Bergson Views Russian Society In Terms of Economic Advance

"Russia is still generations behind us with regard to consumption," says Alouishes A. Bergson, professor of Economics, but the U.S.S.R. is making substantial progress in bridging the gap.

Professor Bergson, who visited the Soviet Union this summer for the third time, in order to get some idea of the present economic state, observes that the diet and clothing of the workers are still very poor. A good suit, he points out, costs 1500 rubles, but the average worker makes only 800 rubles a month, the equivalent of $80.

In contrast with Stalin's lack of concern with living standards, Khrushchev has attempted to solve these problems. "From my own and other people's conversations with the Russians, I think they are impressed by what has been achieved lately," Bergson comments.

Khrushchev has attempted to counteract the enormous imbalance between heavy industry and consumption that marked the Stalin regime. Bergson feels, however, that Khrushchev's goal of surpassing United States consumption cannot be realized.

Planning Still Primitive

After visiting the universities at Kiev and Moscow, Bergson finds them "still centering their economic education on Marx." The curriculum is primarily ideological, and tends to train secondary school teachers rather than economic planners. Partly as a result of this, Bergson maintains that "planning continues to be technically on a primitive plane."

While the gap between American and Russion consumption remains huge, Soviet industry is not so far behind that of the United States. Since 1951, Bergson relates, its output has been increasing at a rate of nine per cent annually, about three times quicker than American growth.

In the field of heavy industry, always emphasized in Russia, Khrushchev has continued the trend started in the Stalin regime. Bergson notes that Soviet steel production burgeoned from 4.3 million tons in 1928 to 38.1 tons in 1954. Under the present government, 54.9 million tons of steel were produced last year.

"What causes Russians most discomfort is housing," according to Bergson. The average city-dweller has a living space of only six square meters. Here, too, however, progress is being made. "On the way to Moscow's Vnukova airport," Bergson reports, "I saw more housing than I've ever seen in my life."