So, friends — today will be a great and interesting post about how actually lived in the Soviet province. In the environment of fans of the Soviet Union why-that is a popular myth that all people in the USSR lived richly and freely, had a completely free five-room apartment and ate the best and most importantly natural products. In fact, this is one big myth — indeed, in the scoop so lived the nomenclature of the family, which was five percent of the total population, whereas the rest of the people lived in poverty.
Particularly strong Soviet poverty was apparent in the provinces, far from the big cities, there is almost nothing different from the nineteenth, and often from the XVII century — with no roads, no water and light, and the people lived in some crumbling barracks. Recently one of the Western sites I stumbled upon an amazing collection of images that were made in the Soviet provinces in 1960-80-ies. What is most interesting — this period fans of the USSR called “the Golden age of the Soviet Union” — say, the war was not, well lived indeed, and then came Gorbachev and ruined our air. In fact, the real situation has nothing to do with this statement today you’ll see.
So in today’s post — rare pictures from the life of Soviet provincial hinterland. Make sure you check out the article below, it is interesting and also share your opinions about all you have seen in the comments. Well, friends to add do not forget)
02. So, let’s begin. The average Soviet village or town somewhere in the middle zone of the RSFSR looked somehow abandoned or semi-abandoned Church, near which it could work some kind of boozer — the Soviet government loved these jokes. Could still build on the site of the old cemetery a huge stadium.
03. In the late sixties — early seventies (under Brezhnev) in the provincial towns had begun to build so-called “cafe glass”, inside of which sold ice cream, or sausages, or all the same beer — for example, a similar glass called “Assol” can be seen in the film “Afonya”. The form of a provincial marbles were far from the capital — they could be lined with dirty wooden crates with alcohol or with empty utensils, and so on.
04. With all the stories of the Soviet government about some kind of “progress” and so on — in the Soviet province never really existed normal roads, which by the way is even often played up in Soviet films, often with the heroes riding on a country road and especially badly jumping on the next colobine stop to fix it and push the broken bus. In General, here are the pictures for the Soviet of the province were frequent:
05. Or such. Here guys try to push out of the mud tightly mired there “Moskvich-2137”, and note that it does not happen in some woods, and where some kind of collective repair-technical base. The guy in the hat is probably a local chief.
06. But to look like “urbanism in the Soviet”. The picture bus stop in one of the provincial Soviet towns. People stand in the mud, there is no even minimal shelter, on the roads — holes and puddles in which to breed mirror carp.
07. Grandma came for water to the column. Why to waste huge money for any kind of missiles in a country where the majority of the population of small towns and villages had no running water, nor even a decent sewage system? Rhetorical question…
08. But so many Soviet provincial towns looked urban infrastructure — baths, hire shops equipment, shops, hairdresser’s, services. Many buildings remained since tsarist times, was an old wooden building and 1970-80-ies were badly worn.
09. All sorts of young fans of the USSR post pictures with a staged photo of the Moscow Gum with captions like “Oh, how we lived well in the USSR”, but actually most of Soviet provincial stores looked something like this. Dirty, low and dark room, the entrance is composed of a pile of wooden boxes and sometimes is bloody the deck with a huge axe (a La medieval scaffold), on which the cut meat. At the entrance hangs a dirty mesh “mosquito”, and the inside always pulls something sour.
10. Here, too, such a typical Soviet provincial store. From the top hangs a sign “Products”, optionally there could still be written something like “Shop No. 14 RapiDeploy”. Woman out of the door, otovaritsya thereby sour bread “brick” and three bottles of vodka, a Woman, by the way, very by local standards, wealthy — with a manicure and a no hair, in a fashionable trowel zipper. In stark contrast with the local surroundings, dressed in quilted jackets.
11. Apart from shops in the provincial Soviet towns and cities there are markets. If the word “Soviet of the market” do you see something like modern Italian and Spanish markets with fish ranks of cultural and sellers, I will disappoint you — even in the sixties the Soviet market looked like and so not very different from pre-revolutionary:
12. For half a century the Soviet power has changed only the factthat now the products on the markets was brought on horseback, and in trucks (often with a wood-burning engine). Nothing else changed — dirt, poverty, poor and disenfranchised people around.
13. An elderly peasant family leaving the market with shopping. Just save this photo and look at it whenever you Wake up nostalgia for the Soviet Union.
14. Or, also the Soviet market, buyers barrels. The as if from nineteenth century, and the characters — how from the paintings of Brueghel, meanwhile, is the seventies, the Brezhnev era.
15. The rural market in a major provincial city. Here at least there is a shopping arcade, but still rate the total decay and total misery of the situation.
16. But rural family made a major purchase — the TV. The TV had to collect probably several years in the USSR, the box was worth 2-5 average Soviet wage. After purchase, the TV had to be taken home on a sled, on straw, wrapped in grandmother’s shawl. Well, nothing — now they on TV will tellhow well they live.
17. Of course, no “delivery services” or something like that in the Soviet provinces did not exist — if in big cities it was still the so-called “cargo taxi” (which often, crooks, amassing on the job status) in the province was not anything. To take the goods, had to negotiate with the driver Lesha/ mechanic Kolya/ traktoria Valera for a bottle or for money. Sometimes I had to do the money — the people in the photo below, dragged himself to the door.
18. What you can do in the Soviet province? In the cities you could go to work for any plant — most hazardous industry, which was emptied just of the capital and major cities. Could be pushing papers in some nobody needs statistical office, well, anything to get in the same Soviet shops. Visually it looked something like this:
20. In the village you could go to work the farm any mechanic, all Soviet films the farm mechanics and tractor is entirely young, white, fit lads that brim had read Lenin and talk about straight and bright road of life, work and importance of the small everyday feats. After the tractor look portly and smiling girl and, bending his head to one side, natawut songs about unrequited love under the birches.
And in fact, Soviet tractor looked something like this. This kind of Soviet men in the village were acquired to forty years, then worked another twenty years, retiring to the ruins with a bunch of diseases…
21. And the village Soviet girls did not sing about love under the birches — their women’s century was short as the spring in the Siberian bogs, and already by the age of 45-50 the girl turned into a grandma in a headscarf, with a bent back and missing half the teeth. Their peers in the West in these years experienced a second youth, wore short skirts, beautiful hairstyles, and met with the Cavaliers.
22. And in the Soviet province lived a lot of former criminals — they were struck in the civil rights and forbade them to settle closer than 100 km to the capitals of the republics and major cities. So that men in the Soviet province often looked something like this:
Such cases.
I think that you clearly see how real the Soviet province different from the pseudoreality that was shown in Soviet propaganda films.
Write in the comments what you think about this, interesting.
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