4 ms·

It depends where you lived during the regime, some parts of the soviet union had stricter controls over communications than others. I got arrested for having fe

It depends where you lived during the regime, some parts of the soviet union had stricter controls over communications than others. I got arrested for having few pairs of jeans.

throw-away-8 9y ago
Reselling Western goods such as jeans that weren't available in stores is a very different story.
tryingagainbro 9y ago
In other parts for having long hair (when it was popular in the West) or for listening to foreign stations, music etc.
- Tharkun 9y ago
  While that sort of thing was seen as being "too western" in the east, it was seen as being "queer" or "communist" in the west. The cold war era was very weird on both sides of the wall.
anigbrowl 9y ago
Having visited the USSR in the 1980s I can well imagine the problems you experienced (I traded duty-free shopping bags rather than jeans). On the other hand, it's misleading to draw too many inferences from extreme cases. I was arrested recently for having a bag of very ordinary picket signs while not being anywhere near a political demonstration in time or space, but the repression in question was local in scope.
- vkou 9y ago
  > I traded duty-free shopping bags rather than jeans What did you get for them?
  - anigbrowl 9y ago
    Military clothing. Tourists could visit department stores like GUM but were forbidden to purchase anything that was part of an official uniform like hats, boots, medals etc. Additionally, all outgoing baggage was x-rayed because you weren't supposed to take out money or forbidden items, but the people operating the X-ray machines didn't care even though it was perfectly obvious that I and everyone else in my high school group was smuggling out such material. I wore a red army belt buckle on my jeans for years afterwards. I think it's still sitting in my friend's attic in Amsterdam.

4 ms·

It depends where you lived during the regime, some parts of the soviet union had stricter controls over communications than others. I got arrested for having fe

by cisanti 9y ago

It depends where you lived during the regime, some parts of the soviet union had stricter controls over communications than others. I got arrested for having few pairs of jeans.

throw-away-8 9y ago
Reselling Western goods such as jeans that weren't available in stores is a very different story.
tryingagainbro 9y ago
In other parts for having long hair (when it was popular in the West) or for listening to foreign stations, music etc.
- Tharkun 9y ago
  While that sort of thing was seen as being "too western" in the east, it was seen as being "queer" or "communist" in the west. The cold war era was very weird on both sides of the wall.
anigbrowl 9y ago
Having visited the USSR in the 1980s I can well imagine the problems you experienced (I traded duty-free shopping bags rather than jeans). On the other hand, it's misleading to draw too many inferences from extreme cases. I was arrested recently for having a bag of very ordinary picket signs while not being anywhere near a political demonstration in time or space, but the repression in question was local in scope.
- vkou 9y ago
  > I traded duty-free shopping bags rather than jeans What did you get for them?
  - anigbrowl 9y ago
    Military clothing. Tourists could visit department stores like GUM but were forbidden to purchase anything that was part of an official uniform like hats, boots, medals etc. Additionally, all outgoing baggage was x-rayed because you weren't supposed to take out money or forbidden items, but the people operating the X-ray machines didn't care even though it was perfectly obvious that I and everyone else in my high school group was smuggling out such material. I wore a red army belt buckle on my jeans for years afterwards. I think it's still sitting in my friend's attic in Amsterdam.