Crafts

Ussr how we lived. The Soviet Union was a slave state. Who and how destroyed the USSR

Probably, they will argue for more than one decade, and maybe more than one century. If in the first years after the collapse of everything Soviet, many tried to quickly get rid of, then recently there has been an almost opposite trend. Those who were dear to the Soviet Union are trying to preserve what is left of it. For example, yard dominoes or dovecotes. How they lived in a country that no longer exists, recalled the correspondent of the TV channel "MIR 24" Rodion Marinichev.

For a penny, collectors today are ready to give more than one thousand rubles. Although a quarter of a century ago it was an ordinary means of payment. The Soviet ruble is one of the main monuments to a country that no longer exists. Many people still remember the prices by heart, because they have not changed for decades. “The fare was 20 kopecks, and Prima cigarettes were 14 kopecks. Lunch cost fifty kopecks, and you still had 20-30 kopecks left for the cinema, ”recalls Vladimir Kazakov, an expert on numismatics of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation.

The average salary in the USSR during the "developed socialism" is 130 rubles. Those who tried to save kept their money in money boxes, books, underwear, and only then, closer to the 1970s, people began to use savings books more and more often.

In the film "Love and Doves" the Soviet way of life and way of life is shown so truthfully that it is often said about this picture: this is how it was in the USSR. The main character Vasily Kuzyakin, by the way, written off from a real person, has the most popular hobby: pigeons.

The country began to get involved in the breeding of pigeons soon after the Great Patriotic War. The dove is, as you know, a symbol of peace. The hobby turned out to be so serious that dovecotes began to appear in almost every yard. Small dovecote houses were even built according to standard designs. The most avid pigeon lovers built real mansions for them.

In the sleeping Moscow district of Nagatino, Uncle Kolya's exemplary dovecote is almost exotic today. He started construction back in the 1970s, when he returned from the army. He says that in his youth it was not a pity to save money for these birds. If you don't have lunch a couple of times, you will buy a dove. And then you will also compete with the neighboring yard: whose pigeons are more agile. “Earlier, if I saw that the parties were flying, then that’s all, we must raise our own, otherwise the stranger is flying! And all Nagatino is in pigeons, ”Nikolai recalls.

There were enough yard hobbies in the USSR. There was also chess, backgammon and dominoes. Today's knuckle-lovers treat their hobby as a professional sport. Even a special table, such championships are held. In the USSR, Alexander recalls, everything was much simpler. The playing field could be someone's briefcase, a box, or just a piece of plywood. “We played on benches in parks,” says Alexander Terentyev, executive director of the Russian Federation of Dominoes.

Patriarch's Ponds were once a favorite place for dominators, like most of the city's parks. Domino entered life so firmly that they sat down for him at any free moment. For example, at lunchtime. “During working hours, we met, people came from other workshops,” says the 2015 Russian domino champion Alexander Vinogradov.

I had to spend a lot of time in someone's company and involuntarily. Indeed, in the middle of the last century, more than half of the country's population lived in communal apartments. It was sometimes difficult to establish a common life. Writer Vladimir Berezin recalls: as a child, he almost never washed in an apartment.

“Two families lived in a small two-room apartment. The housekeeper of the second family was sleeping in the bathroom on the planks laid. I found the bathing culture, which united people of completely different social origins, ”says Berezin.

For the majority of Soviet citizens, it is almost a second home. At least until the end of the 1960s - the era of the Khrushchevs and, albeit small, but separate apartments with all the amenities. Many went to the baths with their gangs and soap. Under the steam in the same company, a worker and a doctor of sciences often met.

The bathhouse attendant with 30 years of experience, Takhir Yanov, remembers well the long lines to the famous Sanduny. Everything has been preserved there since those times. Lovers of the first pair even now come before dawn, as in the Soviet era.

Queues are a special Soviet phenomenon. They arose in the 1920s, then became longer, sometimes shorter, sometimes longer again.

According to the State Statistics Committee of the USSR for 1985, men spent about 16 minutes on weekdays to buy goods or receive services, women - 46. On weekends, even more: men - almost an hour (58 minutes), women - one and a half (85 minutes). In queues, they got to know each other, decided matters, and sometimes even fell in love and dispersed.

“There was a couple in front of me: a guy and a girl. They made such a declaration of love that I even got tired of listening. Finally it was their turn. There they gave something as little as a kilogram or a piece. The girl took over, and the young man took over. And she says: "Bunny, give me money." He could afford it, and it turned out that he had forgotten the money in the hostel! And this Bunny immediately turned into a "bastard", - recalls the singer Lyubov Uspenskaya.

Singer Lyubov Uspenskaya remembers both childhood hunger years and the Soviet word "blat". She managed to plunge into abundance only in the 1970s, when she left for the West. But, in the end, I realized: I never experienced such joy as in the Soviet Union.

“For the New Year, you will get a Christmas tree, some kind of no, the most simple and ugly, and what a joy it was to decorate it. And now we do it like an automatic machine, ”says the singer.

A swift farewell to Soviet life began in the 1990s, but many have not broken with it until now. Today it is something like an exotic that not everyone wants to lose.

1. In the Soviet Union, hundreds and even thousands of people could drink carbonated water in a machine from one glass. He drank soda, rinsed the glass, put it back. Everyone who lived at that time remembers that even those who think for three very rarely took a faceted glass from a soda machine.

2. In the USSR, we spent most of our free time on the street. These were parks, courtyards of high-rise buildings, sports grounds, rivers and lakes. There were no many ticks in the forests. The lakes were not closed for epidemiological reasons. In villages, up until the early 1980s, children could run barefoot. Broken glass on the streets was a rarity, because all the bottles were surrendered.

3. We all drank from the tap. And in the largest city, and in the most distant collective farm. The sanitary standards in the USSR were such that there was no Escherichia coli, hepatitis bacillus or any other nasty thing in the water supply system.

4. It's scary to think, but in the store the saleswoman served a pie or cake with her hands. Bread, sausage, and any other products were served by hand. Nobody thought about gloves.

5. Many children spent one or two shifts in the pioneer camp, without fail. It was considered good luck to go somewhere to the resort, the main children's camps were an hour's drive from home. But it was always fun and interesting there.

6. We rarely watched TV, compared to today. Usually evenings or weekends: Saturday and Sunday.

7. In the USSR, of course, there were people who almost never read books, but there were very few of them. School, society, and free time encouraged us to read.

8. We didn't have computers and smartphones, so all our games took place in the yard. Usually a crowd of different ages of boys and girls 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 patterns of behavior in society. Behavior was assessed neither by words, nor even by actions, but by their motives. Mistakes were always forgiven, meanness and betrayal, never.

9. Have we been fooled by Soviet propaganda? Suffer from a bloody regime? No no and one more time no. We did not give a damn about all this at the age of 12-14. I remember 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.

We knew that there was a place in the sun for each of us.

Many people still feel nostalgia for the Soviet Union. Those who lived in this vast country recall their carefree childhood, campfire songs, pioneer everyday life, affordable prices, and a caring state. And those who were born later listen to the dreary stories of older comrades or relatives and imagine how it was good before... Not like now ...

Did Soviet citizens shine like that with happiness? Or were there more disadvantages in the life of the builders of communism? We are unlikely to come to an unambiguous conclusion, because there will always be supporters of the Soviet Union, and those who casually call this huge empire Sovcom.

Today edition "So simple!" will tell about the USSR in the words of eyewitnesses - those who have felt all the comfort of living in the Land of the Soviets. These people knew that the Soviet is not always of high quality, and food and clothing should be "obtained".

How they lived in the USSR

“I was born in 1977 in a relatively wealthy St. Petersburg. I remember how my parents were embarrassed to make friends with the unlucky neighbor Vasya, but they did it, because he worked in a grocery store. Uncle Vasya was always dirty and often drunk, but he could get decent meat. And my parents had to somehow feed me and my sister. "

“I come from 1980. I remember at the age of 8 my shoes were only green sandals, which did not fit any outfit, because I did not have any more green things. But I wore sandals and didn't dare ask. And winter boots! You walk to school in the snow - your feet instantly get wet. Neither me, nor the other guys had replaceable shoes. So they walked with wet feet. "

« Foodstuffs in the USSR- a separate story. The queues for bread were so long that they stood for an hour and a half. The meat was expected even longer. If “Hercules” was thrown out on the counter, then the parents bought boxes in reserve. In general, vodka was sold only with coupons. "

There are some very interesting stories about the last point. Some cunning people applied to the registry office to get vodka coupons. The statement was later collected, but the alcohol remained. By the way, alcoholic beverages were in great shortage. Therefore, even non-drinkers tried to get alcohol - it could be profitable to exchange for something.

“They say that in the USSR everything was natural and healthy. Aha! On the shelves lay blue chickens, apparently dead from hunger and abuse. There was also milk and sour cream by weight. Fortunately, my grandmother knew the manager of the store, so we got milk before it was diluted with water. And getting sour cream was considered a great success. "

“Mom was sometimes sent on business trips to Moscow, and she brought everything from there that she could get. I remember how one day she tucked these damn bags, slipped dressed on the floor and quietly cried from fatigue ... "

“If someone managed to travel abroad or even to a large neighboring city, then they brought home as much food as they could. Sausage, fruit, butter, cheese ... "

There are many such stories about life in the USSR. And yet there are people who deny that there was a deficit. These say, they say, the counters were really empty, but everyone had everything at home. For they knew how to get ...

Indeed, today it is simple: I wanted it - I bought it. Too casual and uninteresting. But before, you had to get any thing, standing in queues, or buy from under the counter from black marketeers, risking not only money, but sometimes your own freedom. That's where the romance was!

What do you remember about life in the Soviet Union? Was life really better than it is now?

She dreams that people treat nature more carefully. In the future, he plans to engage in the protection of wild animals, the protection of the environment and other useful things that will improve the state of the planet. Bogdan believes that such work makes more sense than any other! One day he wants to return to Finland, which amazed him with crystal clear lakes and friendly people. I would also like to come to St. Petersburg for a long time to get to know the city better. Bogdan is an energetic and cheerful footballer. Our editor's favorite book, after reading which he began to write articles, is "Martin Eden" by Jack London.

30s
katrinkuv:
Yes, living people who remember the 30s are unlikely to write here. But I remember what my grandmother told me, then my aunt confirmed.
Then they lived on Krasnoselskaya, in the house where Utesov lived. The house was off the Railroad. My grandfather worked there. Well, I think it is not necessary to talk about what 37 is. They took everyone around !!! I don't know why, maybe that's why, but my grandfather did not work. And every day I went skating to Sokolniki. Grandma said that the "funnel" was expected every night. A bag with belongings stood at the door, awaiting arrest. Kaganovich warned. (honestly, I don’t know this relationship, my grandfather was not even 30 at that time, why Kaganovich was close to this “boy” - my grandfather - I don’t know, but my aunt prays for him, says that he saved my grandfather’s life, which means and me, my father was born at 44) and "sent" the family of my father's parents to Kaluga. Something like that…
I still have many memories of life in Moscow from my ancestors.

50s
laisr:
Life was not raspberry. My father returned from 4-year German captivity at the end of the war. He was met in the village by his hungry wife and two children. And I was born in 46. To feed the family, my father and five fellow villagers, who were just as hungry, stole a sack of wheat during sowing. Someone pawned, a search at my father's. The accomplices, more cunning, advised the father to take everything upon himself, otherwise, they say, they would put everyone in jail for 25 years in a group. The father served 5 years. With my current mind I am joking, Hitler held him for four years, well, but Stalin could not give less, so he was imprisoned for five years. In the 50s, I did not gorge on bread, so, probably, today I eat everything with bread, even pasta, sometimes I joke to my friends about this that I even eat bread with bread!

***
On my second year (1962) in a department store in Ufa, absolutely on the occasion, luckily, I bought Japanese nylon swimming trunks! Then ours were rag with two laces on the side for tying on the thigh. The Japanese were shaped like shorts, pretty, vertical striped, tight. I wore them for a very long time, and now they are lying around somewhere. Here is the memory of my student life!

60s
yuryper, "about the shortage of bread":
Somewhere in 63 or 64 in Moscow, flour was distributed through the house management, according to the number of prescribed ones. She was not in the stores. In the summer we went to Sukhumi, it turned out that white bread is only for locals, on ration cards.
In Moscow, bread did not disappear, but the variety characteristic of the early 60s gradually diminished, and by the early 70s this difference had already become very noticeable.

70s
sitki:
Early 70s, my mother-in-law is a single mother, Krasnoe Selo, pay 90 rubles.
Every (!) Year she took her son out to sea. Yes, a savage; yes, sometimes they brought canned food with them and ate them all month. But now my husband tells me about those trips with rapture. This is his childhood.
What kind of cleaning lady can take a child to the sea for a month now?

pumbalicho (8-10 years old):
For some reason, the 70s were engraved in my memory ... Those were good years. And not only economically (I suspect that abundance was not everywhere. But I still cannot forget the shop windows of that time), but also with some special cohesion or something ... I remember they reported the death of three Soviet cosmonauts at once - no one did not order, but people were really crying in the streets ...

matsea:
We walked in the courtyards from 4-5 years old alone. I was about 8 years old (early 70s) when a schoolgirl was killed in the Udelny park next door. The children also continued to walk alone. Well, that was life.

80s
matsea (born 1964):
I remember well the expectation of the first spring salad (I'm 64th year). There was no fruit in the winter. In the fall, apples are many and inexpensive. By November, they are sold in brown specks and are expensive. They are gone by January. If you're lucky, you can catch Moroccan oranges on the occasion. Infrequently. Peter, winter darkness, vitamin deficiency. And to shoot tomatoes with sour cream at night, so red. And now March and happiness - they threw out the hydroponic cucumbers. Long ones, dark green like crocodiles. Three pieces per kilogram, a kilo in one hand. Enough - not enough? Enough! We defended it for about forty minutes, brought it. Salad with onions, eggs, and hydroponic cucumbers - hurray, spring has come! All right, now you can safely wait for the tomatoes. It's not until June.

mans626262:
the leading engineer in the late 70s and early 80s had a salary of 180 rubles - that's me personally about myself at the research institute.

michel62 (born 1962):
At 82 meters I went to Donetsk by bus for sausage and butter from Rostov-on-Don. At my mother's watch factory, these trips were organized. To Donetsk, to Voroshilovograd.
***
Struck!
When I arrived as a young specialist in the Penza region and, working as a road foreman, I wandered around the villages, maintaining local roads, I saw so many different imported clothes in the village shops that it took my breath away. There I bought shoes for my wife, a coat ... The villagers looked at me as if I were crazy. You know, it's impressive when galoshes and Italian shoes are on the same counter, and a sweatshirt and a Finnish coat hang next to a clothes hanger ... It was simply impossible to buy something out of clothes in Rostov. The queues were busy in the evening. All only from under the floor or by pull. I have a feeling that if jeans or something like that were freely sold during the Soviet era, then there would be no perestroika and subsequent disintegration.
***
Born in 62 in Rostov-on-Don
Of course, the USSR for me is childhood, adolescence, growing up, the first child ...
Now I look at how my son (16 years old) lives and it seems to me that we were happier in childhood. Even if I didn’t travel abroad with my parents and they bought my first jeans when I was in my first year at the institute. But everything was somehow saturated. This is my personal opinion and I'm not going to argue with anyone. I remember how, already working, I was asked by the Party organizer at the reporting meeting (he worked as a chief engineer of one commune. Sharaga): "How did you MM reorganize? ..." lunch "demagogue")? What did I have to rebuild in myself if I - a young guy - worked conscientiously and to wear and tear? ... In the family, when I was a boy, there was a sack of food. Food was in the first place. my father altered my clothes from his own. By the way, my father was the head of the enterprise, but there was no chic in our house. I would have shot a pistol and shot ... ". I remember in the year 72 -74m on the street there was a rumor that they were selling pepsicol ... I stood in line for two hours and took two string bags ... I still swear when I remember how lane home. Memories of pioneer camps are very warm. Every summer for three shifts in different camps. Vacation at home was only Friday days 10-10 before September 1st ....
And while working, he adjusted himself like everyone else so that he could take his wife to a barbecue on the left bank of the Don on weekends and go on vacation in the summer. Now I have a maximum of a week's vacation, if I'm lucky ... I remember how my mother came from a business trip to Moscow. We met her with the whole family. Poor - how she pearled all those bags of sausage and oranges ...
I also remember the Diet store, where my mother and I went when she picked me up from the kindergarten. She bought a three-gram gram of sausages (of course not Moscow and not cervelat) from a doctor's or an amateur's and asked to cut a little for me. And next to it was a bread, where we bought FRESH bread. So I walked, munching on a sausage sandwich. I have never seen more such taste of sausage and bread. Of course, delicacies were always in short supply, but for the holidays, parents got them. I remember the queues for carpets, dishes and clothes ... I lived right next to the Solnyshko department store and I remember all this well. The queue was occupied in the evening and the crowd was crowded all night (I lived on the second floor and all this happened under our balcony). I remember the "Ocean" store on Semashko, where carp and sturgeon swam in an aquarium. And then the same "Ocean", where there was nothing but shrimp briquettes and some crap like seaweed. I remember coupons for vodka and butter. But this is already at the end of the USSR. But I worked in a road organization and was "spinning". (just do not say that because of people like me we have bad roads). Those who wanted to live were spinning. Everything was good and bad. Now, of course, good things come to mind. The bad is forgotten. It was forgotten that I did not have a tape recorder in my childhood. But I remember New Year's gifts from the Christmas tree in the recreation center. The queues for beer are forgotten, but I remember its taste and the fact that it sour in a day and not in a month. With a smile, I remember how I was driving home from work in a packed bus, holding a plastic bag with beer in my hand above my head, and there were many like me ... Everything was - both good and bad. One can argue about this time before the carrot plot, but it was and is remembered with a smile.

nord100:
I remember my first business trip to Vilnius. It was around 1982. I was shocked by what I saw abroad. Then I picked up coffee beans, for a whole year to come.
In the same years, I visited Moldova for the first time, where I was struck by the abundance of imports in stores. And the books! I have not seen so many books in short supply since childhood!
I also remember my trip to Kuibyshev in the late 80s. In the evening I checked into a hotel and decided to buy food for dinner at the grocery store. Nothing came of it - I didn't have local coupons ...
I remember many things about those years, but mostly with warmth. After all, that was youth :)

Second half of the 80s
frauenheld2:
I remember that I was engaged in fartsovka - just somewhere in the 89-90s)
You go there - "Kaugumi, chungam", but since it's a shame - sometimes you just ask for the time, in Russian, of course. But foreigners do not understand, and they give something - sweets, chewing gum, pens. Now it seems - trifles, but at school I went to the king with these colored pens, and for chewing gum (!), Classmates just did not kiss my feet.

alyk99:
Secondary school №1 in the Moscow region of Zvenigorod. I am 10 years old (1986), there is some kind of meeting in the assembly hall. The director broadcasts: "We vote. Who is for?"
We all raise our hands as one. "Who is against?" Two lonely hands of some high school students are raised. The principal starts shouting: "How can you? Hooligans! Get out of the hall! Shame on the school!"
In the evening I tell the story to my mother and add on my own that the high school students acted disgracefully. “Why?” She asks. “Maybe they had a different opinion. What's so shameful?” I remember very well that it was at that moment that I first understood what it was like to be one of the wordless sheep in the herd.

Childhood memories of the USSR
roosich (was 10 years old in 1988):
Something about the stories of this lady, who went abroad, about the absence of bread in the USSR (apparently, we are not talking about 20-30 years, but about 70-80s) do not inspire confidence.
My childhood was in the 80s. I was born and still live all my life in a small town near Moscow. With my parents (with my father more precisely) we often went to Moscow on weekends. But not for groceries, as supposedly the rest of the USSR, but just for a walk - VDNKh, Gorky Park, museums, exhibitions, etc. And there was enough food in our local stores. Of course, there was no such abundance on the shelves as now, but no one went hungry. Here, of course, they can object to me that a small but near Moscow town is far from the same as an equally small town, but somewhere in a remote province ... But the majority still did not live as hermits in distant villages. The deficit began to appear quite actively only in 1988.
Continuing the store theme, now about manufactured goods. I remember somewhere in the mid-80s - in our local manufactured goods store I saw on the counters and TVs, and refrigerators, and washing machines, and players (cassette recorders began to appear only in the late 80s), and radios, and clothes with shoes, and stationery .... Another thing is that by the standards of the then average salaries (for the mid-80s, somewhere around 200 with a little rubles), these household appliances were quite expensive. I remember our first color TV - a hefty and heavy "Rubin", bought only in 1987, cost well for 300 rubles.
***
But when compared with today, the most radical difference from that time is people. Then, of course, different people could meet in life, but now - man to man is a wolf. Today's parents are afraid to let their children go for a walk, even in the neighboring yard, and then they were not afraid to let us go. And not only to the neighboring yard. And until late at night.
***
The USSR of the 88th model is no longer the same country that it was in the years 83-85. Although it would seem that only a few years have passed, there were already quite striking differences.
***
So I say that the general shortage of everything and everyone with absolutely empty counters and kilometer-long queues to them with coupons and cards came only at the very end of the 80s! And the author / means the author of the project vg_saveliev) apparently thinks that under the USSR, people lived like in the Stone Age, and as the democrats came, happiness immediately came. But the Russian people did not believe this happiness and began to die out by 1 million a year.
***
Yes, I still remember in 1988 I went on vacation in the summer with my aunt and her son (that is, my cousin) to the village to her relatives somewhere on the border of the Moscow and Tula regions. The village was alive. There was work in the village. And there are a lot of middle-aged hardworking people, and a lot of children .... I think now in most of these rural places, only a few old people have remained, but summer residents have appeared.

General impressions and reasoning
lamois (born 1956):
Tell me, do memories have to be negative? Judging by the laid out - yes, you started just such a selection.
And if I write that I am happy that I was born in 1956 and saw many difficulties, but also a lot of happiness, as at any time. My parents are teachers, they opened a high school in a virgin village. People were sincere in their enthusiasm and unfeigned love for each other. I do not regret that those days are over, everything ends sooner or later. But I will never throw a stone into the history of my country. But you are not ashamed.
They write how they hated school rulers, but I remember the fun and exciting game Zarnitsa, hiking, songs with a guitar. Each person has his own childhood and youth and they are good at any time. And now it is infinitely difficult for many, the current difficulties are not much easier, and for many more difficult than then. For the majority, the loss of cultural identity is a greater tragedy than the then lack of sausage for some especially hungry, although it was precisely that there were no hungry then, but now they are. But I don’t believe people who remember their childhood with hatred or regret. These are unhappy people, and they are always prejudiced, just like you, in fact.
I am sure that you will never publish my opinion on your site.

vit_r
Well, queues, well, deficits.
A man with a backpack, coming to any kishlak, to any village, and to any town could find shelter and lodging for the night. An acquaintance of acquaintances was given keys and left in the apartment, where money and crystal lay on a shelf.
And compare. I know those who now do not have enough money for bread. The ceiling has gone up. But not for everyone. The population has shrunk and oil prices have skyrocketed. The union collapsed when there was no longer enough oil to import goods and export communism. And the party and economic bosses then lived more abruptly than the current oligarchs.
The only problem of the union was that it was a zone from which one could not get out. It's true.

chimkentec:
No, the party and economic bosses then did not live more abruptly than the current oligarchs. The party and economic bosses were likewise inaccessible to what for the majority of people in developed countries was consumer goods.
***
... my grandfather was a "business boss", the head of YuzhKazGlavSnab, an organization that supplied three Kazakhstani regions.
But he, just like all the other townspeople, could not buy normal coffee, he could not repair the TV for six months (there were no necessary spare parts). He had to convert his own bathhouse into a barn.
He had a dream - he wanted to grow a lawn in the country. And he even managed to get the seeds of the lawn grass. But he could not get the simplest electric lawn mower - someone decided that the Soviet citizens did not need lawn mowers.

There will also be a heading "Without exact time designation" and "Discussions". So far, these materials have not fit.
There are a lot of stories without a clear indication of time and age. Try to be more specific in time.

Childhood memories of the USSR
kotichok :
my grandmother told me a lot about the 30s, 40s and 50s
especially in my memory was the story of how in 1939, when Soviet power came, half of the village came running to see how the Soviets drank vodka by the Granchaks
my grandmother said that earlier they could play a wedding with a bottle of vodka - and everyone had fun
* * *
my father built the Moscow, Kharkov and Kiev subways
he worked a lot, he seemed to earn money, but he had no cronyism
I had to get everything
I remember when tangerines, bananas and "Evening Kiev" sweets were "got", my parents watched so that I did not eat everything at once and did not become covered with diathesis)))

topof , "Eaglet 1988 Chinese wall stew":
Among the lucky ones was in the All-Russian camp Eaglet in the summer of 1988 ... there were many children from all over the country ...
there were only 2 people from my city, after we were given the Great Wall Chinese canned meat on a camping trip to the All-Russian camp ... I realized that the USSR would not be coming soon00)) ... at that time ours still knew how to make normal canned meat .. ...
I experienced the second shock a couple of years later, when, having arrived in the village to visit relatives, instead of cream from my cow in a 3-liter jar, as usual, they began to smear Rama butter from a plastic jar ... agriculture was gone))))

tres_a :
Kiev, late 80s.
White bread could be bought only in one store and only within an hour after delivery - in the morning and at lunchtime. Where it was stale among the loaves - I still don't understand.
Ice-cream sundae in chocolate was rarely brought and only in milk (a special store with dairy products; in other grocery stores, milk was rarely imported and stale).
In all stores there was a smell of bleach and rot (even in the central ones).
Children in public transport stood if there was someone adult (from 4-5 years old).
Few overweight people, of the children generally one or two for the whole school (in those schools that I know, there were up to 1000 students at that time).
For a cigarette they could be pulled by the ears and taken to their parents. The police did 150% of this.
Subbotniks and other voluntary-compulsory activities (I still don't understand why I have to clean if someone gets paid for it).
Politics and adult topics were not discussed in front of children.

tol39 (Born 1975):
You could buy bread here before lunch, and after lunch you could fly, because bread was usually sorted out during the lunch break, which was from one to two in factories, and from two to three in stores. We had four kinds of ice cream - in waffle cups, we didn't have it on sale, my father brought it from the city. Eskimo, expensive and not very common, still by weight, very tasty, in such casings. And the products of our local dairy are in paper cups and with ice crystals. There was a specific smell in the shops, only it was not rotten, it smelled like the barrels that were always in the back rooms.
***
Well, firstly, it was childhood, and it was good, I was born in 1975. Until 87-88, everything was generally wonderful, and then the word "deficit" appeared. In fact, it was there before, but it belonged to the category of things that were not very significant in everyday life. There was a feeling of close changes, exciting, as happens when you roll down on a springboard to take off, but there was no takeoff. We crashed into the dirty mess of the nineties all the way. Black T-shirts, chains, nunchucks, Royal alcohol and all. How I survived, hell knows.

true_frog (Born 1952):
My year of birth is 1952. This means that all my conscious life fell on the USSR.
Childhood. The most interesting things were on the street and in the yard. It was impossible to drive the children into the apartment. In the evening, windows and vents were opened: mothers called children from the yard. They played calm and active games, tennis, volleyball. On rainy days, they played at the entrance. Even in winter, in the dark, we girls were not forbidden to walk. We moved a lot. They went to school only on foot, no matter how far it was. For some reason, it was not accepted to travel by bus. Fat children - "fattrests" - were rare and despised by all.
Starting from the first grade, students first did a little cleaning in the classroom, and then they themselves washed the floors in the classrooms.
They collected either scrap metal, or empty bottles, or waste paper. It was not scary to send children to unfamiliar apartments.
There were a lot of different circles. Only in the music school was tuition paid, all the rest (sports and art) were completely free. The huge House of Pioneers, where you could do anything for free - even ballet, even boxing. Every child could try himself in any activity.
Even preschoolers were sent to pioneer camps. They lived there in one-story dachas, half of them were boys, half were girls. A toilet with a hole in the floor is outside, the water is only cold in the washstands, too. Compulsory general exercises in the morning. The children themselves were on duty at the gates of the pioneer camp and in the dining room. The dishes were not washed, but the bread was cut and the dishes were arranged.
***
Yes, "the key under the rug" was everywhere in childhood, even in the city, and in the late 70s, in our youth, in a small village in the Far North, we inserted a stick into the latch when we left home. In the early 80s, again in the city, the entrance doors were locked only for the night, sometimes I forgot, and they slept unlocked all night. When we moved to a new apartment, the door was pushed open with the washing machine at night until the lock was inserted.
***
From youth. In the first two years of university - cleaning. We are a little surprised why the collective farmers bend their backs in their gardens while we are throwing grain on the current, but in general we are having a great time: we learn to heat the stove, cook our own food on it, ride horses, drive a motorcycle, and arrange concerts.
In the 70s, a brass band was still found at dances, which had not yet been replaced by electric music.
Girls and girls are supposed to walk with their hair gathered. Ponytail is cool. And loose hair - well, that's only in foreign movies.
They dressed, of course, gray. I went to the first harvest in a quilted jacket, because jackets were rare, I sewed my first jacket in an atelier. It was strange to look at the bright clothes of Soviet film heroes in the movies: in life they did not dress like that. I remember being amazed at the bright red jacket of the daughter of a professor from Gentlemen of Fortune.
It was not possible to dress like everyone else in the studio, but getting there was not easy: there was also a queue. Good but worn items were available from thrift stores.
Well, I will also contribute to the discussion of the food program. In the 60s, we first lived in the Far East. There were no problems with the products. In 1963 they lived in Tuva. It was there that they had been waiting in line for milk since the night. In 1964 we moved to Tyumen and saw a food paradise. The counters were decorated with cans of condensed milk, sausages were bought at 200 grams, fresh, all kinds of compotes in bulk in cans. I don't remember when it all disappeared.

razumovsky4 , "The key is under the rug ....":
Everything is correct. 1951. Hide and seek, catch-up, rounders, table tennis, badminton, swords, swords, toy pistols, bicycles, a river in the weather, and, of course, the king of all games is football. From morning to evening. At the small gate.
And more girls in "classics" and in "stander." And so on until dark. And it got dark - so still some thread of the game with running around with flashlights with Chinese or German daimons. On the feet are either Chinese, Vietnamese or Czech sneakers. Sweatpants like harem pants and a shirt. Always bruised, bruised and scratched. In winter, skates - from snow maidens - to knives, skis, sledges, hockey.
There was no time for lessons. An hour at most - and then somehow, quickly you need to run into the yard, chase the ball.
There are a lot of circles in the House of Pioneers. In the summer - yes, a pioneer camp, with hikes and a river and a forest and amateur performances - the same games and competitions. Not boring.
That's right, there were practically no fat people. Slim and agile. And they almost didn’t swear (until a certain age) And there’s nothing to say about girls. We didn’t smoke on such a scale. And they never heard of pedophiles and drugs. You fly home, there is a note in the doorway - "Key under the rug"))))

lexyara :
But I'll drop it. A little bit. (63-76 years of the last century)
I was born and lived in the city of Krasnoyarsk. My father was a pilot and often flew to our capital. From there he brought all sorts of goodies. There were no goodies in Krasnoyarsk (or rather, they were, but some "clumsy".)
By "clumsy" it is meant that ... But everyone wanted the butter not salty, but the shops were packed with salty. There were no bananas or oranges. There were no batteries for the flashlight either (the "junk dealers" came and exchanged the junk for batteries, pistons and other nonsense).
The bread and buns in the Khlib store were always fresh. Vegetables, pasta (long ones, like a modern ballpoint pen), sugar, salt, matches, soap, etc. have always been in stores. Even if rumors crept - "Tomorrow is a war, there will be no salt." She was.
Of course, there was no shortage of it. These are toilet paper (important), glazed curd cheeses, "Bird's milk" cake, "Bear in the North" or "Squirrel" candies. Dad brought this from Moscow. There was always ice cream. "Leningradskoye" appeared quite rarely (once or twice a week, everyone knew in advance when they would bring it). Groats - it was a blockage. Here with sausage and sausages - trouble. But sometimes it was not lying on the floor. At that time I was not familiar with alcohol, so I will not say anything. Cigarettes were always on sale (although I didn’t smoke, I remember).
Somehow I wasn't interested in clothes. I didn't iron the pioneer tie every day. There was no uniform uniform at school.
Here's what was interesting. The streets could be walked at any time. No fear that they will stop you and shake all the little things out of your pockets. If some incident happened in the area, then then they gossip about this case for months. Children could go to all kinds of "circles", "studios", etc. Is free. I went to the "class of aircraft modeling". Ely-pala, Gazprom has never dreamed of funding such a circle to this day (the toad will strangle).
And the machines were there, and they provided material (something expensive), and different people took us to competitions.
In the summer it was possible (again for free) to go to the pioneer camp. They were fed "for slaughter". I did not observe any "bullying" there.
About everyday life. In the evenings, neighbors gathered in the yard and played dominoes, loto ... well, they just chatted in a friendly way. Neighbors (who had children) gave us theater performances (with our participation). A puppet theater was staged, slide shows on a sheet, etc.
Yes. Everyone did not have cars (some of them, of course).
From a material point of view (sausage, delicacies, clothes, cars, roads), everything was rather regrettable. I don’t deny it. But there were also many advantages.

General impressions and reasoning

alexandr_sam :
1965 USSR. Mom is a railway woman, dad is an electrician in a mine, then for health reasons he left as a refrigeration unit operator. The salary for the whole family is 200 rubles. I am 7 years old, sister 5. No one has ever given us any apartments. all their lives they lived in their own shack and still built something like a house, if you could call it that - amenities in the yard.
I bought the refrigerator when I was already married in the mid-80s. As a child, we only dreamed of smoked sausage. There was never enough money. We bought ice cream once or twice a year. They kept their chickens - eggs, meat. We planted potatoes, corn, seeds in the garden (outside the city). Oil (unrefined) was obtained from the seeds.
TV appeared in the late 60s. "Zarya" was called. Black and white. The screen size is the same as that of the iPad. ;-)
I don't even want to remember. Dreamed of the great "Penza". True, they bought a second-hand "Eaglet". I used it to plow the state farm in the summer. He carried water and watered cucumbers. They paid about 40 rubles a month. I bought myself a watch. And the stupid teacher forbade wearing them to school. Impermissible, they say, luxury.
Lived and fattened in our city only workers of the city committee, the city executive committee, and all the trade and audit scum. Until 1974, beggars constantly walked the streets. Mother usually gave them a piece of bread and a couple of eggs. And there was nothing more to give. There was grub in stores until 1977, but there was not enough money. And by the end of the 70s, everything began to disappear from us. They dragged sausage and butter from Ukraine, since she was nearby.
They stole everything. It was possible to steal from the state - no one condemned. The land of thugs.
Then the army. Hazing, lies about Afghanistan, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, political studies, drill and stupidity.
Finally, Perestroika and Glasnost. Glory to Gorbachev! He delivered us from that shameful and gray life.
I felt free only in the late 80s - early 90s. It was difficult, I do not argue, but it is better this way than with the advice.
Now Russia is living the way it has never lived before. Putin is a chance for Russia. At the same time, I ask my future critics to note that I have never held government positions and have nothing to do with oil and gas. He did not steal a single budgetary ruble and never had anything to do with budget money.
So, in a nutshell. I have lived 55 years and I know what I am talking about. I've seen a lot in my life. And I laugh at thirty-year-old idiots who praise the Soviet regime and the Soviet Union. You wouldn't have lived there for a week. They would break from there like elk!
I don't need this USSR. God forbid my children from such an artificial and deceitful country.
***
It was all about lies and hypocrisy. Still hiccupped. Do you think today's corruption is an invention of Yeltsin and Putin? Horseradish! The foundation was laid by Lenin and Stalin. Just dig deeper, ladies and gentlemen, and do not nod at the kings. Little of them remained after October 1917 ...

mariyavs :
I will not be original. Those my grandmothers who did not have problems with food and clothes due to their positions and grandfathers have only happy memories. Sanatoriums on trade union vouchers, free travel to the place of vacation and back, vouchers for children to camps, order tables, officer's department stores ... And who was "simpler" - a deficit, queues, give - take it (you need it or not, then you will figure it out) , "sausage tours" in Moscow time. But, of course, there were also some good things. Children's leisure time was organized and accessible to the majority, an atmosphere of friendship and trust in a neighbor. There were enough reptiles, of course, even then. But the children were allowed to go to the courtyards alone and were not afraid.

psy_park :
There was a lot of bad and a lot of good - as, however, always and everywhere in the world. But about the bread - it was much better than the current one. Then there were no leavening agents, flavoring agents, flavoring agents, etc. I especially miss the 16 kopeck rye made from coarse flour - now there is no such thing in Moscow. And, of course, a white hearth - 28 kopecks each. and gray - 20 kopecks. Unfortunately, they are not there either.
Yes, in the bakeries, special large two-toothed forks or spoons were tied or simply lay there - to check the "softness" of the bread, and many poked and crumpled the bread with them. Although almost always the bread was from the same machine and all the same, but since the fork was lying, many people used it. True, these were mainly old women. In our bakery in the next section - in the "grocery", it was possible not only to buy gingerbread candies, but also to drink a glass of tea or coffee (black or with milk) near a standing table. Tea with sugar - 3 kopecks. Coffee - 10-15 kopecks. The taste is not great, of course, but quite tolerable. And if you also buy a bun - from 10 to 15 kopecks, then it was quite possible to have a snack. Trivial, but now there is no such thing, which is a pity. All this is Moscow. In Leningrad, it is about the same. And in other places with food was not so good, unfortunately. Although, no one ever went hungry. Naturally, in the period from the late 50s - early 60s. until 89-91. Yes, I can't resist - and the ice cream was not made with palm oil.

raseyskiy :
In Soviet times, there were no chocolate sweets in the shops, and the queue for dairy products was at 6 am (Moscow does not count). There was no meat in stores, and neither was sausage. There was such a term "thrown out" in the sale of a deficit, well, for example, instant coffee - a queue of hundreds of people, although there was a queue for coffee in Moscow.
***
... a number of cities were supplied relatively well, while in others even sprats in tomato sauce were a rarity. ... 70s and 80s. In those years, for the most part, everyone and everything was bought in Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk ... i.e. on vacation, business trip, etc.

tintarula :
I spent my childhood in a private house on the working-class outskirts of Vladivostok, and, like any childhood, it was full of sledding, fiddling in the garden, vegetables and berries "from the bush", games, friendship and betrayal - in general, everything is fine. There were few books in the house, but they subscribed to children's magazines, a school library, a TV set from neighbors. Then there was almost no deficit, there was a small amount of money.
A more or less conscious age is the end of the 60s, and then the 70s. I studied this and that, I worked. In general, "what they do not know, they do not feel it." In general, everything suited me. Well, yes, the sausage began to disappear (dry - almost completely, but Vlad is a sea city, there was a lot of fish (it never came to an end, so during the "Gaidar famine" we did not starve, and the stories of friends from Russian centers are strange to me, how it was difficult to get food.) In 74 or 75, it seems, the Mona Lisa was brought to Moscow, and we (three friends) went to watch it - in a common carriage back and forth. to Leningrad and Luga (where they were familiar, including acquaintances of acquaintances - to live somewhere somewhere).
The shortage of books was a big hindrance, but my friend's sister worked at the Research Institute of Marine Biology, and there the people were advanced, the Strugatskys got them in manuscripts, and my friend and sister copied them by hand. And I rewrote "The Master and Margarita". That is, we were "in the know".
And still it was youth, and therefore good. And in general, in my opinion, "good" and "bad" are personal private feelings, not too dependent on the circumstances of life. The "dashing 90s" were not dashing for me either, role-playing games appeared in the 90s - and in the same way we went to Khabarovsk, Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk (to Khabar - in a common carriage), and it was good.
Yes, and now it is good.

ular76 :
come from two specifically counter-revolutionary families.
therefore, I have no complaints against the Soviet government.
childhood was happy and carefree.
I did not experience restrictions in education, sports, food, rest and happy pastime.
for which I have deep gratitude to the entire Soviet people.
I don’t suffer from any illusions about the liberoid-thieves' domestic policy of modern Russia, but calmly observe the natural course of changes and transformations.

Discussions

belara83 :
50% of some kind of nonsense is written, queues have been this phenomenon since 89, until then, well, there were 5-10 people, they sat down for something like that. No one went hungry, Everyone had a job, but there was no chic, there was a shortage of imported things, but now people have a lot of choice with problems above the roof ... I lived in the village, my mother bought us ice cream boxes for our children .. Bread was always and cost 16 kopecks , and white 20 kopecks !!! Sausage 2.2 p kg, 2.8 kg, is boiled.
But people lived more calmly, they understood that tomorrow everyone is in nervous tension, they don’t know what will happen to them tomorrow. Nothing happened to us without imported clothes and everything else, there was no need to destroy the whole country, it was possible to change something and leave a lot, no "to the ground and then" ordinary people suffered as a result ...