Old Communists Here?

[lxskllr]

Did any of you grow up under eastern communism? If so, how was life? Did you feel deprived? I'm asking because my visual impression is a greywashed world with bread lines and oppression, but when I look at picture sets on EnglishRussia, it doesn't really look that bad. Things are a little low budget, and the refinement on manufactured goods seems a bit lacking, but all told, it doesn't look unpleasant.

[kevs]

Well, intresting thread to say the least...
I didn't see much of the Soviet era but what I've heard from my parents and grandparents, if you had connections then you lived pretty okay life. Ofcorse gotta mention that my great-grantparents were deported to Siberia in June 1941 and my great-grandfather died there, but during the 80's the life got much easier and the communistic rule was not so hard. Shops were emtpty all the time tho, so who lived at countryside and had a farm, usually lived much better life than those in the city. My grandmother was a teacher and she got around 90 rubles per month, some examples- bread was 2 kopecks, vodka 4 rubles 12 kopecks. Also if you want to know how Estonians got away from soviet rule then check this documentary- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0954008/

[Jan]

Did any of you grow up under eastern communism?

I did! What was it like..... life was rather grey, there were no colors... Bread was available but I remember queuing for hours to buy toilet paper... oh how lucky and proud we were of ourselves to obtain 50 rolls of it (there was a shortage of toilet paper in the country and people used communist newspapers at times and these gave their asses black color). I was too small to have any interest in politics but I remember the day Brezhnev died. We were given a day off at school, I was like 8 or 9 years old, watching funeral on tv and crying.... funny. Otherwise, it was a lovely time for a small kid, people stayed much closer to one another... but I would never want to go back and relive this time as adult...

[kevs]

Oh and probably it was same in Latvia too, but when somebody got their hands on a regular plastic shopping bag, you were the man, plastic bag at that time was the most precious thing right after jeans, if you had these two, all the chicks wanted you.

[wa3zrm]

The post Nuusku made about the drug problems in current day Russia is frightening. I know all of Russia is not like that. I've had many friends from the former USSR over the years... most of then were the ones with connections. I recall an old professor I had who once asked me, "Bob, what is this thing you call Halloween?" I also remember walking across campus with him when two low flying military jets passed overhead. I looked up to see the jets... after they passed my professor was on the ground... I helped him up, he smiled at me and told me, "old habits are hard to break."

Every week he would send packages home. Stuff that he sent mainly were cigarettes and jeans. He once told me that as Americans, we don't know how good we have it.

[Jan]

Oh and probably it was same in Latvia too, but when somebody got their hands on a regular plastic shopping bag, you were the man, plastic bag at that time was the most precious thing right after jeans, if you had these two, all the chicks wanted you.

YOU ARE RIGHT! People used to take good care of their (foreign made) plastic bags, washed, even repaired them regularly! Sounds incredible but we are talking of a not very distant time in the past - this is how life was up until late 80s! This is a good thread... i'll look out for some pics to post here of our lives...

[lxskllr]

Otherwise, it was a lovely time for a small kid, people stayed much closer to one another...

This is what I find appealing about the pictures I've seen. People seem closer, and more "genuine". A lot of that is probably self selecting though. I gravitate to the more remote regions, with agrarian populations. What went on in Moscow probably didn't affect their lives as much as it would have if they were closer to the center of things. It seems like you could keep your head down, and no one paid attention to you, or cared what you did. Hard to say just looking at uncaptioned pictures though. It's just a point in time, but is still fairly revealing.

[Brukhanov]

So... i'm born in USSR. And yes,I loved that country. In it there was no unemployment, magnificent social security. The housing is free, medicine free of charge, school and institute free of charge. When the Iron Curtain failed, I visited Europe. Looked at democratic values and every year I am more and more convinced that communists were right. In Russia at the majority at the word "democracy" the nervous tic begins. To me was in the USSR much better!

[Jan]

Yup, here goes.... what looks like a computer is a russian electronic calculator.. russians were very proud to make the world's largest calculators. Second image shows a (surprisingly short) toilet paper line... and a proud communist brigning his precious purchase home is seen on the 3rd pic.

[whalen]

Lxskllr - I would think it was kinda like living in Maryland now! With out Costco's.

[Jan]

This is what I find appealing about the pictures I've seen. People seem closer, and more "genuine".

It is moral values that mattered, Exskllr.... for upper class communist ruling party these were of a very low importance though...

[lxskllr]

Lxskllr - I would think it was kinda like living in Maryland now! With out Costco's.

Honestly, that hasn't been far from mind. After blasting the USSR for years, we're slowly going in the same direction. The NSA is spying on the whole population, and the government tells us what to do "for our own good". Those with money get special treatment, and laws passed in their favor, and the rest of us deal with it.

Jan...

That seems like it would have been a good money making opportunity. How hard can it be to make toilet paper? I'd think making toilet paper from old newspaper and stuff would be achievable using low tech techniques, and could e traded for other things.

[Brukhanov]

I can precisely tell that people in the USSR were much kinder and is more educated. Very trustful. Trustfulness of the Soviet people allowed thieves to Gorbachev and to his gang to disorganize the country which I loved.

[Jan]

Jan...

We were not allowed to start up private enterprise... it is the communist state that was in charge of money making as it was in charge of anything else.
This so called "full employment" was in fact a form of modern slavery - people were forced to work for the state, those who rebelled were intimidated and put in prison.. we had several family friends put in prison for using "money making opportunities". We had in fact the most expensive health care and education in the world - salaries were inadequate, extremely low... what did we have from the state - free housing? free education? OK.. but given the salary figures we paid a fortune for these basic things..

[Brukhanov]

We were not allowed to start up private enterprise... it is the communist state that was in charge of money making as it was in charge of anything else.
This so called "full employment" was in fact a form of modern slavery - people were forced to work for the state, those who rebelled were intimidated and put in prison.. we had several family friends put in prison for using "money making opportunities". We had in fact the most expensive health care and education in the world - salaries were inadequate, extremely low... what did we have from the state - free housing? free education? OK.. but given the salary figures we paid a fortune for these basic things..

Yes... But now it is much better. There is 1 % of people at which money so many that they unable them to spend, and other 99 % which became slaves to the bankers, compelled to take on credit for study, training, treatment, exhausting itself in lifelong slavery. Only don't speak about freedom and democratic values... I hope you rather adult person and don't trust in fairy tales?