When life was best in the USSR. Life in the USSR: education, culture, life, holidays How they lived in the USSR
The more people want to return to it. Life in the USSR was not ideal, but people get bored, remember and compare. Today, this era still excites and excites compatriots. Sometimes serious debates unfold in society, finding out how happy the Soviet people were and how they lived in the USSR.
Differently
According to the recollections of most compatriots, it was a simple and happy life for millions of people who were proud of their great power and aspired to a brighter future. Stability was a hallmark of that time: no one was afraid of tomorrow, or rising prices, or layoffs. People had a strong foundation under them, because, as they say, they could sleep peacefully.
There were pluses and minuses in the life of the USSR. Someone remembers the endless queues and the shortage of that time, someone can’t forget the availability of education and medicine, but someone continues to nostalgic for kind and trusting human relationships that had nothing to do with material values and status.
He had a very close and friendly relationship with each other. It was not a question to sit with the neighbor's kids or run to the pharmacy for anyone. The laundry was free to dry outside, and the keys to the apartment lay under the rug. No one thought about the bars on the windows and iron doors, there was no one to steal. On the streets, passers-by willingly helped the lost to find their way, carry heavy bags or cross the road for the old man. Everything was attended to and taken care of. It is no wonder that visiting foreigners fell in love with this country, shocked by the warmth that they met here.
Together
For today, isolation, seclusion and alienation are more and more characteristic - a person may not know who lives next to him on the site. The Soviet man, on the other hand, was very distinguished by a heightened sense of collectivism, the whole society seemed to be tightly soldered. Therefore, in the USSR they lived as one big friendly family. Everything was inculcated from kindergarten, then school, institute, production. Residents of an apartment building could easily know each other by last name. Everything was done together and together.
Collectivism is considered the greatest achievement. Everyone felt that he belonged to a great people, lived by the interests and joys of his country, his city, his enterprise. A person was never left alone: weekdays, sorrows and holidays in the USSR were lived by the whole team. And the worst thing that could happen to a person is when he was excluded from society. The worst thing was to be "overboard" from everyone.
Learn, learn and learn
Indeed, Soviet citizens had the right to free education - this was another pride of the Land of the Soviets. Moreover, secondary education was universal and compulsory. And anyone could enter the university after successfully passing the entrance exams.
The attitude to school in the USSR, and to education in general, is very different from the modern one. It would never even occur to a schoolboy or student to miss classes. The main source of knowledge was his notes, his progress depended on how he would listen and write down the teacher.
A separate point worth emphasizing was the respect with which teachers were treated. There was always silence in the classrooms, no unnecessary conversations and noise, there was absolute concentration on the lesson. And God forbid someone be late for class - you won't be ashamed.
Now some are questioning the level of Soviet education, but scientists and specialists brought up in this “bad system” are selling like hot cakes abroad.
Free medicine
Another of the most weighty arguments in favor of the USSR. Soviet people could always count on qualified free medical care. Annual examinations, dispensaries, vaccinations. All treatments were available. And going to the clinic, there was no need to wonder how much money might be needed and whether it would be enough. The party took good care of the health of its workers - it was possible to get a ticket to a sanatorium-dispensary without problems and "going through the throes".
Women were not afraid to give birth, because there was no such puzzlement as to feed and "bring to the people." Accordingly, the birth rate grew, and no additional benefits and incentives were needed for this.
A normalized work schedule, the level of medicine, relative stability in life, healthy nutrition - all this led to the fact that in the 80s the USSR was in the top ten countries with high life expectancy (average life expectancy).
Housing problem
Life in the USSR was not sweet in many ways, however, every Soviet citizen from the age of 18 had the right to housing. Of course, we are not talking about palaces, but no one remained on the street. The resulting apartments were not private property, as they belonged to the state, but they were assigned to people for life.
It should be noted that the housing problem was one of the sore points of the Soviet Union. Only a tiny percentage of registered families received new housing. The apartment queues stretched out for many, many years, despite the fact that every year housing construction reported on the delivery of new microdistricts.
Other values
Money has never been an end in itself for a Soviet person. People worked and worked hard, but it was for an idea, for a dream. And any interest or desire for material goods was not considered worthy. Neighbors and colleagues easily lent each other "three rubles before payday" and did not count the days of her return. Money did not decide anything, relationships decided, everything was built on them.
Salaries in the USSR were decent, such that half of the country could afford to fly planes without compromising the family budget. It was available to the masses. What are student scholarships worth? 35-40 rubles, for excellent students - all 50. It was quite possible to do without the help of mom and dad.
The work of working craftsmen was especially appreciated. A qualified specialist at the plant could receive more than his director. And that was okay. There were no shameful professions, the janitor and the technician were respected no less than the accountant. Between the "tops" and "bottoms" there was not that insurmountable abyss that can be observed now.
As for the value of the ruble itself in the USSR, this is one of the most popular funds of that time. Its owner could afford to buy the following to choose from: two large packs of dumplings, 10 meat pies, 3 liters of kefir, 10 kg of potatoes, 20 subway rides, 10 liters of gasoline. This is impressive.
Well deserved rest
Through the law, the state guaranteed material security for Soviet citizens in old age. Pension in the USSR allowed the elderly to live in relative prosperity. There was no need to go to extra work. The old people nursed their grandchildren, took care of summer cottages, went to rest in a sanatorium. Nowhere was there such a picture that a pensioner was counting pennies for medicine or milk, and even worse - standing with outstretched hand.
The average pension in the USSR ranged from 70 to 120 rubles. Military or personal pensions were certainly higher. At the same time, only 5 rubles were spent on housing and communal services. Pensioners then did not survive, but lived, and also helped their grandchildren.
But in fairness, it should be noted that not everything was so rosy for pensioners-collective farmers. For them, only in 1964 was the law on pensions and benefits adopted. And those were mere pennies.
Culture in the USSR
Culture, like life itself in the USSR, was ambiguous. In fact, it was divided into official and "underground". Not all writers could publish. Unrecognized creators used samizdat to reach their readers.
They controlled everything and everyone. Someone had to leave the country, someone was sent into exile for "parasitism", and the ardent petitions of colleagues could not save them from a foreign land. Do not forget the smashed exhibition of avant-garde artists. This act said it all.
The dominance of socialism in art led to the degradation of the taste of the Soviet people - the inability to perceive something else, more complex than the surrounding reality. And where is the flight of thought and fantasy here? Representatives of the creative intelligentsia had a very difficult life in the USSR.
In the cinema, the picture was not so sad, although here censorship did not doze. World-class masterpieces are filmed that still do not leave the TV screen: the adaptation of the classic "War and Peace" by S. F. Bondarchuk, the comedy by L. I. Gaidai and E. A. Ryazanov, "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears" by V. V. Menshov and much more.
It is impossible to ignore pop music, which was of great importance for the Soviet people. No matter how hard the relevant authorities tried, but Western rock culture penetrated the country and influenced popular music. "Pesnyary", "Gems", "Time Machine" - the appearance of such ensembles was a breakthrough.
I remember
Nostalgia for the USSR continues to gain momentum. In view of today's realities, people remember everything: the pioneers, and the Komsomol, and the availability of kindergartens, and summer camps for children, free sections and circles, and the absence of homeless people on the street. In a word, a stable and peaceful life.
They also remember the holidays in the USSR, how they walked shoulder to shoulder in parades with their heads held high. Proud of their country, for its great achievements, for the heroism of their people. They remember how representatives of different nationalities lived together in the neighborhood and there was no division and intolerance. There was a comrade, friend and brother - a Soviet man.
For some, the USSR is the "lost paradise", while others shudder with horror at the mention of that time. Oddly enough, both are right. And the bygone era can not be forgotten, this is our history.
- made here an interesting selection of photographs from 1989 and 1990. In 1991, the USSR ceased to exist, and those who claim that the Union collapsed "unexpectedly" are wrong - everything was quite expected, people were waiting for changes and knew that the Soviet power would soon be gone. Suffice it to recall at least the fact that in 1990 (more than a year before the collapse of the Union) in Minsk schools they no longer accepted first-graders in October - it ended.
So, in today's post I will show you a photo from the life of people in the late USSR (deficit, rallies in support of Yeltsin, Soviet catering, etc.), and in the comments I will be glad to read your memories of this period of history)
02. At the very end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, various international catering enterprises began to appear in the USSR. Perhaps the most famous was the opening of McDonald's in January 1990. The picture shows a poster about the imminent opening of a cafe, the photo was taken in Moscow in December 1989.
03. January 1989, car factory, workers rest. Production schemes remained largely Soviet, although during the time of perestroika, all sorts of modern things began to be introduced to enterprises, plus real trade unions began to appear in places.
By the way, I wonder if in 1989-1990 it was already possible to freely buy a car, or were there still Soviet "queues"? Haven't seen any information about it.
04. February 1989, school. Children studied according to Soviet programs, but with the beginning of Perestroika in 1985, the ideological component in education began to gradually fade - for example, in Minsk in 1990 (more than a year before the collapse of the USSR), first-graders were no longer accepted in October. Much depended, among other things, on the personal initiative of the teachers - until 1991, someone continued to talk about the "good grandfather Lenin", someone scored and simply taught the subject.
05. Exercise bikes, photo 1989. At the end of the eighties, there was a general fashion for aerobics and sports, everyone bought “health” circles for themselves, and in some institutions they installed such simulators. Back in those years, "rocking chairs" were finally allowed, which began to open en masse in basements and at gyms.
06. Another foreign fast food company, this time Soviet-Finnish. Specializes in the sale of burgers (an unusual and fashionable product in the late USSR).
07. Ladies dry their heads at the hairdresser. In the late eighties there was a fashion for bouffant hairstyles and perms), and the hairdressers themselves were among the first to switch to semi-commercial cooperative work.
08. Winter in one of the Moscow microdistricts, photo 1989. Please note that there are practically no cars in the yard - they began to be massively bought already in the nineties.
09. With the beginning of Perestroika (especially after 1987), all sorts of meetings and rallies were allowed in the USSR - which immediately began to be held in large numbers, mainly against the Soviet government, the USSR and for Yeltsin.
10. Car repair in one of the Moscow yards. In those years, there were no normal car services, and many car enthusiasts were at the same time good auto repair masters. Somewhere since 1987, private cooperative car services began to appear.
11. Lady with an accordion on the Arbat - which at that time became a prominent tourist attraction in Moscow.
12. This is also the Arbat, the poet reads his poems, photo 1990. With the beginning of the policy of glasnost, it became possible to read anything - even obscene poems about Stalin and Gorbachev.
13. What international news worried Soviet citizens in those years? In January 1990, they talked in some detail about the withdrawal of Soviet troops from united Germany, and a year earlier they showed a lot about the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.
14. They talked a lot more about Chernobyl and its consequences, the topics of product contamination with radionuclides and nitrates began to be raised. This photo was taken in 1990 in the fields near the Thirty-Kilometer Exclusion Zone, a guy measures radiation levels with a RKSB-1000 dosimeter. By the way, this is a household dosimeter not designed to detect soil pollution)
15. 1990, queues at Sberbank for deposits - around this time, the Soviet monetary system began to burst at the seams, many deposits were frozen.
16. An uncle without legs begs for alms in one of the passages in Moscow, photo 1990. Yes, in the USSR there were also homeless people with disabilities and homeless people.
17. Homeless. Also Moscow.
18. In 1989-1990, there were literally empty shelves in stores - something could only be bought in the markets, and even then not always. The photo shows a queue of customers for a small batch of meat that was "thrown out" in one of the Moscow stores.
19. Scarcity.
20. May 1990, completely empty shelves in one of the Moscow supermarkets. By the way, the signs are very modern, more characteristic of the year 1993-1994 in design.
21. Empty market stalls, also photographed in 1990.
22. Those who had money could go to a restaurant, but dinner there was quite expensive - most often all sorts of anniversaries, family holidays, etc. were celebrated in restaurants, the Soviet people didn’t go to restaurants just like that)
23. Public catering in 1990 - in the photo, apparently, one of the Moscow dumplings. A woman in a scarf ordered a version with broth (just dumplings in the water in which they were boiled, sometimes bay leaves and black pepper were added there), from an uncle in a cap - a version without water, mixed with mustard. There is also tea in disposable cups.
24. In 1989-1990, protests took place in Moscow and other major cities of the USSR for any reason - here, for example, demonstrators with a poster in support of the independence of Lithuania.
25. And these are street protests in support of Yeltsin, the protesters are carrying a poster "B.N. Yeltsin for President of the RSFSR."
26. Rally against the CPSU. The guy has an interesting poster, on which the font "KPSS" consists of bones.
27. Student strike.
Do you remember the last years
The case when I will give someone else's text. This is a rather ancient boyan. But it is very concise, and clearly outlines the main realities:
Do you want to live like in the USSR?
Get a job at any dying research institute. Turn off the Internet and mobile phones, leave only the First Anal of Russian Television on the TV. Replace toilet paper with newspapers. For food, you buy sausage, bread, powdered milk, canned seaweed, a bottle of inexpensive vodka, processed cheese, pasta and tea of the worst quality, dilute beer with water, only rotten vegetables, only apples from fruits. Before buying anything, to simulate a queue, just stand in front of the store from 20 to 2000 minutes. If there is an opportunity, then you can find and repair the "Lada" - "penny". To work only in the tram. Do not wear good quality clothes. Shoes should always get wet. Ask them to treat their teeth without painkillers. And the most important thing is the feeling of meaninglessness and endless longing. If it is possible to reproduce it, then there will be an almost complete immersion in the USSR.
He himself answered a similar question, although not about specific decades:
No need to embellish! Life in the USSR was not so bad as in this libel. We lived well without the Internet and mobile phones - no one died. You can compare the statistics of death in the USSR and today. There were 2 television channels. We watched what was shown - everyone is still alive! Sausage, bread, milk were natural and tasty, not like now. Nobody died without toilet paper! Inexpensive cheese and NORMAL vodka were taken by men to drink around the corner - but not FANFURIKI from a pharmacy, as in modern times! The draft beer was often watered down. Large queues were only in Moscow in large shopping centers - GUM, TSUM, Children's World for fashionable clothes and shoes. Well, to work on the tram - this is the WEST of today's youth, but then it was very good for us - after all, not on foot! And the MOST IMPORTANT - the FEELING of LONGINGNESS and MEANNESSNESS did not occur to anyone! We all wanted to raise the PRESTIGE and AUTHORITY of our MOTHERLAND!!! And then they write here all sorts of nonsense about life in the USSR !!!
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You know what's the matter, "better" is a concept referring partly to subjective sensations.
I conscientiously put pluses to Lekha the Wise and Boris Popov. I quite clearly remember my feelings and the mood of my parents and their colleagues. Yes, there are many outrageous things to say. In addition to the above - buying books was a problem in our most reading country in the world.
But. People's feelings are greatly influenced by how they feel, not individual pictures, but a sequence of changing pictures.
The 70s is still a very active development. Production, institutions, housing - all this is being built. There are a lot of discoveries in fundamental science. People expect to live better.
And the 80s ... serious problems began and it was no longer development, but even what was there was called into question.
79th - the entry of troops into Afghanistan. 80th it is already clear that things did not go as expected. People are seriously concerned about this. What is there to fight for? Brezhnev is already in a state that his relatives would later describe as "he wanted to retire, but they didn't let him go."
82nd Brezhnev died, Andropov came. The autopsy of a mass of problems with corruption in power began.
84th Andropov died, Chernenko came. Died in the 85th.
The party itself is already publicly acknowledging problems with food, and problems with housing, and with the economy as a whole.
At this point, everyone himself thought, as best he could, what awaits us. But most were not optimistic. Jokes about half-dead general secretaries and their races in hearses.
As usual, a lot of different things are mixed in one question ...
20 years is a serious period of time. Different people lived differently at different times. In the second half of the 70s it was relatively good.
It is very difficult to compare life now and almost half a century ago. Then there were completely different terms.
There was one TV channel and one newspaper instead of dozens and hundreds, not counting the Internet.
Most people went to work like it was a holiday, because they played the fool on her, celebrating birthdays and showing off new clothes.
The people were healthier due to the lack of serials, mobile phones and Odnoklassniki.
There was no future, but there was "confidence in the future."
And then oil prices fell...
If you look closely, then the heyday is more likely the first half of the 1970s, and not the second. From the second half, melancholy and gradual fading began. Because at the same time Brezhnev began to fall into insanity. It is enough to watch films from the early 1970s. In general, this is a kind of fantastic ideal world, which did turn out. Before that, there were the brave and energetic 1960s. Well, after the last spurt of enthusiasm, we decided to arrange a general relaxation. Here it is, finally, the happy life of a Russian person in a socialist system! Further - some attempts to consolidate the conquered. I hope someone understands...
But my second grandmother (God grant her more health), was a simple inspector at the factory, she was not supposed to be thanked. at night, in the morning I arrived, stocked up, went home), I bought decent meat from the back door through connections, and she only had decent shoes that her son brought from the tour, and now she has a pension of 23 thousand, children and grandchildren doing their own business and those same hundreds of varieties of sausage and cheese and within walking distance. She now likes it more than in the USSR.
Today, a new nostalgic wave is rising for a bygone time. And the lamentations of a generation over forty can be compared to the phrases uttered at all times: “Sugar used to be sweeter”, “In our time, the youth were better”, etc. And what has changed?
Yes, there were pluses during the existence of the USSR. There was free education, including higher education, there was free treatment, when there was no need to take a health insurance policy with you and a certain amount for paid procedures. Everywhere there was an invisible spirit of the all-seeing party, directing the aspirations and thoughts of the workers in the right direction - the treatment and training were of high quality.
In production, there was also an active struggle for the quality of products - social services were organized. competitions, there was a strict control of the condition of manufactured parts or products, brought up workers who were fond of drinking alcohol or were negligent in their duties. The trade union really worked, taking care of the health of employees: it gave them vouchers to rest homes and sanatoriums, and vouchers to summer camps for their children. Only, of course, it was not always possible to get a ticket - sometimes people waited for it for years.
But there were also disadvantages. Equalization of all employees occupying positions of the same level. Yes, there were diplomas, assignmenttitles - but this is a small share of encouragement, practically not adding material well-being. Many will chuckle: why any extra funds, if the necessary minimum is free. The main thing is that there was enough for food, there were enough funds for living. But not only breadIf a person is alive, spiritual development is needed. For some, it consisted of reading books that were difficult to get at that time, for some it was necessary to create a good designhousing, adding comfort to the apartment, but building materials are also a problem.
And if you take a trip to, there was only one option - our south. Foreign trips were available to a limited circle of people, and even so, the opportunity to visit abroad was difficult to get.
You can list the positive and negative aspects of life in the USSR for a long time. And, most likely, they were equalized - people adapted, looked for opportunities to improve their lives, found various opportunities to get a scarce thing or organize a trip, and a chocolate bar given to a doctor added confidence as a treatment.
However, there is something we have lost. This is the unity of the peoples living on the territory of the collapsed USSR. Today, they are trying hard to redraw history, passing off conjectures as reality. But many people remember how people of different nationalities lived together in the neighborhood. And there was no division into Ukrainians and Russians, Armenians and Azerbaijanis. Most likely, this explains the nostalgia for the collapsed state, when the friendship of peoples helped to accomplish great things.
