Yeah, I kind of figured a lot of those pictures were "the best of USSR" photos.

Did you live there, or something?

 

I've been there in 2002, but heard first hand accounts from people who travelled to USSR in 70s and 80s (including my father), thats one. Second, since my very own country - Poland - was under soviet control during cold war I remember some of those things myself - I was 12 when the wall fell. It's rediculous to think now, but at that time every political and many economic decisions were taken in Moscow rather in Warsaw. Russians were quite ... persuasive, the fact that there was around 1 million russian frontline troops stationing in Poland at all times also kindakept us in check, lol.

BTW, when Soviet Union fell apart living conditions in Russia got even worse, people weren't getting payed for their work for 6 months or even longer - I often wondered how they managed to survive.

 

lol, just remembered one other thing, my mother experienced something like yours did - she and some of her co-workers were flying to some conference in Italy, and many international flights from Poland had to go through Moscow (another absurd idea). So they had to wait in Moscow for one day and went for a walk downtown; my mom was wearing shorts, and almost got taken by the police lol, because people in subway reacted like she was running around naked and this was in 1988.

 

Commies[sm=smiley21.gif]...