What that article fails to mention is that National team members also receive free room and board and most of their meals are comped, so that 15,000 rubles a month goes even farther. The current athletic system in Russia today is very similar to the sports schools and sports societies in the Soviet Union that I described earlier, only they have even better training facilities and more and better food. We Russians love our athletes and sports.
SKELAC, you sure know everything, that one needs to know to please a Finn.
Back to the CCCP. I think this wasn’t yet covered, but isn’t it true, that CCCP was organized so, that not one state/district could live by itself. One or couple of states produced the cars, few produced oil and so forth. So material was flowing thru places, made good railroad network, created work, but was really made to prevent any state to become too independent.[/quote]
This was how it generally how it worked out, but I don’t know if it was by design or not. For instance, there is not much arable land in Russia, (something like 10 percent of the land in Russia is arable) and a lot of the land that is arable is located in Siberia so it just makes sense that we got a lot of food from elsewhere. I wouldn’t put it past the Soviet government to have done that on purpose, though. It did not help things when the Soviet Union collapsed.
[/quote]
For this reason it is argued that Russia will be a big winner from global warming. More land for farming and far more accessible mineral resources.
Question: do you read much Robert Ludlum or other spy type books that often use USSR, KGB, etc. as part of the narrative, plot lines? Have you read anything that seems way off base? And conversely, any that almost brings back that Erie, they are watching sort of feel?
For this reason it is argued that Russia will be a big winner from global warming. More land for farming and far more accessible mineral resources.[/quote]
I have heard that before. If global warming is happening the way climatologists claim, it is pretty scary, but it would help raise the standard of living in Russia.
[quote]Tex Ag wrote:
Question: do you read much Robert Ludlum or other spy type books that often use USSR, KGB, etc. as part of the narrative, plot lines? Have you read anything that seems way off base? And conversely, any that almost brings back that Erie, they are watching sort of feel?[/quote]
Not really. I like the old James Bond movies, but those were never really meant to be realistic. Beyond that, I am not a big fan of movies and fictional books about the cold war. I prefer to read actual historical accounts and stuff like that.
That was an amazing interview, thanks for posting that.[/quote]
I wish there were subtitles on that. I was born in Yugoslavia (Macedonia specifically) during the Tito years but came to the US when I was 1. I can only understand like 50% of the interview because I forgot alot of the language by not speaking it and the dialogues between the former Yugoslav nations are all a little different.
I am so thankful my parents had the opportunity to come to the US. I can’t imagine my life if they didn’t take that leap.[/quote]
Nikola Kavajas family are Montenegrian Serbians.The whole family fought on communist/partisan side in WW2,but after the war Titos regime killed 3 of his brothers on assumption they were anti-regime.Nikola became lifelong fanatical fighter against communism.He tried to assasinate Tito for over 20 years along with other anti-communist actions.
That was an amazing interview, thanks for posting that.[/quote]
I wish there were subtitles on that. I was born in Yugoslavia (Macedonia specifically) during the Tito years but came to the US when I was 1. I can only understand like 50% of the interview because I forgot alot of the language by not speaking it and the dialogues between the former Yugoslav nations are all a little different.
I am so thankful my parents had the opportunity to come to the US. I can’t imagine my life if they didn’t take that leap.[/quote]
Wow… The DDR (former Eastern Germany) was nowhere as bad from what I remember…
The STASI was a problem, of course… Sort of like the cheaper, light, low-fatt version of the KGB.
People did not usually starve (apart from right after WW2 I’m told… That was before my time though) either, and gasoline and diesel were quite cheap (I don’t recall what the salaries were like though).
There was the whole Party-thing and you either had to be in there, in the STASI or in the NVA (national people’s army) to, say, become a doctor (of medicine) from what my dad tells me. He chose the military route… Did not have many friends in the top ranks, but he did not get into any real trouble for it.
If I find the time, I’ll post some about life in the DDR, but yeah. Nothing like what you experienced in commie-hq, doc. I wonder where the disparity came from… Maybe the soviet leadership did not want their occupied territory at the NATO/WP border looking too bad? I’ve never really cared to find out before…
Would not want it back though. Only really good thing in general were the gasoline prices… No doubt though that it was “phantastic” compared to mother Russia, or even most (all?) other Commie places around…
[quote]Tex Ag wrote:
Question: do you read much Robert Ludlum or other spy type books that often use USSR, KGB, etc. as part of the narrative, plot lines? Have you read anything that seems way off base? And conversely, any that almost brings back that Erie, they are watching sort of feel?[/quote]
Not really. I like the old James Bond movies, but those were never really meant to be realistic. Beyond that, I am not a big fan of movies and fictional books about the cold war. I prefer to read actual historical accounts and stuff like that.
[/quote]
I guess I was not thinking of the Cold War specifically, just more generally.
[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
Wow… The DDR (former Eastern Germany) was nowhere as bad from what I remember…
The STASI was a problem, of course… Sort of like the cheaper, light, low-fatt version of the KGB.
People did not usually starve (apart from right after WW2 I’m told… That was before my time though) either, and gasoline and diesel were quite cheap (I don’t recall what the salaries were like though).
There was the whole Party-thing and you either had to be in there, in the STASI or in the NVA (national people’s army) to, say, become a doctor (of medicine) from what my dad tells me. He chose the military route… Did not have many friends in the top ranks, but he did not get into any real trouble for it.
If I find the time, I’ll post some about life in the DDR, but yeah. Nothing like what you experienced in commie-hq, doc. I wonder where the disparity came from… Maybe the soviet leadership did not want their occupied territory at the NATO/WP border looking too bad? I’ve never really cared to find out before…
Would not want it back though. Only really good thing in general were the gasoline prices… No doubt though that it was “phantastic” compared to mother Russia, or even most (all?) other Commie places around…
[/quote]
I know that once the reparations were repaid, the East German economy grew much faster then most of the other Soviet Republics and if I remember correctly there was a lot of arable land there, at least compared to other Soviet Republics, and a lot of the farmers there were able to take advantage of household plots more so than elsewhere, this probably led to much more food being available than in my part of the Soviet Union. The agricultural industry around Volgograd was almost completely destroyed in WW2, as was the city itself (Stalingrad back then), and not much effort was put into rebuilding the agricultural industry. Heavy industry was decided to be more important. We just resorted to importing most of our food, which meant that we were almost always short of food. This was not uncommon for most of Russia and other Soviet states without much arable land. I would be interested to learn why gas and diesel were so much cheaper than in my part of the Soviet Union.
[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:
Wow… The DDR (former Eastern Germany) was nowhere as bad from what I remember…
The STASI was a problem, of course… Sort of like the cheaper, light, low-fatt version of the KGB.
People did not usually starve (apart from right after WW2 I’m told… That was before my time though) either, and gasoline and diesel were quite cheap (I don’t recall what the salaries were like though).
There was the whole Party-thing and you either had to be in there, in the STASI or in the NVA (national people’s army) to, say, become a doctor (of medicine) from what my dad tells me. He chose the military route… Did not have many friends in the top ranks, but he did not get into any real trouble for it.
If I find the time, I’ll post some about life in the DDR, but yeah. Nothing like what you experienced in commie-hq, doc. I wonder where the disparity came from… Maybe the soviet leadership did not want their occupied territory at the NATO/WP border looking too bad? I’ve never really cared to find out before…
Would not want it back though. Only really good thing in general were the gasoline prices… No doubt though that it was “phantastic” compared to mother Russia, or even most (all?) other Commie places around…
[/quote]
I know that once the reparations were repaid, the East German economy grew much faster then most of the other Soviet Republics and if I remember correctly there was a lot of arable land there, at least compared to other Soviet Republics, and a lot of the farmers there were able to take advantage of household plots more so than elsewhere, this probably led to much more food being available than in my part of the Soviet Union. The agricultural industry around Volgograd was almost completely destroyed in WW2, as was the city itself (Stalingrad back then), and not much effort was put into rebuilding the agricultural industry. Heavy industry was decided to be more important. We just resorted to importing most of our food, which meant that we were almost always short of food. This was not uncommon for most of Russia and other Soviet states without much arable land. I would be interested to learn why gas and diesel were so much cheaper than in my part of the Soviet Union.[/quote]
I keep a small vegetable garden. It is not much, but it is a hobby that me and my fiancee share. I do keep a fairly large supply of non-perishable foodstuffs as well.
Unfortunately, there were way too many places like that in the Soviet Union. Most of us lived in fear that we may do something wrong and wind up there. Luckily my family was pretty good at keeping our heads down and doing what we were told.
Dr.Matt I am sorry to hear about your hardship as a kid under totalitarian socialism, but as an socialist I feel it is my duty to create some balance here. I am shure you know that there are other forms of socialism than the totalitarian one that you experienced and that the socialist movement originally where not anti-democratic nor elitist. As some examples I can name the Paris commune of 1872, or the anarcho-socialist colletives in spain during the spanish civil war or the socialist labour movement in europeen countrys who have been standing on the baricades for over a century fighting for the rights of workers and other second class citizenry and winning some of those fights. Just adding that to the big picture.
Dr. Matt: how much have you been able to travel within the US? Are there any places that remind you in some way of Russia? Are there any places that were/are so different that its bewildering?
[quote]florelius wrote:
Dr.Matt I am sorry to hear about your hardship as a kid under totalitarian socialism, but as an socialist I feel it is my duty to create some balance here. I am shure you know that there are other forms of socialism than the totalitarian one that you experienced and that the socialist movement originally where not anti-democratic nor elitist. As some examples I can name the Paris commune of 1872, or the anarcho-socialist colletives in spain during the spanish civil war or the socialist labour movement in europeen countrys who have been standing on the baricades for over a century fighting for the rights of workers and other second class citizenry and winning some of those fights. Just adding that to the big picture.
Feel free to flame, but I want give a shit. [/quote]
I won’t flame you for being a socialist, but keep in mind that the Soviet Union did not start out as a totalitarian state either, nor did many other socialist or communist countries that became totalitarian regimes. I don’t even need to do an in depth analysis of why communism and socialism do not work on a large scale. All one has to do is look at all the socialist and communist countries that do and have existed to see how much worse life has been for the majority of citizens and how corrupt the governments became to see that communism and socialism do not work on a large scale. Small communities may have a better go at it, I don’t know. The stories I have told of my life in the Soviet Union are not out of the ordinary, the majority of Soviet citizens lived like this and so have many other people in other communist and socialist countries.
[quote]Tex Ag wrote:
Dr. Matt: how much have you been able to travel within the US? Are there any places that remind you in some way of Russia? Are there any places that were/are so different that its bewildering? [/quote]
I do a fair amount of travelling going to conferences and such. I have been to many places in the US and Europe and Canada. There are places like Montana that have a climate similar to Russia but that is really it as far as major similarities to Russia. The culture here is so different which is why I have decided to stay here. It was very bewildering during my first few years here, but I have grown accustomed to the way people are here. As far as places that are physically different, most places are drastically different than Russia. There are vast stretches of land in Russia that can only be described as a wasteland. Fertile ground is relatively rare in Russia compared to here which leads to very different landscapes.