FROM THE HISTORY OF KYIV MARKETS

Judging by the newspapers of that time, not more than 10% of Kyiv's population survived the passions of political events. The remaining 90% of peaceful residents, irrespective of their social, class and ethnic characteristics, were urban everyday people, for whom the growth of everyday prices was the principal motivating force. During the eleven changes of power in Kyiv 1917-1920, prices would not only rise, as they do in modern times, but sometimes even substantially fall. (In fact, it was observed that prices reached their peaks on the eve of Bolshevik occupations and dropped sharply after their withdrawal.)

To have a better idea of those prices, one should know something about the pay of those years, which differed little from the latest last Soviet ones in rubles and our present-day wages in hryvnias. In 1917, the minimum wage was 100-150 rubles (night watchmen and police). A high school principal could earn as much as 350 rubles. In early 1918 under the Central Rada wages rose one and a half-two times to 250-300 rubles. In mid-1918 under the Hetmanate up to 300-500 rubles. Finally, in August-September 1919, when the White Army was in, a woodcutter was paid 360- 400 rubles for eight cubic meters of firewood.

A kilogram of bread cost 44 kopecks at the end of wartime 1916 (here and after, to simplify things for the modern Kyiv's man in the street, old pounds have been converted into now customary kilograms), but its price rose to 5-7 rubles under the Central Rada, dropped to three rubles thanks to Hetman Skoropadsky, and again jumped to seven under Petliura's Directory. In August 1919, under the Bolsheviks, it cost up to 240 rubles, but half a month later, when General Bredov's White Army units marched in, the price for a kilo of bread at once fell to 48 rubles and then to 20 rubles in December. A kilogram of butter, which cost 2.7 rubles in late 1916, jumped to six and then to 73 in November 1918. (Under the Bolsheviks, it rose to 480 to 670 rubles). In 1913, ten eggs went for 16 kopecks in Kyiv's marketplaces but rose to 80 kopecks in 1917 and over 10 rubles in April 1918. Hetman Skoropadsky's ministers managed to cut this price also but in November the peasants, selling their produce in the markets, again demanded a ruble for an egg, and up to nine after nine months.

A similar variability of prices was recorded for the national product, vodka. What cost 1.65 rubles in 1913 (with a 0.6-liter vodka bottle and a 0.77- liter wine bottle being the official unit of measurement) was peddled for up to 30 rubles at the end of the Central Rada period, and under the Hetman the official state price was a mere 16 rubles, with speculators selling it for thirty.

Cucumbers went at 35 rubles for ten, while they cost 50 kopecks a hundred in 1913 and one could find them for even 25 kopecks. When you look back on the history of events in Kyiv through the prism of these prices, you sometimes stop wondering at many current sentiments.

As is evident from the whole history of city markets, it is the Hetman who tried most of all to keep the man in the street well fed. He did it with obvious success, against the backdrop of prices on the Bessarabian Market before and after him. Kyiv was then the refuge for all those from Moscow and St. Petersburg who fled from the Bolsheviks, with German officers strolling down the streets (the German mark was then going here at 1.5-2 rubles in April and 66 kopecks in November). Let the nouveaux riches drink to a new deal at the posh El Dorado (the former Maxim's on the corner of what is now Horodetsky and Zankovetska Streets) for 300-500 rubles, let others pay 100 rubles for a cup of coffee at a new patisserie on Prorizna Street! The ordinary man in the capital of the new Ukrainian state, content with the stability of power (epaulets, generals, security guards on every corner, no demonstrations or pogroms, no red flags), rushes to the market. What did he see there in August 1918?

Meat rose to 7.30 rubles a kilo (1.5-2 eighteen months earlier); fatback was 22 rubles, sour cream 5 rubles 60 kopecks. A head of cabbage, which cost 5-6 kopecks under His Majesty the Emperor, ranged from 60 kopecks to 3 rubles under His Excellence the Hetman. Sugar was six rubles a kilo (hold on, fellow, you'll pay as much as 25 under the Bolsheviks!). Potatoes, once three kopecks a kilo, is now more than 60, if not 80. (Just you wait, November will bring Petliura, and you'll pay 1.5 rubles!). Milk, which used to be ten kopecks, now it is two rubles. Buy a bar of soap for five rubles.

There are hardly any Kyivans now who lived through those events at the age of consent and still remember them. These prices have been taken from old newspapers. At that time, Kyiv newspapers now and then published market prices to satisfy the interest of the common people, sometimes even advising which market is cheaper. For instance, the Bessarabian Market was the most expensive then as now.

Now, with a pocket calculator in hand, it is easy to compare what, how much, and how often something could be on the table of an ordinary Kyivan then and now. And it is this that determines his attitude toward the authorities and the current moment of history.