Soviet Union Memories?

Anyone here on Sup Forums who lived in the Soviet Union or one of it's satellite states and was old enough to remember what it was like? What was daily life like? especially at the end of it (1989-1991)?

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Yes. Emigrated to USA shortly after, ama about communist system

How was state atheism?

Parents moved out in the 90s. They told me how they would pay rent with vodka and basically live off the black market (because the government-run stores had jack shit)

what was it like?

did you feel sad when the SU collapsed?

do you miss it?

Which state were you from?
Were there any differences between them?

Also want to know what year did you immigrate?

I was just a kid in Leningrad when Soviet Union Collapsed.
I and my mother were standing in food lines, i remember her saying "She was getting used to it since childhood, it's somewhat from generation to generation to stand with your parent in food lines"
Dad was a "Milicioner" (policeman), crime during 80's increased, the westerner influence was getting rapid and people were generally tired of perestroika and entire soviet system.
Shit was tough and poor, I can't even describe it. It was something like "Poor but didn't look poor at all"
When Baltics gained independence my Dad and mother blitzed as fast as they could there because some of their family lived there.
I remember how Latvians with Estonians were celebrating the collapse and I assumed it really was great.

what do your parents and you think of europe now

Dad hates what western europe has become, well he hates what entire europe has become, from west to east.
He went to Germany for work in 1993 and described its 90's "great place to live and be proud of", today he hates everything Germany has become.
He calls Russia "pathetic" for trying to become a parody of what Soviets were "trying to return to those times instead of building something new and great"

Mother doesn't really care about politics, but says she doesn't really miss Soviet Union, but is just nostalgic from it, she always talks about how great the youth organisation "pioneers" and wishes something like that would return.

My family became citizens of Lativa and Russia, they generally hate how poor Lativa is but they wish it would become better.

In Poland it was always a little schizophrenic. The're was berly someone who support communism since the beginning, after 45 years of indoctrination maybe 20% somewhat supported them.

But almost no one belived in it. So you watched TV where you knew, that presenter told balant lies. He also knew it, and feel bad about himself. People in Party didn't belive it either, also in military.

But somwhat it just continued, without reason, progress and any sense.

youtube.com/watch?v=Il3FJMf4mSE

Not a former USSR citizen but I was born when Yugoslavia started collapsing, vaguely remember the childhood I had during those times. It was bad, not because of the socialism, the country was collapsing. My dad was mobilized into war zone twice and I remember the second time he left. I remember mother worrying a lot since he was supposed to guard ammo storage in Belgrade during bombing. The UN sanctions were also quite bad, but as kids we didn't really bother, I remember playing video games on commodore 64 and playing with late 80s toys with my friends. I also remember that during bombing our dad would take us to the basement, can't really remember if ever heard the bombs or felt the shakes, but I celebrated my 7th birthday in bunker with friends. They bombed the local police office close to our home and I vaguely remember it being in rubble. I remember my parents having financial problems, my mom worked as an accountant in some popular juice factory that filed bankruptcy in 98 and my dad studied mechanical engineering but was mobilized into war zone in 91 when he was finishing collage but could never finish it because of the turmoils

My parents usually remember Yugoslavia as good, they said that during late 80s there used to be lack of gas so the state would issue Gas stamps, but overall it was good. They remember lots of people from Czechoslovakia and Romania would come here for vacation. They also remember their parents living nice, our grandpa used to drive Citroen DS19 (the weird looking one) and take us to Montenegro but he sold it later on so I don't remember it

>how great the youth organisation "pioneers" and wishes something like that would return.
Well you can inform her about the Youth-guard, boy/girl scouts and "Mazpulki"

there, whole 3 of them from the top of my head, of course none are obligatory but have tons of children in them

BUMP

Pretty much same.
I always asked my dad what he thought about communism or the party.
He only believed in it when he was child in pioneers and a teen, after growing up he just didn't care anymore... he said nobody of his coworkers or friend believed in achieving communism, nobody cared about party, most people were apathetic to ideology and just were thinking how to get through life. His thoughts about communism is that it just failed...

Lativans here said pretty were same as in Poland.

Interesting, latvian bro.
Gonna check it out.
Thanks you.

> What was daily life like? especially at the end of it (1989-1991)?
Complicated mix of freedom, hope, admiration and despair.

Yugoslavia. Croatia, specifically. It was pretty decent.

The main daily difference between then and now that I recall is:
* there isn't peeling paint everywhere today
* a few more bullet holes in random places that haven't been fixed
* you can actually see the other side of cafes now (before it was opaque with second-hand smoke)
* holy fuck there was a lot of porn back then. Porn fucking EVERYWHERE.

Seriously, the porn was hilarious.

...

...

I was born in 1989. A millenial, but not that kind. I know all the memories up to my great grandfathers.

Living in collapsed Russia was hard. Pretty much like in a warzone - or in some Latin American State, but with no stability whatsoever and a terrible (made so by terrible leaders and commanders) war, that killed off young men or turned their minds inside out.