Life in USSR

I grew up in communist USSR. You have no idea how grotesque things can be without a free market.

Same for other countries in eastern block, Soviet union was very keen to erase individualities of given society and create 'uniform communist people'. Life was simple, even trivial - state gave work, you went straight to jail if you refused. No organized crime, nothing to steal since everything was owned by state. No hard drugs, just endless misery of alcohol and heavy smoking. So even sizeable roma population which now has some 98% unemployment rate were all working, even if in comple

I lived in USSR, me and my family lived through it. You're the one who is wrong. The comment above is correct.

You probably lived in some different USSR.

Just look at the outlook people had in the Soviet era. It's really not that better than what capitalism gives you.

As someone born in ussr ans still living in Vilnius I can tell you there was no much happyness back then. Obviously there are happy moments in life, no matter how poor you are, but we know it is a bit better when you have something to eat. I am not a fan of consumerism, but I take western culture for having a choice what you do. The soviet erra didn't do that. Orwell's Animal Farm describes well the reality in soviet time...

You guys are depressing. Try living in the Soviet Union. It's all relative !

Dang, I grew up in Soviet Union and what I see in the last couple days looks exactly like communists doing in 30s (removing unwanted people from photos, firing from work, kids betraying their parents to authority, etc). While I don’t know the history of this account, I don’t think this comparison is far fetched and it is way closer than I thought I will ever see after coming to US 20 something years ago.

My grandma (born 1943, 30s in 1970s) says that these times were felt as very stable and carefree. She is a worker class which moved from Moscow to the East of Volga region at WW2, has a financial education and worked as an industrial accountant. Yes she was amazed in trips to Moscow and Eastern Europe, but she also never thought much of how to live a live. Nowadays she feels bad for us new citizens who must try hard to get even basic things. Most of older people in their 70’s I know personally a

I think you should also consider tens of millions of people who lived under Russian boot in USSR itself and Warsaw pact countries. It appeared that wealth inequality is lower because there was no free press and thus no way to see it. People who waited years to be able to get a permission to buy a car or an apartment had no way to make their situation known.A significant part of populations lived relatively well just because of their place in the society. The lack of free press caused them to