The pension issue that has recently become very painful and relevant for our country is often discussed by people who, let's say, are not too knowledgeable in stories this issue, and therefore, those who undertake to claim that the USSR was a real paradise for pensioners. Some, however, go to the other extreme, trying to present Soviet social payments as meager and almost miserable. To find out the truth, it is necessary to take a historical excursion, relying not on emotions, but solely on figures and facts.
Let's start with the origins. Moreover, some "experts" undertake to assert: in 1917, the Bolsheviks broke and abolished the excellent pension system that supposedly existed in the Russian Empire. Yes, in tsarist Russia, as of 1914, there were certain categories of citizens who could count on state-guaranteed old age, not even when they reached a certain age, but when they needed the necessary length of service. However, what were these categories? Officials, officers, gendarmes - first of all, service people. Also, teachers, doctors, engineers, and even workers, but who worked exclusively at state (state) enterprises and institutions, could earn a pension. All the rest - both the proletarians who worked hard on the private trader and the peasants (up to 90% of the country's population), were not supposed to.
With the coming to power of the Bolsheviks, all royal payments were indeed abolished. It is clear that the young Land of Soviets, which barely scrambled out of the devastating Civil War, hunger strikes and epidemics, did not have sufficient funds to create a comprehensive social security system. Nevertheless, the first steps in this direction began to be taken at the initiative of Lenin. In 1918, pensions appeared for fighters of the Red Army who remained disabled, in 1923 they began to receive party members with particularly great experience and merits. Most of these people had years of prison and hard labor imprisonment behind them, the same Civil ... Yes, and they did not heal in the world - the average life expectancy of men in the USSR at that time was 40-45 years.
Unfortunately, the myth that Khrushchev gave pensions to Soviet people is extremely tenacious. No. The first "Regulation on pensions and social security benefits" was adopted in the country in 1930, that is, under Comrade Stalin. Yes, the payments were not large and were not given to everyone: initially they were received by former employees of key industries: mining, electric, transport. Subsequently, by 1937, the pension system was extended to all workers and employees. Also, which is very important, in 1932 a single retirement age was established - 60 years for men and 55 for women. At that time, it was the lowest pension plan in the world. In other countries, old-age pension was paid to people who have reached more advanced years - if at all paid.
Stalin is usually blamed for two things: the amount of social payments is too low (they say, a student received 130 rubles of scholarships, and a disabled person of the 1st group received only 65) and because he did not take care of pensions for the villagers. Let us clarify: at that time, collective farms and agricultural cooperatives were obliged to ensure the old age of their members who lost their ability to work. But on their own, from their own funds, they themselves establish both the size of the content and the age at which it began to be paid (or issued in kind). Thus, two things were stimulated: the desire of rural workers to increase labor efficiency (so that the elderly did not starve) and the transition of a certain part of them to work in industry, which was in dire need of personnel. As for the size of the scholarships, the rapidly developing country before the cutoff needed competent people. Hence the bias in favor of students and students.
Pensions to farmers allegedly gave Nikita Khrushchev. Here, too, is not so simple and straightforward. Yes, the USSR law "On state pensions" was adopted on July 14, 1956, that is, in his time. However, as for the village workers ... They Nikita Sergeyevich with his characteristic "generosity" measured ... 12 rubles each, completely regardless of the length of service and achievements! That made him so happy. And at the same time, let's not forget, Khrushchev actually deprived the same villagers of household farms, due to which most of the elderly in the villages survived.
Be that as it may, since 1956 all citizens of the USSR, even those who did not have the required length of service, had the right to a state pension. True, they were supposed to receive a minimum allowance of 35 rubles. The rest, having completed their deadlines (he remained the same) and had sufficient experience (20 years - women, 25 - men) could count on the amount of half their own salary for any five-year labor or the last two years. But again, no more than 120 rubles a month. The maximum were the so-called personal pensions, however, and their size could not exceed 300 rubles.
Now about the most interesting. No Pension Fund in the USSR did not exist. Generally. Funds were transferred by enterprises and organizations directly to the state budget, from where they were then paid to pensioners. Moreover, these contributions were not deducted from the salaries of employees, but were paid directly from the funds of the enterprise or organization - in accordance with the number of workers. In a socialist state, all sorts of intermediary organizations like PF were simply not needed by anyone, it itself ensured the old age of its own citizens.
Were Soviet pensions small or sufficient for a normal life? This is a topic for a separate and difficult discussion. Everyone who lived at that time can simply turn to their own experience and what they saw and heard themselves. Personally, in my Soviet childhood and youth, I don’t somehow recall the old people asking alms.