Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Is anyone on here from Russia or one of the Soviet satellites that grew up under communism? If so, I’d love to hear from you! I’d especially like to learn about the daily lives of ordinary citizens.
1) How did you get your job?
a. Were you paid the same amount as everyone else at your job?
b. How were you paid? Would the government send you a check?
c. Did you lack motivation to work hard? Did people generally lack motivation?
2) How did you obtain your residence?
a. Did you have to pay utilities (electric, gas,water, etc.) every month?
b. Did citizens have to pay property taxes for their residence?
3) How difficult was it obtaining luxuries, such as a TV? Did it require you to save moneyover an extending period of time?
And before you ask, no this is not for a school project. I am genuinely interested in learning.
Is anyone on here from Russia or one of the Soviet satellites that grew up under communism? If so, I’d love to hear from you! I’d especially like to learn about the daily lives of ordinary citizens.
I was born and raised in the Soviet Union, so I'm probably qualified (more or less) to answer your questions.
Quote:
1) How did you get your job?
I've had different jobs throughout times, so some jobs (mostly bad jobs) I've got cold turkey - just went and applied there, and some ( better jobs) that I've got was because of someone knew someone in the right place.
Quote:
a. Were you paid the same amount as everyone else at your job?
"Everyone else" at my job had different experience ( number of years worked there,) different position and so on, so everyone was paid differently, although usually the difference was not all that big.
Quote:
b. How were you paid? Would the government send you a check?
Let me think here... no, there was no checks at that point in time. We all had to show up in certain office on certain day and get our money in cash.
Quote:
c. Did you lack motivation to work hard? Did people generally lack motivation?
It depends. As in the US, jobs in Russia were very different; some were meant for people to excel, to apply their talents, and some were meant to grind you till you drop and to spit you out. So in my case ( since I had both kinds) sometimes I was motivated and worked hard, and sometimes I was trying to do as less as possible. Money in this case were not a motivating factor for me. For people with families money were more motivating factor I suppose, but in this case those who craved them most (meaning that's what was the major motivator in their lives) - they were probably the most unhappy people, since they felt they could never had enough of material things in their lives, while living in the S.U. So to answer your question - each situation for different person was different; some people lacked the motivation, some didn't. One of the most motivated people I ever knew, were the guys in science sector. They often loved so much what they were doing, that they were willing to spend extra-time at their work place for free. They were motivated by the process itself and they were joking sometimes that "we are satisfying our curiosity in science at government's expense."
Quote:
2) How did you obtain your residence?
I didn't.
I kept on living with my parents, since I didn't move to a different city ( because of job or study,) so my assigned residence was precisely that - in my parents' apartment in Moscow.
( You can probably read more about the "assigned residence" in the Soviet Union here;
a. Did you have to pay utilities (electric, gas,water, etc.) every month?
Yes, but it was not much.
Quote:
b. Did citizens have to pay property taxes for their residence?
No. Because the residence, technically speaking belonged to the government, not to the residents.
Here ( again - technically speaking ) we are entering a grey area, when it comes to such thing as "private property" in the Soviet Union.
It's not like people didn't have it - they owned summer houses ( dachas,) they owned houses in small towns and villages where they lived, but since the rule of a thumb was that they couldn't use it as a source of profit, they were not paying any taxes on it. ( Interestingly enough - it's not like no one was ever using their property for extra income; renting private rooms in resort areas was a common practice for example; I just don't know how well it was sitting with a law or whether it was something that the authorities didn't care about, yet there were no taxes even in this case. Overall, when we are talking about "taxes" in the Soviet Union - officially there was no such thing, because the gov. was figuring out on its own how much it wanted to spend here and there, so basically everything was taken care of for Soviet citizens - meaning free medicine, free education and what's not, and salaries were given as is - with no "taxes" involved.)
Quote:
3) How difficult was it obtaining luxuries, such as a TV? Did it require you to save money over an extending period of time?
T.V was not considered a "luxury" - practically every household had it, but color TVs were rather pricey, so yes, people had to save somewhat to buy one.
I think it's very important to mention that there was not such thing as unemployment in USSR. The soviets ideology said that everyone required to work and everyone must be useful to the whole society. In fact, it was illegal to idle without a reasonable excuse for a long time period. Legally, you might be arrested by militia (the Soviets police service) for the sponging. Though, the Soviet authorities were very flexible to this matter in the Brezhnev era.
No. Because the residence, technically speaking belonged to the government, not to the residents.
Here ( again - technically speaking ) we are entering a grey area, when it comes to such thing as "private property" in the Soviet Union.
It's not like people didn't have it - they owned summer houses ( dachas,) they owned houses in small towns and villages where they lived...
There were coop apartments in USSR as well. And there were owners of private houses in every big city also (not only owners of suburban summer dachas).
There were coop apartments in USSR as well. And there were owners of private houses in every big city also (not only owners of suburban summer dachas).
Are you telling me that there were "owners of private houses" in Moscow? ( Because Moscow is a big city you know))))
P.S. Again - even if there were "co-op apartments" in the Soviet Union, you still can't say that these apartments belonged to those who purchased them in the same manner as you'd define "private property" in the West.
In S.U. such "owners" of such "property" couldn't leave it as inheritance to their children for example; they could pass them only the amount of money they've invested in such apartment; yet apartment itself was going back to the government after their death.
Are you telling me that there were "owners of private houses" in Moscow? ( Because Moscow is a big city you know))))
Sorry, I don't understand your sarcasm here.
Yes, there were owners of a private house in every big city including Moscow.
Here is just one example of it : Arbat, 25. A private house of the soviet actor Porochovshikov.
In S.U. such "owners" of such "property" couldn't leave it as inheritance to their children for example; they could pass them only the amount of money they've invested in such apartment; yet apartment itself was going back to the government after their death.
Sorry, I don't understand your sarcasm here.
Yes, there were owners of a private house in every big city including Moscow.
Here is just one example of it : Arbat, 25. A private house of the soviet actor Porochovshikov.
You puzzle me more and more, so I had to look up who Porochovshikov is.
He was no one of importance back in the REAL Soviet times; some unknown actor; his "fame and fortune" came apparently only in 1989 from what I can see, when the Soviet Union was at its last breath, and the house of (pre-revolutionary) Porochovshikov's ancestors has been given to him for long-term lease ( 49 years) in 1995 from what I can see in Russian Wiki.
Sorry I had to look it all up, because we are already talking about post-Soviet period; in Soviet period, there was no such thing as people "owning houses" in big cities.
Even top academics, diplomats and what's not- they were all living in apartments in big cities. Nice, spacious apartments, but not houses never the less.
I remember how surprised I was, when I arrived to visit some friend's relatives in Ukraine for the first time and discovered that people actually COULD live in the houses while living in the city. In my mind of a typical Muscovite such option didn't even exist; I thought all people who lived in the houses lived in villages only.
Last edited by erasure; 02-14-2014 at 01:28 AM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
