Incomes and Expenses of Single-Parent Families of Farmers of Sverdlovsk Region (according to Budget Surveys of 1960)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the subject insufficiently developed in the national historiography, in particular in regard to its regional dimension. The purpose of the article was a study of incomes and expenses of single-parent farmer families of Sverdlovsk region in 1960. The study is conducted on materials of State archive of Sverdlovsk region and archive of the Territorial body of Federal state statistics service for Sverdlovsk region with the assistance of Internet sources as well as scientific and publicistic literature. The relevance of the topic is determined by its importance for the social sciences, especially for history, sociology and economics. Scientific novelty of the work is seen in the fact that the new materials discovered by the author in these archives are introduced into scientific usage. It is noted that every family, including incomplete, is a specific legal institution, having a number of important socio-economic functions. It is argued that, despite the significant social weight of single-parent families, their financial situation during the Soviet period practically were not studied. It is stated that there was a pretty serious differentiation of monetary incomes and expenditures of surveyed single-parent families of farmers. It is stated that the composition of families draws attention to the absence of men, which was quite common in the post-war years. A huge role of private farming in the economy of surveyed households is proved: for a significant part of them the products of farms formed the basis of the daily diet. It is declared that most of the costs of single-parent families of farmers amounted to costs of food and industrial goods. It is concluded that even with significant income from household plots total income of single-parent families was significantly below the income of urban worker families.