I lived under the Soviet Union for only 9 years, managed to become an Octoberist and - shocking, but true - this short period was enough for me to form my attitude towards that country. For this, it was not necessary to understand the wise policy of the party and government, there were quite enough everyday cases. I remember my mother took me home from kindergarten and, passing by the cafeteria, where she often bought a milkshake for 10 kopecks, she showed me a purse in which three kopecks dangled at my corresponding request.

I often asked my father how he assessed the "scoop". His answer was always something like this: "Tosca." Every day you live with the feeling that nothing will ever change in your life - neither the salary, nor the opportunity to move up the career ladder. This is a painful understanding of the need to save up and "knock out" for something all your life, to grovel before someone, to love the Party passionately and go to demonstrations of workers and peasants that no one needs.

Perhaps that is why he went into business as soon as possible.

What is especially surprising is that the Internet is full of young guys who sincerely want to join the “scoop”. These, of course, are complexes from the toothless politics and economies of the countries of the former USSR, this is all from the desire to shake missiles in front of an imaginary enemy who knows how to make not only warheads, but also good smartphones ... But still. How to explain to these fools that in the Soviet Union, even their Instagram profile would have to take permission from the district executive committee? How to show the difference between Nintendo and "Electronics"? How to explain the concept of "scarcity" and convey the greatest value of washed jeans bought from black marketers on a commuter train platform?

In general, I decided to take the first article I came across on the topic “What was good in the USSR” and tried to analyze it from my belfry - as I remember and as I understand it. On the corresponding request in Google, this link is the first to be issued.

1. Soviet education was considered the best in the world, but now what?

Indeed, it is widely believed that Soviet education was good. I wouldn’t say the best in the world, it was claimed by Soviet propaganda, but there was nothing for citizens to compare with, because the border, as they say, is locked ... In what coordinates is the quality of education measured? Obviously, scientific success in the West was no less than in the USSR. Moreover, if everyone in the "scoop" was so smart, then why didn't they know how to make good video recorders and cars? Something is wrong here.

2. Free medical care.

Medicine both now and then conditionally free. It is obvious that the quality of medical care has decreased, even the “norms” for staying in the hospital for various diseases have been reduced. Decreased life expectancy. However, when compared with decaying capitalist countries, life expectancy in the USSR was lower than that of the "enemy".

I explain it simply: the lack of modern medicines and treatments. While all the forces went into the creation of the next warheads, citizens were dying without advanced diagnostics. The MRI machine was created west of Brest, the Nobel Prize was also left by non-Soviet scientists. Sad but true.

3. Free housing.

Common misconception about the USSR. In fact, there was no free housing in the "scoop", but the queue for cooperative housing was moving faster, which cost quite normal money, albeit on a reasonable installment plan for 25 years. In reality, the authorities of the USSR provided the working people with a roof over their heads, but of dubious consumer qualities.

"Free" was used to call public housing provided to the tenant on a lifetime lease. It was necessary to wait a couple of decades for it, and it was not issued to everyone. By the way, after the collapse of the USSR, the owners of such apartments were faced with the need to privatize meters for a lot of money, otherwise it would become the property of the city. Which, in general, proves the real nature of such housing - in fact, this is a hostel.

4. Unemployment. There was no unemployment in the USSR. After graduating from the university there was a distribution.

This is so, in the USSR there was no unemployment and homeless people, but there was an article for loafing. Not a bad way to motivate citizens to labor exploits!

The main problem of this labor equalization was low wages, which in fact were only enough to live from paycheck to paycheck. The standard of living was low for the majority of the population, and higher education often automatically put them on a level lower than those who cut bolts at the factory.

Thus, people fell into unpleasant scissors: on the one hand, there was nowhere to go, on the other, a semi-beggarly existence awaited you throughout your life.

5. Products. Under the Union, there were better products.

Another common nonsense. In the "scoop" everything was bad with food and consumer goods. It is enough to look at photographs of stores of those years, at how people are dressed, to understand what kind of food they had to serve on the table.

Many in this place start shaking GOSTs and memories of “real meat” in sausage. In fact, GOST determines only the proportions of what to mix with what. If even the tibia of cows could be ground into liver sausage according to GOST, then this was done.

In addition, I remember the "scoop" as a country of eternal scarcity. The stores had a very poor selection of products, and some categories of goods could be absent altogether or disappear for inexplicable reasons.

I was always touched by how a country that was friends with half of the countries of Latin America and Africa could not organize a sufficient supply of bananas, penny fruit. The taste of a fresh banana (there was an ersatz in the stores - dried sweet bananas of the ugliest taste) I knew only in 1988, without even realizing what exactly I had eaten! They gave out a piece in kindergarten ...

6. Confidence in the future.

It is a fact. Citizens were confident in the future. Do not subtract or add. The bottom accompanied the whole life.

7. Army. We had the strongest army in the world.

A classic item for USSR lovers. Yes, the Union had a strong army, they did not spare money for the "defense". Probably, the USSR was even feared abroad, but there are two important points here.

A strong army does not affect the lives of ordinary people in any way, except in a negative direction (when all the forces are spent on creating tanks, there is no money left for jeans).

In addition, the armies of Western countries were no less strong, and during the Second World War they helped the USSR with technology and weapons. Without lend-lease cars and aircraft, things could have turned out differently.

8. Plants and factories.

You can't argue that it was, it was. Giant and smaller enterprises were built in the USSR. Unfortunately, often based on Western technologies.

Again, this is not a country achievement in and of itself. Factories and factories were built all over the world, this is a normal process.

9. All clothes were of high quality.

If we are talking about quality in terms of clothing strength, then yes, many managed to wear shoes for 10 years. Otherwise, there was a problem with clothes, which confirms the demand in the shadow market, when jeans were given many, many full-weight Soviet rubles.

In my opinion, the worst thing that happened in the USSR was the lack of choice in everything. In school, work, food, clothes. A Soviet citizen could not leave the country and choose the housing that he likes. He could not make some repairs of his own and buy those boots for his wife that he wanted, and not which he had.

The state planned the life of a person from birth to death, there was no trace of any initiative from below. In general, this is what ruined the country - strangled motivation.

God forbid we all come back. Now life is a thousand times better.

What would happen if we all really woke up tomorrow in the USSR? And then a friend here felt sorry for me for not living in the “scoop” as an adult. So he said - "We will soon be there again with the whole country, and you will understand how good it was." At first I panicked - how, why, why, I don’t want to! And then…

If I woke up tomorrow in the USSR, then, first of all, I would no longer be painfully ashamed of my country. For that grandmother near the metro, who in any weather wraps herself in a “Russian” scarf and either asks for alms or sells strawberries from the nearest market “take it, baby, she raised it herself!”. And I buy, carefully pretending to believe her, that I don’t know how the “black” rolls up to her to take away the proceeds.

If I woke up tomorrow in the USSR, I would look at the children - smiling. We did not have thousands of toys, and a stick picked up in the yard replaced - a wizard's staff, a horse, a sword and a fairy wand too. We had imagination! I would watch them jump into hopscotch, rubber bands, play tag and hide and seek. And they don’t sit hunched over at the next gadget and cut into “kill everyone”.

We somehow managed to grow up in apartments where there were no plugs for sockets, no door and window locks from small children, no soft pads on the edges and corners of furniture - we just fell, hit, got up and moved on. My bike has never been stolen, although I left it anywhere. We ran through wastelands and construction sites, I walked alone at night through the village forest - and no one killed me, raped me, or stole me. Strange, right?

Then there was much less of this “plow”, which has become commonplace over the past twenty years: to plow in order to survive. Plow to earn money for the opportunity to pay a mortgage for an apartment for life. Plow to go on vacation. Plow to pay for a swim club for a child. To work, take a couple of part-time jobs, or better yet, another weekend job to plow longer and harder, to get more and spend more. Spend on something completely unimportant. And plow again...

Things then were - ETERNAL. There were few of them, they were the same, they had to be obtained, there was no choice, but there was no torment of that very choice. Then it was impossible to imagine that the “gadget” would have to be changed every year, as it is now, because it simply breaks down. That "guarantee 3 years!" this is a drop dead competitive advantage, then they would say - only three years?! And "GOST USSR" - sounded proud.

Today I want to remember the good things that happened then.
Surely, my "list" will not coincide with yours, so - supplement.

FURNITURE

Soviet furniture was absolutely indestructible, rented for twenty thousand "grandmother's apartment" is a witness to this: this furniture can withstand any fumes of intoxication. It is difficult to break it, even to take it out of the apartment, even to get rid of it forever. It was possible to jump on Soviet sofas without fear! Try it with a modern sofa. It’s already impossible to sleep on a pretty sofa from IKEA after a year - I know what I’m talking about, I had four of them.

At the same time, those who did not throw away their grandmother's sideboards are now, consider trendsetters: we are finally learning to make old things part of our own family history, and not change them for new ones. It is restored and decorated, it is made a "trick" of the modern interior. Bibliophiles are chasing after Soviet bookshelves with movable glass. Even the hated "walls" were used: they can become a drop-dead rack, part of a dressing room, or simply the main accent of a large bright room with a minimum of furniture. See how beautiful it is, and think - do you really want to throw away the old sideboard ?!

TECHNIQUE

A couple of eternal things that disappeared along with the Soviet Union - a Soviet meat grinder and a divine device, which can only be called a "pelmenedelka". In the USSR, it was practically a family tradition - to make dumplings with the whole family. And they, these dumplings, were insanely delicious.

It was possible to cope with this laborious task only with a united front: one kneads the dough and cuts the meat, the second puts the meat and fillers for minced meat in the meat grinder, the third meditatively rotates the meat grinder handle - this was most often entrusted to children, and then they all put the minced meat lumps into the cells of that meat grinder. the "dumplings" itself. We had two children in our family, plus a cousin who was constantly visiting, so there was always a fight for the place of the captain of the meat grinder!

Or, for example, waffle irons, remember them? Such a powerful rectangle with handles is an enemy, if anything, you can beat it with such a thing to severe TBI. Delicious waffles were baked on them, they were supposed to be eaten hot, so that the fingers burned: they wrapped the waffle in a tube, stuffed it with condensed milk or smeared it with jam and put it in their mouths. I still have one of these, she's older than me. Works. I don't think it's possible to break it. The warranty on a modern waffle iron is three years, the guarantee on that waffle iron is “until your grandson comes of age.”

CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS

An object of nostalgia and sadness, quickly disappearing - decorating a Christmas tree every year, be sure to at least one, but you will break it; soon they will probably become a rarity altogether. Store deep in a closet in a large box, take it out with delight on the eve of the New Year. Fat funny hedgehogs, babies with round faces, silver icicles and people on clothespins: an astronaut, a clown, a parrot, and the Kremlin Star with a light bulb inside - to the top. Here I lose objectivity - whether they were good or bad, it was just mine, for me, and, probably, this is the last thing I will forget before I die.

Now glass Christmas decorations of normal quality are hoo as worth. So take care of Soviet toys, otherwise you will have to buy nasty plastic bubbles with paint peeling off almost instantly and completely missing magic! By the way, if you have the most banal "squirrel" of those times, then I will surprise you - although it is not rare, it costs 800re for 1 piece.

PHOTO ALBUMS

Each family also kept thick photo albums in a velvet cover and bags of photo corners that were glued to the page and held the photo, and under the photo they wrote in calligraphic handwriting who it was and where. Then showing a family photo album was a whole event, a sentimental journey: there were few photos, and all with a story, all for a special occasion.

Later, these photo albums were replaced by modern ones, with plastic "windows" filled with pictures from film "soap dishes": they took a lot, willingly and clumsily. Now, if you ask to see vacation photos, you are offered to look at the Facebook or Instagram of the interlocutor. Everything is there: “what I had for dinner at the sea”, “here is my room and my legs”, but there is no feeling that these pictures are part of the family history, every vacation is part of something bigger. And the ritual itself - showing the photo album - disappeared forever.

it's me by the way

For haters: no, in a nightmare I would not want to return to the USSR. And we can, of course, try to forget those times forever, but it would be better if we did not lose what was good, but added all the best of modern times to it. In the meantime, while I still have a couple of restored Viennese chairs, a waffle iron and that same photo album. And I make dumplings on the same "pelmeni".

And what are you nostalgic for from the times of the USSR? What do you have of things and good memories of that time?

There is another anecdote, when a resident of Central Asia ended up in a Russian prison, he concluded: To whom bara is good, to whom nism is bad. According to your reasoning, wolf chaos is much better, even if it is of poor order. Only here is one problem, wolves close to power, by some strange coincidence, have appropriated reserved lands rich in food and protect them with the help of faithful chain dogs, while everyone else is offered to eat in desert territories and show courage, ingenuity and love of life, not forgetting when This is to feed the watchdogs guarding the reserved places .. A strange position. Still, equal conditions and opportunities are better. And the competitive struggle for survival could be waged under the conditions of Soviet power, only then people who were useful to society and the country and did not violate the laws won the competition. Maybe, of course, Chubais and Kudrin, and hedgehogs with them - these are wolves, but they are somehow small, cowardly - they hide behind the laws they themselves wrote, they are afraid to tear themselves away from the feeder and press their tails at the first danger. This is not how wolves behave, but mongrels.

Reply

Those who understand at least something in this life, they do not want to be wolves, to live among wolves, to recognize wolf laws - freedom is only for wolves. Therefore, not only those who lived in the Great Union and KNOW how they lived, but for the most part young people already KNOW that no one was lucky enough to become such free citizens as Soviet people in the post-Soviet space. All the propaganda of liberal freedom pales only before the Kemerovo and Perm crematoria, the appearance of which in the USSR was impossible by definition. The task of the "wolves", about which the bike is, is to destroy the forest - that is, the Russian Federation, as the USSR was destroyed. Too many wolves have bred. Isn't it time to open the "wolf hunt" season and enclose the "forest" with red flags? It's time. Kemerovo showed it. Let the wolves "businessmen" where they constantly live. - in landOns and porizhs.

The issues discussed in this commentary, historical facts and events may be at the intersection of the interests of each of the individuals (participants of TheQuestion) and affect their personal, life experience. There is a possibility that your opinion, as well as worldview, may not coincide with the opinion described in this message. To avoid misunderstandings (if you are impressionable or sentimental), I recommend that you refrain from reading it. This comment is a value judgment (opinion) and does not aim to offend or humiliate anyone's feelings, does not seek, by its content, to cause moral suffering to anyone of a moral nature and does not aim to incite discord on social, sexual, civil law , age, racial or national characteristics and motives.

There is nothing surprising in the fact that some people have nostalgia for the Soviet Union. After all, everyone knows the property of human memory (the bad, as a rule, is forgotten, the good is remembered). In addition, the USSR evokes positive feelings mainly among the oldest or already elderly generation (of course, taking into account the extreme generations that also made the USSR). The reason for this is simple. Everyone was young then. And about the bygone youth, usually, everyone remembers with regret and often nostalgic for the most memorable, bright glimpses of the life of that period. In 2011 or 2012, by chance, at one of the forums, I came across a brief sketch of life under the USSR. I will try to convey it (with minor changes and additions).

In the USSR, there was much less chernukha. People tried not to focus too much on the negative and, thanks to this, lived more cheerfully. In those days, whiners and grumblers were perceived precisely as whiners and grumblers, and not as truth-telling heroes. Roughly speaking, a person who trumpets about a bad life, bestial working conditions, the regular use of children's, voluntary-compulsory, unpaid, hard labor, etc., was perceived in society precisely as a whiner, and not as a fighter for the rights and freedom of people, capable of change something. In the opinion of the majority, it was still impossible to change something in politics, attitudes towards religion, freedom of speech, etc. So why shout about it? And a person, as a rule, obeyed this majority, forgetting that the Majority, at all times, were followers (subordinates, "gray mass", "herd"), and the Minority, trying to change something in the lives of millions of people, were leaders . The majority, by definition, cannot be leaders. And vice versa. In addition, public opinion played a very important role in the life of a Soviet citizen ("What will people say, huh?"). But he did not even think about what, in fact, such "public opinion" was, and he was very afraid of it and listened to it, discussing "forbidden" topics "in the kitchen."

The Soviet people had a level of pride in the country, but not very high. Everything foreign was valued much higher than Soviet, even if there were no special reasons for it (as we know, nothing has changed in our country with this). In the USSR, the cult of holy foolishness paradoxically coexisted with the petty-bourgeois cult of things. Now it's hard to believe, but in the USSR they could easily be killed for jeans (yes, for them!). And it was not at all the oppressive poverty in which many Soviet citizens lived. Everyone had enough money for bad food and bad clothes. It was precisely in the cult of things, which in the USSR reached simply incredible heights. Now it’s ridiculous to even think about it, but, in Soviet times, adults seriously considered a well-furnished apartment to be one of the main indicators of success in life, can you imagine! Poor, by modern standards, carpets hanging on the walls (to save scarce wallpaper and covering holes in these very wallpapers), worth ten average salaries (the average salary of very many citizens was 120 rubles), scarce "walls" (performing, on top of everything other things, the same function as carpets), filled with scarce books and crystal, household appliances and foreign-made knick-knacks, suede jackets (three jackets), foreign movie cameras, etc. - all this was an indicator of status. About such scarce, at that time, but banal, today, foreign-made things like cigarettes, cosmetics, alcohol, perfumes, chewing gum (yes, yes!) and much more, I think it’s not worth mentioning. Many Soviet people were willing to exchange their lives for the pursuit of rags and other junk. Now (thanks to capitalism) the cult of things is still far from being so relevant. We (meaning adults) have already learned to use things in a purely utilitarian way. It is to use, and not to possess in a Plushkin way. In fairness, I note that the extraordinary passion of the Soviet people for things was largely due to a simple circumstance: things were more liquid than money. Simply put, a good thing was easy to sell, but hard to buy. When people who lived in the USSR resent the fact that inflation ate their money, they forget that this money was much more like coupons than money. You could buy as many canned seaweed with rubles as you wanted. But, for example, there are no normal clothes, household appliances, or normal cars. Because of this, in the Soviet Union, hunting for scarce goods (often for the purpose of further, profitable resale) was a national sport. Instead of just going and buying the right thing, as is happening now, the Soviet person had to unwillingly become a huckster (which, by the way, was severely punished by law, called speculation). Moreover, a person became a huckster in the bad sense of the word. As the most innocuous example: when seeing scarce women's boots or foreign tights, a Soviet person (even a man) bought them immediately, without thinking and without looking at the size. He knew that later he would always be able to find among his acquaintances a lady with a leg of the right size and exchange for these, say, boots, some thing he needed for himself. And not always, by the way, a thing. It was completely normal to pay the representatives of the most ancient profession with foreign wardrobe items or, say, cosmetics (because, for obvious reasons, these things were valued above Soviet money). In addition, the corruption associated with things was simply total and permeated the entire Soviet society. Without a bribe to the butcher, one could only count on a frail chicken frozen to a crystal state. Fresh, fresh meat, for most Soviet citizens, was something unrealistic (with the rare exception of citizens of large cities). The recreation infrastructure was completely undeveloped. Suffice it to say that in order to get into a restaurant, it was often necessary to either give a bribe or stand in line for several hours. Japanese cuisine or pizza delivery services were non-existent. For some reason, I remembered the first opening of McDonald's in Moscow.

Free education, of course, was. But those who studied well studied for free. As, however, today. In addition, applicants, citizens of the USSR, were often divided according to nationality, giving preference to more "convenient" candidates of Slavic affiliation. For example, Jews (being citizens of the USSR) had some restrictions on their rights when entering a university. Of course, no one spoke about this out loud, as well as about drug addiction, pedophilia, prostitution, etc. among students. However, today, with regards to education, things are similar (it is much "more convenient" for a school or university to accept, for free education, 30 Russian children (of Russian nationality) than 15 children, for example, of Chechen or Uzbek nationality, but also citizens of the Russian Federation ). Entering a prestigious higher educational institution, under the USSR, without having connections or means to pay a bribe, was a problem. By the way, the son, let's say, aram-zam-zam. the secretary of the district committee of the party, upon entering the university, had much more privileges over "mere mortals" than today the son of some official of the same level has over the majority of "common people-opponents". Almost everywhere there was a big competition. There was no "official" paid education then. They did it for bribes. Moreover, for the medical and law faculties, the amounts appeared quite considerable.

In the USSR, medicine was indeed free. But it was very backward and of poor quality. There were no medicines (and the simplest ones). They said this: "To be treated for nothing, for nothing to be treated!" Standing in line at the clinic for several hours, and then, for lack of medicine, leaving without salty slurping was the most common thing. About the peculiar, banned in many developed countries already at that time, "anesthesia", prosthetics of the teeth or about the "brilliant green" with Castellani, I generally keep quiet. Unbelievable, but true, "brilliant green" is still sold in pharmacies!

There were theoretically different kinds of water parks and attractions, but compared to what we have now, they looked rather wretched, just like the cinemas of that time. I don’t even mention trips to different Maldives, Thailand or Egypt, car tours in Europe. For a Soviet citizen, it was some kind of completely unreal, transcendent chic. Theaters, of course, were at their best in the Soviet Union (at least in large cities). But again, corruption was not without corruption there. Ticket speculation was commonplace. By the way, about tickets. A gigantic queue for air tickets was quite common in the Soviet Union. Tickets, like many other things, had to be "gotten". By giving a bribe, for example. Or, as an option, when defending queues. Queues in general were the eternal problem of socialism. They cursed and fought. Comedians said that the Soviet people know why they live. To stand in line. A huge part of life was leaving in line. By the way, the fear of queues has passed through several generations and, as if, has already been absorbed into the DNA, first of the Soviet, and then, already in the DNA of the Russian citizen. Has anyone, at present, paid attention to people, for example, in trams or buses? Often, many people (both the older generation, who have experienced for themselves what it is like to live in lines, and the younger generation, taught by the elders), even before the bus or tram stops, jump out of their seats and try to be the first to get up at the exit, even if no one else is there. and won't come out. That is, these people (including elderly people, roughly speaking, barely moving their legs), on the move of the same bus, dangling from side to side, move around the cabin, counting change, and sacrifice their safety for the sake of an extra 10-30 seconds of possible downtime in exit queue. Banks, clinics, post office, etc. can not be mentioned. That's about the service, in the USSR, and even more so have not heard. Everywhere rudeness, abuse. And for your own money. Of course, one could be satisfied with the meager set of goods and services that was freely available in stores. But not all women wanted, for example, to walk in quilted jackets. Consequently, they first had to get things somewhere, and then also alter them for themselves (it was not always possible to get a thing of the right size right away). Again, sometimes I wanted meat. And fresh meat rarely got on the table of "mere mortals." Unless, in some oases of well-being. As well as quality fruits and vegetables. In general, many people associate the smell in the fruit and vegetable stores of that time with the smell of dampness, mold, rot (often compared to the smell in the cellar).

There is a myth that in the Soviet Union everyone had pockets full of money. This is both true and false at the same time. On the one hand, yes. Some people had much more money than they had time to spend in empty stores. And the director of a plant in Moscow, for example, lived much more prosperously and more interestingly than, for example, a teacher in some provincial town. But, on the other hand, many people lived on the very verge of poverty: they bought rotten products (fruits, vegetables), darned, for several years, holes in the same wardrobe items (the concept of “growth” gained popularity precisely in the USSR), saved every penny. In general, no matter which side (banal and everyday, in our time) you take, everywhere we will see that it was necessary to spend either time or “blat” on it. Here, for example, books. Some books were available in stores. However, very many good books (foreign ones) had to either be exchanged for waste paper or bought at semi-underground book markets (in which some "Three Musketeers" could well cost twenty-five rubles - a solid amount at that time). Or auto parts. No, the car itself was a luxury item in the USSR. Owning a Volga then was much more prestigious than owning, say, a new Mercedes today. But after all, the car also needs spare parts and gasoline, which had to be obtained either by pull or for a lot of money. Sailors who traveled abroad were incredibly rich in the USSR against the general background. Since they could spend the pennies given to them in foreign currency in normal stores: to buy electronic watches, electric kettles, irons and other cheap nonsense, which is now lying around in hypermarkets in baskets with a "sale" sign. In addition to their own lack of goods in the store, there was also a lagging factor. For example, VCRs, which became popular in the West in the seventies, timidly began to appear in our country only at the end of the eighties. Diapers, without which young mothers spent a lot of time and effort washing diapers, did not appear in the USSR at all.

The housing issue deserves a separate discussion. In the Soviet Union, he was one of the sickest: one person then had 16 square meters. Significantly less than now. To get an apartment, one had either to have a very good connection, or for a long time, for decades, to stand in line (without any guarantees of success). A simple example: "Now we will give you these two rooms in a communal apartment. But you agree, because there are prospects. An old woman of seventy years old lives there, and when she dies, you can take her room." They could be deleted from the queue, for example, due to the death of one of the family members. There were ways to get an apartment in just a few years. It was necessary to get a hard job in some necessary country. For logging, for example. Or a builder. By the way, about construction. Every filthy board, every bucket of paint, every roll of good wallpaper had to be "gotten". It took an incredible amount of time and effort. Work was also lousy. I usually had to work on outdated equipment. For computers, for example, the backlog was often under twenty years. In addition, the necessary tools, often, were simply not there, as well as the necessary spare parts. I had to, again, somehow play around, negotiate. Or even "to show socialist enterprise" - to steal. Yes, such a curious nuance. Theft in the USSR was not something shameful. Stealing a wheelbarrow of bricks or a set of wrenches from work was completely normal! It’s funny, of course, but whoever did this was considered not a petty thief, but simply a clever and courageous person! And one more thing at work. Leaving was difficult. A person who changed more than three jobs in a lifetime was considered a "flyer". Running your own business was, of course, forbidden! It was also impossible not to work! There was even a special article "for parasitism" (which, by the way, at the suggestion of senile people, is again being initiated to be introduced into modern legislation). Because of this, people with a freedom-loving character and with a sense of personal freedom (not weak-willed "slaves", to the biting sounds of the whip, going to a ghostly mirage of well-being) suffered incredibly. They didn’t want to lie down, sorry, like a prostitute, under a party whose ideology they did not share, or under an unloved, corrupt and deluded team for one and a half hundred Soviet rubles, and the life of a “lone wolf” in the Soviet Union was very difficult.

Special mention deserves drug addiction on an immense scale, penetrating not only the bohemian society (artists, singers, etc.), but also "ordinary" citizens (drugs, initially, were freely sold in pharmacies, grown in the backyards - agriculture was developed !). After the ban on the free sale of narcotic substances in pharmacies, speculation with prescriptions for these drugs unfolded. Of course, during the total control of citizens (with the assistance of the most severe censorship in the press and on television), data on all measures to seize a colossal amount of drugs (mainly heroin, hashish and hemp), for example, only in the Omsk and Amur regions, are strictly were kept secret. As well as data on pedophilia, prostitution, rape, abortion, lesbianism and other indecency that discredits the Great Power (now they are already in the public domain - declassified after a statute of limitations). In addition, in the USSR, ethanol addiction reached incredible levels. Everyone drank. Non-drinkers were viewed with great suspicion (not much has changed in this country, either). Vodka and alcohol were the universal currency. A lot could be exchanged for them. Many managers were forced to endure drunken workers (there were no others). Yes, and I wonder why people got the idea that there were neither rich nor poor? This just doesn't happen. There was already an example about the plant director and teacher. In addition, after all, someone should, for example, sweep the yard, and someone should follow this and give the janitor a salary, right? This is the most banal example. And, as a rule, the one who pays the janitor's salary is a priori richer than this janitor. It has ALWAYS been like this! It's easy to understand things! But it strikes me even more when I hear: "All people, under the USSR, lived in abundance!" or "At that time, people did not need anything!". In what abundance? Did everyone have cars, balanced, high-quality food, luxury goods, the opportunity to travel freely (not to Bulgaria or Uzbekistan, but, for example, to the USA, Japan or France)? Did everyone have the opportunity to be treated with high-quality medicines, to make good repairs in their apartment, etc.? Of course, if the concept of "prosperity" means only calming your stomach with the meager set of products that were in stores, then everything falls into place. Did people need anything? And even in the banal freedom of choice (the choice of products, the country to visit during the holidays, the choice of work, etc. ), freedom of speech, religion, etc.? People, what are you talking about? Forgot about the notorious 120 rubles? A very large number of Soviet people had such a salary! Living on it and raising children was very difficult. Especially in conditions of total deficit and corruption.

A little about ideology. The Soviet people were brainwashed from everywhere (radio, television, cinemas, the press). They talked about the correct policy and about "the decay of the West (although very few people had the opportunity to go there and check it out)". Now, looking back, one is amazed at what naive fools people can be, what a criminal ideology can do to them! Take a look at North Korea. Do they live well there, in your opinion? That's exactly the same way, from the outside, prosperous countries looked at the USSR. The political system of the USSR was false from beginning to end. It spoke about the freedom and happiness of the people, but everything turned out to be quite the opposite. You can talk for a very long time about the insanity of the Soviet period. What are the repressive measures under Andropov, when during the day, on the street, people were stopped and asked: "Why are you not at work?" There is one common phrase. "The Soviet Union was a great power! Everyone was afraid of it!" How is greatness measured? The presence of warheads? The fear that others experience? Country size? The Soviet Union was a great great prison. You can travel inside the country, but don’t even think about going on vacation abroad (by and large)! Leaving is a big problem. Characteristics, recommendations, meeting of the party committee, exit visa, etc. After all, prisoners are never proud of what kind of prison they are in, small or large. The notorious stability (in prices for necessary goods or services, in work, in a roof over their heads), which many are proud of, mentioning the USSR, is also present in many prisons and is strictly observed. And when someone tells me that the USSR was a Great Power, the image of a man sitting, in the pose of an eagle, in a rural toilet and clutching the world-famous Kalashnikov assault rifle, immediately comes to my mind. The walls of this toilet and all its contents are the territory, the country of this person. It is forbidden for a person to leave the walls (or boundaries) of this toilet. To condemn and complain about the conditions of "residence" is also prohibited. Praying, discussing "bosses" is also forbidden to him. And when someone "encroaches" on his territory (on this toilet), even with good intentions (to get him out of this, excuse me, shit), the person clangs the shutter of the machine gun and shouts: "Do not condemn and do not defame my toilet (my country )! Stay away from my toilet (my Great Country), I have weapons (warheads)! Fear me!". They say to him: “Man, you, being a weak-willed slave, are sitting up to your waist in shit! Get out of this swamp! You are mistaken, considering your toilet a Great Power. You forget that the Greatness of a country is measured not by the size of its territory, not by the number of warheads, but by the well-being and happiness of the people living in it. "And the person replies:" You are wrong, I live in abundance and prosperity, I have everything. Besides, this is my element and I like everything! I am a patriot and I am happy. Thanks to our "leader" (who sometimes feeds me) for giving me a roof over my head! Glory to the USSR!". Clang-clash of the shutter ...

- 15 years ago, there was no such thing as RSP ... most of the men had no idea to say that the child lady is a burden and illiquid ... - the man writes to me. 15 years ago, the statement that a man should provide a woman with everything and always, it was generally an axiom ... now, at the mere mention of "a man must", any thief is sent .... no talking…

But somewhere on the Internet there are still some ladies who claim that nothing has changed, everything is the same as before ... and even better ... there are more and more oligarchs every year, and women become more attractive with age ..

I thought - was the life of a woman in the USSR really so rosy? What has changed, what has become better, and what is worse? That's what I did.

Averaging

The first thing that is very striking is that Soviet couples are much more average than Russian ones. Husband and wife are peers. We met at school, or at the institute, or at the factory. They earn the same (and like everyone else in the country). They also look the same - like Soviet people. An exception to the rule immediately attracted attention.

Now is the time for contrasts. The old case leads the young one down the aisle. The oligarch plays a wedding with a schoolgirl. The size of a man's neck is equal to the size of a woman's waist.
It doesn't bother anyone.

I prefer the "on equal" model. The trade in young meat seems disgusting to me. That's what I'm writing about, and not about the fact that men are "for" old and terrible.

Personal life is controlled by society

In the USSR, this pressure was very significant. An offended wife could come to her husband's work and make a scandal there if he intends to divorce. The scoundrel would be judged by a comradely court, and only a few were able to withstand the pressure of the masses.

“Who wrote to me at the complaint service, huh? Not you? Yes, I have read them!

At the same time, it was hard to see if the bride was a virgin. Now even a hint of this seems offensive to women.

In general, it seems that the personal life of people is extremely rich and diverse, when compared with Soviet times, when the appearance of someone's mistress should have been discussed by the whole plant. Or maybe they just talk about it more publicly?

Shorter terms of female attractiveness

With attractiveness, everything is clear. Fitness, cosmetology, easier work in the office - and voila. 35-38-year-old women look like girls compared to our great-grandmothers. This is not our merit - it is difficult to look good after two shifts in the post-war devastation. And now, not all beauties are, and pleasures cost money. But still.

With the potency of men, the situation is more complicated. Of course, men as a whole began to live easier and longer - progress. And they got Viagra. But I saw a study that, despite this, men's sexual health has gotten worse. There are 10 times less spermatozoa in semen than after the war, more cases of erectile dysfunction.

Shortened reproductive period

Also, the requirements of society concerned both the reproductive period of a woman and the appearance of offspring. Now, on average, give birth a dozen years later than before. I don't like this trend, I think that parents should be young. But you can't go against trends. If back in the 90s they got married and got married at 18-25, now the average age of marriage and the birth of children has shifted to 30-35 years. Accordingly, a husband and wife who have already played well enter into marriage. At not the best age for reproduction. By the way, the ability of modern women to get pregnant compared to their grandmothers in that study was also a lot of interesting. In short, their chances of pregnancy were much greater.

By the way, is it necessary to say that childfree and unmarried people feel better now than then?

Divorced women with children

The fact that in the USSR marriage to such women was welcomed by relatives is not true, of course. The concept of "divorced" and then was with a negative connotation. Perhaps even more negative than now. Single mother too.

“Like, mermaid, I understand everything. And I will take you with a child ... And she went to him, as if to prison.

Give your wife a paycheck!

What my commentator confused with providing for a woman, namely, giving her a salary, is not about providing at all. Both work. It's about distribution. The point is that from the standard Soviet salary, the wife had to do the first, second and third. And compote. Yes, and find products for this in stores. And not at all about the fact that she is a housewife. The Soviet woman, basically, worked, and pulled the second shift in the form of children and at home. Now women are trying to strike against this unfair distribution of roles. This is the main meaning of feminism in Russian.

The value of a man

It has already been discussed many times on various resources that after the war, husbands suddenly became a special value, a sign of good luck, a super prize. And the generation is still alive that made such an attitude towards their fathers.

For a Soviet woman, a man is valuable in itself, to be. For Russian - also valuable. But not any, but significantly improving the standard of living. There is still intense competition for such men. Ordinary men, as it were, were thrown overboard, they are of little interest to anyone. While women daydream about princes, they scribble vicious comments about divorcees and women over forty.

The value of a woman

However, you have to pay for everything. Sometimes too expensive. The value of a woman as a wife and mother has also fallen below nowhere. A woman is now valuable young meat, hassle-free sex and the presence of her own apartment. Alas and ah.

What happened in general? And it turned out to be capitalism. The successful, the rich and the famous feel better. Ordinary, poor, unsuccessful - worse. Everyone decides how to live, himself. Sometimes it fails. Reproductive issues are also at the mercy of a private person, not the state. But at the same time, the public is much less likely to stick their nose in your bedroom window, which is definitely a positive thing.