The purpose of this research is to investigate the material world of the Ukrainian economic elites in the 1920s–1930s. The turn to the Communist ideology caused the transformation of the state’s and society’s attitude towards everyday life and the world of things. In those circumstances, wealth and luxury as characteristic features of the material world of any elite should have also lost their relevance. The material world of the Ukrainian economic elites under NEP and early Stalinism kept all signs of belonging to the higher social strata. Thus, the main objects of this research are two groups of the Ukrainian economic elites: private entrepreneurs and managers of state industrial companies, ‘nepmen’ and Soviet ‘red directors’ respectively.

It is necessary to find out what were the features of wealth in Soviet times. Some other important issues arise: what the material world of the Ukrainian economic elite was during the 1920s–1930s; what the difference in the position of its various representatives was; what kind of goods ‘created’ the elitist everyday life for entrepreneurs and directors of the Soviet industry; whether it is possible to create a sort of formula of wealth in the Soviet times in the interwar period.

In fact, the personal and social identity of the economic elites in the 1920s–1930s was shaped by the possession of a certain set of goods and services that emphasized the status of their owners. Some researchers, on the contrary, suggest paying attention to the immateriality as a key feature of the Soviet project as a whole. That is why the prosperous consumer groups of Soviet society could be an interesting and controversial field of research, which can lead to understanding how the ideals of equality were implemented in practice.

During the 1920s and 1930s, the social class of the Soviet economic elite and its consumer culture were formed. Both for ‘nepmen’ and ‘red directors’ things had the same material value. However, the acquisition of wealth by those two groups of the economic elite took place in a different way. While private traders bought certain material assets, the Soviet managers received them, mainly through a system of state distribution for workers or through social benefits. As a result, their consumer basket included not only things of everyday consumption, but also more durable items such as real estate, vehicles and other property.

To summarize, the material values, symbols of luxury and wealth, were extremely valuable for the economic elites of the 1920s–1930s. It was one of the reasons that differentiated them from other strata of Soviet society. Their consumption had statutory and demonstrative features. It was the period when shortage and closed distribution of goods transformed usual everyday things into luxury items that were available only to the higher layers. In fact, the priority of wealth as the characteristic feature of the elite led to the formation of a privileged group of Soviet society, based on the ownership of property and goods.

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