So say I am an ordinary Soviet citizen in the 1970s. I live in

Pretty chill if you were a bureaucrat or clerk or something. Pretty un-chill if you were like a miner or farmer.

>>2522607
In the city poor people had free rent and the dignity that comes with not living outdoors or in a dumpster. Literally the opposite of modern USA

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>>2522632
>Literally the opposite of modern USA
So they had no food, were unable to travel freely, we locked up in prison if they had the wrong ideas or spirited away to "reeducation camps" if they said the wrong things.
>Truly.. a marvel of civic structure. <3

>>2522680
lol the soviet union had no problem distributing food to it's citizens in the 70s

>>2522611
>miner
miners (and metallurgy/oil workers, and other people working at heavy industries) in SU actually had the best paying jobs with shitloads of social privileges that other professions didn't had access to.

Because of their dangerous jobs, they had access to special health resorts and clinics that were only for miners only. That's on top of standard free healthcare.

Miners i know could retire at 50 years and do shit while receiving full pension + benefits depending on your longevity of your carrier and achievements.

>>2522680
Do you think everybody is some democratic activist who can't help attacking the government? Nope. Most people are normies who couldn't give a damn about ideology or what government they're under. So long as a government ensures food and work, most people will be content. That's how it generally was in the USSR. Most people, besides some intellectuals, were content with the system and only grumbled about inefficiencies, but they didn't question the government and its ideology. The secret police weren't monitoring everyone at all times either. Most people weren't jailed and as far as I know people were free to vacation and travel places, especially with the lavish vacation time given to workers.

>>2524249
Miners are basically middle to upper class everywhere on the planet, with the exception of penal labor. That guy has no idea what he's talking about.

>>2524374
And btw I'm no commie, I'm just attacking your lack of historical knowledge about the USSR.

>>2524378
*to upper middle class

>>2524374
This. Though I know it was quite difficult to leave the country for a long period at a time.

Not CCCP but Poland, not 70's but 80's, but I once wrote some rants on how life looked in communism when I was a kid, want me to paste it later? In bathtub now, chilling after drinking...

>>2522607
I'm not an expert, but i know that you'd probably have little spending money, wouldn't have access to many exotic foreign goods, would live in a rather small apartment probably shared with another family or two, and would have limited access to some consumer goods like cars and refrigerators. You would probably drink and smoke or be around a lot of drinking and smoking. However, you'd also be guaranteed a job, shelter, education, and healthcare, your wife would be happy and free to work, you might have a cottage in the countryside, you'd get generous vacation time, and you'd have access to a lot of high culture that would be seen as a privilege in other countries.

>>2524402
I'll be interested in seeing that

>>2524409
>apartment shared with another family
Can't speak for USSR but in Czechoslovakia this was never a thing.

>>2522607
Decent. You'd always have a job, a room/apartment and there was plenty of food.

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>>2522607

Novgorod counts as the "North", so you could end up with Maine, or Detroit. But I suppose Detroit back then was fairly well off.

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>>2524432
You lying sack of shit.
I remember having to get up at 5 just to buy bread before it runs out.
The only thing that was never in shortage in food store was salt and vinegear.
Yes, everyone 'had' a job and money, but they had no value.
I remember once - was walking past toy store with dad once. Saw a double barell shotgun behind the window. I asked my dad to buy it for me, because the price was the same as his monthly salary. I was little so I didn't understand that if he bought it we would have no food for a month.

>>2524444

N/m, detroit isn't where I thought it was. Suck at US geography.

>>2524454
Ya ne znayu get ti zhil but that was true only in the last few years of the USSR's existence.

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>>2524456
>>2524444
Are you thinking about latitudes? Because European north and US north don't correspond, NYC is around the same latitude as Portugal for example.

>>2524464
No. Quite the opposite - the 70's ware the only time when for a while life in eastern block was close to what we would call normal.

>>2524557

It's not about geography. But about cultures, and industries. Ex. "the core" isn't about geography, but about the political center.

>>2524444
>California isn't Mexistan
>Arizona is
wew lad

>>2522607
Book recommendations:
- Soviet Baby Boomers by Donald Raleigh (Raleigh editorialises a bit, but gives a good overview of ordinary people living in the era).

- Everything Was Forever Until it was No More by Alexei Yurchak (bit more academic/philosophical but great for the mindset and the various 'marginal' groups)

- Gulag Town, Company Town by Alan Barenberg (the bits about Vorkuta post Stalin are kind of interesting)

>>2524666
Oh forgot another

Soviet Consumer Culture in the Brezhnev Era by Natalya Chernyashova.

Covers the mechinics of what people wanted, what was sold and what could be had.

Anon family getting up a 5am to by food must have had the worst connections/friends ever.

>>2524666
>Donald Raleigh
>Alan Barenberg
>ACTUALLY reading books about the USSR written by Americans

>>2524374
>Most people are normies who couldn't give a damn about ideology or what government they're under. So long as a government ensures food and work, most people will be content.
This is true. Especially in countries like Russia where the slave mentality is strong.

>>2522749
That's because they'd given up on ever being efficient enough to produce enough food of their own, and were trading oil for massive amounts of Canadian and Australian grain from the West.

Beginning of the end, and they peaked in the 70s!

>>2524705
Lame bait. Have a you, no fish related image though, earn that shit.

>>2525191
Fuck off.

>>2525215
Sorry, can't hear you over the sound of your crushing insecurity.
Maybe you could suggest other books. Oh wait you can't.

>>2524378
>That guy has no idea what he's talking about
Yes, my father's life was a lie.

You surely know better than me.

>>2522607
>wake up
>go to work
>pretend to work
>wait for bread in a line
>get back home

>>2525281
Anything not written by an Anglo or an American. I refuse togive that shit any credibility.

My parents grew up in Kiev at this time.

Life was alright they said, you could only afford meat once a week but the culture was incredible. Museums, public baths, state sponsored trips to Crimea during the summer, a real sense of community, even in a city as large as Kiev. My grandmother who grew up during after WWII said it was horrible however, all anyone had to eat was bread, onions, and butter. The city was destroyed from the war so they had to live in government built shacks that were never improved despite promises made. The country recovered incredibly quickly all and all, but freedom is still superior to stability.

>>2524454
>Yes, everyone 'had' a job and money, but they had no value
sounds good to me

>>2524557
>Alla that glorious sun in the south west

How is life there?

>>2524788
The seventies actually saw record grain yields(making them not importt for a while) don't pull shit out of your ass

Is this a thread where westerners get to tell post-soviet posters, what life was "really" like in ussr?!

>>2527858
Hot as shit in the summer.

>>2527928
>making them not importt for a while
[Citation Needed]

>>2522680
>unable to travel freely

go in the 70s US and ask for a flight to the USSR and see how smooth that goes bud.

>>2524557
Latitude doesn't equal climate, otherwise Britain would be cold as fuck.

>>2528207
You realize that Americans could and DID travel to the USSR during the Cold War, correct? As a matter of fact, we had a guy live in Soyuz for a while, return, and then shoot a President. Shit, we had student exchanges with the Eastern Bloc during the most dangerous period of the Cold War.

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>>2527858

>>2522607
The socialist world was called the second world for a reason. From Khrushchev's time up until the late 80s, European socialist states were more comfortable than most capitalist countries, but not as comfortable as the first world.

The Soviets had manages to create countries that resembled the social democracies of Western Europe without the need to outsource industry to poorer countries. In this way they had established a generally equitable economic sphere. However, there was still a substantial lack of resources in comparison to the capitalist world, leading to a dearth of luxury goods. Fears of capitalist infiltration led to civil liberties being little more than a suggestion in the Eastern bloc.

20th century socialism offered something of a middle ground, because these economies were more comfortable than those broadly hurt by capitalism but less successful than those who benefited from capitalism.

>>2529237
>we had americans in the USSR

Few, with agents keeping an eye on them.

>>2529432
>Few
Just because few traveled to the Soviet Union, doesn't mean travel to the Soviet Union was restricted by the U.S. government. It WAS semi-restricted by the Soviet Union, but not the United States. If you said Cuba, you would have had a point, but you didn't so you fucked up.

>>2529447
>but not the united states

t. america is freedom land no matter what

>>2529455
t. has no argument

>>2529461
t. thinks amurica will drop it's decades long standoff with soviet union just to let people travel there and keep up meme "Freedom"

kek, go wave an american flag or someshit you burgershit.

your city is jealous of moscow so expect a lot of overcompensation and posturing, however this will spruce up the otherwise soulless commie blocks

>>2529467
How does it make you feel that American tourists traveled in the Soviet Union throughout the fucking 60's and the restrictions came from the Soviet tourist bureau and not the United States? I'll even give you a great example of one: President William J. Clinton traveled to the Soviet Union in 1969 as a student tourist without any interference by the U.S. government. You have no argument, but continue digging yourself deeper into the hole. Please go back to wherever you came from. The only restrictions by the U.S. were laid upon Soviet journalists entering the United States and that they could not travel to certain areas (for obvious reasons). The Soviets, on the other hand, made sure that American journalists and businessmen were restricted from entering the country without full control by the Soviet Union (full stop) and that tourists had to go through the Soviet tourist bureau to do anything (full stop). The only time the U.S. government restricts travel is if significant sanctions are laid upon said country and even then it's rare. Cuba, Iraq and Afghanistan are the only real prominent examples here. You can travel unrestricted to North fucking Korea and the U.S. has been in an actual state of war with them since 1950.