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The USSR in 100 Photographs

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Re: The USSR in 100 Photographs

#71

Post by anavat »

TiredOfLife wrote: post #68
anavat wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was far from utopia but it wasn't orwellian. It was different in a way that's hard to explain if you didn't experience it. The lack of public goods, lower living standards, and the oppressiveness of the state were somewhat compensated by the peace of mind coming from knowing that you couldn't become unemployed or homeless. This is what a lot of people miss when they say they miss USSR.

Soviet union had homeless and unemployed people, It was a criminal offence with prison terms starting at 1 year in colony. There was even a law specifically for gypsies where punishment for unemployment was 2-5 years in siberia.

Yes, it was a criminal offense since 1961 (I didn't hear about a special law for gypsies but it could be). So there were homeless and unemployed, but only those who really wanted to be. It took effort.

Re: The USSR in 100 Photographs

#72

Post by Arodex »

Arodex wrote: post #37
epolanski wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm Polish and your statement is absolutely false. Things were simply different. My family had an absolutely happy life for all the generations that followed WW2.

So your family belonged to the nomenklatura, or was completely submissive to the Party... Are you certain your parents weren't informants for the SB?

Funny to see how far I am downvoted for stating the obvious: if your family was doing well while everybody else was worse under an oppressive regime, they were certainly doing something for the oppressive regime...

It would be more obvious if someone was talking about their family living a "happy life" during apartheid or in North Korea.

Re: The USSR in 100 Photographs

#73

Post by Arodex »

TiredOfLife wrote: post #70
Arodex wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know that American prisons are slave labor camps too, right? I am not exaggerating things: the 13th amendment calls it "slavery". https://daily.jstor.org/slavery-and-the-modern-day-prison-pl... https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/inmates-at-louisianas-an...

American prisoners are forced to gather weeds to get some form of food?

If that is your baseline, so yeah, mostly everything is fine compared to it. It "just" black guys picking cotton while watched by armed guys on horses.

I am sure American slaves were better treated than Soviet goulag prisoners. After all, slave owners didn't want to "break" too much their property.

Re: The USSR in 100 Photographs

#74

Post by Arodex »

epolanski wrote: post #59
Arodex wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modern democracy is not just about elections but about the separation of powers.

That separation of powers exists and existed in all the modern democratic presidential and semi presidential republics that failed to avoid the authoritarian turn. Winner-takes-all mechanic are flawed, non representative, breed personal cults, and put power in hands of individuals that are hard to remove (both constitutionally and by them being able to claim popular mandate). All those republics need to break them is…

>Winner-takes-all mechanic are flawed, non representative, breed personal cults, and put power in hands of individuals that are hard to remove

So... Like the Soviet system?

Re: The USSR in 100 Photographs

#75

Post by victorbjorklund »

Arodex wrote: post #31
victorbjorklund wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would take an American prison over a slave Labour camp in Stalins Soviet camp with massive death rates. Few American prisoners freeze to death, starve to death or are beaten to death by the guards. Stop comparing American prisions to Stalin gulags or Hitlers concentration camps. They are not the same.

You know that American prisons are slave labor camps too, right? I am not exaggerating things: the 13th amendment calls it "slavery". https://daily.jstor.org/slavery-and-the-modern-day-prison-pl... https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/inmates-at-louisianas-an...

It is just ridiculous to claim that Nazi germany wasn’t worse than USA under Biden/Trump. Yea, USA has problems and isn’t perfect. But I bet you would personally pick an American prisons over a literal nazi concentration camp for your own family (unless you are a holocaust denier who thinks Nazi camps were nothing bad)

Re: The USSR in 100 Photographs

#76

Post by jauntywundrkind »

Never gonna miss a good chance to recommend Adam Curtis. Russia 1985-1999: TraumaZone has an incredible collection of all sorts of historic video, everyday life intermixed with incredible news of the day across the USSR then Russia. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSjQL8MYniTTLA3wnZ25U-s6R... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia_1985%E2%80%931999:_Trau...

It is a bit slow, atmospheric, very long. HyperNormalization or Bitter Lake are probably my go-to starting recommendations for classic Curtis, with a bit more velocity to them. But I'm very thankful for having such a visual history lesson in TraumaZone, for such a found-footage style walk through the years.

Re: The USSR in 100 Photographs

#77

Post by epolanski »

nec4b wrote: post #65
epolanski wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm Polish and your statement is absolutely false. Things were simply different. My family had an absolutely happy life for all the generations that followed WW2.

>My family had an absolutely happy life for all the generations that followed WW2. Most likely your family was part of the communist elite. I believe you had a very happy life.

No, they were not, why would you assume so?

Communist party was very unpopular in Poland, even though registering was free and had benefits no more than 2.5% of poles ever signed to it.

Re: The USSR in 100 Photographs

#78

Post by epolanski »

Arodex wrote: post #74
epolanski wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That separation of powers exists and existed in all the modern democratic presidential and semi presidential republics that failed to avoid the authoritarian turn. Winner-takes-all mechanic are flawed, non representative, breed personal cults, and put power in hands of individuals that are hard to remove (both constitutionally and by them being able to claim popular mandate). All those republics need to break them is…

>Winner-takes-all mechanic are flawed, non representative, breed personal cults, and put power in hands of individuals that are hard to remove So... Like the Soviet system?

Yes.

Re: The USSR in 100 Photographs

#79

Post by TiredOfLife »

anavat wrote: post #71
TiredOfLife wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Soviet union had homeless and unemployed people, It was a criminal offence with prison terms starting at 1 year in colony. There was even a law specifically for gypsies where punishment for unemployment was 2-5 years in siberia.

Yes, it was a criminal offense since 1961 (I didn't hear about a special law for gypsies but it could be). So there were homeless and unemployed, but only those who really wanted to be. It took effort.

Hundreds of thousands of people were arrested for that a year.

Re: The USSR in 100 Photographs

#80

Post by nec4b »

epolanski wrote: post #77
nec4b wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>My family had an absolutely happy life for all the generations that followed WW2. Most likely your family was part of the communist elite. I believe you had a very happy life.

No, they were not, why would you assume so? Communist party was very unpopular in Poland, even though registering was free and had benefits no more than 2.5% of poles ever signed to it.

In my experience those are the people who miss the "good" old times, when everything had order and hierarchy. Wikipedia says the communist party in Poland had 3 million member which is about 10% of the population at the time. If you add the family members and close relatives, the number of people living a privileged life was quite big. Red nobility is known phenomenon in former communist countries.

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_United_Workers%27_P...

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