Russians must wait in food lines to get whatever goods are available in November 1991, just a month before the collapse of the USSR
A Moscow blogger has suggested that Russians now, when thinking about the Soviet past, should reflect on what he calls that country’s “inexplicable paradoxes” not only when thinking about their own relationship to it but also about where they are now.
His observations merit quotation in full. In Soviet times, he writes,
- “Everyone had a job, but no one did anything.”
- “No one did anything but the plan was always fulfilled 100 percent or even at times 104 to 110 percent.”
- “The plan was fulfilled 100 percent but there was nothing in the stores.”
- “There was nothing in the stores, but everyone had all they needed.”
- “Everyone had all he needed but all stole.”
- “All stole but all had enough.
- “All had enough but all were dissatisfied.”
- “All were dissatisfied but no one went on strike.”
- “No one went on strike but no one worked.”
- “All were against, but all voted ‘for.’”
- “He who shouted ‘yes’ the loudest, now beats his chest more than anyone else and insists he was against.”
“How was all this possible? What do you think?”
Related:
- Arms race, on top of sanctions, destroyed the USSR and will destroy Russia
- More than 20 Russian regions now at third world levels economically
- Russian regions in deep trouble: in most, only one household in five has money for more than food
- The Russian Federation’s disintegration won’t be like the USSR’s, Zhordan says
- How Putin’s Russia is becoming Stalin’s USSR
- Belavezha Accords didn’t destroy the USSR: it had already ceased to exist, Shtepa says
- That time when the Soviet Union tried to join NATO in 1954
- Profound contraction of ethnic Russians in former Soviet republics since 1989
Tags: anecdotes, History, International, Russia, Soviet history, Soviet Union, USSR
