I have always heard and just taken for granted that high ranking Soviet Party members and just important people in the USSR had a very different standard of living than the common folks. But I was thinking about it and I realized I have no idea what that may actually have been. Obviously, they can't live like the Nazi Elite in castles with stolen art work and so on, that would make everything the Soviets stood for look like a lie. But the problem is I really can't picture how someone important's life would look compared to a factory work other than I guess a nicer place to live. So my question is how was someone's life different materially if they were a big wig in the Soviet Union compared to just your average person?
This really depends on the era. Being very brief:
Under Lenin being a leading party member was better than most other jobs going... but not by much. Many were sharing accomodation (including Politburo members), their food was rationed and/or subject to shortage (Stalin had a doctors note insisting he be given more chicken) and their work environment would have been a chaotic nightmare. By comparison your average worker in the Civil War period might at times go without pay and make do with paynent in goods (like boots or trousers).
Stalin's inner circle lived a more lavish lifestyle with dachas, big boozy parties and such, but there was also that sense that it could all come crashing down, at times. Going to Stalin's compound for dinner, drinks and a movie was living the high life, but it was also very political and personal. These events were rituals to reinforce power relationships (if you stopped getting invited you were in trouble) and a lot of key decisions were made there. Similar to the Lenin era there was still a heavy workload that went with this. While things were a bit more stable, work in this period would also be crushing in trying to achieve those lofty goals, and again with the expectation that everyone work late. While I think of it, it should come as no surprise that the Stalinist elite sent their children to elite schools. The average Stalin worker during the Five Plan by comparison lives in a wooden barracks with other workers, and can't buy much due to low pay and lack of goods in shops.
From about the Khrushchev era you start to see the hard work = nice things start to skew more towards the 'nice things' end. Brezhnev for example had his hunting lodge. Again these cushy business trips had political aspects - Andropov sounded out an up and coming young Gorbachev during a rest retreat for example. As good as things were, it wasn't always world class - persistent claims suggest for example Andropov might have lived longer with access to western medical resources. The average Soviet worker in this period compared to earlier ones is doing well - sure there are shortages but these arent as common and your earning a bit more pay now - and the shops sometimes even havevnice stuff you might want (and heaps of junk no one could possibly like).