USSR. Life in the Sixties
So one more time back in the USSR.
See also:
USSR in the 70-s, part 1
USSR in the 70-s, part 2
USSR in the 70-s, part 3
Submitted by firsak
| Tags: 60s, sixties, soviet era, soviet union, soviet-people, ussr |
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4:16 am
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It seems so peacefull, but it wasnt:(
Yes it was. That was the time when there was still hope for Russia. Look at how people are dressed. A lot of these shots look like they are stills from the Italian movies of the time. Look how clean the streets are. The five storey apartment buildings are regarded now as the worst buildings ever constructed but that is a lot of BS. First of all, they look a lot better than these 17-24 storey monsters that they build now. Second of all, the apartments in those buildings, although small by today’s standards, were very cozy and warm. Even the cars (Volga and Moskvitch pictured) were good cars. They were stylish, modern, safe, and reliable cars. If you were a professional, you could make enough money to buy good food, nice clothing, modern furniture and appliances, even a car. Meat, poultry, cheese, butter, fish, vegetables, fruits, even the caviar were freely available and were priced within reach of a working professional.
I didn’t live in that time, but I know all of it from my grandparents, my parents, and their friends. My grandfather worked as lead engineer in the beginning of the 60’s. He had a 4-room appartment, a car, and everything you could possibly dream of (private airplanes and rediculosy big diamond rings are excluded). Apart from the iron curtain, not that much different from life in the US or Western Europe, I would say.
True, to an extent, but how much did your grandfarther save? Did he have a comfortable retirement? He probably got by if he died a long time ago, but most seniors for the last 2 decades are dirt poor.
Unless they were thieves under the USSR, and hid their money in gold bullion (normal poeples savings were in rubles, and were devalued to worth nothing by the currency collapse in the 90’s) they are probably poor now. The only hope pensioners have is kids who give them money.
Yes, the retirement… No, he didn’t save much. All he had was his pension, which was enough to buy decent food, a bottle of wine once in a while (my grandfather didn’t drink vodka at all, but he really liked his dry wine), and the usual everyday necessities like soap and toothpaste. And that was pretty much it. So, basically, he didn’t starve, was well dressed, had hobbies that kept him occupied, but he definitely didn’t spent his retirement years at some resort watching half-naked girls and drinking margaritas. The difference between the Soviet era and today, however, is that back then you could live off of your pension payements. Today, it is impossible.
Then again, the problem, I think, is that people in Russia don’t bother planning such things as retirement, even now. When I ask people, how are you going to live when you are retired? The answer is usually, “I don’t plan that far ahead”, or something close to that. The retirement is still a huge issue in Russia in my opinion, but most people in their 30’s or 40’s that I know today don’t give a damn. Beats me. Could be because deep inside they don’t expect to live that long. Could be because there are no (and never were) instruments in Russian society and economy that would allow and encourage people to start making contributions to their retirement plan as earlier as possible in their lives. In America, everybody knows that you have to save. In Russia, we simply don’t plan and we don’t save, period. Some people are counting on their children to support them in the future. Some are hoping that they will continue working until they drop dead. It’s a mess.
The modern generation also has the same problem as far as saving, they simply don’t make enough.
Statistics released just today show that only 5% of people spending less than 1/4 of the $$$ they make onn food. And half of people spend more than 1/2 of all their $$$ just to feed themselves.
Pensioners get a pension only big enough to buy cheap low quality food. Not quite starving to death, but certainly not enough to have ANY luxuries.
3 people, together getting a pension of 330 dollars p/month. One is still able to work [70 years old] and does, so there is something extra. Never was able to buy a decent piece of meat - kolbasa was the best you could afford. That’s reality.
Prices of the basic food went up like 20% the first 6 months of this year. And they were already high to begin with, same level as in W-Europe. Decent living ? No. Compared to the 60’s, today’s Russia is hell in a way.
Babushka’s begging for money in the metro. Young people ignoring them or pushing them out of the way, full of themselves, assuming that being old and poor is your own fault. So sad. An old lady selling a few bottles of handpicked wild strawberries in front of an Italian flagship store in Moscow. She traveled several hours to get there, will hopefully sell her berries for a few dollars and then travel back again for hours. The shop behind her is as accessible as the Czar’s palace was a hundred years ago.
Sad.
EXACTLY! It makes me SICK to see all the WWII celebrations by the younger generations, while in reality they don’t give a shit about the veterans, giving them tiny pensions just enough to survive on.
It is not the duty of young people to keep old people in the street fed through donations. It’s the job of the government to take care of its citizens, to make sure kids can take care of their own parents, that they have jobs and make enough money to feed their families.
I don’t think the young people have robbed the previous generation. I think they previous generation robbed the current one to the point where they god disillusioned and fed up.
Responsibility of a parent is to take care of his kids, that has to come long before the kids can return the favour. If the country is insolvent, then no surprise, if the old people get the treatment for leaving such wonderful world around for their successors.
Uuh, I know that this is a little late, but I just have to point out the fact that very few in the U.S. actually set aside money for retirement. Unfortunately for those that have, though, the great invisible hand of the free market has just wiped out most of what they set aside. Oh well…
If USSR would be existed now, the retired engineer or any other successful professional would have a pretty good pension. That happened to my grandmother, who retired in the late 70-s. Add here free medical help, free 12 to 24 days on many state-owned resorts or sanatoriums (if you ill), free local transport - that includes trains for the distance around 150 km from the city and once a year 50% off for long-distance trips on the trains and travel by plains. Some old people like veterans of WWII would have a free tickets even for the long distance.
The idea was that it is the state make savings for you. Sadly6 it could work only in stable conditions. But the world was not particularity stable environment.
On the other hand - what is going to happen to all that savings which were made by western pensioners? Especially, if these money now burning in various investment funds?
That is not the reason people are poor! People saved a lot of money but lost everything with the economic collapse and the default of currency! Get a brain!
God what a lot of BS, these pictures are clearly socialist propaganda and most if not all pictures are arranged. You can tell easily. You say that you didn’t live during the 60’s, that probably says all. You really shouldn’t comment things you have no idea about.
Oh, you mean somebody threw up a factory, built a heap of controlling consoles, or drove up a bunch of Moskviches jsut fot the photo-op?
Try activating the brain sometimes, ok?
Dear Petya. You, unfortunately, do not understand a thing about propaganda. These are classic propaganda shots that have absolutely nothing to do with the reality. In the 60s GULAG had just started to crumble (it existed to some extent until the USSR broke down) but there was no real change. What brief relief was brought about by Stalin’s death was soon to be replaced with the understanding that any changes were only skin-deep and no real awakening happened. Bear in mind that the last guerillia fighter from the WW2 was killed in Estonia in 1976. In the 60s, the man had a decade of hiding ahead of him. And to date Russia has not recognized what repressions the Soviet government brought upon its people. It is still not acknowledged that Stalin killed more people than Hitler. You still find only hints of the joint parades Soviet and Nazi armies had in Poland before USSR was attacked in 1941. You call that hope?
Ha. Ha. Ha. In my home photoarchive so many photos like that - this is propaganda too?
Say, are you counting Wehrmahct soldiers and their Balt collaborationists as “people killed by Stalin” too?
Back in the Soviet times, whether you were a dishwasher, ditch digger, doctor, dentist, pilot, surveyor, ect. Didn’t they all have the same pay?
russia smells like old woman
it was said by me, polish voice from democratic country
and the candy goes to you! gogo nationalism and blahblah
It was. But not anymore:
HERE WE GO GUYS!!!!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
Does everybody see it in a column? Or should I put only two sentences in each row?
Would the following be better?
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
Shut the fuck up you worthless piece of shit.
So which one looked better? The one with two sentences in a row?
go find something better to do.
The same question to you:
Which one looked better? The one with two sentences in a row?
*Which one LOOKS better.
Yeah, which one?
On picture with people on heliodrome and helicopter approaching, word vertolet (helicopter in Russian) is writen phonetically, “vertoljot”.
Even more interesting, it is written in cyrillic alphabet (вертолјот), but with “j”, not “й”.
I’m curious, what is that language?
There are languages which use cyrillic with “j” grapheme as in latin alphabet, but as far as I know, none on teritory of former USSR.
Yugoslavia
Yes, but Yugoslavia was not part of the USSR (as a matter of fact, it was not even near it, and wasn’t part of communist bloc).
I am from Serbia (part of ex-Yugoslavia), that is why I wrote this comment. It reminded me of our alphabet, but we use the word helikopter (latin alphabet) and хеликоптер (the same, in cyrillic). We can use latin and cyrillic alphabets equaly (it is a matter of personal preference). Unlike Russian, Serbian (and other Yugoslavian languages) are written purely phonetically: every letter represents exactly one sound and it is pronounced always in the same way. Also, there are no “silent” letters.
I tried to explain this to my Soviet pen-friends some 20 years ago, but I am not sure they understood (after all, we were kids). They didn’t even know that there was no “Yugoslavian” language, and that Yugoslavia was just federation, like their USSR (there was 6 republics).
The most funny thing was that, although Yugoslavia was communist, when sending letters they had to pay postage for “capitalist countries” (which, I presume, was much higher). Indeed, Yugoslavia was unaligned, was not behind the iron curtain, and it’s people could travell to all European (and almost all world) countries, both capitalist and communist, without visa or any other restriction. In fact, it was the only such country.
And we didn’t hate anybody, nor we were afraid of anybody.
I think we were unaware of huge contrasts and animosities that existed in world of that time. “Cold war” was only a phrase from American movies and series. We certainly didn’t see it. And weren’t prepared for what came after it.
Yugoslavia is not the correct answer.
I’ll give you some hints:
IGOR, baldy, FAGOT, FAG, GAY
IGOR, baldy, FAGOT, FAG, GAY
IGOR, baldy, FAGOT, FAG, GAY
IGOR, baldy, FAGOT, FAG, GAY
IGOR, baldy, FAGOT, FAG, GAY
IGOR, baldy, FAGOT, FAG, GAY
IGOR, baldy, FAGOT, FAG, GAY
IGOR, baldy, FAGOT, FAG, GAY
IGOR, baldy, FAGOT, FAG, GAY
IGOR, baldy, FAGOT, FAG, GAY
IGOR, baldy, FAGOT, FAG, GAY
IGOR, baldy, FAGOT, FAG, GAY
IGOR, baldy, FAGOT, FAG, GAY
IGOR, baldy, FAGOT, FAG, GAY
IGOR, baldy, FAGOT, FAG, GAY
IGOR, baldy, FAGOT, FAG, GAY
IGOR, baldy, FAGOT, FAG, GAY
IGOR, baldy, FAGOT, FAG, GAY
IGOR, baldy, FAGOT, FAG, GAY
RIGHT! The correct answer is…
IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT! IGOR IS A BALDY FAGOT!
Crap… It looks more accurate if I use columns.
Its “Faggot” not “Fagot” - spell properly before talking shit, you stupid motherfucker.
You are probably one of those fagots who think that colour should be spelled color? Ha-ha.
The Azerbaijani language can be written in Latin, Arabic and Cyrillic alphabet; the Cyrillic version includes the letter „ј“.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijani_language#Alphabets
The picture in question is apparently from Azerbaijan; a Google search for ‘вертолјот’ points to another place where this picture is discussed.
Yes, that’s true: it’s written by cyrillic-version of azeri alphabet.
Comment by zax
2007-08-15 05:19:56
On picture with people on heliodrome and helicopter approaching, word vertolet (helicopter in Russian) is writen phonetically, “vertoljot”.
Even more interesting, it is written in cyrillic alphabet (вертолјот), but with “j”, not “й”.
I’m curious, what is that language?
There are languages which use cyrillic with “j” grapheme as in latin alphabet, but as far as I know, none on teritory of former USSR
This was Aserbaidjan.
Nice pics
Btw, are the army personnel training round-about-driving in pic #28?
Ah… the 60s
Times were not as terrible as people like to think!
back to the ussr? nooooo not again!!! hey russians, how many of you would wanna live there?
Well, I wouldn’t be horrified by the prospect of living in the 60’s or even 70’s. Late 80’s and 90’s – thanks but no thanks.
Hello, again, Petya. You want to live in a country where anything you could buy was either of horrible quality, terribly expensive, just there for the nomenklatura or all of the above? You want to live in a country where people were sent to an asylum (believe me, a Soviet asylum in the 60s has nothing to do with your imagination of an asylum. It was more of a prison combined with various medical tortures) because they expressed their views? You want to live in a country where you could not effectively determine where to work or live? You want to live in a country where you could get a knock on a door any given night and find that you, your family and anybody present has to present their passports (the ones that failed to do so or were not registered to live with you were taken to a police station for questioning)? You want to live in a country where any position was filled not based on competence but on loyalty to the state? I don’t really think so. Oh, unless you are part of the nomenklatura (the governing Communist Party clique).
Anda again, as soon as a Balt opens his mouth, the lies pour forth.
Not everything was “bad quality” in USSR, some was actually Much Better quality than the Western junk you buy today. Especially food (pure natural components), clothes (quality materials) and shoes (honest manufacture).
Try finding a pair of Western-made shoes that hold more than a year. Try finding a DVD-player that isn’t manufactured to screw up within 2 years.
CAPITALIST TRASH PRODUCTION, with breakdown guarantee (unless you want to go out of business).
I won’t even mention the absolute feces that the Chinks pour out.
you must be very stupid to think ussrs’s products where better than “capitalist” products. maybe you shouldn’t buy any more counterfeited products. or steal them from the west. how about that?
“You want to live in a country where people were sent to an asylum (believe me, a Soviet asylum in the 60s has nothing to do with your imagination of an asylum.”
Well, “believe me” (what’s that supposed to mean by the way), the asylums of Western 50-s and their “interesting” methodics involving lobotomy, overmedication and electrical shocks have nothing to do with psychiatric wards of today.
“You want to live in a country where you could not effectively determine where to work or live?”
Maybe YOU couldn’t. Everybody else just picked their preferred education program. And WORKED WITHIN the system, NOT AGAINST it.
“You want to live in a country where you could get a knock on a door any given night and find that you, your family and anybody present has to present their passports (the ones that failed to do so or were not registered to live with you were taken to a police station for questioning)?”
Yes, McCarthy’s era was a terrible period.
“You want to live in a country where any position was filled not based on competence but on loyalty to the state?”
That’s funny, how do you build nuclear reactors or radars with “loyalty to the state”, pray tell?
Ever tried thinking before you type?
You just kepp living where you are now. Russians will decided for themselves.
i think you got too much of putin-pills for today, time to chair chair
Even Lee Harvey Oswald- Kennedy’s alleged assassin renounced his American citizenship and wanted to live there… I do not know the full story of his departure of the USSR.
Yeah, it seems that nobody knows. There’s plenty of material (even photos) describing him living in Minsk, but none as to how and why he moved back to the US. I don’t think he killed JFK though. On the other hand, the shots were fired from behind. “Back and to the left” argument doesn’t really work after you watch the Zapruder film about 100 times
It was a great country! Americans always complain that Soviet Union didnt have enough freedom. US has freedom but majority of people are fucked up in the head. America was great until 1970s, but now its a big fucking psycho ward with tons of money.
I used to want to live in America too. Then as I got older, I realized they aren’t really that great. I rather stay in Canada or move to Europe.
you know it’s all well and good to remember good times and the fact that the US isn’t the end all be all of existence. However that does not prove that the USSR was perfect or even better. The USSR failed for a variety of reasons, most of them economic, those economic conditions were caused by the political system and philosophies put in place after the revolution. To grow one’s economy you have to have more than just natural resources, you have to have a lot of smart people constantly dreaming of the next step. According to my friends from the Ukraine and Russia, most of the new technology was taken from western states thru espionage, like computer chips. After the silicon wafer board was invented my friends parents realized that they could no longer duplicate the chips and would continue to fall behind. The best fields were rocket science and aviation, (you guys had some stunning accomplishments)
but I remember my dad telling me in 1980 that the fertilizer some of his farmer friends had bought from a soviet company was completely worthless and made up of mostly trash. (at some time in the 70’s and 80’s US firms were encouraged to try and make ties with soviet companies to forge friendships.) No one should say that Soviet russia did not accomplish some amazing feats of engineering and manpower. However the foundation it was created on eventually strangled the country leaving them unprepared and behind their western counter parts.
all in all the soviet machine bankrupted it’s client states and often purged and murdered their brightest minds because they were a treat to the party.
The former Soviet Union should serve as a warning to the burgeoning military-industrial complex that currently runs the United States. Any time military power completely owns a country and dictates policy, it’s only a matter of time before the people’s backs are broken and they demand a revolution.
When the military fell in the USSR, the country fell around it, in shambles, and most of it remains there. The Soviet citizens were all cogs in a gigantic, magnificent war machine that never proved itself, that lived and breathed its own intimidation. These days former top engineers and specialists can be seen working at fast food restaurants or begging for change in the street. Any old generals will sell off Soviet surplus military items for pennies on the dollar, including nukes.
I hope this never happens to another country again. The USSR still looks like a wounded dog after all this time and the people there still aren’t sure how to behave and govern themselves.
USSR wasn’t bankrupt. It was intentionally destroyed.
Paul Robeson loved USSR too. The “democratic” United States punished him once by withdrawing his passport.
Number of people killed in Gulag? Who killed tens of thousands of Polish officers in Katõn? Who and when built the Belomorkanal and how many died? Who and how built the large factories and mines in Siberia so that USSR could prosper and how many died? Have you been to Norilsk? Or the uranium mines where people died like flies? If you do not know the answer to any of these questions you do not know what you are talking about.
I have lived in USSR for about 20 years until our country broke free in 1990. I could spend hours writing my memories here, but i’ll concentrate on what i see in the images above.
Most of the images were used on monthly magazines (like Soviet Woman). Like nowadays of Putin regime, no magazine or newspaper was allowed to publish anthyhing that could officially dicredit the “happy and fufilled” life of a soviet “citizen” (why do I put a word citizen into commas? Because a real citizen takes some form of participation, active or passive, in the policy o his (her) country. An average inhabitant of the USSR was far away from that). You will never see a man or a woman with an unhappy face in such images, because nobody took such photos (funeral ceremonies was an exeption).
You see cars, furniture, apartments, fashionable garments etc. on these pictures. Back in those days we saw them too. Mostly on the same photos above.
Does anyone of you remember stories from WWII about the certain shops reserved only for germans (nur fuer deutche)? In fact, there were such shops through out the whole USSR in all periods. Only the shops were not for the people of some specific nationality. These were the shops for the members o f a clan called “Communist party”. These shops were closed even for most of the members of the party, only higher class in the party’s hierarchy or people with relations to shops authorities (for example, chiefs of various offices) could get anything there. The equality of people in the USSR was just a sick joke. Would you believe, that an awerage worker had to wait in line for about 10 years to get a permission to obtain a car or funiture for himself? Yes, we had nearly enough money, but we simply haven’t had where to spend them. Can you imagine people, waiting in line for about 6 hours to buy toilet paper? Or some sausage? Or green peas? Or mayonaise? Shoes?
You can see some pictures depicting smilling workers. Well, these pictures were certainly not taken in the middle of their work. There were photo shooting sessions for images like these. If you were not smilling, they at least will not take a picture of you (the habbit to smille in front of the cammera no matter of the sitation remains with former USSR inhabitants to these days).
By the way, can you see any male with longer than 10 cm hair in any of the pictures? I can’t. Because in those days, if you had long hair, you were considered “inpropper” citizen. The authority was regulating most of your daily life, even your looks. Has anyone of you been a punk or a hippie in the USSR? If you were, you would know, that concerts and gigs of “bands with unacceptable ideals, not comprehensive and malevolent to the morale of a Soviet Citizen) were constantly raided by militia (because they were illegal), and if they catch you there, the best punishment you could get is having your hair cut off by force (this punishment is not so band considering that they could send you to the army for 2 years instantly. Did you happen to notice that half of the pictures are showing soldiers? That is because the army was the main product, developed and worshipped in USSR. But the army was also one of the main causes of the great collapse). In fact, at some time militia were arresting and haircutting hippies just for showing themselves on the streets.
I’ve read some comments, and there are some people believing what they see on these photos. I wont argue - there were many happy moments, because youth is always the happiest time of life. But none of these are shown on those photos. Most of the people, that want USSR back, are either communist functionaries, or too young to remember anything from those times.
Many of those people will call me fag, gay etc, but i don’t care.
By the way, my father took one of the pictures with housings, its a district of Kaunas, Lithuania
Man, you are full of shit. I can comment on almost every statement from your post, but I’m not going to. No wait, there’s one that I like the most:
You say, “By the way, can you see any male with longer than 10 cm hair in any of the pictures? I can’t. Because in those days, if you had long hair, you were considered “inpropper” citizen”…
In the 70’s, in the Soviet Union, there were hippies, a lot of them, who looked like, well, hippies! With long hair and everything. The only thing that was missing is drugs. When disco craze hit the world, USSR was not an exception. Everybody dressed like John Travolta. The only thing that was missing here is the afros. Every teenager had long hair back then. You don’t know jack, my Latvian Nazi friend, so why wouldn’t you just shut da f* up.
John Travolta’s hippy?! lol
The point was, my retarded comrade, that contrary to the popular Latvian Nazi belief, in the 70’s in the USSR, boys wore long hair. And before I even mentioned Travolta, I said DISCO, you dumbass. Read before you fart.
wow, what’s all that hostility about? you always have to see an enemy don’t ya?
long hairs were a big fight even in the us and europe and you’re telling me here that it was no problem in the ussr? i take a liberty here not to believe you 
all you twisted kgb drons denfending ussr as best place to live in simply forget little things like freedom to live anywhere , closed borders, mandatory comunists propaganda, low salary, huge income tax ets.. people even could not run their own business, like haircut salon or bodyshop!
I think your grandparents didn’t want to bother you with unhappy stories. BTW - owning a 4 room apartment was very rare in the USSR unless you were one of the privileged few. Official regulations stated that 8 m2 p/person was enough and that’s what most people had, more or less. And no cars for the working class. Etc.. It was no party back then, even though it was cleaner than today.
Saulius, I agree with your view 100 % !
Calling someone a nazi because he’s from Latvia AND has a different point of view than yourself doesn’t really prove you have a functional brain or are an adult. And it’s very rude. Like most of Russia today. Nashi member, maybe ?
The funny thing is that yesterday’s hippies feel very uncomfortable today when they fill out different kinds of HR/government forms. Everybody is scared now. No more freedom.
But it doesn’t really matter. Because…
i find it even more funny when hear that hyppie in the past don’t wanna see childern being the way their old folks were back in 60s.. but they still recall those times with somewhat nostalgia.. very biased perception
FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU!
Why did you interrupt my thread?
I was gonna say…
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
Well, I said it. Now I’m alright.
I didn’t post a statement “there were no hippies in the USSR”. I just explained why there are no hippies on THESE pictures and the atrocities of being a hippie or a punk.
You are oviously not older than 19, why don’t you ask older people?
About your dico craze in the USSR. Have you ever tried comparing disco and hippie lyric’s? That is the main point - you could sing about love on the beach or do the hustle without any restrictions, because these were non-political, neutral texts - used in Soviet pop music long time before disco. But if you try to shout “make love, not war” or something in that way - boy, i wouldn’t want to be in your shoes back in those days, considering that you could easily get imprisoned for only saying a political anecdote in PRIVATE, i’m not even mentioning saying it in public.
About every boy having long hair. Yes, long hair finally came into fashion - and that, my Russian not-friend, was the only reason why militia had finally stopped those public hippie abusements. I remember summer 1972, when i was 8. One night my older brother, age 18, strangely came home through the window. About 20 min later, we heard a doorbell, and voiced tellig us to immediatly open the door. We hid my brother in a hole between walls, and to his greatest luck, militia were unable to find him (mainly because of their hastiness, as my father said). When we later asked him about what happened, he told my dad that he was in a gig (he was a true and devoted hippie) when militia suddenly broke in without any obvious reason, and started “packing up” everyone they could find there. By brother ecaped only by an accident, whent militia officer turned away before handcuffing him. Later i heard him telling our dad that few of his friend had been haircutted, and one was send right away to the army office. I’ve even seen militia taking hippies right prom the street myself one day, right in the middle of the old town in Kaunas. The main thing is - you could go out naked if everybody else did. But if you differ from the crowd, you automatically became an “inpropper” citizen.
About drugs. Drugs, prostitution, pornography, and any other possible crime - you could read about drugs in the newspaper or on TV, but everyone was talking. In the 80’s i could get doped without any problem. Do you know who mostly supplied us with weed? Soldiers, sent back from Afganistan. They oftenly told us that marijuana was the main thing that doctors gave them to relieve shell-shock. When returned home, they had tons of it! Jive (the drug that boost you up to unspeakable) and heroin - harder to get, but also possible. Why don’t you try finding some info about the Klaipeda 16′th regiment? That may sound army, but acually it was a wery well known name of a whole guild of prostitutes! The main problem was that all these people, caught for crimes like drug addiction or possesion (for drug addiction people usually eneded up in mental asylums, there were plenty of those), prostitution of pornography (yes, there was porn) - they all were sentenced secretly, conseald from the eyes of public, because there was a credo: “There is NO evil in USSR”
And now, why dont you please argue any statement of mine
There is a mistake in the text above - you could get no news about drugs or prostitution. Sorry
Are you particularly interested in news about drugs or prostitution? I have a couple of links and can post them if anyone cares…
Here they are:
englishrussia.com
igorthefag.com
Thanks for the insightful and thorough comments. I’m from Estonia myself, it’s amusing how most Russians on the site can only manage spewing hate, propaganda lies and resorting to pathetic name-calling (”fags” and “nazis” being the favourites), but the dirty SS-fascists are actually the ones with brains and wit. USSR raped and pillaged our countries for 50 years, but it’s great that we at least managed to get out of this monstrosity in the end, mostly without bloodshed (although I know Lithuania had victims in 1990 who died fighting for freedom). And now we have functional democracy, strong economies, rising middle class … and Russia is still a huge mess ruled by a small clique of Putin & Co.
Ha-ha. Functional democracy. Do you even know the definition of democracy?
Dear Saulius,
I am a UK historian looking for former hippies in the Soviet Union? I would be very grateful, if you could get in touch or pass on your brother’s contact details. Or anybody else’s, who was once active in the hippie movement.
Please reply to juliane.furst@history.ox.ac.uk
Many thanks.
Juliane Fuerst
PS Anybody else, who was or knows a ‘Soviet hippie’ - I would love to hear from you.
Dear Petya.
How convenient of you to stick a nice “Nazi” sticker to anybody who’s views do not match your own. How very Putin-ish, how very Stalin-ish. You know, the world is much more colorful than the black and white (nazis and soviets) picture you have been painted by whoever taught you history. Could you possibly conceive that there is a range of countries that wanted nothing to do with neither Nazis nor Soviets but were still bargained about and eventually enslaved by them?
Say your small country is forced into submission and you see the foreigners rule by iron fist killing or imprisoning anybody inconvenient. Say your family, in fact the whole village you used to live in, was sent to Siberia and the houses burned or plundered because they had more than one horse per household. Say you are declared a fugitive because you weren’t at home when all of this happened and you end up roaming the country and seeing the same thing happening everywhere. A month later Nazis march in and offer you a gun (or force you to take it) so you can go and excercise revenge. What would you do, Petya? What would you do? This is exactly what happened in 1941 in Estonia, by the way. And do not tell me that this is bullshit or propaganda. I have spoken to people who experienced it and I have seen old men cry when they remember their families and homes.
I’m sometimes very surprised how short and selective memory of russians. they seem to rememeber things they want and forget all others. my father used to tell me stories how he was working in siktivkar. if he could not make it to grocery store by 5 pm there was nothing to buy aftwards not even bread not to mention long lines everywhere for even simple things, like milk or sour cream or butter. and don’t even get me started on that brainwashing freaking comunist propaganda not only targeted to foreigners but very own people…
Thats complete bullshit.
Saulius, Lithuania never lived in Russia and you can tell by the things he says.
It’s complete bullshit. Its shit you read from anti-communist propoganda to try to scare you from it. Nonsense.
“Before” the collapse there rarely ever lines for merchandise and people had all kinds of basic freedoms, it wasnt america, but it was good enough for most.
I know. I lived it. So shut the fuck up unless you know what you are talking about.
you remind me of my Ukranian friend, her dad was highly connected in the party and had 4 homes, one with a pool on the roof. She always went on and on about her things. For her life was good. But for her friends who scrounged for extra gloves, used clothes, made do with the simplest of foods got shot at on train rides and had every piece of mail sent to them searched and read, things weren’t so nice.
Saulius mentioned that he might be a fag. So I wouldn’t consider his posts seriously. He’s obviously a liar. Everybody knows who the fag is. Right? I’ll remind you in a bit.
To be continued…
I have not mentionet i may be a fag or gay. I mention that type of people like You may CALL me a fag or gay. I predicted that because i know people like you - when you are out of logic or arguments, the only thing left for you is to call your opponent names like gay or fag, because you are desperate in a lack of knowledge.
Why haven’t you mentioned? Don’t be afraid.
I don’t have a lack of knowledge - I am a Scientist with a big S, and Wiki P (THE fucking bitch rules) is my best friend.
I recently discovered that IGOR IS A BALDY FAG. And I’m trying to deliver the idea to the masses.
If you consider yourself as a FAG or GAY or whatever, I can broadcast your message. Maybe you and IGOR will be the best “friends”.
I have not stated that i have lived in russia. I have stated that i lived in Lithuania, a USSR state from 1941 to 1990.
Brotha, where art thou now? Is it that crappy in Lithuania these days?
” “Before” the collapse there rarely ever lines for merchandise and people had all kinds of basic freedoms, it wasnt america, but it was good enough for most.”
What the hell are you talking about? As a kid back in the 80’s I stood in line with my father several times for food and other stuff. And the lines were long, believe me… and don’t even get me started on the civil liberties issue.
Some of you guys are just trying to be irritating while not knowing anything. But I suppose there’s always one or two on every forum.
I don’t know what country you used to live in or who you or your parents were but the USSR (son of a teacher, born 1975, Estonia) I lived in was a xenophobic place (have you ever been refused in a store because of the language you speak? I have) where the only thing that was plentiful were aluminum saucers (I know, it sounds obscure, but its true).
Your father, huh? Well, who will be your next witness? Yaakov Smirnoff? Let’s see, how did he put it once, “In Russia they have only two kinds of bread: the one you have and the one you don’t”. No wonder that after the USSR collapse nobody needs that no talent asshole even in the US anymore. How can you not despise a person like that?
year right, like i have to believe to some kgb dron programmed bullshiting on englishrussia.com
i bet you’re typing from the bunker of ussr era 
My father was a photographer of a monthly magazine “Soviet woman”
wygląda, że Pietia lubił swój CCCP - cóż jeden lubi kluchy drugi wybuchy
I have a problem with polish - i can uderstad what you say easily, but i can’t speak polish myself. Too bad.
JA nie ma znaczenie. Wy prawdopodobnie już poznają co IGOR jest łysy wesoły.
Maybe you are fag, gay etc. Maybe you just don’t know. Maybe you just don’t care. What you should know is that
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG! IGOR IS A BALDY FAG!
You’re spot on with so many of those comments.
My own experience mirrors much of what you said. It was not a glorious time of wonder. The rot did set in during the 60’s economically as Brezhnev’s cronnies reached higher and higher ranks. The beauracracy and the army was all that mattered. However the freedom to speak and do what you wished was not available. People made the best of a bad situation.
I know many people arrested by the militisa for wearing jeans. Can you imagine today poeple being arrested for the clothes they wore? They were integrated for a long time to learn where they obtained them from.
Putin’s Russia and the Soviet system hold many similarities. One shouldn’t be too surprised as Putin is ruling the way he remembers the system worked for him. It’s hard to break a habit.
Those who remember with stary eyed nostolgia of the soviet days are very selective on those memories. My wife used to say “In those days we always had bread and food” but you just have to point out how after 1975 the USSR had to import grain from the US because it couldn’t get grain from the farms it had to the cities to show how inefficient and terrible the system had become. When, in 1980, Regan stopped the shipments things got worse and worse for the average man in the street. The system was unable to cope with the simple things that make a society work. Just cover it all up with mosaics of happy soviet people with lots of food and wonder.
Let’s talk about similarities…
IGOR, FAG
Do you think they have something in common?
Of course, they are. IGOR = FAG.
Cut the crap. There was ALWAYS more than enough of grain in USSR, the problem was that a lot of it was lost either through dilapidated transport trucks, or the end-product was siphoned away from the distribution system by local corruptioneers.
And ofcourse much of the grain is always going to feed pigs and cows, so it was a simple matter of cutting the livestock to free more grain. But I guess Soviet citizens preferred to import some US grain, rather than go without their beloved meat products.
Don’t try to fool people here into thinking that anybody “starved” in 80-90s USSR. That would be a bloody lie.
>Saulius
nie znam angielskiego, więc piszę po polsku. Prawda jest taka, jak napisałeś - jestem Polakiem i mimo że było może nieco lżej (?) to większość jeśli nie wszystkie powyższe zdjęcia to propaganda. Pietia ma trochę racji w tym, że kultura zachodnia jest zgniła, sam się z tym zgadzam, bo nie da się więcej zjeść niż można a wszyscy próbują. Sam jestem kapitalistą - jak sądzę - więc nie do końca jestem za tym co on mówi, ale widać że przesadza, albo tęskni za prostszymi czasami, kiedy decyzje podejmowane były za ciebie…..
“IGOR jest łysy wesoły” jest prawdziwy.
Saulius - I would like to thank you standing up for the truth. Having been born in 1943 I can attest to your statements and congratulate you. There is still a large “silent majority” out here that agrees with you.
Picture 10: this is a beautiful, artistic composition. I like this picture a lot.
Picture 11: I notice a theme of people doing equations on the sidewalk in these photosets. Did no-one carry a pad of paper in the old days?*
Picture 60: I am gay, but I would try heterosexuality if I got to try it with her.
*Translation for the sarcasm-impaired: “I feel that these photographs are staged to make boasts about the intelligence of the Soviet workers; though I know that the workers were often quite clever, I feel certain that they would have made their calculations on a more portable medium, such as a bit of paper.”
I see those staged pictures as a bit silly and naive, not as “look at how smart we are!”. Still, they work for me in such a way that I see how two intelligent and educated people are doing something important and are obviously enjoying it. I want to be just like them! So I’m going to study as hard as I can, and someday I will be one of them. If they were using a notepad, the effect simply wouldn’t be the same!
This is not propaganda, this is a motivational poster. Think about that. Now, compare that to the US motivational posters, you know, about “team work” and “accomplishment”. Those are really dumb!
For you there are only two parties, right ? Russia and the US, the bad guys. Don’t you think it’s a bit more complex ? This thread is not about US posters, it’s about Russian posters.
I’m sure you mean well and if these pics inspire you to work hard, good ! Hard work is always ok.
Hard work is not always OK.
Let’s take IGOR for instance.
Do you think THE FAG works?
He-he… I don’t think so!
I would like to add…
Yes, the bullshit detector goes off for some of the pictures. However, imagine the following scene: your average trailer-dwelling fat-ass american in spandex, picking up a copy of Vogue/whatever in line at Wal-Mart. Pretty big fucking disparity between girl on cover and the one reading the mag, no? Sure, we’re talking about USSR and not USA, but remember when your BS detector goes off to think of all the BS that surrounds you every day.
Jesus Christ, not one word about the millions in the Gulags, or exiled to Siberia. I bet the 60s were great for them.
Heh, there must be more folks sitting in US prisons today than there ever was in the entire Gulag system.
You brainwashed Westerners are too damn funny.
Man… Much of the text written by Mark and the Lithuanian Guy is mere crap. I could analyze every sentence of their’s. Much is absolute lie (about the jeans foe example). The second half is written in a Goebbels ways: suppression of some facts and at the same time exaggeration of the others.
Do you think they are FAGS?
Then please continue with analyzing, i am very interested
And you are so wise and know truth from lie because… ?
But HOW did they got dog out of helicopter down on that ladder?
What about buildings of worship? Were they allowed or were they monitored? Were people allowed to attend a church service?
They were allowed _and_ monitored. You could go to a church but you could get into a lot of trouble for that. Exactly how much trouble depended heavily on location in the USSR and the time period. In the 80s a kid going to church during Christmas would just get into the troublemakers list (a teacher was standing on the door and checking faces) but in the 30s whole communities of religious people were sent to GULAG where they usually died off quickly.
A lot of the churches were converted to non-religious use from sports museums to military warehouses.
I do work.
on what?
WOW!!! The number of deniers in this room are amazing. I spent a few months in Russia resently visiting my wife’s family. I was very interested in speaking with her older familiy members. They all told me of how different life was before the fall of the USSR. Even my wife is old enough to remember what it ws like. Sorry to burt the bubble of the deniers but teh stories I was told match up with what Saulius has shared. I thought the stories we heard here in the west were propaganda but not quite. Life in the USSR was nowhere near what living here in the west.
Your wife’s family probably wasn’t doing anything useful, or living in some god-forgotten village. What do you expect?
The life for a trailer-dweller or a cardboard-dweller in US isn’t much of a dream either. Eating GM-junk and being abused by the system.
In Soviet Russia, pictures take YOU!!
Was that a cry of anguish from the great American Police State? I feel for ya, dude.
You know its funny. I come from a developing world country which had liasions with both Russia and USA during the cold war. To me it seems that all these ‘propaganda pictures’ are no different from the pictures you would see in american magazines like Life, Times, etc. It seems that when others do it its propaganda and when USA does it (and coninue doing it - check current US magazines) its ‘patriotism’ or ‘celebrating freedom’. Both communism and american form of philosophy are evil - because of one simple fact - both are hell bent on oppressing any other forms of thought and believe in the mantra that their thought is the naturally superior form of thinking. The problem is because of these two seriously demented and evil governments, many people around the world died and sufferred (to a scale much larger than that of Hitler). If you count the deaths, Hitler was less of a villain than the US in Vietnam, Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Iraq and the USSR in Afghanistan, Vietnam and Eastern Europe. All in all though a lovely post and one which shows that wherever we are from and whatever we believe in, life in itself is beautiful. Thank you for this post which is a rare insight into the Russian life back then.
Hay Balts, are you whining incessantly here too? How much do you get paid by Ansip’s regime to spew your exaggerations about USSR on every English-Russian forum there is?
You can start by tearing down all those factories provided to you by us Great Soviets, and keeping you fed and alive today. You Balts can’t earn all your bucks on tourists and EU farming subsidies, you know!
Or how about stopping your exports to Russia? Wouldn’t that be a great statement, no?
If none of the above, then just shut up and get on with the program.
Great to see the pictures, although imho some captions would not have gone amis.
muahahahahaaaa
i love those stupid russians with their new words like price-list (same word just written in Cyrillic)
the fact that russians have 100% tax if you import a car into Russia - it is just hilarious
if police (milicia GAI) stops you and you hive that bastard 5$ he tells you where the next cops will try to catch you speeding.
if you give a russian 5$ he will buy train tickets 2x - 3x cheaper than if you bought them
and all this thread - it is plain stupid to tell anything to brainless being.
Saulius - get over that - you are free now fuck those pigs as you can
Pros - boycott Balt production, do not buy anything from those stinky capitalists
i am just wondering why so many russians buy a lot of realestate in Baltic states, why they are not investing in their MIGHTY russia?
The new Baltic countries think they are independent. But it’s far from the truth. They can be easily wiped out by the next armed conflict. Nobody will even notice anything.
And I’m too lazy today to reply to the rest of your BS. LOL
CCCP was a country that gave the people houses to live in, a decent transportation system, free education and health care for all its citizens, universities of highest standards, concerts, ballets, wine, dancing…. They pioneered many techniques in modern surgery, engineering, physics and mathematics. People had time for themselves, to take a walk, to go to the lake side, to go to sailing, without having to think simultaneously about unemployment, how to afford to send the kids to college etc. True, the system got corrupted because of some assholes who used their party positions to get personal gains, huge ones. USA is a country that fucks the entire world to accumulate the wealth that does not get distributed fairly at all. It is the biggest economy in the world, still did not solve its health system or education system, everything is exclusive for those who can afford, average american is ignorant, unsure about the work situation and will die on the street if he does not have insurance. CCCP contributed hugely to the sciences, technology, medicine and arts whithout stealing the brains of other countries, without sucking the blood of south america and africa through big corporate structures. Yet the sinful human nature destroyed this dream in which nobody had a ferrari but no children sleeping on the streets, everybody had enough to afford a modest but decent summer holiday.
Here in England we help each other when someone is in trouble with few exceptions. We try to like our neighbors not regard them with hatred, envy and suspicion. The state cares for the sick and weak and they are not begrudged their share because it is what the people want. We have a government which has made mistakes lately but the price will be paid at election time no doubt. Yes we have that power too! Nobody need starve here or go without medical care, a place to live, or a pension. This is only because we care about each other. Imagine how powerful Russia would be if you Russians were the same. You could achieve anything. I am not talking a return to the Soviet days here but a little more tolerance and help would work wonders.
I can remember many of those kinds of pics from the Kruschev and Brezhnev years. In Uk and Western Europe in general we have only one advantage! Freedom to move within the European borders without too much hassle. Our health and care systems in many ways are far behind those of the ex soviet states. We have horrendously high wages in comparison, but also mammoth living costs - which makes the difference null and void. Educationally we are way behind those guys, (and also the rest of Europe if it comes to that) - how many Brits can manage more than a few words in any other language other than English? In terms of engineering the Russians always were and probably still are far superior to anything that comes out of the west…even the US! If we’re going to mention human rights and civil liberties - ok…they exist in UK….but not for the indigenous population! Statistics tell us that Russia is THE most ‘observed’ people, and UK is right there behind them in the surveillance stakes.
Maybe we all need to wake up and realise we are all human beings - we all need to interact, and yes there are some States need to be more generous in their overtures to the rest of the modern world - but the rest of the modern world needs to be much more understanding of the freedoms it witholds! The word Shengan immediately comes to mind! Everybody talks about the restrictions within the Federation and it’s former states, much of Western Europe won’t even freely grant citizens of those countries the right to visit! There is good and bad on both sides of this discussion…the ‘common’ man is a separate entity to the politicians, and that is some disease worse than HIV!
Frank I think you are a wonderful handsome genius. You are never wrong about anything and you have such a big ….
Its true that 60s were the best years of soviet regime, thats the time when the nation was developing really fast, its the time when all the great classic movies were coming out, the time of 1st baby boom, great musicians, fearsome military, and amazing construction projects in major cities. My grandmother always said those were the happiest times in her life. So i agree with Petya, because she would always curse other years, 90s especially.
[...] Via veel fotomateriaal kan je hier kennismaken met Rusland en de voormalige USSR. Bijvoorbeeld deze fotoserie over de USSR in de jaren ‘70 van de vorige eeuw. Of de serie over uitgerangeerde treinen. [...]
[...] zobaczyć: ZSRR na fotografiach Handel w ZSRR ZSRR cz.I ZSRR cz.II Otagowano z:fotografia, propaganda, Rosja, Związek Radziecki « [...]
[...] mně hlavně 60. léta: http://englishrussia.com/?p=1250 s pěknými BW reportážními [...]
Picture 31
He finds that overbite fucking FASCINATING.
Sure, rightwing retard. Whatever you say.
No, Soviet Union from 1960-1980 was a great country.
Selia the Lithuanian is a dirty propagandist. His arguments are based on half truths, exaggerations, twisted truths and sometimes even lie. Some is true, but very little. Sure, USSR wasn’t perfect, but I would rather live in USSR in 60’s(when living standard was at the level of west), 70’s and even 80’s then in USA today.
So stop this BS.
While the USSR of the 60’s was a great step up from the USSR of, say, the 30’s it didn’t even come close to the USA of the 60’s. I was growing up in the USA during the 60’s; remember the moon landing in 1969?
Having said that, I must give the people of the USSR a huge amount of credit for what they accomplished. These people first went through all Stalin’s terrors, and then a devastating war with Germany. I wonder if Americans could have done as well under those conditions.
Yes, many of the photos were staged. Yes, the Soviet people didn’t have the same rights as Americans in the 60’s. But I would say this. The Russian people are a great people, well worth respecting. I always hated the Communists, and still do. But I have always thought highly of the Russian people. Still do.
thanks for ur comment. respect.
i got sheded a tear
ps. i was born in USSA in eightieth and still live in Russia
spasibo for photos
ps. why the IGOR is BALDY? and why he is a FAG?
did u see him in reality?
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