Soviet people

The information about the International Scientific Conference “The Phenomenon of the Multinational Soviet Union: History, heritage and social memory” held on October 14–15, 2022 is presented. The participants discussed a wide range of theoretical and methodological, historical, economic, philosophical, legal, cultural, linguistic problems of education, formation, disintegration of a single state and its consequences.

The article analyzes the stages of the formation of consumer society in the USSR in 1953–1985. The main directions of the social policy of the Soviet state to meet the material needs of the Soviet population are considered. The conclusion is made about the growing contradictions between the consumer aspirations of the masses and the limited capabilities of the Soviet economy as the reason for the collapse of the unified Soviet Union.