A quarter of a century has passed since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and passions in the minds and souls do not subside, resulting in endless disputes about when it was better - then or now.
It would seem that all conceivable arguments have already been presented, and the debate does not end. Let's try to completely objectively and honestly dot the i. So that everything becomes finally clear and understandable to everyone, even the most frantic. But before that - a small lyrical digression.
Once upon a time, in my distant, distant Leningrad youth, I was familiar with one curious character. His name was Stas, and he was one of the many boys from our vast yard. He was about 4 years older than me and therefore behaved downwardly. In general - he was such a sassy and foppish guy, always well and fashionably dressed, with the indispensable chewing gum in his mouth and American cigarettes in his pocket. Familiar boys in a whisper told that, in addition to cigarettes and gum, there was always a switch knife in his pocket and he was not there at all for beauty. In general, as they said then - punks. We, of course, have never been friends, but when we met, we always greeted like fellow countrymen. Stas was a blacksmith. He bought various things from foreigners and then resold them at exorbitant prices. But he hadin addition to this very profitable business and another source of income. Yes, such that all jeans and sneakers faded in front of him.
Stas was a professional gambler. As they said at the time - a wheelchair. Not being an amateur or a great connoisseur of cards, I cannot judge the level of his skill. But all our mutual acquaintances told incredible things about him. For example, it was said that he could get on the Leningrad-Sochi-Adler train at the Moscow railway station with one ruble in his pocket and leave the compartment with three to four thousand rubles two days later.
I myself have never witnessed these feats of him, but I well remember how our men in the yard, who loved to beat the "goat" on the bench, looked after him with a very unkind look and periodically admonished us with the words:
- Guys, you should stay away from him! Cards and big money will not do good!
Then our yard was resettled, and we all dispersed, in all directions. And the next time I met Stas on Nevsky, quite by accident.
I remember walking along the Gostiny Dvor towards the Nevsky Prospect along the Dumskaya line and caught up with a brand new cream three-ruble note standing right on the sidewalk, from the open passenger door of which The Beatles were playing loudly. At the same moment, a familiar, impudent, hoarse voice called out to me by name. It was Stas.
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He lazily got out of the car, we shook hands and got into conversation, remembering our youth.
And a few minutes later he himself, clearly showing off and proud of himself, already told me how he had successfully traveled with friends to Central Asia for "just a week", after which he bought this "three rubles".
- What did you play? I asked.
- Yes, in what just did not play! - he laughed, - and in "Baccarat", and "point", and "nine", but you never know …
“Listen,” I asked, how do you do it? Do you never lose?
“I don’t have the money to lose,” he laughed again. And immediately becoming serious, he said the very phrase for which, in fact, this entire text was written:
- Remember! If you want to never lose - never sit down at the table if your name is! Call yourself! And when your name is - move away! Or you will be undressed! Got it?
- Even you? I asked.
- Sure! - he answered, - no matter how well you know how to play, they will roll you to zero if they want to. So - remember this friendly advice for the future: never play with strangers if they call you! Or you will be p … c!
This conversation took place at the very end of the 70s. I immediately forgot it. I didn't need all this, I've never been a card fan. And I remembered about him in the early 90s.
And I realized how deeply my Stas was right.
Now let's get back to the essence of the article.
When was it better - then or now?
The Soviet period was rife with problems and no one, if he is honest, would ever argue with that. Everything was! And commodity shortages, and restrictions, and "tacit control", and formal, annoying propaganda, and bureaucracy, and much more. It is a fact! And you can't get away from him.
The same fact, as well as the fact that today's stores are incomparable with Soviet ones, that Moscow and St. Petersburg today look more beautiful outwardly, that trips abroad have become commonplace, and Solzhenitsyn is taught at school, instead of being summoned to a conversation with the KGB. And today my Stas would not drive a three-ruble note, but a Lexus or Mercedes, without fear of anyone.
And even if today's products are disgusting in terms of taste and quality compared to their Soviet counterparts, let new houses begin to crumble a couple of years after construction, even if it is impossible for 90% of the population to honestly earn money for an apartment or for a Lexus!
But all this is there! And you can buy it! And this, of course, is good, not bad. I am quite sincere.
Summing up, we can safely say that today, instead of the hell of total scarcity and prohibitions, there has come a paradise of total abundance and freedom. It's true!
It remains only to estimate how we all paid for these benefits.
We paid for this with the disintegration of the country, massacres in the republics, two Chechen wars, banditry of the 90s, destroyed education, science and industry, a colossal decline in morals, drugs and prostitution, general illiteracy, wars in Georgia and Ukraine, NATO units in the Baltic states, fear and uncertainty about the future and, most importantly, the unheard-of humiliation of the country, about which everyone is now wiping their feet. And this is also true! This is also a fact that you cannot argue with, even if you repeat a hundred times a day that Putin is great, like God, and will outplay everyone!
The world has shaken very much. And we all became at once a few steps closer to a general collapse, in which we will no longer have friends and allies.
Now tell yourself honestly!
If then, in the 80s, you knew in advance everything that actually happened to the country, would you agree to such an exchange of the Soviet deficit for Russian abundance?
I fully admit that there are those who will say:
- Yes! I would still agree! And my stainless steel sink, an SUV in the yard and a 60-inch TV is a hundred times more expensive for me than the country!
And don't be surprised at that. Such people were and will always be. Yesterday they surrendered to the Germans, today - to the Americans, tomorrow they will surrender to someone else, saving their precious skin.
But we all have to pay for this their betrayal. Those who would never agree to such an exchange.
All this deficit, all these restrictions and prohibitions were the natural and inevitable payment of the Union for the fact that there will never be in our life that sad list that sounded above.
We decided to live differently. And got everything they wanted. In full.
The naive question is often heard:
- Was it really impossible to combine all the advantages of the USSR with the advantages of today's Russia? Why is it impossible?
And whenever I hear these words, I remember my Stas from distant Soviet childhood and his impudent hoarse voice:
If you don't want to lose - never sit down at the table with those who invite you! You will be rolled to zero!
We know this in everyday life. And we will never sit with a crook at the same table. At least most of us.
For many decades we have been invited to play an exciting gambling game called “Let's Play Capitalism? As in the West! Let's play? We were invited!
In the late 1980s, we finally agreed and sat down at this table with the whole country.
And they lost, as it should have happened.
We gave everything we had and got what we longed for. The whole list! Which continues to replenish every day.
We did not fail because we are fools. We lost because we sat down at someone else’s table and started playing someone else’s game. And they realized this only when they were left without pants. And even then - not all. Many people still do not understand this.
Putin is a strong leader! This fact is recognized by everyone, and I agree with this entirely. But Putin will NOT OVERPLAY everyone, as the pseudo-patriotic Valdai nightingales naively promise us!
It's not about Putin. Nobody would have done this in Putin's place. Even Stalin himself.
Stalin would simply not have sat down at this table.
He was too smart for that.
And, besides, he did not know how to play cards at all.
