In Soviet Russia....

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101

[quote]Dr.Matt581 wrote:

[quote]Christine wrote:
Just want to say thanks for the interesting insight.

Also, Rand is really not difficult.
[/quote]

You’re welcome. All the talk about her work has piqued my interest so I am going to the bookstore tomorrow to get one of her books. I haven’t decided which one though. [/quote]

If guess Atlas Shrugged is the book most start with. Great beginning, okay middle, hated the end. She spends pages pontificating what the book was about. All I remember was thinking, “I just read the damn book, you really didn’t need to spell it out.”

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Anthem takes about 15 minutes to read.

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[quote]Dr.Matt581 wrote:

[quote]bond james bond wrote:
I got to tell you I’m riveted, continiue please.
[/quote]

Thanks, I am really surprised that this thread is still alive at all. I consider it a good thing that so many are actually interested and care about what life in the Soviet Union was like. I will put up some more stories after work tomorrow. In the meantime I am willing to answer any questions you guys may have.
[/quote]

I can’t really speak for anyone else, but for me, the anecdotal stories are far more interesting than anything I was exposed to in any history book coupled with your descriptions. I know we don’t really know you, but you give it a more personal feel than, like, a history book. Plus it’s such a complete cultural 180 to anything I’ve ever seen or experienced.

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[quote]doogie wrote:
Anthem takes about 15 minutes to read.
[/quote]

I would recommend this one to begin with

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[quote]Dr.Matt581 wrote:

[quote]njrusmc wrote:
Semi-serious question: why are all Eastern bloc women bat-shit crazy? I get along with the men, they are decent dudes. But the women are nuts.[/quote]

You would really need to elaborate more on what you mean by “bat shit crazy,” but a lot Eastern bloc women are very distrustful and wary of Western men. There has been a misconception going around that many women in Russia and other former Soviet states want to marry Western men and will do anything to get one. This has led to many Western men coming to Russia and other places looking for a “bride” to pretty much use as a sex toy. Now, most women in Russia wouldn’t think twice about marrying a Western man, but when they come over and just meet a girl and say things like “if you marry me and do this and that I will provide for you and whatnot” This is extremely insulting to them, basically asking them to be personal prostitutes. Also, there is a big problem with women being kidnapped and forced into being prostitutes for the sex tours that have become popular.[/quote]
Well there go my wedding plans.

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[quote]Chushin wrote:

[quote]Dr.Matt581 wrote:

[quote]Chushin wrote:
Matt, you still in “The Burgh,” or have you moved away?[/quote]

Still in the Burgh, and don’t plan on moving anytime soon. It probably has more to do with the fact that this was the first place I saw outside of Russia then anything else, but I love it here.[/quote]

It definitely has its charm!

Can I ask where you are teaching?

Also, see you PMs.[/quote]

Done and done.

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[quote]polo77j wrote:

[quote]doogie wrote:
Anthem takes about 15 minutes to read.
[/quote]

I would recommend this one to begin with[/quote]

I may just go ahead and get both if they are in stock. I read pretty fast, especially if I find the material interesting.

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[quote]Dr.Matt581 wrote:

[quote]polo77j wrote:

[quote]doogie wrote:
Anthem takes about 15 minutes to read.
[/quote]

I would recommend this one to begin with[/quote]

I may just go ahead and get both if they are in stock. I read pretty fast, especially if I find the material interesting.[/quote]

110

Thank you for sharing your experiences Matt. Very insightful.
I remember awhile, at this party/get-together, this one girl was going on and on about how great communism is.
I just kept thinking, how my friend from Serbia would probably punch her in the face hearing all of it.
At least with freedom of speech, it is easy for morons to expose themselves.

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[quote]MattyG35 wrote:
Thank you for sharing your experiences Matt. Very insightful.
I remember awhile, at this party/get-together, this one girl was going on and on about how great communism is.
I just kept thinking, how my friend from Serbia would probably punch her in the face hearing all of it.
At least with freedom of speech, it is easy for morons to expose themselves.[/quote]

Communism is great. On paper at least. Go ahead and read the Communist Manifesto. Wouldn’t it be great if that were to actually happen? The problem is that in order for communism to work, you need to concentrate a lot of power into just a few people’s hands in order to facilitate the transition to true communism. That leads to corruption and what happened in the Soviet Union. Communism is just not a practical system in the real world. The problem with young people, especially in Western nations, is that they tend to be very naive and oblivious to how things really work in this world so they don’t see the problems with things like communism, which just opens the door for the potential rise of another Soviet Union, something I would rather die than see happen.

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[quote]Dr.Matt581 wrote:

[quote]MattyG35 wrote:
Thank you for sharing your experiences Matt. Very insightful.
I remember awhile, at this party/get-together, this one girl was going on and on about how great communism is.
I just kept thinking, how my friend from Serbia would probably punch her in the face hearing all of it.
At least with freedom of speech, it is easy for morons to expose themselves.[/quote]

Communism is great. On paper at least. Go ahead and read the Communist Manifesto. Wouldn’t it be great if that were to actually happen? The problem is that in order for communism to work, you need to concentrate a lot of power into just a few people’s hands in order to facilitate the transition to true communism. That leads to corruption and what happened in the Soviet Union. Communism is just not a practical system in the real world. The problem with young people, especially in Western nations, is that they tend to be very naive and oblivious to how things really work in this world so they don’t see the problems with things like communism, which just opens the door for the potential rise of another Soviet Union, something I would rather die than see happen.
[/quote]

I agree. I have read a few books on Communism and philosophy in general and it definitely has its merits but the implementation is just not possible or realistic today.

India was Socialist up till the 70s and mid 80s with an aim to create an equal society, atleast on paper anyway. It was a miserable failure with rampant unemployment and regular shortages for everything.
I am just 22 but my father tells me how he would have to stand in mile long lines just to get cooking oil and even then he would have to return empty handed. It would take 5 years to get a telephone line installed at home or a scooter or for that matter almost anything because of strict instructions to the companies not to produce more than what their government issued license allowed.

That is still nothing compared to what you described though.

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Distributism.

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[quote]njrusmc wrote:
I mean the standard-issue crazy. You know, screaming and shouting and throwing shit when they get angry. Making arguments about nothing. Texting you 50 times a day and getting angry when you don’t respond. That sort of thing.

One of my friends married a perfect-10 Ukranian chick. She throws his clothes in the street monthly, at least. She calls him a piece of shit and threatens to leave all the time. He’s a good dude, treats her well, pays for her full-time college and puts food in her mouth. We call her the “Red Hammer”.

True story, almost verbatim:

Guy: Honey, my friends are here for our fishing trip. The one we talked about?
Girl: NO, YOU NO GO, YOU PIECE OF SHIT! I THROW ALL YOUR CLOTHES TO STREET!
Guy: Sorry guys, I can’t go.

Thoughts?[/quote]

That sounds familiar.

In my experience, Russian women are very passionate and emotional. They are also quite traditional in the gender roles. They have this saying, something like : “A man just needs to be a bit more handsome than a gorilla”.
I have also heard, not just once, that sometimes it feels that you need to beat your (Russian) wife to show that you love them. It’s just mockery, but it talks a lot about the fires waiting to happen at any chance.
A girlfriend told me once that when she argued with her mother, they would throw stuff, insult in a quite nasty manner, etc. Considering that 90% of loud arguments I hear are in Russian language, it’s hard to say it was just an individual situation…

There isn’t much material about it, but it seems that Russian women have a big influence on Estonian girls in the sense of competition, since Russian are usually quite vain, so Estonian girls don’t want to fall behind.

The cultural clash is great to witness from a neutral point of view.

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[quote]Edevus wrote:
The official story is that the Soviet Union coerced Estonia to use their bases, roads, etc. to move their army. They eventually stayed (Nazi ‘liberation’ in between) and when the USSR collapsed, the occupation ended.

Before the occupation, Estonia had been independent, for first time, for around 20 years and it was growing up very fast. It was more advanced than Finland back then and a BBC (could be something else) reporter visited it in the early 30s and was impressed. He also found lots of people who could speak English and German (business language back then).

So what is the fairy tale being told to Russian children STILL at this point? Estonia was very poor after splitting from the glorious Mother Russia, so they needed help. The Soviet Union went there to liberate them from the nazis and stayed to help the country, and now those evil Estonians want to kick Russians out![/quote]

I know what you mean Edevus. Finland was made the same “offers on land rental” from Soviets than Latvia, Lithuenia and Estonia. We just didn’t give in so Winter War begun, started by Soviets (by staging a border incident). We put up a good fight, but lost eventually. Soviets didn’t write about this war in their history books at all, until the collapse of the USSR. We tried to get the invaded land back later when Germany went for the home run in the East, that didn’t workout well either at the end.

All this was going on and meanwhile in Sweden (our beloved neighbour):

Great stories, I know what’s been going on there, but when someone, who actually has lived that life, tells you all this, it makes it more real.

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[quote]guhkes wrote:

[quote]Edevus wrote:
The official story is that the Soviet Union coerced Estonia to use their bases, roads, etc. to move their army. They eventually stayed (Nazi ‘liberation’ in between) and when the USSR collapsed, the occupation ended.

Before the occupation, Estonia had been independent, for first time, for around 20 years and it was growing up very fast. It was more advanced than Finland back then and a BBC (could be something else) reporter visited it in the early 30s and was impressed. He also found lots of people who could speak English and German (business language back then).

So what is the fairy tale being told to Russian children STILL at this point? Estonia was very poor after splitting from the glorious Mother Russia, so they needed help. The Soviet Union went there to liberate them from the nazis and stayed to help the country, and now those evil Estonians want to kick Russians out![/quote]

I know what you mean Edevus. Finland was made the same “offers on land rental” from Soviets than Latvia, Lithuenia and Estonia. We just didn’t give in so Winter War begun, started by Soviets (by staging a border incident). We put up a good fight, but lost eventually. Soviets didn’t write about these war in their history books at all, until the collapse of the USSR. We tried to get the invaded land back later when Germany went for the home run in the East, that didn’t workout well either at the end.

All this was going on and meanwhile in Sweden (our beloved neighbour):

Great stories, I know what’s been going on there, but when someone, who actually has lived that life, tells you all this, it makes it more real.[/quote]

Finland was clever and strong. Killed something like a million of Soviets, sided with Hitler when required, and then befriended the Soviets after the war so they could be “left alone”.

Any other decision and they may had ended under the Iron Curtain.

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And we were lucky. Soviets were so busy chasing Germans to the Berlin before Allies would get there, so they made a quick peace. Probably thinking of occupying us later as they did with Czheks. Those were hard pressed times, but nothing compared to those countries left behind the Iron Curtain. Even today people say that “nothing good comes from the East besides the Sun. And even that is needed tolook thru the sights”.

Back to Soviets. We have many of them as tourists these days. Women are mostly stunning and this has had 2 types of reactions from our women (this goes for Estonian women also). Those who envy and call them all whores and those who are trying to match them in style. I like the latter effect a lot more.

Matt. What was the dating like in Communist era? Was it the same as today?

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Very interesting thread, Dr. Matt. Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences with us. I’m curious of the Soviets’ opinion of Mikhail Gorbachev during the end of the Cold War, and how the Russians and former bloc nations feel about him today.

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[quote]athomefitness wrote:
Very interesting thread, Dr. Matt. Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences with us. I’m curious of the Soviets’ opinion of Mikhail Gorbachev during the end of the Cold War, and how the Russians and former bloc nations feel about him today.[/quote]

I can answer you that. Adjectives like “coward”, “traitor”, “Western whore” are widely used.

[quote]guhkes wrote:
And we were lucky. Soviets were so busy chasing Germans to the Berlin before Allies would get there, so they made a quick peace. Probably thinking of occupying us later as they did with Czheks. Those were hard pressed times, but nothing compared to those countries left behind the Iron Curtain. Even today people say that “nothing good comes from the East besides the Sun. And even that is needed tolook thru the sights”.

Back to Soviets. We have many of them as tourists these days. Women are mostly stunning and this has had 2 types of reactions from our women (this goes for Estonian women also). Those who envy and call them all whores and those who are trying to match them in style. I like the latter effect a lot more.

Matt. What was the dating like in Communist era? Was it the same as today?[/quote]

As far I know, Finnish girls also take beauty very seriously and many are quite fit. Does that match your thoughts?

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[quote]Dr.Matt581 wrote:

[quote]SteelyD wrote:

Sounds like our public school systems are ensuring that we end up just like the Soviet Union!

“In Soviet Union, road fork you!”

Matt- Where I grew up in there is a large farming population of folks from Ukraine, Poland, and other former Soviet states. Your stories are similar to many I’ve heard from folks back home.

Please, keep sharing![/quote]

I wish more schools would cover this stuff even just a little bit more. If nothing else, it may give some people a little perspective on bad things can get if you let it. I feel really bad for the folks living in Ukraine right after the fall of the Soviet Union. We heard stories of what things were like and it was just horrible, even compared to how bad things were at home. I hope things are going well in Toronto for you. [/quote]

If it is okay with you, I am going to put your story in a document for my students to read. No name or site information.