Anyone from the Eastern bloc?

[erasure]

Originally Posted by Marmel

Didn't you have so-called "private sector" in Moscow and St Petersburg? I mean, private houses, many of them looking almost like houses in villages.

Nooooo))))
Moscow was always a popular place, so it kept on growing and growing, and gazillion people were moving in from all over the country, so it might explain why it didn't have private houses, but high rises mostly.
They didn't touch the old part of Moscow for some time ( there were some smaller buildings there, but still - no village-type houses.)
When I moved in with my grand-aunt to the newer district of Moscow, there were still village houses on the other side of the street; there was still a cow there too, apparently, because some woman was still bringing us fresh milk for sale on the week-ends. But very soon it all disappeared and the high-rises came instead.

[Atai J.]

Soviet Union - 8 years of my life - I loved that time.

[erasure]

Originally Posted by Atai J.

Soviet Union - 8 years of my life - I loved that time.

Interestingly enough, no matter how critical many people were/are of the Soviet society, the majority still have good memories about their Soviet childhood.
After certain things I saw in American society - the homelessness, the disparity and some other issues that affect children from school age, I can better understand why Soviet childhood was so care-free of social ills of the grown-up life, and why people still remember it as a good thing.