On March 1, 1978, Viktor Nechaev, a worker of a machine building plant in the city of Simferopol’ in Soviet Ukraine, killed himself. In his suicide note he wrote: “I love life, I love my family, but I have to take my own life because with these prices I cannot provide for my family. […] I have had enough. Only thieves, legal and illegal, live well in our country, while workers live in misery. Stop raising prices! I hang myself because I do not agree with the domestic policy of the country.”
Nechaev killed himself on the day Pravda newspaper announced the decision of the State Committee on Prices (Goskomtsen) to significantly raise retail prices for gold jewelry, car spare parts, imported coffee and chocolate — a list which included no basic necessities. Indeed, it was out of fear of public discontent that the government raised prices only for goods considered luxuries. Moreover, these goods were in short supply and the price increase was supposed to make them more readily available. ...