For an ordinary person who lived at that time, the Soviet Union is not a dollar of 76 kopecks, not the most powerful army in the world, and not the all-powerful KGB. That is, an ordinary person knew that the army and the KGB were protecting him reliably, but he himself did not see this power. And I have not seen dollars, even more so. As I have not seen with my own eyes all the grandeur of industry and the rate of economic growth. But I saw something else.
The Soviet Union is when you walk the streets of your hometown at any time of the day and no one will attack you - they will not say a rude word. Bars on the windows on the first floor? Are you crazy, is the apartment a prison? Iron lockable doors in the porches? What wildness? Not only the entrances, but also the basements with attics were wide open, and there were no homeless people and drug addicts in them. Because they weren't there at all.
The Soviet Union is when you hang clothes after washing on the lines in the yard, and it never even occurs to you that something might be stolen or stained out of hooliganism. Because there was no such thing in your memory.
The Soviet Union is when you know all the inhabitants of your house, even if there are three hundred apartments in it, and you can go into any apartment for salt or matches if you suddenly ended up unexpectedly.
The Soviet Union is when a veteran gets on a bus and half of the bus gets up to make room. The veteran enters the store - and everyone makes way, letting him skip the line.
And large stores worked on the same principle as supermarkets now: you pick up the goods in a cart and go to the checkout. But there were no guards there, and surveillance cameras did not stick out from every corner, as in a special regime colony, and there were as many exits as you wanted by the cash register, and no one stole anything.
The Soviet Union is when soda machines are at every corner and faceted glasses are always in place. And in the telephone booths are directories. How many minutes would they lie today?
The Soviet Union is the world's best education for free. That is, in no country in the world can you get such an education even for millions, and for citizens of the USSR it is free. And a guarantee of work in your specialty.
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The Soviet Union is free sports clubs in all kinds of sports, pioneer camps, resorts, sanatoriums. This is when you come to a district clinic and get a ticket to a sanatorium, say, in the Crimea. Is free. Simply because the doctor found you had some minor health problem and decided that you should fix it.
The Soviet Union is when there is not terrorism and drugs in the Caucasus, but resorts, sanatoriums and the world's best mineral water. And in Ukraine, not Bandera with swastikas, but endless wheat fields, aircraft and tank industries, clean cities and kind, happy people. And the Baltics are not SS marches and not cleaning European toilet facilities by half of the adult population, but the production of high-precision electronics and radio equipment, cars and world-famous balms, high salaries and licked streets, even by the standards of the USSR.
The Soviet Union is when a policeman approaches a lost child, and does not drag him to the department, but escorts him home, hands over to worried parents, puts his hand to the visor and leaves. He throws himself into the water after a child who has fallen from the bridge, rescues him, gives him to his parents, puts his hand to the visor and leaves. Not for the sake of nishtyaks in the service, but simply because he is a Soviet policeman.
The Soviet Union is when an adult could walk up to a lonely child on the street and ask if he needed help. And today, all the dogs will be let down on such an adult, suspecting of pedophilia.
The Soviet Union is when in every third apartment the keys are left under the rug by the door, but there are no burglaries. And if, for once, someone pulls out the TV, the next day they will be in prison, and the entire city of 100,000 will discuss it for a couple of months.
The Soviet Union is when you got married and you were given a one-room apartment at work. Is free. Have given birth to a child (first or second - where else) - and changed your one-room apartment to a two-room apartment. Further expansion of the family (usually the third or fourth child) - and changed the kopeck piece to a three-ruble note. Is free. Mortgage? What is this foreign word? We don't know what it means.
The Soviet Union is when it’s not mountains of corpses and dismembered people on TV, not scams “send SMS to a short number”, not redneck humor below the belt, but good films and educational programs.
The Soviet Union is when you can not go to the store for six months and still know all the prices. If a loaf cost 24 kopecks six months ago, it still stands today. Although no, you can be mistaken: it could have fallen in price to 22. But the salary every spring slightly, but steadily grew. And the ruble, forgotten between the pages of an old book, found ten years later, is the same ruble, not a depreciated piece of paper. Even more expensive than 10 years ago. One of the most intrusive Soviet ads - "Keep your money in a savings bank!" Do you know why? Because there was no incentive - they were just as well kept in a stocking. The Soviet man was not threatened with inflation or burglary.
The Soviet Union is when it was as prestigious to be a steelmaker or a polar pilot as it is now a banker. And the word "bandit" was pronounced not with enthusiastic aspiration, as in the nineties, but with squeamish contempt. Well, the word "terrorists" for a Soviet person sounded as incomprehensible and fantastic as "evil three-eyed octopuses from another galaxy."
The Soviet Union is when no one in life would have thought of such a perversion as security guards in schools. The most formidable person in the school was the cleaning lady. And the "call to the director" sounded like a "military tribunal" for the student.
Well, how else to explain to those who did not find it? Imagine the place where you were calmer, more comfortable and most reliable. Your children's room, for example, or your grandmother's house in the village - who has what. Have you presented? This is how we felt at any point in our vast country.