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Consumer Goods: Video Cassette Recorder

Region % possessing    % Russian mean
Volga 39 116
Urals 38 112
Volgo-Vyatka 35 104
North Caucasus 34 102
Central 34 100
RUSSIAN MEAN 34 100
West Siberia 31 92
Far East 31 91
East Siberia 30 90
Central Black Earth 29 85
North-west 28 84
Northern 27 80
Source: VCIOM.  Russian nationwide surveys, 1997.

Russians have always been avid consumers; the chronic shortages of the command economy saw to that.  People had to invest effort to find stores selling what they wanted, or to find someone who knew someone who could provide what they wanted "unofficially."  The introduction of the market means that it is now possible to buy every kind of consumer good--as long as you are not short of money.

A video cassette recorder (VCR) is a particularly good indicator of the extent of mass consumption, for virtually every Russian home has a television set, and everywhere a VCR is a popular accessory for home entertainment.  Unlike a telephone or car or refrigerator, a VCR has become a popular consumer good in the 1990s, that is, after the introduction of the market to Russia.  Unlike home repairs or redecoration, it is not a product that can be produced by do-it-yourself work, nor can it be cultivated at a dacha.  A VCR must be bought with what is earned and payed as wages.

Today, a third of Russian households have a VCR, and two thirds do not, a crude inclination of the proportion of the Russian population with some discretionary income to spend on goods they would like but are not necessities.  The distribution of VCRs is spread relatively evenly throughout the country.  In the Volga region it is one sixth above average, and in the Northern region one fifth below.  Thus, even though the "really rich" Russians may congregate in Moscow and St Petersburg, all regions have a quarter or more of households able to buy some desirable consumer goods.


CSPP School of Government & Public Policy U. of Strathclyde Glasgow G1 1XQ Scotland
Email: cspp@strath.ac.uk