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Pictures from the Eastern Bloc in the 80s
- xixixao 8y agoTo some, these might infuse some level of specific nostalgia[0], which is in many respects picking up steam in these regions in the last few years. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_nostalgia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_nostalgia
- Kurtz79 8y agoI believe that nostalgia about the (supposedly) better times is a constant in most cultures.
- aylmao 8y agoWhy is this comment getting downvoted? I found that Wikipedia article quite interesting.
- archagon 8y agoI was born in Russia in the late 80's, but I guess it's a similar feeling of an entire generation's childhood, lost. (I imagine this phenomenon is exacerbated by the fact that so many families basically had all the same stuff.) Can't wait to read more of Svetlana Alexievich's Secondhand Time, which covers this topic in interviews with people who survived the collapse of the Soviet Union.
- conistonwater 8y agoBloody hell, there were food stamps in 1980?! What did I miss?
- dullgiulio 8y agoIn the early nineties. The implosion of the USSR caused hyperinflation and disrupted the supply chain. Luckily it went back on track quite quickly, at least on the European side.
- conistonwater 8y agoThe photo caption says Food stamps, Warsaw, 1980s, Poland.
- baybal2 8y agoIt did not disrupt the supply chain, it was already non-existent. At no time in USSR's history were there full shelves anywhere except for Beryozkas (stores for party members.) It was a political system without any credit of legitimacy and political credibility. The state system of Bloc countries was completely unredeemable.
- hristov 8y agoThat is not true. In Bulgaria there were generally full shelves in the grocery stores during socialism. There were some hard to get things like coca kola that caused lines but otherwise all basic foodstuffs were easy to get and quite affordable. However I have heard from other people that grew up in socialist countries that Bulgaria had it easier than most in that respect. In the transition to capitalism things got quite worse. Then there were empty shelves there was rationing, prices went up drastically, etc.
- int_19h 8y agoFood stamps appeared before the collapse of the USSR. Most places in USSR proper had them in late 80s, and a few even in late 70s.
- praptak 8y agoNot this kind. You didn't pay for food with them. You paid normally but also had to provide the stamps, as a sort of a rationing mechanism.
- ckuehne 8y agoYou've missed the wonders of socialism. https://polishforums.com/history/food-stamps-communist-era-64898/ https://polishforums.com/history/food-stamps-communist-era-6... Edit (for the down voters): I observed these "wonders" first-hand, since I grew up in the Eastern Bloc.
- briandear 8y agoWhy the hell is this being downvoted? The link you provided is a facinating extension of the topic at hand. That you are criticizing socialism on HN is the real reason for the downvotes. There is a distinct group that is anti-capitalism and apparently have never lived under the oppression that was the Warsaw Pact or the Soviet Union, Venezuela or Cuba. And ironically, this is Hacker News — a forum originally started to discuss startups and sponsored by a venture capital company, about as non-socialist as it gets. Thanks for posting the link; reading that thread was very interesting.
- mikeash 8y agoSocialism is a wide category that includes things that are wildly different from Eastern European communism. It’s like sarcastically saying “the wonders of capitalism” when talking about a 19th century workhouse filled with laboring children.
- greywolf 8y agosocialism is a total f'ing disgrace. you are completely lost if you believe otherwise.
- shaki-dora 8y agoIt’s downvoted for the same sort of tired ideological jingoism your post engages in.
- alistairSH 8y agoI imagine the downvotes are for your generic use of "socialism" instead of a more descriptive "Eastern Bloc Communism" or similar. Socialism can be implemented in many ways, just as capitalism can. But, your point still stands. The flavor of socialism encountered in the Eastern Bloc from post-WWII to the 90s was by all accounts completely dysfunctional.
- abcd_f 8y agoIn Perestroika times there was a brief period when there were _vodka_ stamps in Russia. There were problems with both food and spirits, but only the latter was rationed through stamps.
- r41nbowdash 8y agothe central planned economy just ground to a halt
- rasz 8y agoGas, meat, all rationed, you still had to pay on top of stamps. Great "opportunity" for black market.
- bogomipz 8y agoI was surprised to see the pic - "TV antennas directed towards the West, Neustrelitz 1984, East Germany." Was that forbidden? It's seem like that would have been influence the government would have tried to filter out no? Or was it forbidden but just not enforced?
- detaro 8y agoIt wasn't forbidden for the general public, no (I think right after the wall was build there were some crackdowns on it, but hugely unpopular and ineffective, and it was banned for soldiers and some officials). It of course wasn't officially supported in any way and under the table, but it clearly was easy to do in many areas and couldn't really be stopped, so it was widespread and people build their own antennas etc if they needed to. I read stories like that a radio technician somewhere build a small-scale "cable TV" network redistributing west TV from his home and in later years things like that were tolerated. The area around Dresden was known as the "valley of the clueless" ("Tal der Ahnungslosen") because it was one of the few major areas where you couldn't receive West-German TV.
- lower 8y agoWatching Western German television was not officially forbidden and in the 80s most people did it. It was, however, frowned upon and seen as suspect by the authorities. Imagine having to justify yourself in a discussion with the Stasi for consuming the enemies' propaganda.
- usrusr 8y agoI think that there is a lot of confusion between what was actually forbidden and what was merely making people more suspect of getting recruited by enemy intelligence and the like. And that this confusion wasn't at all exclusive to outsiders looking back, but was present, or even dominant, within Stasi itself. "Make a list of people to check in the emergency of a CIA counterrevolutionary project" can quickly turn into "Make a list of people to crack down on for lack of ideological commitment", particularly in an organization in the spy game, where need-to-know must be the norm.
- ohiovr 8y agoGreat pictures, thank you for sharing. Loved the C64 pic and the guy walking his pig home.
- buf 8y agoAside from the clothing, it looks like the Eastern Bloc now.
- andybak 8y agoNot sure where you've been but it looks nothing like the countries I've seen (Lithuania, Slovenia, Czechia, Slovakia, Croatia, Hungary, Former GDR)
- V-2 8y agoIndistinguishable aside from the clothing. http://chrisniedenthal.com/en/works/slub-1982 http://chrisniedenthal.com/en/works/slub-1982 https://static.polskieszlaki.pl/zdjecia/wycieczki/2015-03/rynek-10.jpg https://static.polskieszlaki.pl/zdjecia/wycieczki/2015-03/ry...
- jsmit 8y agoLove the gritty aesthetic of old photographs like this. Actually prefer it to modern, razor-sharp photography. Or maybe analogue just fits the image we have of the past better? I wonder what kind of equipment was used for these photos.
- anderber 8y agoI completely agree, I'm personally partial to the medium format cameras. From this interview, it looks like he used Nikon cameras: http://www.obstundmuse.com/chris-niedenthal/ http://www.obstundmuse.com/chris-niedenthal/ > Jens Pepper: What camera did you use at that time? > Chris Niedenthal: Ever since my last year at college, I was a Nikon man. First it was a simple Nikon F, then I bought the Photomic prism with lightmeter. I later added a somewhat cheaper Nikkormat (though I had the Japanese version that was called the Nikomat. So those were the two cameras I used for my first years in Poland. Later came the FE, then the FE2, and also an FM, usually with winders (early motordrives). Next came the beautiful Nikon F3 with motordrive, and later the F4. I always used a separate lightmeter, never trusting the camera meters when shooting on colour slide film. At first I had the British Weston Master meter, but eventually graduated to the Minolta Flashmeters.
- alistairSH 8y agoI love this series of photos. Kodachrome doesn't have the grain of some other films, and many photos could be mistaken for staged modern reproductions. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2352173/World-War-II-Kodachrome-Vivid-color-photos-paint-moving-picture-1940s-American-war-effort.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2352173/World-War-I...
- bogomipz 8y agoIndeed Kodacrhome really "pops." Might you or anyone else know what the dominant film stock would have been in the Eastern BLoc during this time?
- patrickg_zill 8y agoI wasn't there, but there would have been imported Agfa film and the local color film was called Smena, I think.
- kobrad 8y agosorry, 490 euros? what?
- mc32 8y agoI like this collection. They complement the more recent series like Simon Roberts' Motherland (mid Aughts). Also some have an echo of Chris Killip's In Flagrante's aesthetic. Wonder if any of it might get published by Steidl, as a collection.
- dominotw 8y agoperfect. Just got a monthly pass at https://sovietmoviesonline.com https://sovietmoviesonline.com for the holidays.
- pgtan 8y agoSocialism, Modern Talking, Iron Maiden, and Mullet haircuts. I thought nothing can go worse than the 80s, but now we have the EU, Auto-Tune, and lip injections.
- mc32 8y agoDon't forget skateboarding[1,2]. This Ain't California captures the uptake of skateboarding culture and friendships that formed over it in East Germany. [1]https://www.pri.org/stories/2012-08-01/new-documentary-looks-development-skateboarding-culture-east-germany https://www.pri.org/stories/2012-08-01/new-documentary-looks... [2]https://www.dw.com/en/freedom-on-four-wheels-in-east-germany/a-16169910 https://www.dw.com/en/freedom-on-four-wheels-in-east-germany...
- shaki-dora 8y agoHow about not going down that particular flamewar right now? Maybe find something actually interesting in those photos, instead of tenuous evidence for the ideological blinders shaping your every perception of the world?
- pgtan 8y agoYeah, well, for you maybe this is a flamewar, for me it's my life.
- agumonkey 8y agoA bit different, Poland in the 80s https://imgur.com/gallery/960KNrY https://imgur.com/gallery/960KNrY
- nerdponx 8y agoPeople relying so much on horses in the 1980s is a pretty surreal thing to see. Was anyone here alive in Poland in the 80s (doesn't seem like such a long shot)? Would love to hear your experiences with transportation.
- jeena 8y agoI was, but I lived in east Silesia in the south which had the best infrastructure of Poland because of the coal mines and a lot of industry. As far as I remember only really old farmers still had horses. My parents once borrowed our neighbors (who must have been around 70 years old) horse to plow their field because they didn't have the money to pay someone to do that with a tractor. But the poor horse was old too and not used to such hard work, so after a couple of rounds he was so exhausted that he needed to lay down and their were afraid that it would die of exhaustion. So at least in Silesia you would rarely see horses used for transportation. Instead both of my granddads bought this weird half a mini-tractor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoGGe9PBQWo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoGGe9PBQWo but they both changed it to a custom version with 4 wheels, they came up with totally different designes for it. Actually I have a home video which showcases the one which my dads dad designed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN0J7Wg_V54 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN0J7Wg_V54
- nerdponx 8y agoThat tractor is wild, thanks for sharing!
- skrebbel 8y agoThe first time I was in Romania, in 2013, we drove on a provincial road and there were people in BMWs driving 100km/h taking over horse carriages going 10km/h. It was "pretty surreal" to me (I'm Dutch) and it also seemed extremely dangerous.
- perpetualcrayon 8y agoLooks like a dangerous world, those evil socialists. Is the message to hate socialism propaganda from those who have the most to lose?
- perpetualcrayon 8y agoLooks like my comment is unpopular. Let's do an experiment. Is this photo from a socialist country or a capitalist country? https://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/dam/assets/140612125240-most-stressed-cities-detroit-mi-1024x576.jpg https://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/dam/assets/140612125240-most...
- perpetualcrayon 8y agoAnswer: Detroit Michigan, USA
- knowaveragejoe 8y agoYour comment is probably unpopular because it's transparent baiting that adds nothing to the conversation.
- perpetualcrayon 8y agoSays the person who obviously has already drawn his / her line in the sand.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- shaki-dora 8y agoYou seem to make the rather strange mistake of thinking these photos portrait a purely negative view of the political system of the time, which you consider rather positively. I believe the best, and actually somewhat obvious, message of these photos would be to show the humanity of the people of the time, without hiding their relative poverty. That way, they would challenge the clichés on both sides of this particular ideological divide. The comments so far mostly prove me wrong. But as they say in both communism and Disney movies: there is always hope.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- uxhacker 8y agoFor anybody who is interested here is the bio of Chris Niedenthal. He is one of the most respected photojournalists covering the Eastern Bloc in the 1970 to 90's. https://culture.pl/en/artist/chris-niedenthal https://culture.pl/en/artist/chris-niedenthal
- dvh 8y agoUniversity in '80s Warsaw - a math professor realizes he would make more money if he worked in the docks, so he quits his job and goes working in docks. And truly his first paycheck is double that of a university professor. Party wants to increase education of working class so they offer 10% bonus to those who would visit evening school. So the professor sign up for it. Very first day, the first class is math. But the subject is so simple that professor becomes bored and starts reading book under the desk. Teacher notices that and call him up to calculate area of circle on the blackboard. Professor is taken by surprise and suddenly cannot remember the formula, so in his head he transfers circle to polar coordinates and uses integral to get the formula and starts writing on the blackboard: -πr² Then he scratches his head and start thinking where the minus came from when suddenly from the back row someone shouts: flip the interval of integration, colleague.
- shaki-dora 8y agoGuy dies. Goes to gates of heaven. Gets choice: communist hell, or capitalist hell. Choses capitalist hell. Loud screaming heard everywhere. Next guy in line. Chooses communist hell. Silence. Two guys in line. First asks, “Why is capitalist hell so painful?” “They nail you to the cross, burn you alive” “And communist hell?” “Same” “Then why no screams from communist hell?” “When they have wood, they have no nails. When they have nails, they have no wood. When they have nails, and they have wood, fire out” (Heard in East Berlin, ca. 1986)
- mjklin 8y agoInternational Championship for Tonsil Removal is held among USA, UK, and DDR teams. Results: US 5 min, UK 4 min, DDR 4 hours. “Well you see in DDR you can’t open your mouth, so they had to go in the other way”
- gammateam 8y agoI've already heard this as "engineer in Russia quits to do non-intellectually stimulating job, finds a bunch of engineering 'comrades' already there" your version is a ton more verbose though
- perpetualcrayon 8y agohttps://www.google.com/search?q=usa+in+80s&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjTpdPrmqLfAhUpwYMKHTTTB-8QsAR6BAgDEAE&biw=1190&bih=692 https://www.google.com/search?q=usa+in+80s&tbm=isch&tbo=u&so... Answer: USA 80s. Is this substantially better than the photos provided?
- peshooo 8y agoIt seems the pictures are mostly from Poland. For more perspective, here is a large collection of old pictures from Bulgaria: http://www.lostbulgaria.com/index.php?cat=9 http://www.lostbulgaria.com/index.php?cat=9 (You can see the translated descriptions with the language combobox on the top)
- mtarnovan 8y agoOne of the photos is from my hometown - Sibiu, Romania: http://chrisniedenthal.com/en/works/sibiu-1978 http://chrisniedenthal.com/en/works/sibiu-1978. I'm sure I recognise the area, it's in the historical center.(https://www.google.com/maps/@45.7991068,24.150571,3a,75y,11.52h,83.53t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1setu61uzikP4EWV8MAI6_0g!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.com/maps/@45.7991068,24.150571,3a,75y,11....). Surprisingly well preserved.
- jeena 8y agoDamn, those pictures really show my childhood (I'm born 1978 in Silesia which then already was part of Poland). I was on a used car marked like that with my dad, my parents had the same car as those people with the pigs in the car, my grandma had the same cupboard as the boys rearing chicks, I lived in one of the panel house like in the picture of the Moscow suburb, my aunt was a egg saleswoman, my dad worked in a coalmine, the church was present constantly in all parts of our lives, my mum worked at one of those car factories, etc. ...
- candytronx 8y agoOh, my! The panel houses where you could hear everything, the omnipresent elevator engine sound, neighbors fighting or making love or basically anything else, sounds of life, anonymized by concrete ... Sometimes, I ponder renting a flat in such a house for a week just to listen and dream of my childhood.
- aasasd 8y agoSeveral years ago I rented an apartment in which you could hear people through the walls, and the cherry-on-the-top was a neighbor from below who early on weekend mornings played wartime songs on a bayan. I'm not an early bird.
- crunchiebones 8y ago"No, my friend, we will not live long enough to see communism, but our children will!"
- tigerBL00D 8y agoThey had the same panel houses on the outskirts of Leningrad. Sometimes I'd conspire with a girl to skip school and we'd hang out on those flat roofs.
- 13415 8y ago"Moscow suburbs" pretty much sums it up.
- vzaliva 8y agoMost pictures are from Poland which was relatively better off than USSR at the time. My childhood memories from USSR are way grimmer than these pictures.
- bogomipz 8y agoAny idea why this was? Was it just a more manageable population size? I believe the then Czechoslovakia and Hungary were similar in terms of being "better off" no?
- hcho 8y agoParts of Poland were under Prussian rule and had some accumulation of industry, infrastructure and expertise. Russia was an agrarian country before communism.
- lainga 8y agoSpecifically the concept of "Poland A" and "Poland B", where Silesia and "Poland A" had been in Prussia and the eastern half "Poland B" in Russia before 1919.
- lnsru 8y agoThey were “independent” countries, so they had more freedom. Of course, no travel to the West, lots of bullshit, but still free. Countries incorporated in Soviet Union were blindly following orders from Moscow.
- mantas 8y agoMore strict version of socialism. E.g. private business was flat-out outlawed in USSR until the very end. Other eastern bloc countries had more lax rules. On top of that, USSR was actively trying to incorporate newly acquired territories and assimilate non-Russian people to build the Soviet Man. Significant part of population wasn't very happy about it. Meanwhile satellite countries were busy building nation states and had less internal struggle. IIRC, Soviet budget was much more military-oriented as well. More money towards budding regimes in Africa, Asia and South America too. Meanwhile satellite countries in eastern bloc were neutral or even received some resources from Moscow.
- aquarin 8y agoStrange, I send the same link 1 day before. 3 points...
- foreigner 8y agoWhy do the "Pilgrim Girls" have bloody knees?
- TomaszKlosinski 8y agoProbably from kneeing and praying outside a lot.
- anigbrowl 8y agoThere's certain Catholic pilgrimages where you're supposed to complete a journey on your knees, usually to commemorate someone's martyrdom. The 'Sancta Scala' in Rome is the most famous example but I can think off a bunch in different countries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scala_Sancta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scala_Sancta
- qwerty9876 8y agoSomething I noticed: nobody seems to have acne
- gambler 8y agoSomehow, they seem far more "real" than the actual photos I have taken or seen from my relatives in the last decade. And no, it's not just the gritty analog fell, it's the content. Edit: Although, the lack of digital artifacts definitely helps. Digital smoothing or digital noise is something I can still see on a lot of photos from last-generation cameras. Maybe we should stop throwing so much procesing on top of "raw" images. Edit 2: It feels like these photos have a very distinct color palette. But do they, really? Honestly, I spend so much time looking at digital images, it's becoming hard to judge what's "realistic" anymore, especially when you can't look at the scene in real life.
- jeena 8y agoIt might also not be the editing but just the content and framing, etc. It's quite obvious that the person who took those photos were a professional (street) photographer(s). If you're not one, it would be expected that your pictures would not match that quality.
- Markoff 8y agoPrague in 80s https://www.hankermag.com/prague-in-1980s-ed-sijmons/ https://www.hankermag.com/prague-in-1980s-ed-sijmons/