13 ms·

The photos of stores and the paucity of merchandise available say a lot.

by TomMasz 2mo ago

tocs3 2mo ago
Yes, I have heard a lot about the austerity of life in the USSR growing up in the 1980s. Comparing life in the world of today to what was available , even in the US, is going to look meager. Growing up in a small town in the 1980s in the US our local grocery store could be measured in the 100s sqft (that also sold clothing and was a feed store) . Now in the same area I shop in a store that can be measured in acres with a super Walmart down the street that is even larger and a few other giant stores in the neighborhood (Home Depot, Academy, etc). It will make anything of the time look sparse. Again, not trying to say the USSR had an abundance of merchandise but that they were different times.
- hagbard_c 2mo ago
  You're comparing a (probably rural?) 'general store' in the 80's with current megastores and for some reason link that to the austerity experienced under communism with centrally planned economies. That's a silly comparison since those small rural general stores still exist - there's one a few km from where I live in Sweden which sells everything from groceries to clothes to tools, doubles as a feed store and also happens to sell a few dozen types of lubricants for agricultural equipment, all in a collection of small wooden buildings of the type the Swedish countryside is dotted with - and will hopefully continue doing so in the future. Compare the average supermarket in the USA in the 80's with the non-party-member equivalents in the eastern bloc countries in the same time for a better comparison. I never made it to Russia in that time but I did visit Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia - both countries no longer exist - as well as the USA in that time and the difference was as clear as daylight. The USA was and still is the land of plenty, even compared to the Netherlands where I'm from and then lived but especially compared to those eastern bloc countries. This was not a matter of 'different times' but 'different political and economical systems'.
  - tocs3 2mo ago
    I am saying that the 100 photos presented did not look especially austere to me. As some one growing up in similar times in a middle class (more rural) area these pictures just looked pretty normal slice of every day life (with a difference in location and culture). Any pictures of then compared to what is available today to many (next day delivery of almost any consumer item, on credit) would likely look austere.
    - hagbard_c 2mo ago
      Those photo's don't look austere because they were meant to show the great and immortal ideal created in the unbreakable union of Soviet republics: Sing to the Motherland, home of the free, Bulwark of peoples in brotherhood strong. O Party of Lenin, the strength of the people, To Communism's triumph lead us on! They do not show life for the average Soviet citizen but the way the Party wanted people to think Soviet life looked like. Славься, Отечество наше свободное, Дружбы народов надёжный оплот! Партия Ленина - сила народная Нас к торжеству коммунизма ведёт!

The photos of stores and the paucity of merchandise available say a lot.

by TomMasz 2mo ago

The photos of stores and the paucity of merchandise available say a lot.

tocs3 2mo ago

Yes, I have heard a lot about the austerity of life in the USSR growing up in the 1980s. Comparing life in the world of today to what was available , even in the US, is going to look meager. Growing up in a small town in the 1980s in the US our local grocery store could be measured in the 100s sqft (that also sold clothing and was a feed store) . Now in the same area I shop in a store that can be measured in acres with a super Walmart down the street that is even larger and a few other giant stores in the neighborhood (Home Depot, Academy, etc). It will make anything of the time look sparse. Again, not trying to say the USSR had an abundance of merchandise but that they were different times.

hagbard_c 2mo ago
You're comparing a (probably rural?) 'general store' in the 80's with current megastores and for some reason link that to the austerity experienced under communism with centrally planned economies. That's a silly comparison since those small rural general stores still exist - there's one a few km from where I live in Sweden which sells everything from groceries to clothes to tools, doubles as a feed store and also happens to sell a few dozen types of lubricants for agricultural equipment, all in a collection of small wooden buildings of the type the Swedish countryside is dotted with - and will hopefully continue doing so in the future. Compare the average supermarket in the USA in the 80's with the non-party-member equivalents in the eastern bloc countries in the same time for a better comparison. I never made it to Russia in that time but I did visit Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia - both countries no longer exist - as well as the USA in that time and the difference was as clear as daylight. The USA was and still is the land of plenty, even compared to the Netherlands where I'm from and then lived but especially compared to those eastern bloc countries. This was not a matter of 'different times' but 'different political and economical systems'.
- tocs3 2mo ago
  I am saying that the 100 photos presented did not look especially austere to me. As some one growing up in similar times in a middle class (more rural) area these pictures just looked pretty normal slice of every day life (with a difference in location and culture). Any pictures of then compared to what is available today to many (next day delivery of almost any consumer item, on credit) would likely look austere.
  - hagbard_c 2mo ago
    Those photo's don't look austere because they were meant to show the great and immortal ideal created in the unbreakable union of Soviet republics: Sing to the Motherland, home of the free, Bulwark of peoples in brotherhood strong. O Party of Lenin, the strength of the people, To Communism's triumph lead us on! They do not show life for the average Soviet citizen but the way the Party wanted people to think Soviet life looked like. Славься, Отечество наше свободное, Дружбы народов надёжный оплот! Партия Ленина - сила народная Нас к торжеству коммунизма ведёт!