Back to stories of the Soviet Union. I know how much Americans love cars and everything, so you may find this interesting. Outside of specialized military and heavy duty industrial trucks, there were only 4 brands of cars in all of the Soviet Union.
The cheapest ones were the ZAZ- 900 series Zaporozhets. These were cheap knock offs of Fiats. They were poorly constructed using inferior components and broke down quite a bit. My father, brother and I used to fix these in exchange for food or other things we needed. They ran off of rear mounted four cylinder engines that were actually very easy to pull out and disassemble. They tended to overheat a lot.
Another brand was VAZ, they made model 2100 series Fiat knockoffs. They were more quality cars that could run for hundreds of thousands of miles if you took care of them. They also had a manual auxiliary fuel pump which came in handy during the winter, especially in Siberia. You can still find Soviet-era models on the road. I bought one for my dad a couple of years ago for nostalgic purposes, since we worked on cars a lot but could never afford one. I still do not know how to drive.
The AZLK Moskvitch was a slightly cheaper so-called competitor of VAZ that were something in between the Zaporozhets and Vaz 2100’s. They broke down more, especially in the cold but were easy to repair.
GAZ manufactured luxury sedans for the elite party members and such. These were modeled after the Ford Model B. In fact, the GAZ plants were built with the help of Ford Motor Company. These are the cars you always see the Russian politicians and higher ups drive in movies.
Of course, even the cheapest car cost over 10000 rubles in the 80’s so only the very top of our society could afford even a POS beater car. Not to mention gas, which ran about .5 rubles per liter (that is roughly the equivalent of $150 per gallon in today’s US dollars). If you had a car, then you were definitely somebody important. I will try to find some pictures to throw up.
[quote]Swolegasm wrote:
What was religion like in soviet russia? Was it allowed?[/quote]
The Soviet Union propagated atheism, and actively sought to eliminate religion. In the early days of the Soviet Union, an aggressive plan was enacted to seize churches and appropriate their wealth. This was abandoned for the most part due to public unrest. Many people were on the verge of open rebellion when churches were being seized. There was still an aggressive and open policy of discouraging religious beliefs. Atheism was taught in primary school, which everyone in the Soviet Union had to attend no matter what and anyone expressing religious beliefs was harshly ridiculed and even punished by the teachers, and the other students were encouraged to do so as well. People, often led by party members and military types, would harass people coming and going to church. When churches were seen as dangerous (i.e. fostering dissidents, illegally importing food, etc.) they were shut down. In the early days of religious purges, thousands of clergy and devout followers disappeared. Another 20 or 30 years of the Soviet Union and religion in Eastern Europe may not have existed at all.
[quote]Swolegasm wrote:
What was religion like in soviet russia? Was it allowed?[/quote]
The Soviet Union propagated atheism, and actively sought to eliminate religion. In the early days of the Soviet Union, an aggressive plan was enacted to seize churches and appropriate their wealth. This was abandoned for the most part due to public unrest. Many people were on the verge of open rebellion when churches were being seized. There was still an aggressive and open policy of discouraging religious beliefs. Atheism was taught in primary school, which everyone in the Soviet Union had to attend no matter what and anyone expressing religious beliefs was harshly ridiculed and even punished by the teachers, and the other students were encouraged to do so as well. People, often led by party members and military types, would harass people coming and going to church. When churches were seen as dangerous (i.e. fostering dissidents, illegally importing food, etc.) they were shut down. In the early days of religious purges, thousands of clergy and devout followers disappeared. Another 20 or 30 years of the Soviet Union and religion in Eastern Europe may not have existed at all.
[/quote]
Really interesting, thanks matt. Can you tell me about the sports selection?
Really interesting, thanks matt. Can you tell me about the sports selection?
[/quote]
During primary and secondary school, we were put through a multitude of aptitude tests, including physical tests. It was kind of like the presidential fitness test but much more brutal. We ran, did pushups and pull ups, were taught the basics of different sports and formed teams to play each other. Most of us failed out of the first couple of rounds of testing just by the simple fact that we were malnourished and on the verge of starvation, including myself. The kids who came from the “wealthier” families, who at least had enough to eat (which was not that many) definitely had an advantage here and generally won. Those who passed the physical tests were sent to sports schools. These were like boarding schools where the students received basic education (so those that did not make it to be on actual sports teams could have jobs elsewhere), but spent most of their day, everyday, training in whatever their sport was. These schools lasted for 9 years usually and once done, students either went on to join sports societies and teams or were not good enough and went to work in the factories and such. Those who did make it spent their entire lives just playing and training in their sport. They were expected to spend as much time training as the rest of the population spent working.
Fascinating thread. Thanks you VERY much for sharing your experiences with us.
How did you guys get around? Was public transportation free, or affordable? Was it widely used? Or was your existence centralized? ie your school, employer, residence all located within walking distance.
Did, and how did people visit extended families in other cities? Were people given vacation leave from work?
Were the visible (non-secret police) a strong presence in public places, and did they operate heavey-handedly?
[quote]Chilliwack wrote:
Fascinating thread. Thanks you VERY much for sharing your experiences with us.
How did you guys get around? Was public transportation free, or affordable? Was it widely used? Or was your existence centralized? ie your school, employer, residence all located within walking distance.[/quote]
We had a pretty massive public transport system. Travel to and from work was usually covered, but we had to pay for travel for personal reasons. Travelling to different regions and cities in the Soviet Union required permission from the government. That is actually true still in Russia today, but not to the same extent. We had a very sophisticated and extensive railway system that was actually better then anything in the West. For travel inside of cities we had buses and larger cities had subways. Oh, and our trains were almost all electric and our buses
generally ran on compressed gas. This was because it was cheaper than using gas, but it does mean we were being very environmentally friendly before the hippies here in America made it cool, so suck it hippies.
Every citizen in the Soviet Union was allowed, and required by law to take, 22-30 days of paid vacation time per year. Taking an actual vacation was only for the wealthy and well connected. For instance, when my father found side work fixing cars or something in exchange for food or clothes or something else we desperately needed, he would take vacation time in order to do it.
Yes, there were police and/or soldiers on every corner and in every public area and building. They were very much heavy-handed. Just about everyone who lived in the Soviet Union can tell you stories of being beaten and robbed by the police and soldiers, and many girls were abused by them.
[quote] 4) Good luck taking a knee tonight![/quote] Thanks!
не пиÑ?и глÑ?поÑ?Ñ?ей. поÑ?оже Ñ?Ñ?о вÑ?Ñ?оÑ? в РоÑ?Ñ?ии, а не в СССР.
i grew up in Soviet Union in the 80’s. most of the info provided is pretty inaccurate or written by someone who had very poor memory.
salaries were actually $100-250/month, but that was actually a lot of money because the government subsidised everything. childcare, healthcare, college, housing was 100%free. utilities and food cost pennies. people were NOT poor.
KGB was simply soviet version of FBI. Normal people had nothing to fear from it.
Most people who had a chance to live as adults in Soviet Union want the old system back.
p.s. only western people refer to Soviet Union as “Russia” or “Soviet Russia”. it is actually very offensive for people like me (i am from ukraine)
[quote]vitaly wrote:
�½�µ �¿�¸�?�¸ �³�»�?�¿�¾�?�?�µ�¹. �¿�¾�?�¾�¶�µ �?�?�¾ �²�?�?�¾�? �² � �¾�?�?�¸�¸, �° �½�µ �² �¡�¡�¡� .
i grew up in Soviet Union in the 80’s. most of the info provided is pretty inaccurate or written by someone who had very poor memory.
salaries were actually $100-250/month, but that was actually a lot of money because the government subsidised everything. childcare, healthcare, college, housing was 100%free. utilities and food cost pennies. people were NOT poor.
KGB was simply soviet version of FBI. Normal people had nothing to fear from it.
Most people who had a chance to live as adults in Soviet Union want the old system back.
p.s. only western people refer to Soviet Union as “Russia” or “Soviet Russia”. it is actually very offensive for people like me (i am from ukraine)[/quote]
This is just pure bullshit. You are a very bad troll. And I always refer to the Soviet Union as the Soviet Union, and Russia as Russia. The thread title is in reference to a popular comedian.
Oh, and nice try using an internet translator to try and copy and paste a phrase you translated. That doesn’t work on this site. You need an actual Cyrillic keyboard. Dumbass.
[quote]vitaly wrote:
�?�½�?�µ �?�¿�?�¸�??�?�¸ �?�³�?�»�??�?�¿�?�¾�??�??�?�µ�?�¹. �?�¿�?�¾�??�?�¾�?�¶�?�µ �??�??�?�¾ �?�²�??�??�?�¾�?? �?�² �?� �?�¾�??�??�?�¸�?�¸, �?�° �?�½�?�µ �?�² �?�¡�?�¡�?�¡�?� .
i grew up in Soviet Union in the 80’s. most of the info provided is pretty inaccurate or written by someone who had very poor memory.
salaries were actually $100-250/month, but that was actually a lot of money because the government subsidised everything. childcare, healthcare, college, housing was 100%free. utilities and food cost pennies. people were NOT poor.
KGB was simply soviet version of FBI. Normal people had nothing to fear from it.
Most people who had a chance to live as adults in Soviet Union want the old system back.
p.s. only western people refer to Soviet Union as “Russia” or “Soviet Russia”. it is actually very offensive for people like me (i am from ukraine)[/quote]
This is just pure bullshit. You are a very bad troll. And I always refer to the Soviet Union as the Soviet Union, and Russia as Russia. The thread title is in reference to a popular comedian.
Oh, and nice try using an internet translator to try and copy and paste a phrase you translated. That doesn’t work on this site. You need an actual Cyrillic keyboard. Dumbass.[/quote]
