Bread Prices in Petrograd
Bread Prices in Petrograd. March 4, 1920
Published in March 1920, this short Rossiia article lists current prices on the Petrograd market — bread at 450 rubles per pound, butter as high as 3,200 — alongside the meager monthly salaries of typists and nurses. The figures capture hyperinflation under war communism and the collapse of the ruble's purchasing power.
Original Source: Rossiia, 4 March 1920.
Here are the prices on the Petrograd market last week. Bread 450 rubles per lb.; flour 500-700 rubles per lb.; meat 550-660 rubles per lb.; pork 720 rubles per lb.; salt 300 rubles per lb.; butter 2,600-3,200 rubles; groats 500-700 rubles per lb.; makhorka 5,000-6,000 rubles per lb.; matches from 75-100 rubles per box; cigarettes 11-13 rubles each; yellow soap 700-800 rubles per lb. A single fare on a tram costs 6 rubles. In spite of these prices salaries are comparatively low. A woman typist get 3,200 rubles per month, without food. A nurse receives 2,600 rubles per month and a soldier's one day ration.
Source: Martin McCauley, ed., Russian Revolution and the Soviet State, 1917-1921: documents (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1975), p. 254.