Membership Has Its Privileges

For the average Soviet citizen, one of the most galling aspects of the current political order is not that it is predicated on a bankrupt ideology but that it is so manifestly inegalitarian. In what is supposedly a classless society, life for the masses is a ceaseless hustle to acquire the most basic goods while for party bigwigs, the nomenklatura, it is relatively sweet, thanks to their access to all manner of worldly offerings. With resentments over these inequities rapidly growing as the economy deteriorates, Central Committee members last week reportedly did something that privileged elites rarely do: they voted to give up some of their perks.

This does not mean Politburo members will soon be seen in the food queues. According to officials familiar with the new party platform, the Central Committee recommended that party benefits be transferred to holders of government posts, most of whom are at present members of the nomenklatura. Communist officials who founder at the polls in future elections, however, will, at least in theory, find their standard of living much diminished.

Food privileges elicit the deepest anger. Although there are plenty of potatoes and kasha, a kind of porridge, ordinary Soviets must wait in long lines, sometimes for hours, to purchase such "luxuries" as soap, coffee and sausage. Meat that is not nine-tenths gristle is seldom available. Yet special shops for higher-ups are well stocked. On New Year's Eve people who rushed to the scene of a car crash in the Ukrainian town of Chernigov were incensed to discover a lavish cache of meats and vodka in the trunk of the damaged official vehicle. They seized the delicacies and smashed the car to bits, then towed its carcass to the local party headquarters.

While common folk have to wait as long as ten years for a private automobile, party officials are whisked around in chauffeur-driven black Volga sedans and Chaika limousines. A separate lane is reserved for them on Kutuzovsky Prospekt, a major Moscow artery. Those within the charmed circle are allotted spacious apartments and can loll about at weekend dachas in the countryside. They even have exclusive hospitals, where the care is far superior to that in ordinary institutions.

Naturally, many Communist nobles are loath to surrender their deserts. Conservative Politburo member Yegor Ligachev once drew hoots of derision when he responded to complaints of inequality by saying, "The party worker has ! only one privilege: to be in front, to struggle for the party's policies." Junior Politburo member Yevgeni Primakov got a bigger sneer when he argued in the Congress of People's Deputies that the rewards of being a party peer were in some ways a burden. During the hot summers, he complained, the chauffeur- driven black cars turned into sweatboxes.