The article examines the history and methodology of calculating consumer price indices in the USSR. In the 1920s, the budget price index and the index of the Conjuncture Institute were calculated. The methodology of these indices incorporated many developments from index calculations in developed countries, and their values accurately reflected price trends in the country. Starting from the 1930s, the existence of inflation in the USSR was denied, and price indices based on internationally recognized statistical methodologies were no longer calculated. The retail price index in state and cooperative trade only reflected legislated price changes, had several limitations, and, according to researchers, significantly underestimated price growth in the country. More reliable in these conditions was the price index in collective farm trade, which took into account changes in market prices in the collective farm market. Combining indices from different periods and further weighting indices across trade sectors allowed for the derivation of an overall trade price index. Based on this index, a hypothesis was proposed regarding the dynamics of real wages in Russia/USSR from 1913 to 1990. The results show that after a catastrophic decline in real wages in 1917–1922, wage levels recovered by the second half of the 1920s but fell again during forced industrialization and collectivization. In the second half of the 1930s, real wages recovered. During 1941–1945, real wages plummeted to just 34 % of the 1913 level. Post-war recovery began gradually and accelerated in the 1950s. By 1985–1990, real wages reached 506 % of the 1913 level. The results obtained make it possible to trace the trends in the dynamics of material well-being in the USSR in more detail. © 2025, Saint Petersburg State University. All rights reserved.