30s
karinkuv:
Yes, living people who remember the 30s are unlikely to write here. But I remember what my grandmother told me, and then my aunt confirmed it.
They then lived on Krasnoselskaya, in the house where Utesov lived. The house was from Railway. My grandfather worked there. Well, I don’t think there’s any need to talk about what 37 is. They took everyone around!!! I don’t know why, maybe that’s why, but my grandfather didn’t work. And every day I went ice skating in Sokolniki. Grandmother said that they waited for the “funnel” every night. A bag of belongings stood at the door, awaiting arrest. Kaganovich warned. (honestly, I don’t know these relationships, my grandfather wasn’t even 30 at the time, I don’t know why Kaganovich was close to this “boy” - my grandfather, but my aunt prays for him, says that he saved my grandfather’s life, which means and me, my father was already born at 44) and “exiled” the family of my father’s parents to Kaluga. Something like that…
I have many more memories of life in Moscow from my ancestors.
50s
laisr:
Life was not a raspberry. Father returned from 4 years German captivity at the end of the war. He was met in the village by his hungry wife and two children. And I was born in 46. To feed the family, the father and five equally hungry fellow villagers stole a bag of wheat during sowing. Someone pawned it, searched my father's place. The accomplices, more cunning, advised the father to take everything upon himself, otherwise, they say, they would all be imprisoned for 25 years in a group crime. My father served 5 years. I joke with my current mind that Hitler kept me for four years, but Stalin couldn’t give me less, so he imprisoned me for five years. In the 50s I didn’t eat enough bread, which is probably why today I eat everything with bread, even pasta, sometimes I joke to my friends about this that I even eat bread with bread!
***
In my second year (1962) in Ufa, in a department store, absolutely by chance, by luck, I bought Japanese nylon swimming trunks! Then ours were rag with two laces on the side for tying at the hip. The Japanese ones were shaped like shorts, beautiful, vertical striped, tight. I wore them for a very long time, and I still have them lying around somewhere. Here is a memory of my student life!
60s
yuryper, "about the bread shortage":
Somewhere in 63 or 64 in Moscow, flour was distributed through house management, according to the number of people registered. It wasn't in stores. In the summer we went to Sukhumi, it turned out that white bread was only for locals, with ration cards.
In Moscow, bread did not disappear, but the variety characteristic of the early 60s gradually decreased, and by the early 70s this difference had already become very noticeable.
70s
sitki:
Early 70s, my mother-in-law is a single mother, Krasnoye Selo, salary is 90 rubles.
Every(!) year I took my son to the sea. Yes, a savage; Yes, sometimes they brought canned food with them and ate it for the whole month. But now my husband tells me about those trips with gusto. This is his childhood.
What kind of cleaner these days can take a child to the seaside for a month?
pumbalicho (8-10 years):
For some reason, the 70s are etched in my memory... Those were good years. And not only economically (I suspect that abundance was not everywhere. But I still can’t forget the store windows of that time), but also with some special cohesion or something... I remember they reported the death of three Soviet cosmonauts at once - no one I didn’t order it, but people were actually crying in the streets...
matsea:
We walked in the courtyards from the age of 4-5 alone. I was about 8 years old (early 70s) when a schoolgirl was killed in Udelny Park next door. The children continued to walk alone. Well, that was life.
80s
matsea (born 1964):
I remember well the anticipation of the first spring salad (I was 1964). There was no fruit in winter. In autumn, apples are plentiful and inexpensive. By November they are sold brown speckled and expensive. By January they are gone. If you're lucky, you might catch some Moroccan oranges. Infrequently. St. Petersburg, winter darkness, vitamin deficiency. And at night I’ll take pictures of tomatoes with sour cream, so red. And here it is March and happiness - the hydroponic cucumbers were thrown away. They are long and dark green, like crocodiles. Three pieces in a kilogram, a kilo in one hand. Enough or not enough? Enough! We waited for about forty minutes and they brought it. Salad with onions, eggs, and hydroponic cucumbers - hurray, spring has come! Well, that's it, now you can calmly wait for the tomatoes. It won't be until June.
mans626262:
a leading engineer in the late 70s and early 80s had a salary of 180 rubles - this is me personally at the research institute.
michel62 (born 1962):
In 1982, I went to Donetsk by bus to buy sausage and butter from Rostov-on-Don. My mother’s watch factory organized these trips. To Donetsk, to Voroshilovograd.
***
Amazing!
When I arrived as a young specialist in the Penza region and, working as a road foreman, wandered around the villages, maintaining local roads, I saw so many different imported clothes in the village shops that it took my breath away. I bought shoes and a coat for my wife there... The villagers looked at me like I was crazy. You know, it’s impressive when there are galoshes and Italian shoes on the same counter, and a sweatshirt and a Finnish coat hang next to each other on a clothes hanger... Here in Rostov it was simply impossible to buy any clothes. The queues had been busy since the evening. Everything is done under the counter or through connections. I have a feeling that if jeans or something like that had been freely sold during the USSR, then there would have been no perestroika and subsequent collapse.
***
Born in 1962 in Rostov-on-Don
Of course, the USSR for me is childhood, youth, growing up, my first child...
I look now at how my son (16 years old) lives and it seems to me that we were happier in childhood. Even if I didn’t travel abroad with my parents and they bought me my first jeans when I was in my first year of college. But everything was somehow richer. This is my personal opinion and I am not going to argue with anyone. I remember how, already at work, the party organizer asked me at the reporting meeting (I worked as the chief engineer of one municipal sharaga): “How did you M.M. restructure?...” How and what should I answer to the party fool (by the way, the first quitter and " dinner "demagogue")? What did I need to rebuild in myself if I, a young guy, worked conscientiously and exhaustively?... In the family, when I was a boy, there was a sack of food. Food came first. But My father altered my clothes from his own. My father, by the way, was the head of the enterprise, but there was no chic in our house. But my father’s attitude towards the USSR was this: “If only I, an officer, Soviet army they said - shoot yourself for Stalin - I would silently pull out a pistol and shoot myself..." I remember in 1972 - 1974 there was a rumor on the street that they were selling Pepsicol.... I stood in line for two hours and picked up two string bags.. . I still swear when I remember how I brought her home. The memories of the pioneer camps are very warm. Every summer there were three shifts in different camps. There were only five to ten days of vacation at home before September 1st....
And while working, I adapted like everyone else so that I could take my wife to a barbecue on the left bank of the Don on weekends and go on vacation in the summer. Now I have a maximum of a week of vacation, if I’m lucky... I remember how my mother came from a business trip to Moscow. We met her with the whole family. Poor thing - how she stole all those bags of sausage and oranges....
I also remember the “Diet” store, where my mother and I went when she picked me up from kindergarten. She bought three hundred grams of sausage (of course not Moscow or cervelat) doctoral or amateur and asked to cut it a little for me. And next to it there was a bread store, where we bought FRESH bread. So I walked, chewing a sausage sandwich. I have never encountered such a taste of sausage and bread. Of course, delicacies were always in short supply, but on holidays my parents got them. I remember the queues for carpets, dishes and clothes... I lived right next to the Solnyshko department store and remember all this well. The queue started in the evening and the crowd was noisy all night (I lived on the second floor and all this happened under our balcony). I remember the “Ocean” store on Semashko, where carp and sturgeon swam in the aquarium. And then the same “Ocean”, where there was nothing except briquettes of shrimp and some crap like seaweed. I remember coupons for vodka and butter. But this is already at the end of the USSR. But I worked in a road organization and was “cool”. (just don’t say that it’s because of people like me that our roads are bad). Those who wanted to live spun around. There was everything - both good and bad. Now, of course, I remember the good things. The bad is forgotten. I forgot that I didn’t have a tape recorder as a child. But they remember new Year gifts from the Christmas tree in the cultural center. You forget the queues for beer, but you remember its taste and the fact that it went sour in a day and not in a month. I remember with a smile how I was driving home from work on a crowded bus, holding a plastic bag of beer in my hand above my head, and there were many like me... Everything happened - both good and bad. One can argue about this time to the point of a carrot conspiracy, but it was and is remembered with a smile.
nord100:
I remember my first business trip to Vilnius. This was around 1982. I was shocked by what I saw abroad. Then I collected coffee beans for the whole year ahead.
In those same years, I visited Moldova for the first time, where I was amazed by the abundance of imports in stores. And the books! I haven’t seen so many scarce books since childhood!
I also remember my trip to Kuibyshev in the late 80s. In the evening I checked into a hotel and decided to buy food for dinner at the grocery store. Nothing came of it for me - I didn’t have any local coupons...
I remember a lot of things about those years, but mostly with warmth. After all, that was youth :)
Second half of the 80s
frauenheld2:
I remember I was involved in blacksmithing - right around the 89-90s)
You walk there - “Kaugumi, chungam”, but because it’s embarrassing - sometimes you just ask for time, in Russian of course. But foreigners don’t understand, and they give me something - candy, chewing gum, pens. Now it seems like little things, but at school I was godfather to the king with these colored pens, and for chewing gum (!), my classmates didn’t kiss my feet.
alyk99:
Secondary school No. 1 of Zvenigorod near Moscow. I am 10 years old (1986), there is some kind of meeting in the assembly hall. The director announces: “Let’s vote. Who’s in favor?”
We all raise our hands as one. "Who's against it?" Two lonely hands of some high school students rise. The director begins to shout: “How can you? Hooligans! Get out of the hall! Shame on the school!”
In the evening I tell the story to my mother and add on my own that the high school students behaved shamefully. “Why?” she asks. “Maybe they had a different opinion. What’s shameful about that?” I remember very well that it was at that moment that I first understood what it was like to be one of the dumb sheep in the herd.
Childhood memories of the USSR
roosich (10 years old in 1988):
Somehow, the stories of this lady, who traveled abroad, about the lack of bread in the USSR (apparently we are not talking about the 20-30s, but about the 70-80s) do not inspire confidence.
My childhood was in the 80s. I was born and still live all my life in a small town near Moscow. My parents (my father, to be more precise) often went to Moscow on weekends. But not for food, like supposedly the rest of the USSR, but just for a walk - VDNKh, Gorky Park, museums, exhibitions, etc. And there were enough products in our local stores. Of course, there was no such abundance on the shelves as there is now, but no one went hungry. Here, of course, they can object to me that a small town near Moscow is far from the same thing as an equally small town, but somewhere in a remote province.... But the majority still did not live as hermits in distant villages. The shortage began to manifest itself quite actively only in 1988.
Continuing the store theme, now about manufactured goods. I remember somewhere in the mid-80s - in our local department store I saw on the shelves televisions, refrigerators, washing machines, players (cassette recorders only began to appear in the late 80s), and radios, and clothes with shoes, and stationery.... Another thing is that by the standards of average salaries at that time (this is about 200-odd rubles for the mid-80s), these household appliances were quite expensive. I remember our first color TV - a hefty and heavy “Rubin”, bought only in 1987, it cost well for 300 rubles.
***
But if we compare it with today, the most radical difference from that time is the people. Then of course too different people may have met in life, but now - man is a wolf to man. Today's parents are afraid to let their children go for a walk alone, even in the neighboring yard, but back then they were not afraid to let us go. And not only to the neighboring yard. And until late in the evening.
***
The USSR of 1988 is no longer the country it was in 1983-85. Although it would seem that only a few years have passed, there were already quite striking differences.
***
So I say that the general shortage of everything and everyone with absolutely empty counters and kilometer-long queues for them with coupons and cards only began at the very end of the 80s! And the author (meaning the author of the project vg_saveliev) apparently thinks that under the USSR people lived like in the Stone Age, and when the democrats came, happiness immediately came. But the Russian people did not believe this happiness and began to die out at a rate of 1 million per year.
***
Yes, I also remember in 1988 we went on vacation in the summer with my aunt and her son (i.e. my cousin) to the village to her relatives somewhere on the border of Moscow and Tula regions. The village was alive. There was work in the village. And there are a lot of hard-working middle-aged people, and a lot of children.... I think now in most of these rural places only a few old people remain, and summer residents have appeared.
General impressions and thoughts
lamois (b. 1956):
Tell me, do memories have to be negative? Judging by what you posted, yes, this is exactly the kind of collection you started.
And if I write that I am happy that I was born in 1956 and saw a lot of difficulties, but also a lot of happiness, as at any time. My parents are teachers, they opened high school in a virgin village. People were sincere in their enthusiasm and unfeigned love for each other. I don’t regret that those times are gone, everything ends sooner or later. But I will never throw a stone into the history of my country. But you won’t be ashamed.
They write how they hated school rules, but I remember the fun and exciting game Zarnitsa, hikes, songs with a guitar. Each person has his own childhood and youth and they are good at any time. And now it is endlessly difficult for many; current difficulties are not much easier, but for many they are more difficult than then. For the majority, the loss of cultural identity is a greater tragedy than the then shortage of sausage for some especially hungry people, although it is precisely that there were no hungry people then, but now there are. But I don't believe people who remember their childhood with hatred or regret. These are unhappy people, and they are always biased, just like you, actually.
I am sure that you will never publish my opinion.
vit_r
Well, there's a queue, there's a shortage.
A person with a backpack, coming to any village, any village, and even any town, could find shelter and lodging for the night. A friend of a friend was given the keys and left in the apartment, where the money and crystal lay on the shelf.
And compare. I know those who now don’t have enough money to buy bread. Yes, the ceiling has risen. But not for everyone. The population declined and oil prices soared. The Union collapsed when there was no longer enough oil to import goods and export communism. And the party and economic bosses then lived better than today’s oligarchs.
The only problem with the union was that it was a zone where you couldn’t leave. It's true.
chimkentec:
No, the party and economic bosses then did not live better than the current oligarchs. The party and economic bosses were just as inaccessible to what was consumer goods for most people in developed countries.
***
...my grandfather was the “economic boss”, the head of YuzhKazGlavSnab, an organization involved in supplying three Kazakh regions.
But he, just like all the other townspeople, could not buy normal coffee, and for six months he could not repair the TV (there were no necessary spare parts). He had to convert the bathhouse he built himself into a barn.
He had a dream - he wanted to grow a lawn at his dacha. And he even managed to get lawn grass seeds. But he couldn’t get a simple electric lawn mower - someone decided that Soviet citizens didn’t need lawn mowers.
There will also be a section “Without an exact indication of time” and “Discussions”. So far these materials have not fit.
There are a lot of stories without a clear indication of time and age. Try to be more specific in time.
1. In the Soviet Union, hundreds and even thousands of people could drink sparkling water from a single glass from a vending machine. I drank the soda, rinsed the glass, and put it back. Everyone who lived at that time remembers that even those “thinking for three” very rarely took a cut glass from a soda machine.
2. In the USSR, we spent most of our free time on the street. These were parks, courtyards of high-rise buildings, sports grounds, rivers and lakes. There weren't many ticks in the forests. The lakes were not closed for epidemiological reasons. In villages, until the early 80s, children could run barefoot. Broken glass on the streets was very rare because all the bottles were given away.
3. We all drank from the tap. And in the very big city, and on the most distant collective farm. Sanitary standards in the USSR were such that there was no E. coli, hepatitis bacillus or any other nasty thing in the water supply.
4. It’s scary to think, but in the store the saleswoman served the pie or shortbread with her hands. Bread, sausage, and any other food was served by hand. Nobody thought about gloves.
5. Many children spent one or two shifts in the pioneer camp, without fail. Going somewhere to a resort was considered good luck; the main children's camps were located an hour's drive from home. But it was always fun and interesting there.
6. We rarely watched TV, compared to today. Usually in the evenings or on weekends: Saturday and Sunday.
7. In the USSR, of course, there were people who hardly read books, but there were very few of them. School, society, and the availability of free time pushed us to read.
8. We didn’t have computers or smartphones, so all our games took place in the yard. Usually a crowd of boys and girls of different ages gathered, and games were invented on the fly. They were simple and unpretentious, but the main factor in them was communication. Through games we became aware of social behavior patterns. Behavior was assessed not by words, and not even by actions, but by their motives. Mistakes were always forgiven, meanness and betrayal were never forgiven.
9. Were we fooled by Soviet propaganda? Have you suffered from the bloody regime? No no and one more time no. We didn’t really care about all this when we were 12-14 years old. What I remember is that each of us looked into the future with undisguised optimism. And those who wanted to serve in the army, and those who decided to become drivers and workers, and those who were going to enter technical schools and institutes.
We knew that there was a place in the sun for each of us.
The holiday was approaching: my parents' wedding anniversary. Mom was categorically against me paying for dinner in a cafe. Then a brilliant plan was born. Set up a home nineties style party. I will remind them of the past, because they got married in 1985, the dawn of their youth fell on Soviet years. She herself remained silent, it’s surprise. She invited guests, downloaded hits from the nineties and began decorating the living room in a retro style.
USSR: a bygone era
You can regret the past, remember fragments with a smile. But it cannot be returned. I propose to “take it out of my memory” good moments, because life goes on. Today I will tell you how they lived in the USSR. To confirm my words, I will give significant facts.
Life in the Soviet style:
- Parents dreamed that their children would become cultural workers in the future. Librarian, historian, teacher, cultural historian, musician - prestigious professions.
- Private taxi prohibited. Cab drivers who wanted to make money risked paying a fine. At any moment the car could be stopped and asked who you were taking and what route to take. And they even asked for documents to confirm the family connection. State taxi was available, average cost travel - one ruble.
- Soviet ballet became famous throughout the world. In the evening we watched performances in front of a blue screen. Loving this art is a sign of education.
- Fartsovschiki earned good money. Because they were secretly selling scarce goods. Today the word “fartsovka” is unknown to young people.
How they lived in the USSR: luxury
The concept of wealth then and now differs significantly. I would never conclude that the family is rich if I saw a crystal chandelier and a sideboard with dishes in their apartment. And before they were items of pride. If a family moved, carpets and dishes (especially crystal) were packed first. Soviet citizens who did not suffer from a lack of money tried not to display their wealth for show
A person who has an apartment, a car, a dacha, a TV, imported household appliances and one thousand rubles under the mattress. You won’t surprise us with a model seven car or a dacha where you have to bend your back.
From the author: “Remember kindergarten? Hamsters, quiet time, pea soup with croutons? Christmas trees, obligatory bunnies.” 
Who was accepted as a pioneer at the Museum of the Revolution? In the first wave or in the second? Blacks in the USSR were considered people before it became mainstream. 
USSR clubs, sports schools, sections, music and art schools. How many did you attend at one time? Me: swimming, art school, sawing, ship modeling and aircraft modeling. How much does it cost to send a child to so many clubs now? 
Almost guaranteed employment, persecuted for parasitism. Specialties in the “real sector” - turners, welders - are held in high esteem - the economist in the department is considered cross-armed. In the photo Goblin - we used to all work with our hands, not with our tongues. 
Army. There was enough of everything, the Belarusians scoffed at the Kyrgyz, the Chechens at the Muscovites, the crests at everyone else, barely getting enough snot for their shoulder straps. But it was a united machine, where yesterday’s peasants became real universal soldiers entering Afghanistan (read how the border guards seized a bridgehead, let in linear units and also led out, clearly, professionally) or operations in Angola together with the Cuban “Black Wasps”. 
Police. They were respected; until the 70s, the murder of a policeman was a sign of complete lawlessness, such people were shot like rabid dogs. Yes, they drank, the traffic police were constantly messing with cars, but to compare the level of work of the then police and the modern police, with all the means of electronic espionage and the capabilities of digital technology, you will be surprised. After a major bank robbery scandal with mass murders in the United States, police officers saw a fax and a radio station in a car for the first time - then they changed their entire style of work. And now everyone has a mobile phone with the Internet and “grouse-grouse-grouse”. 
Culture, art, Soviet ballet. Censorship - then nailing eggs to Red Square and setting fire to doors was not considered art; those who took paint up their ass and stained canvases were thus sent to Napoleon and those who saw aliens. Therefore, now there is our new bad cinema, with rare exceptions from old Soviet directors, and the golden film library of the USSR. 
Do you remember Soviet sports? Accessible, successful, bright. 
Medicine. And in general, social security, there is no need to shout that in the USA they were and are better. They treated me, did the most complex surgeries, they did the same there if you have medical insurance, but they will do that, and then the bill for $20,000 is still an unaffordable amount. Resorts and sanatoriums could have been obtained from the plant, but now even that is gone.
Therefore, the USSR is already history, it cannot be returned, we lived there. Those who were not will be, those who were will not forget. Everything is leading to the fact that the quasi-USSR, crooked and not as wanted, will be built again. But why was it necessary to destroy it?
Many people still feel nostalgia for the Soviet Union. Those who lived in this huge country remember a carefree childhood, songs around the fire, pioneer everyday life, affordable prices, and a caring state. And those who were born later listen to the sad stories of older comrades or relatives and imagine how it was good before. Not like now...
Did Soviet citizens glow with happiness like that? Or were there more disadvantages in the life of the builders of communism? We are unlikely to ever come to a clear conclusion, because there will always be supporters Soviet Union, and those who casually call this huge empire Sovk.
Editorial today "So simple!" will tell about the USSR in the words of eyewitnesses - those who felt all the comfort of living in the Land of the Soviets. These people knew that what was Soviet was not always of high quality, and that food and clothing had to be “obtained.”
How did they live in the USSR?
“I was born in 1977 in relatively wealthy St. Petersburg. I remember how my parents were embarrassed to make friends with their unlucky neighbor Vasya, but they did it because he worked in a grocery store. Uncle Vasya was always dirty and often drunk, but he could get decent meat. And my parents needed to somehow feed me and my sister.”
© DepositPhotos
“I come from 1980. I remember when I was 8 years old, the only shoes I had were green sandals, which didn’t match any outfit, because I didn’t have any other green things. But I was wearing sandals and didn’t dare ask. And winter boots! When you walk to school in the snow, your feet instantly get wet. Neither I nor the other guys had replacement shoes. So we walked around with wet feet.”
« Food products in the USSR - another story. The lines for bread were so long that they lasted for an hour and a half. The wait for meat was even longer. If “Hercules” was thrown onto the counter, then the parents bought boxes in reserve. Vodka was generally sold only with coupons.”
There are some very interesting stories told about the last point. Some cunning people submitted applications to the registry office to receive coupons for vodka. The application was later withdrawn, but the alcohol remained. By the way, alcoholic drinks were in great short supply. Therefore, even non-drinkers tried to get their hands on alcohol - it could be exchanged profitably for something.
© DepositPhotos
“They say that in the USSR everything was most natural and healthy. Yeah! Blue hens lay on the counters, apparently dead from starvation and abuse. There was also milk and sour cream by weight. Luckily, my grandmother knew the store manager, so we got the milk before it was diluted with water. And to get sour cream was considered a great success.”
“Mom was sometimes sent on business trips to Moscow, and she brought from there everything she could get. I remember how one day she locked those damn bags, slid down to the floor dressed and quietly cried from fatigue...”
“If someone managed to travel abroad or even to a large neighboring city, then they brought home as much food as they could. Sausage, fruit, butter, cheese..."
© DepositPhotos
There are many such stories about life in the USSR. And yet there are people who deny that there was a shortage. These claim that the shelves were indeed empty, but everyone had everything at home. Because they knew how to get...
Indeed, today it is simple: if you want it, you buy it. Too everyday and uninteresting. But before, you had to get any thing by standing in lines, or buy it under the counter from black marketeers, risking not only money, but sometimes your own freedom. That's where the romance was!
What do you remember about life in the Soviet Union? Was life really better than now?
He dreams that people will treat nature more carefully. In the future he plans to engage in the protection of wild animals, protection environment and other useful things that will improve the condition of the planet. Bogdan believes that such work makes more sense than any other! He wants to one day return to Finland, which amazed him with its crystal clear lakes and friendly people. I would also like to come to St. Petersburg for a long time to get to know the city better. Bogdan is an energetic and cheerful football player. Our editor's favorite book, after reading which he began writing articles, is “Martin Eden” by Jack London.
