There is another anecdote when a resident Central Asia got into Russian prison, then he concluded: To whom bunk is good, to whom nism is bad. According to your reasoning, wolf lawlessness is much better, even if bad 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 conditions Soviet power, only then won in competition people who are useful to society and the country, and who do not violate the laws. 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 the laws of wolves - freedom only for wolves. Therefore, not only those who lived in the Great Union and KNOW how they lived, but also in the mass of their youth already KNOW that such free citizens as Soviet people, on the post-Soviet space no one was lucky enough to be. All 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.
Vladislav Inozemtsev, Ph.D. PhD, director of the Research Center post-industrial society :
— Today, one can often encounter frank praise Soviet system, including the economy of that time. What remains in memory is that in 1985 the RSFSR produced almost 6 times more trucks, 14 times more combines, 34 times more tractors, 91 times more hours and 600 times (!) more cameras than, for example, in 2010 in Russia. But at the same time, today the country collects 118 million tons of grain against the then 97 million tons, and everyone has a camera, even if it is in the form of a smartphone.
Worked for "shaft"
Could the Soviet economy be reborn and fit into the modern global world? Nothing can be ruled out - especially if you look at the progress of China. But for this it was necessary to start p-perestroika earlier, at least in the late 1960s, until the most serious negative traits socialist economy. What I mean?
First of all, the growing inefficiency, which was embodied in production for the sake of production, when the economy grew without visible consequences for the level and quality of life. Let's take the dry statistics of the State Statistics Committee: from 1960 to 1985, cement production increased by 2.89 times, and the commissioning of residential buildings - by 3.4%; tractors were produced 2.46 times more, mineral fertilizers - 10.1 times more, while the number of cows increased by 21%, grain harvest - by 7.7%, and potatoes even fell by 13.5%. The list goes on. For the last 20 years, the Soviet economy has been working for the notorious "shaft", and not for the end consumer.
The biggest problem was the quality of the products. In the USSR, they produced 4 pairs of shoes per person per year, almost 50 square meters. m of fabrics. But almost half of the goods sold light industry supplied from countries socialist camp- Domestic products were simply not in demand. Despite the leadership of the USSR in space exploration and the development of weapons systems, color televisions and video recorders were mastered Soviet industry 20-25 years later than in Japan or Europe (I'm not talking about computers or copiers).
The entire economy of the USSR was focused on the reproduction of the deficit - its distribution was one of the forms of building formal and informal power verticals. The heads of regional committees and directors of factories in Moscow knocked out the necessary equipment, ordinary citizens made useful acquaintances (blat) to get the necessary goods. The idea of the rarity of any good was in the USSR almost " national idea”, the entire pyramid of the planned economy rested on it.
No economy, no freedom
Least valued free time person. On average, Soviet people spent up to 2.2 hours a day in queues; up to 1.4 hours public transport. In the Soviet Union, household appliances that were available to any European family in the mid-1980s, such as coffee makers and dishwashers, microwave ovens, and much more, were never introduced. The Soviet man was considered necessary by the authorities only at the workplace, after the end of the working day he had to fight with the created by him own labor system.
The life of the people was quite strictly regulated. I'm not talking about traveling abroad (today 53% of our air passengers fly on international flights, in the USSR there were less than 2% of them); there were no free sources of information, no real freedom of movement within the country. There was no housing market, the change of work was big problem; career in most cases it was determined by considerations of political maturity and loyalty to the authorities. Of course, such an economy could not be flexible.
Up to recent years private entrepreneurship never appeared in the Soviet Union, and when it did, it undoubtedly became associated with nothing more than trading and speculation, since the only thing it was capable of at that time was to fill commodity niches by reselling state resources . However, even minor easing led to the fact that the mighty Soviet economy quickly ran into financial problems that hastened its collapse.
What, to sum up, was the main problem Soviet economy? In my opinion, that it was not an economy in the proper sense of the word, which implies individual initiative, competition, efficiency and technological progress; private property, taxes, and the separation of public and private. Everything that the USSR could create is the notorious National economy, which collapsed as soon as they tried to introduce truly economic elements into it. You can regret it, but it's impossible to return it...
USSR: faith in tomorrow
Nikolai Burlyaev, director, people's artist of the Russian Federation:
- If you look at life philosophically, then the collapse of the USSR can be assessed both as a catastrophe and as a reason for Russia to make another leap forward.
Was the collapse of the Soviet Union a disaster? Undoubtedly! Because any revolution is the roar of Lucifer. And collapse great power, which our ancestors collected bit by bit, principality to principality, and which three people allowed themselves to destroy over a bottle of vodka in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, - it is a crime. And the descendants will still pass their judgment on him.
Knowledge was given to everyone
The further the era of the USSR goes down in history, the better we will understand how much good was in the Soviet Union, what was destroyed by our young reformers and traitors to the Fatherland, who were sitting in the country's leadership. Let's start with education. It was in those decades one of the best in the world, although the West pretended that it was not. I got two higher education- Shchukin school and VGIK. And I know for myself what kind of knowledge base was laid for students in the field humanitarian disciplines. We knew both the Western school of painting and world literature. Coming to America, we could talk about the subtleties of the lyrics of their poet Whitman so that they opened their mouths in surprise. We knew more than the Americans knew about their own literature and culture.
And school education It was an order of magnitude better than both the current one and the Western one. First of all, it is better because it was general, and not sectoral, as they do now, when you study in depth only a few subjects, and you can not study everything else at all. But this principle is wrong! An unconditional plus of the USSR and numerous circles that all children without exception could go to, which were free, that is, publicly available. That is why in the deep provinces such nuggets appeared as Sergey Bondarchuk,Andrei Tarkovsky,Vasily Shukshin- our Lomonosov from cinema, breaking through from Siberia to the capital. At present, the Shukshins will no longer break through - now education is paid. And this is a crime against Russia - paid education.
Next is medicine... Although the service in Soviet clinics was not as elitist as in the same America or today in expensive medical centers, nevertheless, there was a guarantee that you would be seriously treated by professionals. And now the purchase of diplomas is flourishing, and sometimes a surgeon cannot even cut off bread, let alone complex operation conduct.
The principle of dedication
There is such a common phrase: a country is judged by how children and the elderly live in it. When I retired a few years ago, I came to the social security office to draw up documents. They counted 7 thousand to me. I ask: “Does something rely on for the title of People’s Artist of Russia?” “Yes,” they say, “another 300 rubles.” And with this money - 7-9 thousand rubles. Today millions of older people are offered to live. We, pensioners, do not have tomorrow with such incomes. And in the USSR there was tomorrow. Everyone has. Nobody even thought: will there be tomorrow? Will there be work? Will they be evicted from the apartment? Will there be something to feed the children? And now this question is before everyone - everyone! - human.
Confidence in tomorrow- this is not just a set of words, it is the basis of life. And she, confidence, was one hundred percent among the entire population of the country. Graduating students knew that they would definitely get a job. And today I do not know how my children - and I have five of them - will be able to get settled, feed themselves. What's in store for them? And they are all excellent education, which is not very much in demand now. The old people understood that yes - the pension is small, but you can live on it. And also help the kids. The young worker knew that the enterprise where he works would help with an apartment, and children in kindergarten will give a place. Everyone lived then from paycheck to paycheck, not rich. But everything in equal conditions. There was no such glaring gap between the rich and the poor.We were plunged into capitalism without any referenda, without asking the people: do we want this or not? Forgetting that the ruble has never been the main thing for Russia. The mysterious Russian soul, which rows not towards itself, but away from itself, had other fundamental values. They have in the West essential principle- self-affirmation, and the principle of self-giving has always been the main thing for us. And, no matter how hard they tried to switch us to this principle of egoism, they failed to do it.
The collapse of the USSR was a disaster. But Russia is so powerful that, being under the protection of the Mother of God, it managed to grind through all the negative moments and in a crisis, under the onslaught Western countries, under the sanctions again made an incredible leap forward.
Chronicle of decay
06/12/1990. The Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR adopted a declaration of sovereignty, establishing priority Russian laws over the Soviets.
March 1991 At the referendum on the preservation of the USSR as a renewed federation of equal sovereign republics, 76% voted “for” (the Baltic republics, Georgia, Armenia and Moldova, which had previously declared independence, did not participate). August 18-21, 1991 Seized power for 3 days State Committee on state of emergency(GKChP), created by functionaries of the Central Committee of the CPSU, members of the government of the USSR, representatives of the army and the KGB in order to stop the collapse of the USSR. The August coup failed.
12/8/1991. The heads of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine signed an agreement on the establishment of the Commonwealth in Belovezhskaya Pushcha Independent States(CIS).
25.12.1991. USSR President M. Gorbachev announced the termination of his activities in this post "for reasons of principle".
I once wrote here, and now there are reflections about what happened. (The words of the author of reflections are in italics).
I heard the arguments of two women about my age who complained about our medicine, about how sickly children are now and how their childhood was in the USSR. And that's what I remembered.
1. In the USSR, hundreds and even thousands of people could drink soda in a vending machine from one glass. Drank, rinsed, put back. Everyone who is in the subject remembers that even "thinking for three" extremely rarely encroached on such a public property as a faceted glass. But it’s true: they drank and didn’t get sick, but then prevention was on highest level and sanitary conditions were properly monitored. It's now - try to decide on this death number, I think that soon the plague can be picked up in this way. And what? anthrax has already.
2 . In the USSR, it was common for teenagers to pick up cigarette butts. If the bull was with a filter, then the filter was either torn off or singeed for the purpose of "hygiene". Unfiltered cigarette butts were either smoked just like that, or their tobacco was stuffed into homemade elderberry pipes. Particularly advanced comrades used mouthpieces for such purposes.. I don’t know, I didn’t find it, but I’m also interested, people smoked, and didn’t seem to die, but now smoking is almost main reason cancer according to the WHO. In no way do I want to say that smoking should be done or that it is a harmless habit, I myself have never done it, but for some reason they did not attach such importance to it then. Perhaps because tobacco companies are now using an unlimited amount of fertilizers, pesticides and varieties of so-called GMO crops to grow tobacco for profit?
3. Most We spent our free time outdoors. These were parks, primitive sports grounds, rivers and lakes. There were no ticks in the forests. You can safely drink water from the streams. The lakes were not closed due to epidemiological indications. In the villages, until the early eighties, children could run barefoot. Broken glass on the streets was a rarity, because all the bottles were surrendered.
And there were subbotniks and people cleaned the streets, but in general there was no garbage around, because: firstly, this was systematically taken care of, and secondly, wrappers and packaging were not the main thing. It is now bright packaging, and something obscene inside. Well, the amount of the same in different packages is not even worth mentioning. And also total laziness: how often do you hear how some mother who sits at home with children does not know how to lose weight, but at the same time gives advice to others how to use disposable dishes instead of ordinary dishes or how to wrap the stove with foil every time, not to clean.
4. We drank water from the tap. And in the very big city, and in the most distant collective farm. Sanitary standards in that era were such that they did not settle down in the water supply coli, hepatitis bacilli or some other muck.I also remember that the water was cold and pleasant to the taste. Now try it from the tap - you will become a goat. At the very best.
5 . It’s scary to think, but in cooking, the saleswoman served a pie or shortbread with her hands. Bread, sausage, and any other products were served with hands. Nobody bothered about gloves.And the bread in the store was warm and freshly baked, because the economy was planned, so the shops were nearby and the bread was fresh.
6. I don’t know how anyone, but we spent one or two shifts in the pioneer camp, without fail. It was considered good luck to go somewhere to the resort, the main camps were an hour's drive from home. But it was always fun and interesting there. I can’t remember a single camp where I didn’t like it.There really is nothing to add here.
7. Since there was absolutely nothing to watch on TV, it was used a couple of times a week on Saturday and Sunday, plus in the evenings if the series "About Stirlitz" was on.. Indeed, watching TV limited time, but most of the programs were scientific and educational than entertaining. What current programs can teach is not even worth mentioning, just look around.
8. In the USSR, there were teenagers who did not read books, but there were very few of them. The school, the environment, and the availability of free time pushed us to read.. I also remember that everyone read, and high-quality literature. literary works they can be exciting, but this does not mean that they are of high quality; back then they were good quality. And mostly no pictures. And now there should be pictures everywhere, take, for example, not even literature, but a collection of recipes: earlier the ingredients were also indicated in in general terms the process is described, but everything was somehow prepared. Now it's mandatory step by step recipes: we take sugar - a picture for especially gifted cooks who do not know how sugar looks like; add oil - picture. What would everyone do without these pictures? I suppose window putty would have been used in recipes out of ignorance, etc. And so with everything, in other words - intellectual level audience then and now speaks for itself.
9. We didn't have computers, so all our games were played in the yard. Usually a crowd of boys and girls of different ages gathered, games were invented on the go. They were simple and not intricate, but the main factor in them was communication. Through games, we became aware of behavior patterns in society. Behavior was evaluated neither by words, nor even by deeds, but by their motives. Mistakes were always forgiven, meanness and betrayal never.Yes, I remember from early childhood decency was valued. I remember a story about a boy who gave his word of honor to remain at his post and sat all night until the military released him. But the truth is, the word of honor then meant a lot.
10. Did we talk about politics? Were they fooled Soviet propaganda? Suffered from a bloody regime? No no no. We didn’t give a damn about all this in our 12-14 years. I remember only that each of us looked to the future with undisguised optimism. And those who wanted to serve in the army, and those who decided to become drivers and workers, and those who were going to enter technical schools and institutes.I also remember this, even as a child, I sincerely thought that it was so wonderful that I was born in this country. Not because someone told me so, but because I felt it.We knew that there was a place for each of us under the sun...
Source
Some Soviet realities are really capable of evoking a feeling of nostalgia.
Free housing
It is known that there were no homeless people in the Soviet Union. I mean, they were, of course. Only the prevalence of these asocial characters then and now cannot be compared. Rare homeless people, along with other "declassed elements", were sent over the 101st kilometer from Moscow, so as not to spoil the overall picture of happiness and prosperity.
To remain without a roof over your head, you had to try very, very hard. The right to free housing, even poor, even in a communal apartment, even in a hostel, the state guaranteed to every citizen of the USSR.
Moreover, separate apartments were also given to everyone. Even if you had to wait in line for many years, but it was worth it. The new settlers of the so-called departmental houses built for employees of various institutions and factories received the keys faster than others. Now the institute of departmental housing has been almost completely destroyed
If they did not want to wait and had some savings, people bought cooperative apartments. Some paid shares for as long as they now pay a mortgage, but the payments were interest-free.
Free education and medicine
Two more important social guarantees, which were provided to citizens of the USSR, and which the current state system pulls with difficulty and only partially.
All types of education were free - secondary, additional, secondary specialized and higher. Like all types of medical care.
Of course, there were cases of corruption (when bribes were given for admission or for grades) and blat (when they were admitted to the institute by patronage or acquaintance), but, as they say, rumors about this are greatly exaggerated. Anyone could enter a university, paying only for thorough preparation for exams.
Working specialties were also honored. Therefore, the guys after the 8th or 10th grade with desire and confidence in the future went to secondary special educational establishments, where they received the specialty of turners and plumbers.
There is now ongoing controversy about whether Soviet education and medicine the best in the world, as they were positioned. The question is really debatable. Probably, after all, as always, everywhere and in everything, a lot depended on the people who taught and treated, studied and treated.
By the way, the professions of a teacher and a doctor were considered the most prestigious in the USSR after the profession of an astronaut. Then they were chosen not because of money and not according to the residual principle (“I didn’t get anywhere - I’ll go to the pedagogical one”), but for the idea (“I want to help people!”) Or by vocation.
Paradox: Soviet science lagged behind in development, but our specialists from many industries, in particular physicists and mathematicians, were quoted very highly in the world.
Cinema
Surely there are people who will say that Soviet cinema- it sucks and boring, but even they cannot deny that there were much more feature films produced in the USSR than now. Moreover, for the most part, these were films that were of high quality according to all criteria - directing, acting, camera work and other works.
Many Soviet comedies, melodramas, film adaptations of domestic and foreign classics, historical and adventure films make you want to watch again and again, which cannot be said about modern products of the domestic film industry.
A harsh ideology prevented the implementation of bold avant-garde ideas, but no amount of artistic advice could kill the art and professionalism of people involved in the film industry of that time.
Stability and lack of pronounced social stratification
Social guarantees provided by the state, stable prices for food products, manufactured goods and services - all this instilled calmness and confidence in the future in citizens.
Let's put it this way: planning your future in the Soviet Union was easier than in new Russia. Although the plans themselves were much more modest.
The average salary made it possible to provide oneself and the family with basic food, clothing and rest in some health resort on a voucher, which the trade union paid for in full or in part.
An engineer with a PhD in a small managerial position received 200-300 rubles, a junior Researcher- 120-150, unskilled workers on average earned 70-100 rubles. Director's salary large enterprise could be about 500 rubles a month.
Of course, the USSR also had its own elite - major officials, honored workers of science, art and culture, who were entitled to a number of benefits, such as: a state dacha or "orders" with scarce products.
However, the gap between the income of "top managers" and ordinary workers was not as cosmic as it is now. Thanks to the transparent system of payments, the worker at the plant knew how much the director was getting. This protected the country from the emergence of "class inequality", internal social tension.
Although the Soviet "leveling" was not to the liking of all citizens.
Absence of drug addiction as a mass phenomenon
Most of the inhabitants of the Union did not even know that narcotic substances can be used for something other than pain relief. And poppies were grown in vegetable gardens exclusively for decorative purposes. It was one of the few "pros" iron curtain- isolation from the processes taking place in the West.
addiction like mass phenomenon came to our country along with capitalism, gradually decimating a whole generation of people whose youth fell on the 1990s.
A real scourge for the whole social system in the USSR there was alcoholism, which they tried to fight with "dry laws", sobering-up stations and public censure. But is it possible to compare the consequences of this disaster with the mortality and crime rates that drug addiction has brought ...
Yard games
Soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the days when gangs of children gathered in the yards created hordes of Cossack robbers, musketeers, soldiers of the Great Patriotic War; when the girls jumped into the hopscotch and "rubber bands", buried the "secrets"; when the most simple thing, accidentally found here, on the street, could become important part complex thoughtful game.
These ingenuous amusements were gradually superseded by gadgets and social networks. Whether this is good or bad, time will tell.
As the heroes of the cult cartoon said about Masyan: "And we are in Soviet times- oh! .. ”, realizing that, they say, there was still gunpowder in the powder flasks. For many living today, the Soviet Union is closely associated with memories of childhood and youth. And for them, no matter what, those times will forever remain the best in life.
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 magic wand fairies 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 job on the weekend 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 grandmother's sideboards are now, consider trendsetters: we are finally learning to make old things part of our own family history rather than replacing them with new ones. It is restored and decorated, it is made a "trick" of the modern interior. Bibliophiles are chasing the Soviet bookshelves with moving 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 ?!
TECHNICS
A couple of eternal things that disappeared with Soviet Union- a Soviet meat grinder and a divine device, which cannot be called otherwise than a "pelmenedelka". In the USSR it was practically family tradition- 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 velvet covers and bags of photo corners that were glued to the page and held the photo, and under the photo calligraphic handwriting write who it is and where. Then showing a family photo album was a whole event, sentimental journey: there were few photographs, and all of them with a story, all of them on a special occasion.
Later, these photo albums were replaced by modern ones, with plastic "windows" full of 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 the haters: no, I'm in nightmare 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 did you keep from things and good memories about that time?
