Soviet Trade System
What did they have in Russian shops during the Soviet Era when all the shops in Russia belonged to the state and the state was the only merchant?
via germanych
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Ryssät haisee
Haista paska saatanan suomalainen
Zesto praka paaado zeeen
Such language
Why are you cursing in Finnish? 
hehe, during cominism we had the same situation in polish stores, same queues, same lack of goods. funny thing, it was also because of the russian government which had enormous influance on our comunist government.
bad times for everyone, fortunetly they are gone
They said Soviet Union was prosperous and everyone got food and clothes for free. LOL !
Soviet empire was founded on propaganda lies and blood of other nations.
And this is different from the USA how?
hm .. are you blind or nuts?
is todays russia is different than soviet russia? yes it is.
where the fuck these comments come from?
These nutty replies come from Lubyanka in Russia
Just like European Union. Funny
FIRST!
Line ups?
These wer great times! ! ! Peoples queue nicely and orderly ! ! !Everybody was the same and nobody was driving expensive show of car.i think we need this again ! ! ! ! !nice and orderly country feared by the world.we NASHI are prepring the new leaders of the NEW RUSSIA ! ! ! ! ! !
the world is our enemy now,peoples united again like in history time, like on pictures ! ! ! !russia unite! ! ! ! !
Fucking NUT!!!!!!!!!
“I” second your opinion,Zafarad! ! ! ! ! !.Nashis are the future of future new world order.they(nashis)are the best breed of Russian youths.i must say”today`s nashi,tomorrow`s Putin”.we love Putin`s youth for the good of all Russian nation.I hope Russians will again rise and able to help depress nations.Putin! we are ready for your “next” order.
Comment by Zafarad! ! !
2008-09-19 19:28:10
These wer great times! ! ! Peoples queue nicely and orderly ! ! !Everybody was the same and nobody was driving expensive show of car.i think we need this again ! ! ! ! !nice and orderly country feared by the world.we NASHI are prepring the new leaders of the NEW RUSSIA ! ! ! ! ! !
the world is our enemy now,peoples united again like in history time, like on pictures ! ! ! !russia unite! ! ! ! !
“”"”"”These were great times! ! !”"”"”"”"” for traitors. And discrimination of ordinary citizens/non party associated/non communists.
Peoples queue nicely and orderly ! ! !”"”" It is achived by the people themselves,
i think we need this again “”"” If you like communism so much, go to live in North Korea and love your leader Kim Chin Whatever.
the world is our enemy now”"”"” yep, and create more enemies, nice one LOL. Razdut’ slona.
I am russian ok, I know there are enemies, but it is not the reason to enslave the people. In fact its you communists turn out to be the enemies of people, because you use outside enemies, so to take control of the country, and then enslave people.(Wow you can benefit from existance of enemies, good one) I know that there are moderate communists who wish good to the people, if it is so— the moderate/better system is quickly exploited by some tricky slimy asssholes/traitons who take control by their opinions.
Todays times are tough, but at least you are not pushed/zapihat’ around like an animal in communist schools and jails. Even though it happens today at lower lever. “”I don’t need your education and thought control”". (Pink Floyd) There is no such thing as free education not in USA not in Russia or anywhere OK!!!. education is financed by city budget, and city budget comes from taxes. Why do people think they get “free” education and other free stuff, do you think teachers work for free????
About “real” Democracy: It is out of reach, Why? because to me word Democroacy is associated with unlimited resources (you see democratic polititions promise everything even unrealistic goals like unlimited things), since we do not have unlimited resources it’s kind of an illution. Democracy is used to get politicians in presidential office, and it is used to boss around other countries that they are not democratic enough, Hello!!! they don’t have that many resources or just don’t want to!!!.
Hey,Political.i am still try to understand,what is you trying to point out.so many words can`t justify wrong ideas! ! ! ! ! ! ! !.you claiming that you are “liberal democrat” right! ! ! ! !but you don`t tolerate “other type of opinions”, what is your “democratic values”?????????suppress difference of opinions! ! ! ! ! !.If you remembered that constitution of CCCP was granted freedom of organising “political parties”,freedom of association and freedom of being members of these “independent parties”.now you may ask question about that rights never ever practically exercise by single citizen of CCCP,answer is that the Soviet system was so democratic and free to all citizens,so until the end of Soviet era,there is no “single person” needs that kind of so called “Western luxuries” in CCCP! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Actually I correct myself.even today peoples have “democratic” right to “organise” but no body does,why??1?!?because you spent time in labor camp when exersice your “”right”!! ! like in old soviet times! ! ! things wer simpl then PARTY was right always and you were dust only! ! ! !
it is good to know you place and you future, is bleak ! ! !people like that, beats uncertain future always! ! ! ! is not boring no! ! ! is kuality good time? ! ! !
Oh,”i” forget something more to say ! ! ! ! ! !.actually the soviet concentration system or in somebody`s words”forced labours camps” was the greatest ever “welfare” system in the world.free food,free cloths and free from all daily bad media reports about the crash of stock markets were the best advantages of these socialist “training” centers.after the “successful” training one can join any state own enterprise for the good of peoples paradise CCCP ! ! ! ! ! ! !.(despite according to some statistics,one in “million” is actually successful complete his “training” from these correction facilities! ! ! ! ! ! !.R I P! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Nice facts Zafarad!!! n_n
That is a great photo series. Time to make a grocery list. Thanks for posting.
I have never seen such a “Supermarket” in soviet era. Maybe there were 1 or 2 in moscow, but not all over USSR
I think at least all huge and big “super stores” were located near by the “tourist attractions”.to show the “official” face of the Soviet union! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !.i like pic No,50 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! what an expression of “retired labour hero” ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Last photo says: Our one rule: Clean up after yourself.
Scarcity seems pleasant compared to a variety of kinds of a plethora of crap no one needs in the first place.
More exactly tranlation would sound in that way:
“There is our rule
you have eaten - clean up after yourself”
Lol, waiting long time for a bit of chljeb.(bread).
For the tv’s: statistiscally, 1 of 3 tv’s was total malfunctional in the 80’s. There were even special shops for returning malfunctional apparatsjik. Such a shop can still be found in Pripyat, UA. http://www.panoramio.com/photo/2191793
Look how much males were drunk, even not being in a VINO shop.
“Dom Byta” (consumer services centre), wasn’t special shop for returning TV’s. AFAIR, there was a variety of services, including TV-repair-shop.
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I caught those times during my childhood. There really were no supermarkets anywhere; I agree/guess those ’supermarket pictures’ are from Moscow from some very special shop.
Usually there was very stupid selling system. If you wanted to buy anything, you had to get a ‘recipe’ from one worker, then go to cash desk and pay for it, then come back with recipe + check and finally get your goods. To say, you had to pass 3 queues of people to buy anything! What’s more, for different goods you had to get recipes from different workers. One place - for meat, other - for milk, next - for bread.
So, if you wanted to buy meat + milk + bread in one shop you had to pass… 9 queues at least!
And I still have in my memory food shops that were like 90% empty, that’s scary. And even when there was something you had to have special ‘talon’ to buy it, no matter how much money you have and what is the price. No talon – no food.
Notice the some people are holding small pieces of paper in their hands: those are coupons. You could not buy groceries unless you had coupons for what you wanted to buy. Of course you needed to pay money too.
You would get an uncut sheet of coupons from your employer, but people exchanged them aswell; you’d give your vodka coupons to the winos in exchange of milk coupons for your children.
This is of course all in the end of the Soviet era — they didn’t have these supply and demand problems in the 60’s or 70’s.
Those are not necessarily coupons. Many (most?) stores back in the bad old days operated on a three-line system. First, you stand in line to select the goods (e.g., in the meat department you would point out the piece you want to be weighed for you) and the salesperson (they tended to be female, bitchy, fat and ugly) would tell you the price. Then, you stand in line to pay for it and get a receipt. And after that, you go back and stand in line to the salesperson again, to pick up the stuff you selected.
…and, yes, there were supply problems before the end of the Soviet Union. the only time that was somewhat prosperous (by the Soviet standards, of course) was when oil prices shot up in the 70ties. Just like now. It didn’t last, to be sure…
I just wanted to ask if these pictures were taken in the late eighties, when - as far as I know - the Soviet Union suffered severe lack of food in the stores.
I love the photo near the end with a horde of people pushing to try and get into the store marked “VINO.”
in soviet russia market shops at you!
very interesting, thank you
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I’m a printmaker and I would *LOVE* to get my hands on some of those old original soviet letterpress posters!
no. those are not coupons those are ‘checks’ from ‘kassa’. in soviets shops to buy something you should pass two or three lines first.
fist line to weigh something (food) to khow exact ammount of money to pay.
second line to kassa to pay and to get ‘check’
third line to exchange your ‘check’ for your merchandise
but all you said about coupons is very true.
Thanks for the photos and for the replies. It’s good to learn, even if it’s a bit late
Think twice dude! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !.may be something you learned another kind of history! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !.
In soviet russia you wait in the 2 hour line to get a ticket to enter the 3 hour line for the item you want. great success!
Druka! ! ! !not the bad idea for the some relief of so called “force labour”! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !.
I am sure.you are Georgian,not Armenian! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
The only things that you can be sure of is that you are an idiot and that pretty soon someone who can’t take it anymore will beat this this idiotism out of your system.
The sooner the better. In Russia we do NOT NEED indoctrinated idiots like you, but pragmatic and rational people.
the most interesting is the ideology of old peolpe, who have great confidence that at that time it was a better life then now -)
Wow! ! ! ! !these “lovely” pics again reminds me “golden era”of peoples rule.what a good time we enjoyed.specially i prefer “store No,13″ to shopping.their nice and cool staff was very hospitable.every thing was stocked in huge quantities,like No,13 shoes,beautiful posters of delicious foods,very warm cloths in extremely hot weathers,ice making machines in sub zero temps,cloths for all peoples in just one size No,13.in auto section huge piles of spare pars of future cars of Soviet peoples.i have very long list of my beloved “Soviet time”.one can`t deny the “positive” aspects of controlled economic system! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
The pictures are, indeed, incredibly bleak.
I had to laugh - the picture 28 shows the same nightstand lamp I found while cleaning in the attic of my wife granny´s weekend house. It was still in the original box, never used. I guess it must have been one of the two types of the lamps manufactured in USSR :-D.
I also found VEF 206, a transistor radio. It had two marks engraved on its scale, one marked SE (Radio Free Europe), the other HA (Voice of America).
I binned the two Soviet reminders of bad old times together with the rest of the trash.
I remember same situation in Poland. 20 years ago.
oh Man its scary, here in Venezuela we are heading in the same direction with Chavez socialism, everytime people complain more and more because some goods are lacking and sometimes people has to do queus to get milk! and some restrictions like 2 milks only per person
Why do you allow it ? In Venezuela there’s no the Red Army with ‘revolution on bayonets’.
I know it’s not easy to change politic direction traced by ideologists who did take whole power. In EU I am still observing how leftist ideologists can inculcate leftist stupididy to many areas of life. They do it slowly and with intensive mass media propaganda and finally hoi polloi couldn’t see the stupidity which was inculcated to their lifes.
But the creation of soviet/marxist type socialism is so clear and proved stupidity that I can’t explain how Venezuela citizens could allow it.
Important remark: in EU many leftist ideologists try to care about capitalism economy. For exemple even in Sweden there’s no law act which dictates to increase women’s salaries and to decrease men’s salaries. In marxist socialism (with feminist attitude as in Sweden) such salary ‘equation’ would be done immediatly by one act.
I wish more Americans would read what you two just wrote. I am 46 years old, and in my lifetime I have watched the government, both local and Federal, begin to restrict certain types of speech, adopt openly anti-religious attitudes and laws, pass laws to limit personal freedoms, and more. Two years ago, our Supreme Court said it is “OK” for the government to take a person’s land and give it to someone else, if the recipient will generate more taxes for the government. Even now, they are talking about making a state-run health care system, and about increasing taxes on people who work in order to give the money to those who don’t (or won’t).
History has shown over and over, in many places, that socialism and Communism don’t work to the benefit of the people. And yet, they keep trying - because it’s all about control.
Wake up, America! Before it’s too late.
27 made me chuckle. No quantity discount for beer
чо тут нах понаписали, пишите по-нашему, по-аглицки! нихера не understandable
I remember the word “Dekoracja”, it meant that the goods were there (Warsaw shops) to be seen and not to be bought…
I prefer store No.69 their dildos and vibrators was awesome also illegal porn was cool.
Either I’m nostalgic or have a good memory,but this isn’t just Soviet Russia. This for the most part looks just like Poland late 70s early 80s. Those long lines could be people waiting for the shipment of washing machines or new electric meat grinders to arrive or even toilet paper.
Soviet Russia, Poland, who the hell cares? It only goes to show that communism fucks you up no matter where you do.
…although, signs are undeniably Russian
I grew up in the 80’s in New Zealand. It was nothing like this. We went on big yachts drove around in BMWs and ate shark fins at school. Look how ugly these poor people look.
I think you write these crap from dirty gutter.fuck up “daydreamer”! ! ! ! ! ! !
Мы славу партии поем любимой и родной,
За то что так прекрасно правит нашею страной,
За хлеб, за воду, за свободу, за счастливый труд,
Советские ракеты всех буржуев в пыль сотрут!
It is not necessary to defecate to people in brains! There was a great country and there lived people well. And now it is not bad!
It is our history and it is not necessary to blacken all!
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http://englishrussia.com/images/soviet_trade/38.jpg - I love this photo.
I have a question, starting with Perestroika, were there eased restrictions on farmers and people selling and bartering amongst themselves without the state interfering? I see photos from 89-92 that look like farmer’s produce markets from anywhere else in the world, with a good selection of vegetables being sold.
Yes! ! !Supercorgi.”prestroica” was the biggest blunder in the history of the “depressed” world”.Gorbi was and is the greatest MOTHER FUCKE* of all times! ! ! ! ! ! ! !.he knee downed the world mightiest super power to the U ASS.nowadays he “enjoys” retirement benefits from his mother organisation “C I A”.if Russian working class were understand MFU! ! ! ! Gorbis secret agenda behind the so called”glasnost and prestroica”they should timely react against these lollipops.but nature is again in the favour of Russian peoples.Dear leader Vladimir Putin is soon return proud of Russian Nashis,oops i mean nation! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
OMG! Булат Окуджава in the 4th picture with the skiing cap!
Also, I want one of these baby Gagarin puppets!
Our stores are full….
Just the same, our (western) stores are closing everyday, companies go broke, they stop selling things, people lose jobs and their homes and go hungry… hard times hit every city county or country, regardless of economic system. These photos are being used as propaganda against communism today, though some of the (more flattering) pics were probably propaganda for communism 30 years ago.
The US was the most powerful country in the world since 1900, and used it’s power to dominate global markets. The USSR and many other countries rebelled against Western power over markets and trade, and were therefore cut off from Western dominated (most markets of the world). This gave the communist countries a distinct disadvantage in ever achieving the prosperity of the western powers that controlled resources and trade throughout the world. This rebellion against Western trade domination also gave the Western powers (who wanted and still want to control all world trade and resources) reason to work against the communist nations, economically and militarily. USSR and it’s allies were always at a disadvantage and eventually had nothing left to sustain their rebellion against the western empire. The USSR as a communist nation did not amount to much more than a 3rd world country, but if it had submitted to Western rule, it would have been no better off, and would merely have been a nation of exploited people, like those in South America, Africa and most of Asia.
To compare supermarkets of the USSR with supermarkets of the rich and powerful western powers is not a fair or honest comparison. How about someone shows us the supermarkets of the third world countries that were acquiescent to Western domination during the 50s-80s. I’m sure they won’t be much different from these Soviet era Russian pictures, and in many cases would be worse, or far worse. Even the bastion of capitalism itself, the USA, has unending pictures of people in hard times, standing in queues waiting for food, for welfare checks, for medical assistance, stores with empty shelves, cities without power and transport at a standstill. It happens, everywhere, from time to time.
The leaders of USA used to call the USSR “the evil empire”, but I say that USA was also (and still is) an evil empire, it just happened to be a richer and more powerful evil empire, and therefore “capitalism” prevailed and “communism” failed.
Both economic systems fail, though - the proof is in 3rd world countries all over the world (where most of the world’s population dwell, exploited by capitalist and communist countries alike throughout the 20th century) where ten year old kids are:
going hungry continuously, sometimes starving to death,
enslaved in sweatshops,
and sometimes carrying machine guns when they leave their decrepit homes because the threat of violence is so high.
Without that exploitation of the third world, the capitalist system would fall flat on it’s face, which is ample evidence that the Soviet experiment, while a failure, was a requisite attempt to rid the world, or at least it’s own sphere, of the dominance of Western powers on global resources and markets. A time will come when enough people see this truth and the true nature of the Western gang’s means of controlling the world for the benefit of the very few at the expense of nearly every human being alive, and will rebel (hopefully politically, not violently) against that system of control, yet again. And maybe someday such a revolution will succeed, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. There have been numerous successes on this front already, where Western attempts at exploitation have been shunted, but the so-called capitalists never stop thinking of new ways to exploit. http://tinyurl.com/64wwge
Like your comments………..a real positive thinker at last! Theres enough food in this world to fill every belly if we all shared. Greed is a weapon of mass destruction.
The first supermarkets in CCCP were in Estonia. Estonia was known as soviet west
Tender spot hurting a lot? Other side too? bruises on your face and body throbbing? Is that blood running out your nose, skirt above your head in the wind, panties torn and soiled, titties swelling and turning blue by the minute, lost on the roadside, hoping not to die? Did you recognize the tail lights of the limo that threw you off? Was it the same limo that picked you up at election time, promising a good decent clean ride? Will you ever learn? Last time these guys did this to you, your babies were killed in Iraq and your retirement fund spent to do it, your taxes went up, you did not get destroyed by the weapons of mass destruction, they were never found. Poor little America. Our heart-felt prayers from Canada go out to you!
And *that* is why Canadian socialists can eat shit and die! Or go out to the Maritimes and harvest icicles all summer. Smug motherfucker. Fuck you and the horse you rode in on, asshat.
I was born in Siberia in 1979 i was growing in socialism….that was not so bad….. u know some things were very bad (like no freedom) but some things were really great - like no criminal, no unimploiment, all were in equal position….. It would be best society if we get best parts of capitalism and socialism…… ) luv and peace 2 every1
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The lack of goods had been arranged by government in purposes to get a reason to change a political system in USSR from Socialism to Kapitalism. It was a trivial betrayal.
I had a history professor who told us about his visit to East Germany. He said folks were lined up around the block to get a scoop of ice cream — and vanilla was the only flavor!
Hi,
Liberals claim that, following the collapse of Soviet Empire, capitalism brought wealth and richness. So, everybody is happy, no more lines, and so.
That’s not true.
Yes, after experiencing chaos in post-Soviet era, our incomes have been raised, but little bit. Comparing how much the Russian oligarks gain, what we have is nothing! So, in Russia, the name of the system has changed, but the rest is the same!!!
So, please be my guest and get here and see lines in front of each store
Typically russian 
With regards,
Natash
“The US was the most powerful country in the world since 1900, and used it’s power to dominate global markets. The USSR and many other countries rebelled against Western power over markets and trade, and were therefore cut off from Western dominated (most markets of the world). This gave the communist countries a distinct disadvantage in ever achieving the prosperity of the western powers that controlled resources and trade throughout the world. This rebellion against Western trade domination also gave the Western powers (who wanted and still want to control all world trade and resources) reason to work against the communist nations, economically and militarily. USSR and it’s allies were always at a disadvantage and eventually had nothing left to sustain their rebellion against the western empire.”
I can’t see how being cut-off from trade with the west would cause communism to fail, back in the early 80s on third of the worlds population lived in communist states. If the system worked there should have been sufficient trade between fellow communist nations to keep the economy growing but there wasn’t.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism#Growth_of_modern_communism
Communism is a well intentioned but silly idea as it’s impossible to distribute wealth equally between everyone and what’s worse is that removes any incentive for people to better themselves which is why the Soviet system collapsed.
“2oh Man its scary, here in Venezuela we are heading in the same direction with Chavez socialism, everytime people complain more and more because some goods are lacking and sometimes people has to do queus to get milk! and some restrictions like 2 milks only per person”
Don’t put up with it.
I hope you’ve learned from this site about how bad communism is, protest get help from the US, who hate communism like cancer because if you don’t you’ll end up like Cuba.
I’d rather live in Cuba or Soviet Union than America. America is the cancer that is killing the western world.
The biggest problem that communism has is America hating it.
The picture made is at early 40s or 50s
So, is the capitalism better than socialism ?
I never lived on America or USSR, I’m brazilian. Why America open your doors for China ? Because the China works for America ! Why is not America down dictators of Africa ? Because he will continue to give her OIL to America. This is America.