I’m gonna bet author of this post never lived anywhere near anywhere near actual USSR.
I get it, I hate capitalism too. But USSR was dictatorship that murdered milions and didn’t care about the little “you”. Stop glorifying authoritarian regimes.
One great thing was how safe it was. My parents just left me alone when they went to work, and I’d hang out with friends after school. Everything was really convenient as well cause all the things you needed were in walking distance. You didn’t even need public transit most of the time.
In summer, my family timeshared a coop dacha with a couple of other families and I’d hang out with their kids.
We only had a black and white TV though, even in the late 80s. And there weren’t a lot of shows to watch. But my parents got me reading at an early age, and I ended up loving sci-fi which is still my fav genre today.
There wasn’t any consumerism, and no ads blasted in your face. You didn’t buy stuff often, and things like clothing or gadgets all the time. Stuff was generally meant to last. There were no malls really either. There were a lot of parks though, and my parents really liked going for walks. So it’s another habit I’m glad I developed.
School was pretty intense. You had to juggle a bunch of subjects, and that was pretty tough.
It was literal labour benefit vacation in state owned or coop resorts for which most of workforce was legible, which you would know if you actually read that one line instead of fixating over the word “dacha” like the pavlov’s dog fed on anticommunist propaganda.
And if you knew how to read both comments and statistics, you’d be able to tell that in the 80’s access to coop dachas had… What, from 3 m in 1970’s to 8 million families by the end of 80s - So about 5-12% of population? (Source: T.G. Nefedova’s 2012 article “Gorozhane i dachi”)
But no, instead you focus on your imagination that I must’ve mean luxury villas like in the 50s?
You clearly do, since from my memory (granted, from Poland, not USSR) i never met any worker or worker children who was not going to vacations yearly before 1989. So either Poland was vastly better than USSR or your article is shit, or the definition of “dacha” and “vacations” vastly vary.
FWP peaked at 4m adults yearly (including partial refinancing) in the early 80s.
It is true to almost every kid during PRL was able to participate in some form of vacation. Please note that most were at the level lower than coop dachas, mostly tents, schools etc, and it was only partially refinanced.
Likely yeah, my family moved around a lot after the collapse. And that’s the main thing I noticed, people aren’t that different wherever you go. We all have the same needs and drives. We hang out with friends, do stuff to pass the time, go to school, work, etc. But there are some important differences that come from having guarantees in life. For example, nobody in USSR worried about losing their job and ending up on the street or not being able to retire in dignity. These were a category of thoughts that simply didn’t exist because these were considered to be inalienable human rights. Today, living in Canada, I always have the thought of what will happen if I lose my job in the back of my mind. It’s an ever present worry hanging over you. You can be making good money, and like you work, and then the company you work for could go out of business, or you can get laid off because some a spreadsheet didn’t line up the way investors want. I’d give anything to have the guarantees my parents had back in the Soviet days.
I’m gonna bet author of this post never lived anywhere near anywhere near actual USSR.
I get it, I hate capitalism too. But USSR was dictatorship that murdered milions and didn’t care about the little “you”. Stop glorifying authoritarian regimes.
I grew up in USSR, but do tell me more how terrible my life was.
100% serious and sincere question: could you say more about what growing up in the USSR was like?
One great thing was how safe it was. My parents just left me alone when they went to work, and I’d hang out with friends after school. Everything was really convenient as well cause all the things you needed were in walking distance. You didn’t even need public transit most of the time.
In summer, my family timeshared a coop dacha with a couple of other families and I’d hang out with their kids.
We only had a black and white TV though, even in the late 80s. And there weren’t a lot of shows to watch. But my parents got me reading at an early age, and I ended up loving sci-fi which is still my fav genre today.
There wasn’t any consumerism, and no ads blasted in your face. You didn’t buy stuff often, and things like clothing or gadgets all the time. Stuff was generally meant to last. There were no malls really either. There were a lot of parks though, and my parents really liked going for walks. So it’s another habit I’m glad I developed.
School was pretty intense. You had to juggle a bunch of subjects, and that was pretty tough.
Otherwise, life is just life.
Of course an affluent Russian family would remember USSR childhood foundly lol.
(Oh, sorry, no, it was called “lucky”, not “affluent”).
It was literal labour benefit vacation in state owned or coop resorts for which most of workforce was legible, which you would know if you actually read that one line instead of fixating over the word “dacha” like the pavlov’s dog fed on anticommunist propaganda.
And if you knew how to read both comments and statistics, you’d be able to tell that in the 80’s access to coop dachas had… What, from 3 m in 1970’s to 8 million families by the end of 80s - So about 5-12% of population? (Source: T.G. Nefedova’s 2012 article “Gorozhane i dachi”)
But no, instead you focus on your imagination that I must’ve mean luxury villas like in the 50s?
You clearly do, since from my memory (granted, from Poland, not USSR) i never met any worker or worker children who was not going to vacations yearly before 1989. So either Poland was vastly better than USSR or your article is shit, or the definition of “dacha” and “vacations” vastly vary.
Coop dachas for the whole family
=/=
Kolonie za PRL only for children
FWP peaked at 4m adults yearly (including partial refinancing) in the early 80s.
It is true to almost every kid during PRL was able to participate in some form of vacation. Please note that most were at the level lower than coop dachas, mostly tents, schools etc, and it was only partially refinanced.
Sounds more like the time you grew up in and less about where you grew up.
You could be describing my childhood in canada
Likely yeah, my family moved around a lot after the collapse. And that’s the main thing I noticed, people aren’t that different wherever you go. We all have the same needs and drives. We hang out with friends, do stuff to pass the time, go to school, work, etc. But there are some important differences that come from having guarantees in life. For example, nobody in USSR worried about losing their job and ending up on the street or not being able to retire in dignity. These were a category of thoughts that simply didn’t exist because these were considered to be inalienable human rights. Today, living in Canada, I always have the thought of what will happen if I lose my job in the back of my mind. It’s an ever present worry hanging over you. You can be making good money, and like you work, and then the company you work for could go out of business, or you can get laid off because some a spreadsheet didn’t line up the way investors want. I’d give anything to have the guarantees my parents had back in the Soviet days.
That gives me a much more meaningful idea of what you experienced. Thanks for doing that