The decline of rural living standards in Russia in the 1990s

In the early 1990s, the trend of the gradual raising of rural living standards in Russia was reversed abruptly, as conditions determining the level of material consumption deteriorated even more rapidly in rural areas than in urban areas. The gap between industrial and agricultural wages has widened sharply, while investment in the rural social infrastructure has been reduced. A growing number of rural dwellers have depended on subsistence farming to cushion the damaging impact of inflation on their families’ nutrition. If recent trends continue for a few more years, the results will be the cancellation of many of the gains achieved in rural living conditions in previous decades and a severe deterioration of the network of rural trade and services.