1. Education
Soviet education was completely free and accessible to absolutely everyone. Any school graduate from a small collective farm somewhere near Dushanbe could freely enter Moscow State University, study for free, live for free in a hostel, and even receive a scholarship for good studies. And, of course, the quality of education: it was rightly considered the best in the world at that time.
2. Medicine
Medicine in the Soviet Union was also free. Yes, it is still free - you may argue, but the quality of the services provided is beyond comparison. The most powerful system of medical examination and vaccination in the world at that time, the availability of spa treatment. Try now to get a ticket to a sanatorium in the district clinic from the very first visit - I sympathize …
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3. Free housing
Yes, the apartments were not given right away, they had to wait for their turn, but at least they were given them. A young specialist was given an odnushka, and after the birth of two children, one could get a three-ruble note. Again, it's all completely free.
4. Unemployment
Or rather, its absence. There has been no unemployment in the USSR since 1929. This looked especially advantageous against the background of the then Great Depression in the West.
5. Equality
The standard of living of the "top" and "bottom", of course, differed, but certainly not dozens of times. The overwhelming majority of the population was just the Soviet middle class. It was not uncommon for a skilled worker at a plant to earn even more than the director of that same plant.
6. Rest
By 1988, there were 16,200 sanatoriums, dispensaries and rest homes in the Union, where citizens paid only partially for accommodation and treatment. The right to rest was not an empty phrase and was observed very strictly.
7. Science
Say what you don’t say, but science in the USSR was the most powerful. Approximately half of all scientists and engineers in the world worked in the Soviet Union. It is not surprising that it was the USSR that was the first to launch a man into space, the first to go into outer space, and made many other discoveries.
8. Army
By the mid-1980s, the Union Armed Forces were the largest in the world in strength with a total of more than 5 million soldiers, and possessed the world's largest stockpiles of nuclear and chemical weapons. In addition, the USSR Armed Forces possessed the largest tank groupings on earth - about 60 thousand tanks, which was 2.5 times more than the number of OSAD and US tanks combined.
9. Confidence in the future
The citizens of the USSR were absolutely sure that nothing would happen either to the country in which they live, or to the enterprise at which they work, or to the university in which they study. You could easily go to bed every night without fear of being fired tomorrow. Or they will raise the rent. Or they will raise prices. Or some other meanness will be done on the state. level.
10. Public education
From the earliest years, Soviet children were instilled with love for work, respect for elders, norms of behavior in society. As a result, there was no such rampant criminality as it is now, and even the banal garbage on the streets was much less.
11. Queues for kindergarten
Yes, in the USSR there were also queues for kindergarten, because the birth rate was at a very high level. But in the worst case, Soviet children waited for their turn for 1-2 months. Compared to what we have now, this is just a fairy tale.
12. Friendship of peoples
It was not an empty phrase. The consciousness of the “Soviet man” in many cases prevailed over the consciousness of belonging to one or another nationality. Nobody, in fact, even thought about these nationalities, they were all comrades to each other.
13. Culture
It is somehow even embarrassing to compare the level of Soviet and current Russian cinema. Literature, theaters, exhibitions and museums. Yes, censorship interfered very strongly in all spheres of culture. But this did not prevent the then directors from making films that we have been reviewing for decades.
14. Goods in stores
Yes, there was a "shortage", relatively speaking, instead of 100 varieties of sausage, there were 2 varieties on the counter, but both of them were made from meat. The vast majority of products were of our own production and at the same time of excellent quality.
15. Plants and factories
There were a huge number of industrial enterprises, and all of them always had jobs. The Soviet Union was not just an oil and gas producing state. Everything that was needed for life was produced there.
Of course, the USSR was not a utopia where everyone lived easily and simply, and even more so the USSR was not some kind of paradise where a person could live carefree, without worrying about anything. Life was difficult, many of the usual and familiar things for us today had to "get", exchange for something, in many situations it was almost impossible to do without "cronyism" and necessary acquaintances. But no matter what, over the head of the Soviet man there was always a cloudless sky, and ahead was a confident life and a bright future.
What pleasant memories do you have from that time?
Author: Joney