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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Soviet Union
Index
The uppermost socio-occupational group, the elite, included
leading party and state officials; high-ranking military, Committee
for State Security (Komitet gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti--KGB), and
diplomatic personnel; directors of the largest
enterprises (see Glossary) and of the largest
educational, research, and medical
establishments; and leading members of the cultural intelligentsia,
e.g., academics, editors, writers, and artists. These groups
received the most income and had access to goods and services that
those lower in the social hierarchy found difficult or even
impossible to obtain. Unlike Westerners, members of the Soviet
elite were not allowed to amass great wealth and bequeath it to
their offspring. When a member of the elite died, even luxury items
such as a dacha (a country cottage) or an automobile could revert
to the state.
Data as of May 1989
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