Salaries in Soviet Universities

THE equivalent figures given in NATURE of December 11, p. 1007, namely, 1100 rouble? £42, are about three times too high on the actual purchasing power of these salaries. Sir Walter Citrine has published a thorough study of prices and standard of living in Russia1, and finds the purchasing power of the rouble for food and necessities of life is equivalent to 3d. in England. This figure is confirmed by Andre Gide and Trotsky in recent books, and I have myself gone very thoroughly into the matter and would say that for January 1938 this is still not an unfair estimate2. On this basis the Russian salaries are as follows: