This title was first published in 1977. The Soviet Union is a socially divided society. The collectivities of which it is composed, whether designated as classes, strata, or "socio-occupational groups" (a term favored in recent Soviet writings on social structure), exhibit systematic differences in incomes and living standards, in control over the organization of the work place, in the educational and occupational opportunities open to their children. But what is new is that the social and economic inequalities which permeate Soviet life have become, within limits of course, accessible to study and discussion by Soviet scholars. The principal public justification for the study of inequality is the Party’s need for reliable information to implement its function of "scientific management" of the relations between the main social groups in Soviet society. This volume is a collection of six studies.