Throughout much of Soviet history, industrial labor remained the subject of hotly contested political battles. Legitimated by its claims of proletarian power, the Soviet state could not ignore basic issues of worker living standards, nor could it fail to define an essential place for workers within Soviet society. Yet the pull of industrialization created powerful counter pressures, forces rewarding the specialist and the bureaucrat over the worker. It was only during the 1960s and 1970s that the labor question was solved – defused through a broad consensus on the optimal nature of Soviet labor policies. That concurrence was based upon inattention to manpower supply problems, reduction of monetary wage differentials, and moderation in dealing with labor discipline violations.

In spite of the public complaints concerning labor shortages resulting from World War II, Soviet economic development during much of the postwar period has been more or less predicated on an abundant and relatively cheap supply of labor. Such an assumption may no longer be warranted. With the exception of the Central Asian republics, the rate of population growth (largely through births) has declined and, again with the exception of Central Asia, rural population reserves have been expended. Moreover, the contemporary Soviet population is older and better paid than Soviet populations of the past.