The period of the existence of the Soviet Union was marked by epic economic failures, and enmity with the West, and unprecedented persecution of religion and the church. But there were also absolutely fantastic, inconceivable undertakings at that time. Alexey Nasedkin suggests remembering which ones!
Editorial LJ MEDIA
There are no ideal eras, and there were none in the history of our country. Certainly - during the existence of the Soviet Union. However, one of the brightest pages of the 20th century has been the most heavily ostracized in recent decades. Undoubtedly, this time is marked by epic failures in the economy, and enmity with the West, and unprecedented persecution of religion and the church, and the suppression of freedoms declared at first, and other voluntarism-subjectivism. But there were also absolutely fantastic, inconceivable undertakings at that time. Let's remember?
1. With the light hand of Ehrenburg, it was decided to designate the period from 1953 to 1968 as a thaw. Why in 1968 and not 1964, when Khrushchev was sent into retirement? Most historians agree that to some extent, the echoes of the thaw accompanied the first years of Brezhnev's rule, but finally froze after the suppression of the Prague Spring. Well, what did the Khrushchev years remember most of all for ordinary citizens? First of all - unprecedented mass housing construction. 
2. It is today that we derisively and condescendingly treat the unsightly five-story housing estates. And half a century ago, people were just happy to move from barracks and communal apartments to albeit tiny and uncomfortable, but separate housing. Most of the houses were calculated for 20 years, with the further goal (with the planned onset of communism) to resettle the people in good, spacious and high-quality apartments. 
3. During the Khrushchev thaw, the spirit of lightness and freedom literally pierced the life of Soviet people who were not used to such things. It concerned literally everything - even interior design and furniture. Instead of the former Stalinist heavy curtains and massive oak cabinets, bright, airy, almost toy minimalism settled in the dwellings of citizens. 
4. It seemed that the sun, bursting through the open window frames, flooded the rooms and instilled in people a carefree mood filled with a sense of happy changes soon. 
5. In those years, the craze for bright ceramics and other newfangled stray became fashionable. 
6. Massively new literature poured in, starting with the deafening "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" and ending with topical thick magazines such as "New World". 
7. The monumental Stalinist social realism gave way to a riot of colors, which was far from clear to everyone at that time. 
8. Taking a sip of freedom, artists and sculptors set off in all serious ways. 
9. 
10. Of course, such revelry could not please Nikita Sergeevich, who seemed to regret what he had done. "I gave birth to you, and I will kill you," he seemed to be saying to unbridled creative personalities. And he also called them pederasts at the same time. 
11. But after all, it was at the suggestion of Khrushchev that the mustachioed killer was first exposed in 1956, and a year later an unprecedented event was organized in Moscow - the Festival of Youth and Students. A stream of foreigners poured into the capital, and the study of foreign languages came into fashion en masse. The mighty iron curtain creaked up. 
12. The Khrushchev thaw was marked by an unprecedented interest of people in science and technology. Popularization of science, scientific and technological revolution - this is all that we lack so much today, in the 21st century. 
13. The main characters then, of course, were the astronauts. 
14. Literally everything was devoted to the space theme - from the design of vacuum cleaners to ordinary sweets. 
15. And here is one of the "computers" of those years. 
16. Rear view. 
17. In the late 50s, the rapid development of light industry began. Ordinary consumer goods, which have long been in use in the United States and Europe, have finally become more or less accessible to the citizens of the USSR. 
18. Unfortunately, all this affected only urban residents, who then appeared as a prototype of the modern middle class. The village, as it lived in dense poverty, continued to live. 
19. Mass production of goods naturally gave rise to what is today called industrial design. The daily necessities surrounding people have ceased to be scary and utilitarian and have become "user friendly". 
20. Here are the first transistor radios. 
21. And here is one of the first music centers. Yes, yes, the musical stream, breaking through from under the iron curtain, also overwhelmed the citizens accustomed only to waltzes, symphonies and folk songs. Jazz, twist, rock and roll - all this has now become available to domestic music lovers. And it was great. 
22. Unfortunately, stereo sound was a novelty at the time. But, the main thing is the mood! 
23. Just imagine, even a car, albeit small and unsightly, has ceased to be an absolute luxury. 
24. Fashion of the early 60s. 
25. Time of rebirth, time of inspiration, time of creation, time of unfulfilled hopes and aspirations. 
26. The eccentric and controversial Khrushchev managed, among other things, to achieve one seemingly imperceptible achievement. After his resignation in 1964, he was not shot, imprisoned, or even expelled from the party, which would have inevitably happened under Stalin. He managed to humanize the bloodthirsty system. This is important to understand and remember. 
You can touch the fragments of that time at the exhibition, which is called "Moscow Thaw" and is taking place these days at the Museum of Moscow in the former Food Warehouses.
Modern youth knows that such a country of the USSR existed, but this, as a rule, all knowledge about it ends. Today we will tell you interesting facts about the Indestructible Union, which, perhaps, were unknown to you ...
At the beginning of the Second World War, the USSR experienced a large shortage of tanks, and therefore it was decided in emergency cases to convert ordinary tractors into tanks. So, during the defense of Odessa from the Romanian units besieging the city, 20 similar “tanks” sheathed with armor sheets were thrown into battle.
The main stake was placed on the psychological effect: the attack was carried out at night with the headlights and sirens turned on, and the Romanians fled. For such cases, as well as the fact that dummies of heavy guns were often installed on these machines, the soldiers nicknamed them NI-1, which stands for "Fright". 
The song "uno-uno-uno, un momento" from the movie "Formula of Love" seems to be written in Italian. In fact, its text is an incoherent set of Italian words, and it was invented by the film's composer Gennady Gladkov.
The dog Laika was sent into space, knowing in advance that she would die. After that, a letter came to the UN from a group of women from Mississippi. They demanded to condemn the inhuman treatment of dogs in the USSR and put forward a proposal: if for the development of science it is necessary to send living creatures into space, in our city there are as many Negroes as you want for this.
In the USSR, since November 1941, there was a tax on childlessness, which amounted to 6% of the salary. It was paid by childless men from 20 to 50 years old and childless married women from 20 to 45 years old. 
During the years of the Great Patriotic War, St. Isaac's Cathedral was never subjected to direct shelling - only once a shell hit the western corner of the cathedral. According to the assumptions of the military, the reason is that the Germans used the highest dome of the city as a reference point for shooting. It is not known whether the city leadership was guided by this assumption when they decided to hide valuables from other museums in the basement of the cathedral, which they did not manage to take out before the blockade began. But as a result, both the building and the values were safely preserved.
In the late 1920s, Professor Ilya Ivanov conducted experiments on crossing chimpanzees and humans, but did not achieve results "for" or "against" this hypothesis. The experiments were to be continued at the Sukhum Zoo, and there were even female volunteers for insemination with monkey sperm. However, due to Ivanov's arrest in 1930 and his subsequent death in 1932, the experiments were interrupted.
There was a legend in the USSR for a long time that Khrushchev’s famous phrase “I’ll show you Kuz’kin’s mother!” at the UN Assembly translated literally - "Kuzma's mother". What is "kuzkina's mother"? Probably the newest secret weapon! Subsequently, the expression "kuzkina mother" was used to refer to the atomic bombs of the USSR. But in fact, the translator, translating this expression, spoke allegorically: "I will show you what is what." 
The theme of the Tunguska meteorite was very popular with Soviet science fiction writers, especially beginners. In the 1980s, the literary magazine "Ural Pathfinder" even had to write in a separate paragraph in the requirements for publications: "Works that reveal the secret of the Tunguska meteorite are not considered."
Soviet basketball player Janis Krumins, a native of Latvia, started playing basketball only at the age of 23. Two years later he became the champion of the USSR, and a year later he won the silver of the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne.
For the manufacture of handicraft records on which illegal music was recorded, old X-rays were widely used in the USSR. They were called "plates on the bones" or "plates on the ribs". This material was free of charge - the medical staff even thanked those who helped unload the archives in this way. 
"Will and reason" is the motto of the Italian fascists. The authors of the song of the same name by the Aria group did not know about this, nor did the members of the artistic council who approved the recording of the song for the record.
Konstantin Rokossovsky, a Pole by nationality, had the ranks of Marshal of the USSR and Marshal of Poland.
From June 22, 1941 to July 1, 1941 (9 days), 5,300,000 people joined the Armed Forces of the USSR. 
In the Soviet Union, a well-known manufacturer of rubber slippers was the Polymer plant in the city of Slantsy, Leningrad Region. Many buyers believed that the word “Slates” squeezed out on the soles was the name of the shoe. Further, the word entered the active vocabulary and became a synonym for the word "slippers".
At the end of 1991, there was complete confusion with the New Year's address to the people. Gorbachev was formally the president of the USSR, but he didn’t decide anything, and Yeltsin also couldn’t congratulate him for unknown reasons. The honorary role was offered to Mikhail Zadornov, who was the host of the Blue Light. The satirist spoke live and was so carried away that he spoke for a minute longer. For his sake, the chimes were delayed. 
When Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan, the Americans gave the Mujahideen, according to various estimates, from 500 to 2000 Stinger man-portable anti-aircraft missile systems. And after the Soviet troops withdrew from there, the American government began to buy rockets at $183,000 apiece. In this case, the usual cost of the stinger is 38 thousand dollars.
Lev Yashin was not only a football goalkeeper, but also a hockey one. In 1953, he became the owner of the USSR Ice Hockey Cup and the bronze medalist of the USSR championship. They already wanted to invite Yashin to the hockey team for the World Championship, but he decided to concentrate on football. 
Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev spent a total of 803 days in orbit, a world record. At the same time, he can be considered the owner of another record - the longest time travel among the inhabitants of our planet. According to the theory of relativity, the greater the speed at which an object moves, the more time slows down for it. It is calculated that thanks to space flights, Krikalev is 1/48 of a second younger than if he had remained on Earth all the time. In other words, the astronaut returned from orbit to a point in time 1/48 of a second later than expected under normal conditions.
The largest artificial material object ever created by man can be considered a "mushroom" from the Soviet thermonuclear bomb AN602. 
In 1945, Soviet schoolchildren presented the American ambassador with a wooden panel made of precious woods depicting the US coat of arms. Neither the schoolchildren nor the ambassador knew that a listening device was installed in the panel, the design of which was developed by Lev Theremin. The "bug" was so well hidden that the American intelligence services did not notice anything, and Soviet intelligence officers listened in on conversations in the ambassador's office for another 8 years. After the discovery, the device was presented to the UN as evidence of the intelligence activities of the USSR, but the principle of its operation remained unsolved for several more years. 
Mayakovsky gave his beloved Lila Yuryevna Brik a ring with her initials - "L Yu B". Being arranged in a circle, these letters formed an endless "LOVE".
The song "Maybe a Crow" was originally supposed to sound in the cartoon "Plasticine Crow" at a normal pace. However, director Alexander Tatarsky did not track the recording time, which is why the song did not fit into the allotted 5 minutes of animation. The solution was found to be simple - the song was sped up, as a result of which it acquired its famous "cartoon" sound. 
Before the advent of Soviet power, the word "subbotnik" had a different meaning. So the high school students called the collective flogging, which was arranged for them by the authorities for misconduct committed during the school week. Corporal punishment itself was used in Russian schools until the second half of the 19th century.
A copier in our country is often called a copier, because it was Xerox machines that were first introduced to the Soviet market (by the way, this name is pronounced “ziroks” in the original). Even the verb “xerite” appeared in the meaning of “make a copy”. And in some areas of the Far East, Canon excelled, and the verb “canon” is more common there.
Once the bear circus of Valentin Filatov was on tour in Stuttgart. At one of the rehearsals, a bear on a motorcycle left the arena and the gates of the circus and ended up on a city highway in a stream of cars. She managed to pass three intersections, at each of which the traffic controllers gave her a green light, before Filatov caught up with her in a car and stopped her. On the evening of the same day, the local police handed the bear a driver's license. 
At the end of his career, the famous Soviet football player Alexander Zavarov played for the French club Nancy. In the team, he was given the nickname “blette” (translated from French - “beets”), since Zavarov often pronounced this word with his own or other people's mistakes on the football field.
During the period of large-scale nuclear tests in the USSR and the USA, from the late 1960s to the early 1990s, which also included many underground nuclear explosions, almost not a single strong earthquake with a magnitude of more than 8.3 units was recorded on the planet. However, the fact that this connection is not just a coincidence has not yet been proven.
The famous Soviet miner-record holder Alexei Stakhanov was not actually called Alexei. Just right after his record for coal production, an article in the Pravda newspaper mistakenly called him that, and he had to urgently change his name and passport. What was the real name of Stakhanov, it is not known exactly - some researchers believe that Andrei, others - that Alexander. 
Race car driver Kimi Raikkonen's first car was a Soviet Lada, which he and his father found prepared for recycling. After being repaired and repainted, Raikkonen fell in love with this car. According to him, he almost never broke.
At the closing ceremony of the Olympics-80 in Moscow, one of the most spectacular elements was the image of the Olympic bear lined with colored shields, and especially its tear. Initially, it was not in the script, but at the rehearsal, an extra holding one of the shields mistakenly raised it up not with the dark side, but with the light side. When the leader said to change sides, all the extras in the row began to follow the order. The rolling wave immediately reminded everyone of a tear, in this form it was included in the ceremony.
In the Soviet cartoon, Winnie the Pooh was voiced by Yevgeny Leonov. To achieve greater comedy, the artist's speech was sped up by about 30%. If you reduce the speed by this amount, you can hear the usual Leonov. 
In 1984, a non-lethal laser pistol was developed in the USSR. It was intended for the self-defense of astronauts. The damaging effect of this pistol was to disable the sensitive elements of optical systems, including the human eye. And an important advantage over a conventional pistol in zero gravity was the lack of recoil. Now the laser pistol is a monument of science and technology and is exhibited at the Museum of the History of the Military Academy of the Strategic Missile Forces. 
The city of Vladikavkaz from 1924 to 1934 was the capital of two autonomous republics within the USSR - North Ossetian and Ingush. At the same time, the city itself was an independent administrative unit outside the composition of these republics.
In a popular song that sounded in the 1934 film Maxim's Youth, there are lines: "The blue ball is spinning, spinning, spinning overhead." The obvious illogicality of the text (what kind of ball can spin overhead?) is easily explained. In the original version of this song, which arose back in the middle of the 19th century, it was not “ball”, but “scarf” that was sung. But since the letter "f" at the junction of words at a fast pace was very difficult to sing, it was subsequently reduced. 
In Soviet literature and textbooks, the story of 28 Panfilov heroes was widely presented, who, during the German offensive on Moscow in 1941, accomplished a feat, destroying 18 enemy tanks at the cost of their own lives. Later, the military prosecutor's office of the USSR recognized this version as a literary fiction, since not a single documentary evidence of such a battle was found, although the fact of heavy battles of the 316th rifle division against two enemy tank divisions in this sector of the front is beyond doubt. The legendary phrase of political instructor Klochkov, who was one of the 28 Panfilovites - “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - behind Moscow” - also turned out to be a fiction composed by a journalist from the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper.
Leonid Gaidai was drafted into the army in 1942 and first served in Mongolia, where he rode horses for the front. Once a military commissar came to the unit to recruit reinforcements for the army in the field. To the officer’s question: “Who is in the artillery?” - Gaidai answered: "I!". He also answered other questions: “Who is in the cavalry?”, “In the fleet?”, “In reconnaissance?”, Which caused discontent of the chief. “Yes, you wait, Gaidai,” said the military commissar, “Let me announce the entire list.” Later, the director adapted this episode for the film "Operation" Y "and other adventures of Shurik." 
Contrary to popular belief (which even found its way into the Soviet textbook on the history of foreign cinema), the film The Arrival of the Train was not shown at the famous first paid film show in Paris in the basement of the Grand Cafe on the Boulevard des Capucines.
When Mayakovsky introduced his famous poetic "ladder", fellow poets accused him of cheating - after all, poets were then paid for the number of lines, and Mayakovsky received 2-3 times more for poems of a similar length.
In the Terminator 2 movie, the Terminator tells a biker, "I need your clothes, boots, and motorcycle." 11 years earlier, in the film "The Adventures of Electronics", Electronics, about to replace Syroezhkin, addresses him with the phrase: "I need your uniform." 
The metro in Baku was launched in 1967, and one of the stations was called "April 28" - in honor of the day when Soviet power was established in Azerbaijan. After the republic's secession from the USSR, the station was "upgraded" for exactly a month. Now it is called "May 28" - in honor of the Republic Day public holiday.
Georgy Millyar played almost all the evil spirits in Soviet fairy tale films, and each time he was put on complex makeup. Millyar hardly needed him only for the role of Kashchei the Immortal. The actor was thin by nature, in addition to this, during the Second World War, he contracted malaria while evacuating to Dushanbe, turning into a living skeleton weighing 45 kilograms. 
It is known that Soviet and Russian cosmonauts have a tradition - to watch the film "White Sun of the Desert" before departure. It turns out that this tradition has a logical justification. It was this movie that was shown to the cosmonauts as a standard of camera work - by its example they were explained how to work with the camera and build a plan.
In one of the first editions of Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary, they decided not to include the names of the inhabitants of cities, so as not to increase its size once again. An exception was made only for the word "Leningrader", but not as a sign of special respect for the inhabitants of Leningrad. It was simply necessary to separate the words "lazy" and "Leninist", which stood side by side, so as not to defame the image of young Leninists.
The GAZ-21 car had many modifications. In 1965, the GAZ-21P model was even released - an export version with a right-hand drive. And in the same year they made the GAZ-21PE - the same model with a right-hand drive plus an automatic transmission. 
During the preparations for the launch of the Soviet automatic station to Mars, problems arose with the excess weight of the research equipment. Korolev, having studied the drawings, wanted to check the device, which was supposed to report on the radio about the presence or absence of organic life on the planet. The device was taken out to the scorched steppe near the cosmodrome, and then transmitted that there was no life on Earth, which was the reason for its exclusion from the mission.
Labor armies were created in the young Soviet state. The military who committed crimes were called "prisoners of the Red Army", and in the documents this phrase was abbreviated "z / k". Later, during the construction of the White Sea Canal, this abbreviation began to be deciphered as “prisoned canal soldier”. From "z / k" the word convict came from. 
In the 1950s, the Soviet breeder Lapin developed a particularly large-fruited lemon variety. However, it did not gain popularity. The phrase of some official who said on this occasion became famous: "The Soviet people do not need lemons that do not fit into Soviet glasses."
In 1946, the village of Selmentsy was divided between the USSR and Czechoslovakia, and the border passed right along one of the streets. Today parts of the village are in Slovakia and Ukraine.
There were many moments in the "Diamond Hand" that Soviet censorship found fault with: two prostitutes, the scene of drunkenness of the main positive character, the carelessness of customs officers, and much more. Gaidai went for a trick: he pasted a nuclear explosion at the end of the film and told the Goskino commission that they could cut out anything but the explosion. The commission answered the opposite: the explosion would have to be removed, and the rest should remain as it is, which is what the director wanted. 
The source of the expression “And it’s clear to a hedgehog” is Mayakovsky’s poem (“It’s clear even to a hedgehog - / This Petya was a bourgeois”). It became widespread first in the Strugatsky story "The Land of Crimson Clouds", and then in Soviet boarding schools for gifted children. They recruited teenagers who had two years left to study (grades A, B, C, D, E) or one year (grades E, F, I). The students of the one-year stream were called “hedgehogs”. When they came to the boarding school, two-year students were already ahead of them in a non-standard program, so at the beginning of the school year the expression "no brainer" was very relevant. 
When designing the first Soviet lunar rover, a lot of controversy arose: what is the lunar surface like? There were hypotheses that it was formed by a thick layer of dust. One organization for testing the lunar rover proposed to build a huge hangar with an area of several thousand square meters, strewn with a 5-10-meter layer of unshelled millet (which is very slippery and could become an analogue of "moon dust"). The problem was solved by Korolev, personally ordering the surface of the moon to be considered solid.
In 1942, Stalin invited the US ambassador to watch the film "Volga, Volga" with him. Tom liked the film, and Stalin gave President Roosevelt a copy of the film through him. Roosevelt watched the film and did not understand why Stalin sent him. Then he asked to translate the lyrics. When a song dedicated to the Sevryuga steamship sounded: “America gave Russia a steamboat: / Steam from the bow, wheels behind, / Both terrible and terrible, / And terribly quiet running,” he exclaimed: “Now it’s clear! Stalin reproaches us for a quiet move, for the fact that we still have not opened a second front. 
Academician Semyon Vol'fkovich was among the first Soviet chemists who conducted experiments with phosphorus. Then the necessary precautions were not yet taken, and gaseous phosphorus soaked clothes during work. When Volfkovich returned home through the dark streets, his clothes emitted a bluish glow, and sparks were fired from under his boots. Each time a crowd gathered behind him and mistook the scientist for an otherworldly being, which led to the spread of rumors about the "luminous monk" throughout Moscow.
In 1936, a new variety of sausage was developed - doctor's. The name of the sausage was explained by a special honorary "mission" - it was intended "to improve the health of persons affected by the arbitrariness of the tsarist regime." 
When the film “Kin-dza-dza!” Was filmed, Chernenko became the General Secretary of the USSR. Since his initials were K.U., Daneliya, under pain of a ban on the film, decided to resound the universal word “Ku”, which is often used in the film. Options "Ka", "Ko", "Ky" and others were put forward, but while the film crew was choosing, Chernenko was gone, and in the end everything remained as before.
A donkey was needed to shoot the scene with the old Afghan man in the film "9th Company". The film crew turned to the Yalta Zoo, explaining that they need an animal that is not afraid of the camera and loud sounds. Zoo workers immediately advised the donkey Lucy, who almost 40 years ago starred in the "Prisoner of the Caucasus", carrying Shurik. The role in the "9th company" she also played perfectly.
In the entire history of the Soviet lottery Sportloto, all 6 out of 49 numbers were guessed correctly 2 or 3 times 
In the terms of reference for the T-28 tank, which was created in the 1930s, there is a clause according to which the tank must overcome lunar landscapes. There is no mysticism and fantasy here: the fact is that at that time the lunar landscape was called the area affected by bombing and artillery strikes.
Winston Churchill was very fond of Armenian cognac and daily drank a bottle of 50-degree brandy "Dvin". One day, the prime minister discovered that Dvin had lost its former taste. He expressed his dissatisfaction with Stalin. It turned out that the master Margar Sedrakyan, who was engaged in the blending of Dvin, was exiled to Siberia. He was returned, reinstated in the party. Churchill began to receive his favorite cognac again, and Sedrakyan was subsequently awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. 
In the film directed by Andrei Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky "Uncle Vanya", released in 1970, there are both color and black-and-white scenes. Some critics have found artistic justification for this technique. In fact, there were not enough stocks of color Kodak, and Soviet color film did not give the desired image quality, which is why they shot in black and white.
In almost all films of George Danelia, the actor Rene Hobua is indicated in the credits, although he never starred in them. Georgy Danelia and Rezo Gabriadze met the builder Rene Hobua in the late 1960s, when they lived in a hotel in Tbilisi and wrote the script for the film Don't Cry! For several days in a row, they told him different versions of the script in order to get the "opinion of a simple spectator" until Rene asked to be released. It turned out that he came on a business trip from Zugdidi and had to "get" building materials, but instead he had to listen to the script. In gratitude, his name was placed in the credits.
When developing the Pobeda car, it was planned that the name of the car would be Rodina. Upon learning of this, Stalin ironically asked: "Well, how much will our Motherland be?" Therefore, the name was changed to "Victory". 
During the Cold War, there were many cases when the world was on the verge of a nuclear war due to incorrect readings of missile launch detection systems. For example, in 1979, an alarm was raised in the United States due to the fact that a training program for a massive nuclear strike was mistakenly loaded on one of the computers. However, the satellites did not detect missile launches, and the alarm was cancelled. And in 1983, the Soviet satellite detection system failed, transmitting a signal about the launch of several American missiles. Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov, sitting on the console, took it upon himself to not pass the information on to the country's top leadership, deciding that the United States was unlikely to launch a first strike with such a small force. In 2006, the UN awarded Petrov as "the man who prevented a nuclear war."
The Armenian village of Chardakhly, located in Azerbaijan, is the birthplace of two marshals, twelve generals and seven Heroes of the Soviet Union. 
In 1942, the Soviet submarine Shch-421 was blown up by a German anti-submarine mine, losing its course and the ability to dive. So that the ship would not be blown to the shore of the enemy, it was decided to sew a sail and raise it on the periscope. However, it was no longer possible to sail to the base, just as it was not even possible to tow the submarine with the help of other ships. After the appearance of German torpedo boats, the crew was evacuated, and the submarine was flooded.
In the Great Soviet Encyclopedia of the 1955 edition there was an article "Prague Spring" about the annual festival of academic music in Prague. However, in the next edition of the TSB, which came out after the infamous Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, there was no longer an article with that title.
During the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939, Foreign Minister Molotov said that Soviet troops were not dropping bombs, but food supplies for the starving Finns. In Finland, such bombs were dubbed "Molotov bread baskets", and then they began to call devices with incendiary mixture against Soviet tanks "Molotov Cocktail". We have shortened the name of such a weapon to simply “Molotov Cocktail” 
When in the 1950s it was decided to build a cosmodrome in the Kazakh steppes, another cosmodrome, a wooden one, was built in the village of Baikonur in the Karaganda region to mislead a potential enemy. After the launch of the Vostok-1 spacecraft with Gagarin on board, this name in print passed to the real cosmodrome, located 300 km from this village.
During the Second World War in the USSR, work was underway to create an aircraft based on the A-40 tank. During flight tests, the tank glider was towed by a TB-3 aircraft and was able to climb to a height of 40 meters. It was assumed that after unhooking the towing cable, the tank should independently plan to the desired point, drop its wings and immediately engage in battle. The project was closed due to the lack of more powerful tugs that were needed to solve more important tasks.
During his service in the KGB, Vladimir Putin had the nickname "mol". 
In 1931, an uprising of the Turkic-Muslim population broke out in the Chinese province of Xinjiang. Russian emigrants were mobilized into government troops - both the White Guards, who had lived in Xinjiang since the time of the Civil War in Russia, and those who fled from hunger and collectivization in the USSR. Two years later, the governor-general of the province, Sheng Shicai, managed to negotiate with the Soviet Union for help in suppressing the uprising. The 13th Alma-Ata regiment of the OGPU was transferred to China, the soldiers of which were dressed in White Guard uniforms. In addition, the USSR directly financed units that were already fighting, made up of Russian emigrants. Thus, the "reds" and "whites" participated in this conflict on the same side.
In Soviet cheese, one could find numbers made of food-grade plastic, which many children collected. Embedded numbers at the factory marked the date of manufacture, brew number and other information. Today, this information is most often placed simply on the packaging. 
In the early 1920s, Novosibirsk consisted of two parts on different banks of the Ob, between which there was no automobile bridge. And since the hour meridian passed right along the river, there were two times in the city. On the left bank, the difference with Moscow was 3 hours, and on the right - 4. Although this situation did not cause much inconvenience to Novosibirsk residents, because each half lived apart, and even marriages between residents of different banks of the city were rare.
At the 1962 FIFA World Cup, the USSR national team met with the Uruguayan team, and with the score 1:1, after the Soviet football player hit, the ball flew into the net through a hole from the outside. The referee did not see the moment well and counted the goal, but the captain of the Soviet team Igor Netto explained to the referee with gestures that the goal had been scored incorrectly. This goal was eventually canceled, but our players scored more and still won the match. 
The Red Army machine gunner Semyon Konstantinovich Hitler, a Jew by nationality, took part in the Great Patriotic War. Seventy years ago, during the defense of height 174.5 of the Tiraspol fortified. district Semyon Konstantinovich destroyed more than a hundred Wehrmacht servicemen with machine gun fire. Having used up ammunition, got wounded and subsequently found himself surrounded, the Red Army soldier, without abandoning his weapon, having overcome more than 10 kilometers, went out to his own. Which is confirmed by the award sheet dated August 19, 1941. The feat of the Red Army soldier Hitler pulled according to the statute to the "Red Star", but pulled out only to the "Courage". Did the last name get in the way? Although at the beginning of the war they were awarded with great difficulty and "For Courage!" The 41st year is the order of the edition of the 45th. The award sheet has been preserved, according to which Hitler was presented to the medal "For Military Merit" for the accomplishment of a feat. True, the database "Feat of the People" reports that the medal "For Courage" was awarded to Semyon Konstantinovich Gitlev - the surname was accidentally or intentionally changed, it is not known. 
In the fifth volume of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, a laudatory article about Beria was published with his portrait. Soon Beria was arrested and shot, and the TSB editors sent a special letter to all subscribers. It was recommended to cut out pages about Beria with scissors or a razor, and instead of them, paste in additional pages devoted to the article “Bering Strait” expanded several times.
If you travel towards the city center in the Moscow metro, the stations will be announced in a male voice, and when moving from the center - in a female voice. On the circle line, a male voice can be heard when moving clockwise, and a female voice can be heard counterclockwise. This was done for the convenience of orienting blind passengers. 
The cry of the fans: “Shai-bu! Shai-boo! can be heard at both hockey and football matches. This happened thanks to the famous hockey player Boris Mayorov, who loved to play football and even took part in the matches of the USSR Major League for Spartak. When the ball hit Mayorov on the football field, the fans began to cheer him up with the usual hockey chant.
Hitler considered his main enemy in the USSR not Stalin, but the announcer Yuri Levitan. For his head, he announced a reward of 250 thousand marks. The Soviet authorities closely guarded Levitan, and misinformation about his appearance was launched through the press. 
In the 1920s, a large-scale campaign began to translate the written language of the peoples of the USSR into Latin. By the end of the 1930s, 66 languages had been romanized, including even those that were already written in Cyrillic - Yakut and Komi. Several schemes for the Latin notation for the Russian language were also developed, but the plan did not come to fruition. And then they reversed the solution for other Soviet languages, and by 1940 almost all of them received writing based on the Cyrillic alphabet.
In December 1825, Nicholas I, who had not the most magnificent hair, ascended the royal throne of the Russian Empire. Since then, there has been a clear alternation of bald and hairy top officials of the state - first kings, then general secretaries, and now presidents. This paradox is broken only by Andropov and Chernenko, each of whom had the initial stage of baldness, but due to their short time in office, they can be neglected. 
The famous formula "Two times two equals five", which George Orwell repeatedly emphasized in the dystopian novel "1984", came to his mind when he heard the Soviet slogan "Five-year plan - in four years!".
In 1959, the American National Exhibition was held in Moscow, where Khrushchev was offered to try Pepsi-Cola. He agreed and unwittingly became the advertising face of the company, as the next day a photograph was published in newspapers around the world in which the Soviet leader was drinking Pepsi. 
During Gorbachev's anti-alcohol campaign, many works of art were censored. For example, Andrey Makarevich changed the text in the song “Conversation on the Train”: after the line “Carriage disputes are the last thing,” instead of “when there is nothing else to drink,” he began to sing “and you can’t cook porridge from them.”
The "time machine" for the film "Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession" was originally ordered from the design bureau, which presented a too complicated project. Since, according to the scenario, Shurik alone invents it, the project did not fit, and then the wood sculptor Vyacheslav Pochechuev was invited to work. His version of the machine ultimately suited Gaidai, and Pochechuev himself received an award and a certificate from Mosfilm: “The money was given out for the invention of the time machine” (without any quotes). 
In 1949, the 150th anniversary of Pushkin was celebrated. Konstantin Simonov made a report on his life and work on the radio. In one Kazakh town, a large number of Kalmyks, deported here from their historical homeland, gathered at the loudspeaker. Somewhere in the middle of the report, they lost all interest in him and left the square. The thing was that when reading Pushkin's "Monument" Simonov stopped reading right at the moment when he should have said: "And a friend of the steppes is a Kalmyk." This meant that the Kalmyks are still in disgrace and censorship excludes all mention of them even in such harmless cases.
The coat of arms of the Latvian SSR depicted the sun rising from the sea. Only the artist did not take into account that the Baltic Sea is located to the west of the territory of Latvia. Therefore, the sun could only set in this sea, which could be taken as a symbol of regression instead of progress. 
The real name of the satirist writer Grigory Gorin was Offshtein. When asked about the reason for choosing a pseudonym, Gorin replied that it was an abbreviation: "Grisha Ofshtein decided to change his nationality."
According to the description of the feat of the Red Army soldier Dmitry Ovcharenko from the decree on awarding him the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, on July 13, 1941, he delivered ammunition to his company and was surrounded by a detachment of enemy soldiers and officers of 50 people. Despite the fact that the rifle was taken away from him, Ovcharenko did not lose his head and, snatching an ax from the wagon, cut off the head of the officer interrogating him. He then threw three grenades at the German soldiers, killing 21 people. The rest fled in panic, except for another officer, whom the Red Army soldier caught up with and also cut off his head. 
In the 1960s and 70s, the Spiral aerospace system was developed in the USSR, consisting of an orbital aircraft, which was to be launched into space by a hypersonic booster aircraft, and then by a rocket stage into orbit. For testing, an analogue of an orbital aircraft was designed, equipped with a chassis with ski-plate supports. Once during the tests, the thrust of the engines was not enough to budge these skis along the unpaved strip. It was decided to bring two trucks with watermelons, which were evenly smashed over a distance of 70 meters. This provided the necessary glide and the aircraft was able to start and accelerate.
During the Second World War, trained dogs actively helped sappers clear mines. One of them, nicknamed Dzhulbars, discovered 7468 mines and more than 150 shells while clearing mines in European countries in the last year of the war. Shortly before the Victory Parade in Moscow on June 24, Dzhulbars was wounded and could not pass as part of the military dog school. Then Stalin ordered to carry the dog across Red Square on his overcoat. 
In the pre-revolutionary alphabet, the letter D was called "good". The flag corresponding to this letter in the code of signals of the navy has the meaning "yes, I agree, I allow." This is what led to the emergence of the expression "give good." The expression "Customs gives the go-ahead" derived from this first appeared in the film "White Sun of the Desert".
Once, at an official reception, Khrushchev called the writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn Ivan Denisovich.
At the beginning of the era of astronautics, no one could imagine how being in space would affect human health, in particular, whether he would go crazy. Therefore, to transfer the ship from automatic to manual control mode, protection was provided with the input of a special digital code, which was in a sealed envelope. It was assumed that in a state of insanity, Gagarin would not be able to open the envelope and understand the code. True, just before the start of the flight, he was still told the code. 
The music for the pioneer song “Rise up the bonfires, blue nights” was written on the basis of the “March of the Soldiers” from the opera “Faust” by Charles Gounod.
In the novel by Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina threw herself under a train at the Obiralovka station near Moscow. In Soviet times, this village became a city and was renamed Zheleznodorozhny.
The names of the astronauts, which seemed discordant to the Soviet authorities, were changed. The Bulgarian Kakalov had to become Ivanov, and the Pole Hermashevsky - Germashevsky.
The parents of Geli Markizova, who was sitting in Stalin's arms in the famous poster "Thank you Comrade Stalin for our happy childhood!", were repressed. 
After the flight into space, Gagarin was awarded the black "Volga" with the numbers 12-04 SAG (flight date and initials). Moreover, the letters were legally produced from the index of the Moscow region (where the Star City was located) - UA. The following cosmonauts retained the letters YUAG on nominal machines, and the date of the flight was also indicated by numbers.
The first official publication of the poem by Venedikt Erofeev "Moscow - Petushki" in the USSR took place in the journal "Sobriety and Culture".
In a number of European countries, Zhiguli cars began to be sold under the Lada brand due to associations with the dubious word "gigolo". 
Having participated in one conversation about "the grass was greener", I realized that there are a few little things that are usually NOT talked about either by those who "agitate for a hundred varieties of sausage", or those who consider a planned economy better than a capitalist one, or ...
Precisely because what is listed below does not "work" or works "poorly" to the discussion of which system is "better" and which is "worse".
A small list of what has changed in my personal opinion for the BETTER in the post-Soviet period in the "bSSSR space", and at the same time it is NOT connected directly neither with technical progress during this time (so, almost all good LIGHT tourist equipment is a direct product of technical progress), nor with "political freedoms", nor with economic quirks (of any type).
In other words - I'm talking here about what depends on the WILL OF PARTICULAR PEOPLE to a MORE extent than on external conditions, the state, the party.
And to clarify, but not limit: here I am comparing approximately the period (1974-1984) with the period (1995-2005 and later), quite deliberately "turning off" the especially violent time of upheavals, catastrophes and the "gangster 1990s".
- Became in some global sense the norm located in public places, made at the request of a particular person:
- Cool monuments.
- Houses of non-trivial architecture
- Coloring pages of places like bus stops, bridges, cinemas, entire neighborhoods.
- Changes in houses of standard projects, making them unique, different from each other, sometimes simply BEAUTIFUL. Sometimes it's just three colors of bricks instead of one.
- It became objectively more DIFFERENT TOPICS for conversation in hitchhiking, in "carriage disputes", in the kitchen. Let me emphasize - for EVERYONE, practically without exception, the perceived world has become WIDER. Someone under the influence of a zombie and newspapers, someone - due to initially greater curiosity, everyone has it differently. But the choice of topic depends on the will of the person. And comparing the 1980s with the 1990s and 2000s, I see this difference quite clearly. + the right addition from nasse: hobbies in adults have become more frequent and varied.
- The "distant cities" and "distant countries" have become psychologically closer. I emphasize that in Soviet times a well-earning worker could and sometimes went abroad on a trip tour, and I personally knew such people. And in Soviet times, it was possible to take a plane and quickly (and, in general, not so expensive) reach almost any point in the USSR. And call relatives in another city (yes, it's a little expensive to do it every day). And correspond by mail (penny pleasure, a few days there and back). In 1974-1984, however, a relative even at the other end of Moscow (30 km in diameter of the city) was perceived as "occasionally we meet, we almost do not communicate," and in Gorky - "on the strength of once a year, maybe we can ...". It has become MUCH EASIER to make a decision like "I went - a night / day on the road - I met." Yes - this is indirectly a consequence of both technical and economic changes.
- The range of possible "daily routines" has become much wider - both work and leisure. Yes, this change is connected with external conditions, with the destruction of the "old order" and so on. For me personally, a "deep owl", in the formal world of "larks" it was hellishly hard, and alternative work schedules like "a day-in-three" were even harder. Nevertheless, decision-making in a particular place began to depend on the will of a person in greater degree than before, and decisions began to be made in a favorable direction for me personally.
The patient's face becomes peaceful if he has successfully given an enema.
(author's observation in a medical institution)
Today, the faces of people in our cities and villages most often bear the stamp of concern, anxiety, mixed with a grimace of anger and aggression. Take a closer look, there are practically no good-natured faces, as before, say, in the eighties of the last century. Those people, as far as I can remember, were happy with their albeit dim, but simple happiness. Even if one can say so: “stagnant” happiness (from the name of that era). I remember those faces of ordinary people, even though I staggered around like a disheveled boy.
And now - in our days. Here is a fat man stomping, “two inches from the pot”, a real “bun”. He breathes heavily, rushing after him a four-legged friend - a dog. Puffs and the peasant, and the animal. In Soviet times, such fat men were distinguished by their natural kindness. And now the paunch with hatred "yapps" at his little dog: "Where are you going under my feet, bitch!" A snarl of anger was imprinted on his face. The doggie, because of the owner’s scolding, carries the same evil expression of the muzzle to those around him. The faces of people and even animals, it seems to me, have changed radically these days. What generates the aforementioned hatred and such a cruel expression of faces right now? Why didn't this happen before? Here are some postulates, seemingly unshakable, and other points that partly explain the reason for the change in the expression of people's faces.
1. My home is my castle
Previously, every Soviet person knew that, no matter how “shitty” he was, he would always have a roof over his head. Now people see that the postulate “my house is my fortress” no longer works. Any cunning combination of "black" realtors, sometimes behind your back, and you are already deprived of housing! Not without the help of interested officials. This is followed by a kick, I'm sorry, "under the ass", and you are a bum. In Soviet times, there were no homeless people. Everyone relied, albeit sometimes tiny, but a corner. And when a person has an awareness that the state takes care of him, then his face is straightened. I think the feeling of fear of losing HOME, cozy, dear, is one of the reasons for the anxious, aggressive faces of the beginning of the 21st century.
2. Be healthy, Soviet citizen!
In Soviet times, the state inspired a person with the postulate: take care of your health! Don't you want to? Then, get an order for the entire enterprise and go to the doctors forcibly. Mass, total medical examinations were carried out among all segments of the population. The level of knowledge of medicine of ordinary doctors from the clinic sometimes amazed even foreign colleagues. You could come with a complaint of a sore throat, but thanks to the doctor's attentive eye, medical examination data, some other ailments were found in you and they immediately began to be treated. Before entering kindergarten - go to the medical examination! Before school - again for medical examination.
Before the army, entering a job - if you please, be sure to go through all the doctors on a long list, and pass a bunch of tests. If you don't want it, we'll make it! The postulate that the builder of a communist society must be healthy was propagated everywhere. Indeed, to implement the ideas of Marx, healthy individuals are needed, and not rotten drug addicts. Now - everything is different. Why does the builder of a capitalist society have to be a goner? Why does he have to sip beer in buckets and always have a smoke and a joint on hand? I don't understand this policy. Where did the mass medical examinations at enterprises go?
3. Food. Water
The quality of drinking water and food products of those years was incomparable with what is on our shelves and splashing in bottles now. Yes, products then, in the eighties, were almost all in short supply, but what people ate and drank was subject to strict control for compliance with GOSTs. The assortment was limited, but if you bought sausage, then it was SAUSAGE, and not a stick of incomprehensible ingredients. High-quality, albeit simple food is gratefully accepted by the body and adequately processed.
Therefore, the slagging of human organisms in those years was much lower. Cleaner metabolism - a happier face, easier gait. Remember the most popular song of Soviet times by Yuri Antonov with the words:
"Flying gait you came out of May
And disappeared from the eyes in the veil of January.
This is how Soviet girls moved. And now, with a hamburger in one hand, a can of beer in the other, a cigarette between her teeth, the girl rolls out into the street in a panty miniskirt, where she is overcome by shortness of breath. And her face is thirsty for oxygen, it frowns, but does not correspond to the flying gait.
4. A person's feeling of himself as part of a huge powerful whole. Community way of life.
The Soviet system, the state, as a method of organizing space and human resources at that time was approaching a high level of compliance with the spirit of the people. Community, family, if you like, the feeling of belonging to the largest and most powerful (albeit only in some areas) country in the world - all this resonated with peace and contentment in the attitude of the Soviet person. The socialism of the 1970s and 1980s, oddly enough, for all the atheism of Marx's teachings, came closest to the Christian worldview. Collective farms, state farms, cooperatives, design bureaus, research institutes, factories - all these were essentially communal organizations that are close to the way of life of our ancestors.
5. Financial stability of the family.
Every inhabitant of the Soviet country in "stagnant" times knew that he would have an advance and a salary. He will give so much for utility bills, so much for a cooperative contribution, so much for a garage, etc. But this amount will remain for food, clothing, entertainment, a summer residence, and so on. Then they lived, basically, not richly, but that was a very decent, worthy socialist poverty. Now we see either flashy, flashy wealth, with yachts and Bentleys, or miserable, true poverty.
6. Labor.
In Soviet times, if you look at things sensibly, everyone found a use for themselves, at least some kind of work. Sometimes the most simple, even seemingly meaningless, at first glance. Another thing is more important: the postulate was unshakable that every inhabitant should be provided with work. Moreover, the state insisted on your work: if you live in the USSR, then if you please, benefit the country! Do you prefer to be idle? Then you will be attracted for such a Trutnev existence. "Work - ennobles a person!". Now, many are hanging around idle and anger, including on their faces, is seen more and more clearly.
7. Fear of being unemployed
We are talking about ordinary people. The nouveau riche worry less about being unemployed. We have a real middle class now, and so tiny, but it is the representative of this conscious and creative stratum of the population that is most vulnerable in terms of job stability. He can, in principle, be dismissed politely / rudely, at any time. Let's climb a little higher: it is quite easy for an entrepreneur to lose a business built with such difficulty today. It is enough for a more aggressive and powerful competitor, who has enlisted the support of the bureaucracy, to "keep an eye" on your business, and - write - it's gone! Almost the entire country is at risk of being left with nothing, and even worse - hanging out at the dumpster along with other similar poor fellows. Does it add a taste to the joy of life? By no means! From this sensation, people's faces become sour.
8. Literacy
Now a generation has grown up, many of whose representatives do not really know how to read and write. Especially if the guys come from the outback. And this illiterate army also rushed to the cities in search of a better life. What's going on with education? You can be a “dunduk - dunduk”, but if you regularly pay for tuition at a university, no one will expel you! "Triplets" are still provided to you.
For if you are driven out of the "building of science", then by inertia, the money of your parents for study will also disappear from the cash desk of the institute. The building of science and knowledge will have nothing to exist on! But if you are “seven spans in the forehead”, smart guy / smart girl, but you didn’t find the “dough” for training - if you please, get a pendal, and roll head over heels from the selection committee. Preferably to the West. For your smart brain convolutions do not pay salaries to teachers.
Price list: want to become a bachelor? You are welcome! Thirty thousand USD Let the knowledge you have with the "gulkin's beak", it does not matter. Bachelor - not glamorous? But for sure, it looks like a sale of groceries in a general store. Doesn't sound. And here's the MASTER... After all, it resonates: MASTER! MASTER of white and black magic, for example. Or - MASTER in Economics. Excuse me, but the masters are now for fifty thousand USD.
The school is not respected at all. She is being walked around in droves. And what a huge number of children do not know, and do not want to know, what kind of thing such a school is! If you go there now, then just hang out. Smoke a joint. With the TV series "School" to compare and once again decide that the school - "sucks" and only cripples the child's psyche.
Or crawl into the classroom to beat up an elderly teacher, as was the case near Irkutsk. Or film the bullying of weaker students, and upload the video to the Internet. Who needs knowledge for such things? Here you should be able to press the "record" button, and put out the "bulls" of thin cigarettes on the weak. Accordingly, we also have faces in the style of “Tear-u-u!”
Libraries are a special item. In the distant Soviet times, almost every secluded corner, almost in tiny villages, had its own, albeit miniature, library. The library is the starting point of culture in the countryside and in small towns! Whole villages are disappearing now (there are no people), let alone libraries. Hence the cultural face of an ordinary village dweller disappears.
9. Creativity
When a person creates, his face changes. If many people create in a territorial and ethnic community, the face of the nation is transformed. In Soviet times, scientists, doctors, historians and other creative people made such discoveries that they amazed the whole world. A phenomenal number of ordinary Soviet citizens were engaged in creative search. Even the joke was this: “There is no one to work in the country!” Everyone comes up with something. They invent, compose, rhyme, dance, embroider, act, weave beads. So good! Because of that, there were incomparably more joyful, creative, bright faces on the streets in those years than now.
Look: earlier such a super-popular magazine was printed - "Technology of Youth", where our Soviet "Kulibins" shared their ideas, experience, drawings. Showed how things could be improved. How to solder a domestic receiver so that it catches frequencies no worse, or even better, than the Japanese one. How to assemble one or another useful, and sometimes not very, but wonderful mechanism or unit in terms of its set of functions. How to create an outlandish sculpture from a broken stool and much, much more. I repeat, an incredible number of people in the USSR came up with something.
And the cunning and far-sighted Japanese were already buying up copies of the Techniques of Youth magazine and similar publications in the USSR with might and main. After that, our own inventions, published for all-Union familiarization, surfaced in the form of mechanisms, units, devices, etc., embodied in reality. in the Land of the Rising Sun. That's how appreciated and still appreciate our inventors!
So, people in the Soviet era gravitated toward being creative. Now creativity has changed: everyone wants to make money. What is better? It's not the same for everybody. And yet, a thought from the cycle “How to make money?” leaves its heavy imprint on the faces of our contemporaries among ordinary passers-by. But not only them. Businessmen. Bankers. politicians. Almost everyone.
10. Entertainment
When someone entertains you, and if you are not an insensitive "doldon", then your face sparkles with smiles. Leisure, rest, really affect facial expressions. It's only at first glance, it seems that there was less entertainment in the Soviet Union than it is now. Remember the honorary title of the most reading nation. For a ticket to the theater, to the exhibition, to the stadium, people stood in queues for hours. The number of museums has skyrocketed.
But the most basic feature - all cultural events were available and the audience was pleased with real artists, and not plywood performers or unfortunate comedians. Now the faces of today's young people are often not at all clouded by the seal of intellect because they do not go to cultural institutions. But in a nightclub - please! And there, after all, not dietary meals and drinks are served, and not aspirin for the sick. Recently they showed how the service for combating drug trafficking conducted a raid at night in one of the clubs in Moscow. Syringes on the floor, torn wrappers from "wheels" (pills used in psychiatry), ecstasy and so on.
A THIRD of young people were found to be drug intoxicated. The expression on their faces is blank. Running pupils. Both boys and girls have difficulty understanding what they are being asked. And so - every third! This is not dancing in a village club under the Soviet regime. Then try, appear in this form. Instantly sent to the police station. Then - for treatment. What kind of soulful faces are there if every third person in a particular club is inadequate!
In conclusion, I will suggest that people in recent years have thrown off the mask of hypocrisy of the Soviet era and have shown their true colors. That is, freedom not only untied the hands and tongues (perestroika, glasnost), but also revealed to the world the true face of the layman. Is it so? Unfortunately, there is no definitive answer here. But the fact that there were hundreds, thousands of times more happy faces in the early eighties of the last century is a fact. Moreover, many of today's embittered faces sparkled with joy and quiet happiness three decades ago. Yes, times were different. Yes, those people were young then. But why now the young and young have a completely different expression on their faces? The above ten points, I hope, shed some light on this mystery.
Russians harness for a long time, but they go fast
Winston Churchill
The USSR (the union of Soviet socialist republics) this form of statehood replaced the Russian Empire. The country began to be ruled by the proletariat, which achieved this right by carrying out the October Revolution, which was nothing more than an armed coup within the country, bogged down in its internal and external problems. Not the last role in this state of affairs was played by Nicholas 2, who actually drove the country into a state of collapse.
Country Education
The formation of the USSR took place on November 7, 1917 in a new style. It was on this day that the October Revolution took place, which overthrew the Provisional Government and the fruits of the February Revolution, proclaiming the slogan that power should belong to the workers. This is how the USSR, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was formed. It is extremely difficult to unambiguously assess the Soviet period in the history of Russia, since it was very controversial. Without a doubt, we can say that at this time there were both positive and negative moments.
Capital Cities
Initially, the capital of the USSR was Petrograd, in which the revolution actually took place, which brought the Bolsheviks to power. At first, there was no question of moving the capital, since the new government was too weak, but later this decision was made. As a result, the capital of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was moved to Moscow. This is quite symbolic, since the creation of the Empire was due to the transfer of the capital to Petrograd from Moscow.
The fact of the transfer of the capital to Moscow today is associated with the economy, politics, symbolism and much more. In fact, everything is much simpler. By moving the capital, the Bolsheviks saved themselves from other contenders for power in a civil war.
Country leaders
The foundations of the power and prosperity of the USSR are connected with the fact that there was relative stability in the leadership in the country. There was a clear single line of the party, and leaders who had been at the head of the state for a long time. It is interesting that the closer the country came to collapse, the more often the General Secretaries changed. In the early 1980s, leapfrog began: Andropov, Ustinov, Chernenko, Gorbachev - the country did not have time to get used to one leader, when another appeared in his place.
The general list of leaders is as follows:
- Lenin. Leader of the world proletariat. One of the ideological inspirers and implementers of the October Revolution. Laid the foundations of the state.
- Stalin. One of the most controversial historical figures. With all the negativity that the liberal press pours on this person, the fact is that Stalin raised industry from its knees, Stalin prepared the USSR for war, Stalin began to actively develop a socialist state.
- Khrushchev. Gained power after the assassination of Stalin, developed the country and managed to adequately resist the United States in the Cold War.
- Brezhnev. The era of his reign is called the era of stagnation. Many mistakenly associate this with the economy, but there was no stagnation there - all indicators were growing. There was stagnation in the party, which was decaying.
- Andropov, Chernenko. They didn't really do anything, they pushed the country to collapse.
- Gorbachev. The first and last president of the USSR. Today they hang all the dogs on him, accusing him of the collapse of the Soviet Union, but his main fault was that he was afraid to take active steps against Yeltsin and his supporters, who actually staged a conspiracy and a coup d'état.
Another fact is also interesting - the best rulers were those who found the time of revolution and war. The same applies to party leaders. These people understood the value of the socialist state, the significance and complexity of its existence. As soon as people came to power who had not seen a war, much less a revolution, everything went to pieces.
Formation and achievements
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics began its formation with the Red Terror. This is a sad page in the history of Russia, a huge number of people were killed by the Bolsheviks, who sought to strengthen their power. The leaders of the Bolshevik Party, realizing that they could only retain power by force, killed everyone who could somehow interfere with the formation of the new regime. It is outrageous that the Bolsheviks, as the first people's commissars and people's police, i.e. those people who were supposed to keep order were recruited by thieves, murderers, homeless people, etc. In a word, all those who were objectionable in the Russian Empire and tried in every possible way to take revenge on everyone who was somehow connected with it. The apogee of these atrocities was the murder of the royal family.
After the formation of the new system, the USSR, headed until 1924 Lenin V.I. got a new leader. They became Joseph Stalin. His control became possible after he won the power struggle with Trotsky. During the reign of Stalin, industry and agriculture began to develop at a tremendous pace. Knowing about the growing power of Nazi Germany, Stalin pays great attention to the development of the country's defense complex. In the period from June 22, 1941 to May 9, 1945, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was involved in a bloody war with Germany, from which it emerged victorious. The Great Patriotic War cost the Soviet state millions of lives, but this was the only way to preserve the freedom and independence of the country. The post-war years were difficult for the country: hunger, poverty and rampant banditry. Stalin brought order to the country with a hard hand.
International position
After Stalin's death and until the collapse of the USSR, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics developed dynamically, overcoming a huge number of difficulties and obstacles. The USSR was involved in the US arms race, which continues to this day. It was this race that could become fatal for all mankind, since both countries were in constant confrontation as a result. This period of history is known as the Cold War. Only the prudence of the leadership of both countries managed to keep the planet from a new war. And this war, taking into account the fact that both nations were already nuclear at that time, could become fatal for the whole world.
The space program of the country stands apart from the entire development of the USSR. It was the Soviet citizen who first flew into space. It was Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin. The United States responded to this manned space flight with its first manned flight to the moon. But the Soviet flight into space, unlike the American flight to the moon, does not raise so many questions, and experts have not the slightest doubt that this flight really took place.
Population of the country
Every decade the Soviet country showed population growth. And this despite the multimillion-dollar victims of the Second World War. The key to increasing the birth rate was the social guarantees of the state. The diagram below shows data on the population of the USSR as a whole and the RSFSR in particular.
You should also pay attention to the dynamics of urban development. The Soviet Union was becoming an industrial, industrial country, the population of which gradually moved from the countryside to the cities.
By the time the USSR was formed, there were 2 million-plus cities in Russia (Moscow and St. Petersburg). By the time the country collapsed, there were already 12 such cities: Moscow, Leningrad, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Omsk, Kazan, Chelyabinsk, Rostov-on-Don, Ufa and Perm. The union republics also had cities with a million inhabitants: Kyiv, Tashkent, Baku, Kharkov, Tbilisi, Yerevan, Dnepropetrovsk, Odessa, Donetsk.
USSR map
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics collapsed in 1991, when the leaders of the Soviet republics announced their secession from the USSR in the white forest. Thus, all the Republics gained independence and self-sufficiency. The opinion of the Soviet people was not taken into account. The referendum, held just before the collapse of the USSR, showed that the vast majority of people declared that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics should be preserved. A handful of people, headed by the chairman of the Central Committee of the CPSU, MS Gorbachev, decided the fate of the country and the people. It was this decision that plunged Russia into the harsh reality of the "nineties". This is how the Russian Federation was born. Below is a map of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Economy
The economy of the USSR was unique. For the first time, a system was demonstrated to the world in which the focus was not on profit, but on public goods and employee incentives. In general, the economy of the Soviet Union can be divided into 3 stages:
- Before Stalin. We are not talking about any economy here - the revolution has just died down in the country, there is a war going on. No one seriously thought about economic development, the Bolsheviks held power.
- Stalinist model of the economy. Stalin implemented a unique idea of the economy, which made it possible to raise the USSR to the level of the leading countries of the world. The essence of his approach is total labor and the correct “pyramid of distribution of funds”. Proper distribution of funds - when workers receive no less than managers. Moreover, the basis of the salary was bonuses for achieving results and bonuses for innovation. The essence of such bonuses is as follows - 90% was received by the employee himself, and 10% was divided between the team, shop, and bosses. But the worker himself received the main money. Therefore, there was a desire to work.
- After Stalin. After Stalin's death, Khrushchev reversed the pyramid of the economy, after which a recession began and a gradual drop in growth rates. Under Khrushchev and after him, an almost capitalist model was formed, when managers received much more workers, especially in the form of bonuses. Bonuses were now divided differently: 90% for the boss and 10% for everyone else.
The Soviet economy is unique because before the war it actually managed to rise from the ashes after the civil war and revolution, and this happened in just 10-12 years. Therefore, when today economists from different countries and journalists say that it is impossible to change the economy in 1 election term (5 years), they simply do not know history. Two Stalinist five-year plans turned the USSR into a modern power, which had a foundation for development. Moreover, the basis for all this was laid in 2-3 years of the first five-year plan.
I also suggest looking at the chart below, which presents data on the average annual growth of the economy as a percentage. Everything we talked about above is reflected in this diagram.
Union republics
The new period of the country's development was due to the fact that several republics existed within the framework of the single state of the USSR. Thus, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics had the following composition: Russian SSR, Ukrainian SSR, Belorussian SSR, Moldavian SSR, Uzbek SSR, Kazakh SSR, Georgian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, Lithuanian SSR, Latvian SSR, Kirghiz SSR, Tajik SSR, Armenian SSR, Turkmen SSR, Estonian SSR.
