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As for the USSR, the question really is a matter of who, when and where.
Life in the rural Ukraine in the early 1930s would have been pretty bad. Life in Leningrad in 1942 would have been horrific. On the other hand, life during the Khruschev thaw, with the war years well in the past and the dismantling of the Gulag and the economy doing about as good as it was ever going to do and the liberalization of laws allowing greater expression and some dissent, would have been comparably good (note to those getting their hackles raised - I said 'comparably'). The Brezhnev years saw economic stagnation and a rolling back to some extent of what was allowed under his predecessor, but was still a far cry from the insanity under Stalin (and Lenin).
Being an ethnic Russian obviously helped. Being Jewish or Muslim, and to a lesser extent openly Christian, or German or Estonian or Lithuanian or a Tatar (or any number of a great many other minorities), and to a lesser extent Ukrainian or Belarusan, would have been relatively disadvantageous.
Of course, being a party member meant various perks, increasing with how high one rose. The party was far and away the best means of social mobility, though a career in the sciences could also allow some significant movement.
But in general, there was less in the way of pretty much everything - liberty to do various things, to go where one wanted to go, to be who one wanted to be, and of the basic necessities of life.
Not really. Muslims had their own perks in their own republics; they had their own life style, their own unspoken "rules and regulations" and some of them were extremely wealthy. Like my relatives for example. Germans? The father of my close girl-friend was a diplomat in the US and later - a professor in very prestigious University. He was an ethnic German, and a very "Aryan-looking" one at that. Same goes to Lithuanians and Tatars - there were no particular problems in terms of ethnicity in the seventies-eighties. Except for the "Jewish question."
P.S. So you were thinking more in terms of Stalin's times. Back THEN what you wrote about could have been true.
So what were they drinking I wonder?
I mean in Russia, when you'd see something like this - http://20th.su/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/kvas.jpg - it would be kvass the awesomeness of which still doesn't allow Pepsi and Coca Cola to take over Russian market.
So what was the "drink of choice" in Poland then?
There was kvass too, milk was always and still is very popular, but from what I remember the most popular soft drinks were these:
Several flavors, carbonated, quite tasty and still regarded as the ultimate drink by many, mainly due to nostalgia. It could taste refreshing, it could taste like it contains half of the periodic table There were many local producers and while the general idea of what it's supposed to be like was similar, the details were often very different.
Then there was Polo Cockta - the Polish answer to coca cola.
It looked similar, but that's about where the similarities stopped. It is still in production today, and I still don't understand how anyone can drink it. It's very sweet and very, very bad
And finally in the streets there were these "saturators" where you could buy such amazing drinks as "carbonated water" or "carbonated water with juice".
Not really. Muslims had their own perks in their own republics; they had their own life style, their own unspoken "rules and regulations" and some of them were extremely wealthy. Like my relatives for example. Germans? The father of my close girl-friend was a diplomat in the US and later - a professor in very prestigious University. He was an ethnic German, and a very "Aryan-looking" one at that. Same goes to Lithuanians and Tatars - there were no particular problems in terms of ethnicity in the seventies-eighties. Except for the "Jewish question."
P.S. So you were thinking more in terms of Stalin's times. Back THEN what you wrote about could have been true.
I grew up in Moldavia which had a mix of ethnicities - Moldovans, Russians, Ukrainians, Jews, Gypsies, Bulgars (whole Bulgarian villages moved to Bessarabia in the XVIII - XIX centuries to escape the Turks), Gagauz people (ethnic Turks who adopted Christianity so they stayed behind when Bessarabia was overtaken by the Russian Empire), and ethnic Germans (there were whole German villages dating to the early times, when the Russian Tsars were encouraging immigration to Bessarabia - it was a good arable country but poorly developed).
The Germans were never persecuted, at least after the war. The ones I knew were German only in their last names and the ethnicity indicated in their passport. Interestingly, they looked more "Aryan" or Nordic than any "real" German I met later. But none that I know of even spoke any German. For all intents and purposes they were "Sovok" people, i.e. Russian speaking, Soviet educated, atheist or religiously unaffiliated, with only some bits and pieces of their "original" culture still remaining. A German co-worker of mine emigrated to Germany just as our family was preparing to move to the States and we spent many hours discussing our moves, we both had the same feelings and worries. In a way we were both "Homo Soveticus" far more than Jewish or German. Neither of us spoke the language of the country we were moving to, or knew first thing about the everyday life there. Unfortunately I lost track of him, it would be interesting to find out how he fared there.
The Gypsies were somewhat prosecuted, but not by the government, it was more of ill-will from individuals in the position of power. The Moldovian Gypsies were unique in that they were settled and many had legitimate occupations.
The Gagauz people were not on very good terms with Moldovans, but in the Soviet times Moscow called all the shots, and while the First Secretary (local party boss) in any ethnic Republic was ethnic, his Second Secretary was always Russian. So I don't think they were prosecuted in Soviet times either.
Generally, the central government was trying hard to promote "titular" minorities in ethnic Republics to high visibility positions.
Solaris was a good movie but very Tarkovsky, he was all by himself in the Soviet and world cinema, I don't think his films represented the typical Soviet style of cinematography. I greatly respect him but I can't watch his films except Solaris or Stalker, and even these two are hard for me to watch, he was a great director but I am just not into his style of story telling.
I was thinking more about movies by Ryazanov, Danelia, perhaps Zakharov. if you like movies with elements of sci-fi but still "smart" look up Kin-Dza-Dza! by Danelia, it's a masterpiece. It's like Kafka and Kubrik had a baby.
Thanks for the info. I haven't had an interest in Hollywood for some time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gene Green
Stalin turned increasingly anti-Jewish after the war, when Israel chose to become a Western style democracy rather than become part of the Communist Paradise. The government and the security forces were cleansed of almost anyone Jewish, many prominent Jewish leaders and cultural icons were murdered, the newspapers were "uncovering" the real names behind pen names used by Jewish writers, it all culminated in the Doctors' Plot trial. After Stalln's death, Beria (who pardoned all survivors of Doctor's plot) claimed that preparations were being made to forcefully relocate Soviet Jews to Far East (incidently or not, the Jewish Autonomous Oblast area was used to host some of the worst gulags due to it's extremely inhospitable climate). After 1948, USSR internal policies have been very much anti-Jewish.
Of course people cried when Stalin died, he had God like personality cult. He however hardly improved lives of ordinary citizens. This happened later, under Khruschev (who royally mucked up the agricultural sector but gave millions of people private flats, and generally invested into affordable consumer goods) and Brezhnev. Anyone I know of my parents' generation say that life quality was the best in the mid 60s to mid-late 70s.
We know what happened to Beria not long after Stalin's death.
Another blood-curdling figure is Vasili Blokhin. He personally, with gun in hand, bumped off over 10,000 people. I saw the interrogation video of the KGB officer who supervised the Katyn killings. His first name was Peter, but I forget his last name. It was from the early 1990s. He was never prosecuted and died of natural causes.
Trivia: Brezhnev tried to get the KGB chairman to arrest Khruschev. The chairman wouldn't do it. After Brezhnev took over, he installed Yuri Andropov as KGB chairman.
To the OP, I'd suggest a first hand account can be found in the book "Mig Pilot". In 1976 Viktor Belenko defected to the U.S. via Japan in a Mig 25 Foxbat. The book details the difficulties he went through trying to acclimatize himself to western culture. It's a very good read.
There was kvass too, milk was always and still is very popular, but from what I remember the most popular soft drinks were these:
Several flavors, carbonated, quite tasty and still regarded as the ultimate drink by many, mainly due to nostalgia. It could taste refreshing, it could taste like it contains half of the periodic table There were many local producers and while the general idea of what it's supposed to be like was similar, the details were often very different.
Then there was Polo Cockta - the Polish answer to coca cola.
It looked similar, but that's about where the similarities stopped. It is still in production today, and I still don't understand how anyone can drink it. It's very sweet and very, very bad
And finally in the streets there were these "saturators" where you could buy such amazing drinks as "carbonated water" or "carbonated water with juice".
Thanks Yac. That was interesting. But I see your age now; you most likely "caught up" only with the late period of the "Socialist system." At that point "Fanta" and "Coca-Cola" ( or was it Pepsi ) has been sold in Moscow. But that last picture of yours - that must be the sixties or seventies, and what you referred to as "carbonated water with juice" (or rather "syrup") sold by the street vendors - I have some vague memories of it from my early childhood too. It was gone by the end of the seventies I think.
Overall I think ( judging by what I read of FB) the experience/memories of life under the Soviet system varies greatly depending on the time/place of every given person.
I remember once looking at certain pictures of different food products on one of those "Life in the USSR" sites, and discussion following them was something like this; "Yes, it all looks great, but I bet it was only for the privileged members of the society; that's not what you could find in stores for average citizens." I am staring at all this stuff, realizing that I must have been seven or eight when all these things were definitely IN THE STORES, in front of my nose, as "average citizen" as I was.
Overall I feel that the 60ies for example and the 80ies ( and up) in the Soviet Union were quite different periods of the system in many respects.
Not really relevant to the USSR times, but here's the latest news from Russia.
DUMA decided not to do any changes to the established retirement age.
So, it stays at 60/55. 60 for males and 55 for females.
The only retirement age change was done for public servants. Yes, government officials now will get full benefit when retired at 65.
Even more, any "public servant" must declare source of any possessions over $10 000.
Also, elected officials are not allowed to be owners or otherwise involved/have interest into private businesses.
Someone here said "country is run by madman". I'd be Ok with this madness.
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Germans? The father of my close girl-friend was a diplomat in the US and later - a professor in very prestigious University. He was an ethnic German, and a very "Aryan-looking" one at that. 
There were many local producers and while the general idea of what it's supposed to be like was similar, the details were often very different. 
But I see your age now; you most likely "caught up" only with the late period of the "Socialist system." At that point "Fanta" and "Coca-Cola" ( or was it Pepsi 
) has been sold in Moscow. But that last picture of yours - that must be the sixties or seventies, and what you referred to as "carbonated water with juice" (or rather "syrup") sold by the street vendors - I have some vague memories of it from my early childhood too. It was gone by the end of the seventies I think. 
