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Comment by iammjm | Hacker News Reader

More like: USSR propaganda in 100 photographs. One “man in space” vs millions of people devoid of plumbing and basic products, all living in a repressive orwellian society. The aftermath is still tangible: former satellite states are even after 30 years behind Western Europe economically, the former USSR republics are either marginalised, autocratic or in active war for their survival against their former colonial masters, and of course there’s Russia itself with its utmost lack of respect for its own citizens’ well being. So sure feel free to enjoy these photographs but don’t let them trick you into imagining USSR as some sort of utopia, because it was definitely way closer to an actual dystopia, and the world is now an actually better place because USSR is no more

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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.

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

If you don’t work, you don’t eat.

Is plumbing seen as the pinnacle of human development? We lived without it until the late 19th century whilst in Mesopotamia they had sewage systems, plumbing and even toilet bowls 5000 years ago. The Romans sewers built before the birth of Christ are still in use today.

Note that even today hundreds of millions in India and China still don't have access to modern toilets or sewage systems.

I’m not sure about the pinnacle, but for me plumbing definitely makes it to the list of the top 100 most important human achievements, at least as far as sanitation, health and quality of life goes

>don’t let them trick you into imagining USSR as some sort of utopia

was there some particular risk of this?

I see a lot of westerners praise USSR as some sort of lost paradise. And for me, Eastern European, it's crazy

I lived there (Odessa, mostly), till late teens. The QoL highly depended on who you knew, how to steal and how to bribe and barter, on all levels of society. You could live very well, relative to the gen pop, if you possessed these qualities and your parents were members of the party.

I suppose that can be said about everywhere, but it wasn't a desolate rusty bullet ridden hellscape, the cities were beautiful and so were the beaches, at least as captured in my memory.

My family had friends from Poland and Hungary and we always envied them, the green kind. So, I always assumed at that age things were nicer beyond the borders, but they weren't so bad locally either. Of course, in the end, it was a house of cards, but the life itself wasn't NK level.

You’d be surprised how many people there are in the West who picture USSR as some kind of a magical world run by elves and fairies. Left-leaning French academics is one such group worth calling out directly. Their (partly justified) hatred for capitalism plus the lack of direct exposure to communism causes some real cognitive distortions

The whole of US socialists believe it was some sort of paradise on earth

Absurd polemic take.

I suppose you were the one who flagged this. I had a business in the former countries of the USSR, traveled there many times, some of the women were stunningly beautiful, I married one. These photos bring back lots of memories.

I didn’t flag this, I explicitly stated: enjoy, but know this is propaganda.

I don't understand your response. These photos don't strike me as peak propaganda, lots of it is just every day life.

My point is this: all these photos show smiling happy people and great historical moments such as the first man in space. But the every day life for the most part was very different. I am not arguing that these scenes never happened, I’m just saying someone selected these from a vast selection of photos to create a certain impression of the USSR, an impression that aims to romanticise, and not to be objective.

I feel like you’re rapidly approaching a situation where if the photo doesn’t show exactly what you want to see that makes it propaganda.

It’s 100 photos though

>vs millions of people devoid of plumbing and basic products

Quite the opposite: millions of people got electricity and plumbing in the USSR era, that lacked before.

>The aftermath is still tangible: former satellite states are even after 30 years behind Western Europe economically

And how are the Latin American 20th century right wing countries doing compared to Western Europe?

Funnily forgot how most of the Western European countries had massive colonies funding their earlier development, which the eastern european countries lacked.

as if this society is not orwellian. think snowden.

Oh sure, but then again look at South Korea! India! Argentina!

misster, what are u trying to say?

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