fruit and red caviar, delivered from the mainland by air, even during the first winter of the siege, when famine killed about a million people in the city. It is probably true to an extent, but exactly to which extent will remain uncertain and a matter of everyone's own imagination.]
Elvira Filipovich, biologist, 13-Jun-1961:
""The celebration of the Soviet democracy", that's how they speak of our elections on the radio. For Dubrovitsy [a village in the Moscow region] it is indeed a celebration. In the club where the elections take place, they open buffets. They sell various sausages, but if you're in time for the opening, you can buy ham and sometimes even sturgeon. Once, they say, there was black caviar. However, we haven't seen caviar, especially the black sort, for a long time. They say, it exists only in the Kremlin and abroad. "
Fyodor Abramov, a writer, 03-Oct-1967:
"In 1962, in spring or in the beginning of summer, V. I. Malyshev happened to be in Archangelsk. He was flying to Pechora.
What is it? Is it really Archangelsk? Haven't he flown in another city by mistake? Everything is usual, everything is the same: the wooden pavements, the streets, the Dvina [river], but the stores are not the same! The stores are full of various foodstuffs: sausages, butter, meat and fish. And what fish at that! And what's totally unheard of, caviar on every shelf.
- How long have you had this? - Malyshev asked an acquaintance.
- But for a about month.
- About a month? About a month of such cornucopia? Have you, what, stridden into communism?
- No, we're expecting Khrushchov.
Khrushchov was indeed in the North at the time (in Murmansk, at the Northern Fleet), and should arrive in Archangelsk any moment.
Vladimir Ivanovich thought to buy caviar and salmon (who doesn't like this fish?), but then changed his mind. What for? He was going to Pechora for 2 or 3 days, only for founding a memorial in Pustozyorsk, and after that he'd be in Archangelsk again. Then he'd buy both caviar and salmon, both for himself and for his friends in Leningrad.
How sorry Vladimir Ivanovich was in two days! Yes, he didn't hold up on the Pechora, returned to Archangelsk in exactly 2 days, but neither caviar, nor salmon was in Archangelsk any more."
From a KGB report on currency dealings and speculations, late 1960s:
"Seglin A. V., an employee of the [Ice] Hockey Federation of the USSR, is known in the sports world as a "deft man", prone to all kinds of speculative dealings and various machinations. In 1967, while in Canada with a sports delegation, he engaged in exchange of Soviet rubles for dollars. He took 30 bottles of vodka and about 30 cans of black caviar with him on the trip.
While abroad, certain sportsmen fall for money-grubbing, lose the sense of vigilance, establish dubious contacts with foreigners and become objects of interest by the adversary's special services."
Georgy Yelin, journalist, 20-May-1977:
"Constant feeling of humiliation. Aunt Zhenya fancied some red caviar, but where can you get it, except "Beryozka" ["Little Birch" - a retail chain that specialized in import/export goods and accepted foreign currency in payment from visiting foreigners and special checks issued for the Soviet citizens working abroad]. Through the backdoor I got in the kitchen of "Pekin" [restaurant], and bought a glass for a ten [rubles], not even a full one. Mom berated me: what if this caviar is substandard? She made me angry. Bought some VnyeshPosylTorg cheques and rambled toward the "Intourist" [hotel] for the branded tins."
Lev Levitsky, literary critic, 19-Feb-1983:
"In the morning, ran to the store. Empty shelves. No cheese, no sausage, no meat or chicken. Is it because there is really nothing, or because, on account of the weekend it was decided to hide the stock from the nonresidents, who, in spite of all threats, push on and on, depriving our glorious capital? What insolence! They, you see, want to eat too. What about the order? How will Moscow be any better than some Kineshma, if in that backwater it is possible to buy anything like in the capital? And in Moscow there is its own special subordination for everything. There are two apartments at the same stair landing. An acquaintance of ours who earns well by translating from Russian into French lives in one. In the other, a deputy minister. On the New Year's eve the latter's wife, unable to conceal the smugness she was full of, told the neighbor's wife, that she got a kilogram of first rate caviar in an order, and some other food rarities. When the wife of our acquaintance asked the deputyministress begrudgingly, why a translator never gets what is supplied to an official, the confident response followed: "It's our due, we deserve it."
Nikolay Rabotnov, nuclear physicist, 09-Mar-1984:
"At Anatole's birthday the snacks were phenomenal: caviar black and red, salmon fish and sturgeon, sausage smoke-boiled, sausage hard-smoked, Indian crabs. Where from? His daughter Galya serves at the sanepidemstation [quality control office]. It is considered an ispolkom [townhall] office and on holidays - an order. Well, not like at the raykom [district committee of the Party], but still..."
Vassily Yershov, civil aviator, 09-Jan-1987:
"Lyosha looped also to Petropavlovsk, it's empty there too. Yet, on the way, a poacher caught him and offered to bring the goods to the hotel. We'd just fallen soundly asleep, when this business fellow stormed into the room with a jar of caviar. Lyosha took 2 liters for 60 r. Leave the morals alone. There has been no caviar in the store for some thirty years already. And while there is a shortage of it, we'll take it from the poacher. Let the retailsmen and the bolsheviks not be alone in gobbling it."
N. P. Sergeyeva-Goremykina, wife of the plenipotentiary ambassador of the USSR in Mexico, 12-Feb-1988:
"Today's "Excelsior" published the "supposed" speech by Yeltsin at the plenum of the CC CPSU, in which he says, that the perestroika is not yet a perestroika [reformation], that he can't look people in the eye, having caviar and sturgeon on the table, while the workers, the veterans - the former defenders of the country stand in line to buy a few sausages, which have more starch in them than meat."
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