Was life really that bad in the Soviet Union?

[CCA]

I've come accross in the Soviet-Empire forums a thread of pictures on the Soviet Union:
linky:http://neuraum.livejournal.com/28308.html
LOTS OF PICTURES WARNING
And life there doesn't seem to be as bad as western propagandists and historians make it out to be. I mean a few of these photographs are posed but the majority seem to be fairly normal. Note that these pictures were between 1960-70.

So I guess my question is: How bad/hard was life in the Soviet Union?
Was it really a police state or is it just a western myth?

 

[warpus]

I lived in communist Poland and it wasn't that great.

A lot of those pics look like propaganda shots. Trust me, the communist governments were doing everything possible to try to convince us that we were leading wonderful lives and that everything was peachy.

My parents were both teachers and we couldn't afford a car.. or a phone!

 

[Plotinus]

Well, my girlfriend and I live in the affluent west and aren't burdened by children, but we can't afford a car either!

Admittedly, we can just about stretch to a phone...

 

[Bugfatty300]

There are similar pictures of North Korea. Those pictures don't tell the whole story.

BTW, What the hell is going on here?

 

[Leifmk]

Based on my readings I'd have to say "it depends". Conditions varied considerably over time (and from place to place).

In terms of standard of living -- economical and social -- some things worked better than others and some things worked very badly. Compared with the latter years of the Tsarist regime, the disastrous early years of the revolution, and the hell that was WWII [1], the improvements from the late 50s through the 70s still seem quite impressive. Compared with the increasing affluence of the West, they seem less so.

Attitudes toward and treatment of political (and other) dissenters also changed quite a lot over time, largely tending towards becoming more mellow and gentler.

[1] The full extent of this war's awfulness in the East is often not appreciated by Westerners.

 

[Gelion]

70's were apparently the best years for Soviet people in terms of what they could get. Car was really a luxury and not a necessity as it has become nowadays, same could be said about the phones. Comparing the lives of people in the modern capitalistic world I could say that in USSR people were equaly poor, but at the same time healthier and more educated than an average citizen of the world nowadays.

As I am the only person in this thread who had actualy lived in USSR I can say that the pictures look genuine. Was it that bad? No one can tell as no one can still say whats important to people. One thing is for certain - this is not propaganda work.

 

[REDY]

So I guess my question is: How bad/hard was life in the Soviet Union?
Was it really a police state or is it just a western myth?

Soviet Union had similiar regime as Czechoslovakia, some another Warsaw pact countries had less raw regimes. I dont know what you want to know exactly but I am ready to answer, my parents visited Moscow/St Peterburg in 1980 and living in same raw regime. I was talking with them about it many times. Only problem should be English, but if you have more concrete questions you should ask and I will try answer.

Maybe you think that USSR 1950 and USSR 1970 were similiar. I dont know much about western propaganda so dont know exactly what you expected from pictures.

 

[Leifmk]

Comparing the lives of people in the modern capitalistic world I could say that in USSR people were equaly poor, but at the same time healthier and more educated than an average citizen of the world nowadays.

The extension of decent medical care and education to the general population, in particular, stands as a very impressive achievement. (As does the academic tradition, although that goes back to well before the revolution it certainly prospered in many areas afterwards.)

When comparing standards of living between the modern capitalistic West and, well, any other society, we should keep in mind that it is the former which is the outlier.

 

[Richard Cribb]

My parents were both teachers and we couldn't afford a car.. or a phone!

Hmm How old are you and exactly where did you live?

 

[REDY]

http://www.bilhistorie.dk/Billeder/Skoda/Skoda_120.jpg
-my parents first car You should see this car on Czech roads even today

 

[Gelion]

http://www.bilhistorie.dk/Billeder/Skoda/Skoda_120.jpg
-my parents first car You should see this car on Czech roads even today

Man, thats better than our first car! I so envy you

 

[Leifmk]

I remember Skodas and Ladas used to be fairly common around here as cheap "crap" (but actually fairly reliable) cars, back in the 1980s.

However, I also remember when there was a year-long waiting list to get a new telephone installed. In Norway.

 

[Neonanocyborgasm]

I
And life there doesn't seem to be as bad as western propagandists and historians make it out to be. I mean a few of these photographs are posed but the majority seem to be fairly normal. Note that these pictures were between 1960-70.

That's because you picked the pictures promoted by Soviet propagandists!

So I guess my question is: How bad/hard was life in the Soviet Union?
Was it really a police state or is it just a western myth?

People weren't necessarily starving, but it was oppressive. You were stuck doing whatever menial tasks the state told you to do, and there was nothing you could do about it, even if you had ambition. It was more of an "ennui" kind of oppression.

 

[REDY]

Well there are pictures of pioneers, but I dont know what it has to do with propaganda, it shows life in this era. Of course, Russia wasnt never most productive economy and life in some asian village is different from europe Russian cities. On the other hand, village life should be quite same now.

 

[Murky]

Even here in the USA life isn't exactly peachy for everyone. When I was growing up there were times we didn't have running water or electricity.

 

[REDY]

The problem wasnt with running water or telephones. Many people from Eastern Europe are not confident with today and want communism back. But main problem was with freedom. Pictures dont show soldiers from wwII in prison, pictures dont show people working in uranium mines, dont show books which cant be distributed and dont show everydays propaganda which was destroying individualism and free mind. My grandfather was in Uranium mine for 4 years, my mother had very problems with get education. Some people were even murdered, for example Milada Horáková, who even nazists havent been able to kill. The fact, that somewhere were fronts for some goods arent so important in comparision with this. Everyday you have to showing nonresistence. Criticism of regime? No way. The regime was liberalizating during time, but still there were people watched and opposition opressed.

 

[Mirc]

http://www.bilhistorie.dk/Billeder/Skoda/Skoda_120.jpg
-my parents first car You should see this car on Czech roads even today

My parents couldn't afford a car at all.

Yours is much better.

 

[Pokurcz]

See the movie "The Others", about east Germany!

 

[warpus]

Well, my girlfriend and I live in the affluent west and aren't burdened by children, but we can't afford a car either!

Admittedly, we can just about stretch to a phone...

Did you have to wait in a crazy line for meat at the beginning of each month, being limited to how much of what you could buy by food stamps & availability..? how about having to spend your life savings on a tiny 1 bedroom apartment for a family of 5 and having to wait 10 years for it?.. Having to plan and execute a complicated escape plan that would see your family live in poverty in West Germany & Canada for several years?

Hmm How old are you and exactly where did you live?

Czestochowa and 29. Why?

 

[Louis XXIV]

My parents went to East Berlin (I want to say during the 70s, but I can't be sure). They basically remember everything being very cheaply made more than anything else.

Of course, living conditions depended a lot on where you lived. In East Germany, which was devistated by the war and never really had as serious an effort to be rebuilt as Western Germany, things aren't very good. In the Western part of Russia, things might be better. Of course, this is only economically speaking. Corruption by party members, oppression of almost all free will, etc., were genuine problems that can't be represented by a picture.