174 HUMAN LIFE IN RUSSIA
Special mention should also be made of the members of the
model collective farms which form the foundation of Russia's
agricultural propaganda for the benefit of foreign journalists
and other eminent visitors. They occupy a privileged position,
and have to do most of the talking at the Moscow congresses of
the collective farms.
The same Swiss workman has interesting facts to relate
about Russian wages and salaries. Factory managers and high
officials receive 500 to 1,000 roubles a month; officers 500 to
800; high Communist officials 400 to 800; engineers, agricul-
tural experts, architects and managers 350 to 600; teachers at
high schools, inspectors^ foremen and technicians 200 to 400;
draughtsmen, doctors, school teachers and dentists 100 to 150,
Cabinet makers, tool makers, etc., earn 300; electricians,
carpenters, turners, 240; bricklayers, painters, etc., 180;
locksmiths^ fitters and lathe hands 120; textile and leather
workers 90. In many of the provincial towns workers are paid
50 to 60 roubles. Rates are not uniform, and many factories,
especially those outside the big towns, pay less than the show
places.
It must be borne in mind that the rouble has a different
purchasing power according to its owner. At Moscow the
father of a family may earn 400 roubles a month as book-
keeper in a trading concern, His daughter is perhaps a shock
brigade worker in an engineering office and is paid 150 roubles.
But her 150 roubles are worth more than her father's 400,
because her cards are cheaper and she has access to privileged
distributing centres, so that she has to pay only a fraction of
what her father will have to pay at the ordinary co-operative
shops.
Much has been written about the variation of prices in Russk;
I will confine myself here to a few examples. A kilogram of
meat bought against ration cards costs on the average 3-18
roubles; without ration cards or bought at uncontrolled prices
in a State shop, it costs about^o roubles. The corresponding