Non-underground millionaires: Who in the Soviet Union legally earned a solid fortune

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The myth of global income equality in the Soviet Union has long been debunked. As elsewhere, there were ordinary citizens in the country, whose incomes were limited by rates and salaries, but they were very rich people. We are not talking about clandestine guild workers or those who were called plunders of socialist property. Surprisingly, the legal millionaires were not at all the leaders of the party and government.

Scientists-inventors received very decent fees for their discoveries, real legends were made about the income of nuclear physicists, some titled athletes could compete with them. But the largest number of legal Soviet millionaires was in the field of culture and art.

Lydia Ruslanova

As a child, Agafya Leikina had a chance to beg, later she ended up in an orphanage, changing her surname, because the children of the peasants were not taken there. Stunning vocal skills allowed Lydia Ruslanova not only to conquer Moscow, but also to become the highest paid singer in the Soviet Union. Hunger and poverty have long been forgotten, and jewelry and antiques have become a real passion of the national favorite.

A simple village girl very quickly learned to understand all these riches, she could determine whether the original picture was in front of her or if it was a good copy. She did not hesitate to wear her diamonds even to concerts in the Kremlin. During the Great Patriotic War, she not only gave concerts on the front lines, but also invested in the purchase of armored vehicles for the front.

In 1948, the singer was arrested along with her fourth husband, General Vladimir Kryukov. All material values were confiscated from the married couple: apartments, summer cottages, cars, antique furniture, paintings by famous artists. But most of all, the singer regretted the 208 diamonds confiscated from her housekeeper's house, as well as sapphires, emeralds, and pearls. Lydia Ruslanova was released only in 1953, after Stalin's death.

READ ALSO: The zigzags of Lydia Ruslanova's fate: from poverty to national glory, from confession to prison >>

Sergey Mikhalkov

Authors' fees in the Soviet Union could not be called excessively high. For example, for the text of the Anthem of the Soviet Union, Sergei Mikhalkov received only 500 rubles and a good food ration. However, the authors' income was also made up of lottery payments. And Sergei Mikhalkov was published very actively, not only in the USSR, but also abroad. Surprisingly, but copyright in the country of developed socialism was strictly observed.

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Yuri Antonov

He was called the first Soviet millionaire from show business. Yuri Antonov did not hide: his copyright income was very high. Officially, the singer and composer received about 15 thousand rubles a month. And this is with the average salary in the country just over 100 rubles.

For the concert, the singer received only about 50 rubles, but the fees for each performance of the song written by him were already added up on a savings book in a very decent amount.

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Natalia Durova

The famous animal trainer was famous for her love for jewelry and antiques, devoting to her collection no less time and energy than working with animals. It is no secret that Natalia Durova owned the unique blue diamonds of Catherine the Great and the ring of the cavalry girl Nadezhda Durova, who was in the family of the famous family.

For decades, the Durovs were able not to lose, but to increase their wealth. Natalia Durova gladly wore her diamonds and was proud of her antique collection. After her death, serious disputes erupted over the inheritance, and as a result, the illegitimate daughter of the son of the trainer Mikhail Bolduman Elizaveta Solovyov became the heiress.

Lyudmila Zykina

A talented singer owes her well-being entirely to her talent and incredible ability to work. She toured not only in the Soviet Union. The singer has visited 62 countries of the world with her concerts. The circulation of records with songs of one of the favorite singers of the Soviet era amounted to more than 6 million copies.

After Lyudmila Zykina left, they started talking about her passion for diamonds and antiques, although her relatives and friends claim that she was never a money-grubber and a thoughtless collector of jewelry. She always wore her jewelry.

After the death of Lyudmila Zykina, a serious struggle broke out for her inheritance, and a criminal case was even instituted on the disappearance of the valuables belonging to the singer. The collection of jewelry of the famous performer was sold at an auction in 2012 for more than 31 million rubles.

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Anatoly Karpov

The twentieth world chess champion, answering a question from journalists about whether he could be called a legal Soviet millionaire, only laconically agreed with this statement. His income came from winning major international tournaments.

Talking about his own loss at the 1987 World Championships, Anatoly Karpov announced the amount that he could have won along with the champion title - 600 thousand dollars.

Mikhail Sholokhov

The Soviet writer, the Nobel laureate in the field of literature, the laureate of the Stalin and Lenin prizes, received more than one million in foreign translations of his books alone. At the same time, he donated the Nobel and Lenin Prizes to the construction of schools in the Rostov Region, while he donated the Stalin Prize to the Defense Fund.

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