Was electricity free in the Soviet Union?
Upvote:5
Electricity was not free for the population, as Matt said, the price was 4 kopecks for 1 kW·hr since 1961 to the end of 1980s. Luboš Motl said the price was everywhere the same, but I am not sure. There could be variations regarding the "belt", a term used for "price belts", the zones which had different prices in the USSR (such as Far East, North etc). Also, those who had no natural gas pipeline at home and used electric ovens had cheaper electricity, at 2 kop per kW·hr.
Some categories of people (such as WWII veterans etc) could have discounts, but I do not know the details.
Each apartment was equipped with an electric counter. The shared flats had a counter for each room and a counter for common area.
Note also that there were no water counters, nor gas counters so that one could use as much water and/or gas as one wanted, the price was fixed per month.
There were no caps that I am aware of.
As to industrial consumers, they paid completely different non-cash money for electricity and other utilities and supplies, and the prices for them were totally different.
Upvote:18
No, individuals didn't have and couldn't have electricity for free. It's clear that if there were just a limit on the maximum consumption of electricity (or water or anything else), most people would saturate it and the production wouldn't be sufficient.
The prices only followed the template of "total regulation" and "permanent monopoly", so they were constant for a very long time and universal everywhere in the whole country. Because of the absence of the market, no one actually knew whether the electricity sector was subsidized or profitable.
Also, one must realize that most of the consumption wasn't attributed to households but to organizations (public transportation, factories, schools, hospitals etc.) and all of them were basically state-owned and got whatever subsidies they needed so all of their accounting (including the consumption of electricity) was a political issue, not a financial issue.
See e.g. the book Electricity Market Reforms: Economics and Policy Challenges
More post
- 📝 Why did the Siege of Ceuta (1694-1720) take so long?
- 📝 How did European monarchies become nation states?
- 📝 Was the Night of the Long Knives principally a means to obtain loyalty of the German military leadership?
- 📝 Are there any reasonable sources of data on numbers of religious adherents, for different religions, throughout history?
- 📝 Why did Napoleon divide his army during the retreat from Smolensk?
- 📝 Did Western governments object to repression of western communists during Stalinism?
- 📝 Is there evidence that Harald Bluetooth died from an arrow to the rear?
- 📝 What cipher did Jefferson and Madison use to correspond?
- 📝 What words were spoken about oaths by US supreme court justices presiding over previous presidential impeachments?
- 📝 How different were Labour and Conservative party lines on race immigration and empire in around 1962?
- 📝 Which specific day of 1964 was the tree Prometheus (WPN-114) cut down?
- 📝 How many non-partisan (independent) legislature members were in the USA compared to the USSR?
- 📝 Why did the Soviets refuse to help Nur Mohammed Taraki?
- 📝 What was the judicial body in 16th century France called?
- 📝 When became turks finns?
- 📝 Did Louis XIV flee from the Louvre or the Palais-Royal on 5th January 1649?
- 📝 Why Californian Indian leader Estanislao was named after Polish martyr?
- 📝 Why does the US use the opposite convention to the rest of the world for colour-coding harbour buoys?
- 📝 Did Mountbatten favour India in partition of India-Pakistan?
- 📝 What was the extent of France's material support during the American Revolution?
- 📝 Where I can find historical literacy rates of Eastern European countries?
- 📝 When did mature redwood trees become possible to harvest?
- 📝 When and where did praying with eyes closed originate?
- 📝 On what accomplishments does Theodore Roosevelt's present day reputation rest?
- 📝 Which company offered this aircraft interior in the 60s?
- 📝 What was the reason for Gandhi's visit to Africa
- 📝 What is this household object from early 1900s rural Russia?
- 📝 What was Pizarro's route between Spain and Peru?
- 📝 Alfred the Great's illness
- 📝 Until what time was the Ancient Roman calendar era used?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Was electricity free in the Soviet Union?
- 📝 Why did Hitler attack the Soviet Union when he was still busy fighting the United Kingdom?
- 📝 Was public transportation free in the Soviet Union?
- 📝 What was the ratio women to men after World War 2 in the Soviet Union
- 📝 How close was the Soviet Union to collapsing during WW2?
- 📝 Was the Soviet Union in 1945 seeking to capture German soldiers and civilians, or drive them west?
- 📝 What determined which companies went to which post-Soviet republics after the fall of the Soviet Union as everything was centralized in Moscow?
- 📝 Was there a constant 'fear of the bomb' in the Soviet Union and America during the Cold War?
- 📝 What was the lowest available population to the Soviet Union in WW2?
- 📝 What was the strategic importance of Moscow to the Soviet Union in Dec 1941?
- 📝 Why was the Soviet Union unable to stop the violence in Nagorno-Karabakh?
- 📝 Was Germany's "Fall Blau" plan in the Soviet Union partly aimed at Mediterranean neutrals or Japan (a neutral vis-vis the Soviets)?
- 📝 What was the basis for the Nazis to support various ethnic minorities in the Soviet Union and elsewhere over the majority populations?
- 📝 Was one of the main reasons Hitler attacked the Soviet Union due to oil?
- 📝 Why didn't Imperial Japan attack the Soviet Union during World War 2?
- 📝 Why did Britain and France not declare war against the Soviet Union when it invaded Poland in WW2?
- 📝 During the breakup of the Soviet Union, on what basis was citizenship granted or withheld for each of the fifteen new republics?
- 📝 Why did the Soviet Union have multiple airplane manufacturers?
- 📝 In the Soviet Union, why was the Cheka renamed so many times?
- 📝 Why did the Soviet Union name their strongest bomb Tsar Bomba?
- 📝 What was the internal Soviet reaction to the moon landing?
- 📝 What was the reason for Soviet troops to withdraw from Yugoslavia in World War II?
- 📝 Why did the Soviet Union lift the Berlin Blockade?
- 📝 Why did the Soviet Union out-pace the US during the space-race?
- 📝 What was the role of the Soviet Navy during WWII?
- 📝 Did the U.S. and Soviet Union have a submarine battle in 1968?
- 📝 Why did the Soviet Union close its borders and restrict travel abroad?
- 📝 How popular was the Soviet Union?
- 📝 Did the Soviet Union or its satellite states have any broadcast propaganda media for an international audience?
- 📝 Why did the Soviet Union get 3 seats in the UN?