Why don't I want to go back to the USSR? Galoshes for Africa

I don't want to go to the USSR

Sergey Salnikov

Today there is simply no escape from the sheer nostalgia for the USSR.
You can understand older people - youth, no matter what it is, always seems better than real old age, even if this old age is well provided for, but in the USSR, young people also suffer, and this is already bad. It’s bad, because instead of building their lives in the real today, they will live in dreams and the past, and, God forbid, they will again start another revolution or “drastic” reform.
Times do not choose; they live and die. It was not invented by me, but it briefly and clearly gives instructions to live in the time that you have been given.
I don’t want to go back to the USSR, because it’s essentially impossible and not worth it, to be honest.
No, if I could get my youth back, then yes. Although, to be honest, young people today are much better off than then.
I don’t want to get back into the long lines that are built all over the country - for vodka, meat, cucumbers, boots......
I don’t want to wait in a half-life-long line for a car and I don’t want to drive a LUAZ or a Muscovite.
I don’t want to crowd under the doors of a cafe or restaurant, because there is always “no room” there, I don’t want to see the arrogant faces of rude waiters and salespeople who don’t need you and are disgusted by the very fact of your birth.
I don’t want to go back to the Soviet canteen with its hour-long queues and mud in chipped plates, from where people slurp the slurry with bent, half-clean, half-dirty aluminum spoons and forks rolled into tubes, which slip out of their hands from the greasy water dripping from them. They simply rinsed them in warm water and forgot to wipe them.
I don’t want my wife to rush around the shops again before the New Year in the hope of “getting” tangerines and champagne.
I don’t want to drink draft coffee and Georgian “tea” again.
I don’t want to sit again at Komsomol-party-trade union meetings and listen to my party genosse.
I don’t want to study “History of the CPSU” again and memorize what the hell and what I said at party congresses starting from the 19th century.
I don't want to go to school and college, where foreign language taught in such a way that you would never understand anything in the language you were learning.
I don’t want to go to a country where the only foreign country where its citizens could go was Bulgaria.
I don’t want to go back to the USSR merchant fleet, where in foreign ports you can only go ashore in a group and only until seventeen o’clock. I don’t want meager salaries for sailors, when the only chance for a sailor not to fall to the financial level of a janitor was the resale of cheap overseas rags. I don’t want again a commissar-pompolit, party organizer, trade union organizer and Komsomol organizer who poke their noses into my personal affairs.
I don't want ours again huge army and the navy, where a soldier received 3 rubles a month, where hazing, drunkenness and theft flourished. Where there was no discipline, and military training was quietly replaced by brave reports.
I don’t want to go back to dirty trains for which there are always no tickets. Buses bursting at the seams with passengers packed there.
I don't want to wear baggy suits, hoodies, shirts and clumsy shoes.
I don’t want to open my mouth in surprise again when I hear about “vidac”.
I don’t want to bow down in humiliation again in front of an asshole at a car service center when something is wrong with my Zapora or Zhiguli car.
I no longer want to cover the walls in my kitchen with oilcloth according to the latest design trends.
I don’t want to steal paint or brick again, because there’s simply nowhere to buy them.
I don’t want to again, having honestly earned money in my hands, live as if on borrowed money and at the mercy of someone.
I don’t want my country to again use our common money to build roads only in the Baltic states.
I really don’t want to drink Georgian “wine” again, which is obtained by washing dirty barrels with raw water.
I don’t want draft beer and half and half sour cream and water.
I really don’t want to stand in line again for two types of sausage - “there is sausage and there is no sausage”
I again do not want international friendship and a single people with Kyrgyzstan and all progressive humanity.
I don't want it again......
In general, I don’t want to go back to the USSR, well, only if they offer me to return there with my youth.

All books by the writer and journalist from Kaliningrad Sergei Salnikov on his website:
http://sss1949.wix.com/salnikov

Lived there too 20.07.2017 15:20:29

And don't want to. After all, this is still impossible.

Alexei 02.02.2017 22:25:10

My childhood was spent in the USSR. I remember how my parents and my brother in those years brought popsicles from Moscow in thermoses (we didn’t have it in Tula; ice cream in waffle cups was considered the highest). And not only ice cream, but also sausage, boiled pork, frankfurters, sausages... and once even a color TV! I remember going to 2-3 stores for bread (one has black bread, but no white, the second has only loaves, and only the third has buns)! Even for Tula gingerbread (in Tula!), my cousin and I once stood in a long line, and this was not under the “traitor” Gorbachev, but under the “patriot” Andropov!

Sergey Salnikov 02/03/2017 13:09:38

Thank you!
Yes, they carried food and things.
I once brought back a frozen turkey from a business trip to Leningrad.
Do you know where?
To Sovgavan! Can you imagine where it is! What was to be done?
1978, then we had all the meat on coupons - 2 kg per month, and it could be boiled sausage, chicken or meat, well, whatever they wanted, they would sell it according to the coupon.
By the way, Gorbachev was Andropov’s promoter, and he personally dragged him to Moscow and promoted him.
This “patriot” was muddy, starting with his biography

R'Ректор 18.12.2016 16:30:55

For everything you breathe and live,
Hold on with your teeth, brother,
When you die, then you will understand
What a thing - life...

бабуля 20.11.2016 07:28:37

To “miss” the USSR even more, read books. There are a lot of them now, about the beginning of the 20th century in Russia. Maybe you'll yearn for something else. I am concerned with only one question: “Why are there more revolutionaries in our country than evolutionists?” What prevents all those yearning to restore order in own home, yard, street? Work (for free), with children, help the elderly and organize (without revolutions), public control over housing and communal services, for example. You never know how many useful things you can do for yourself and your loved ones. Then, perhaps, you won’t have to feel sad, and the people around you will be active, positive and creative.

Sergey Salnikov 11/20/2016 13:01:19

Totally agree with you.
Some time ago, people elected a communist deputy to the district council, who babbled a lot about... well, you know what.
And then the new heating season began with a huge increase in tariffs.
Do you think this “carbonari” and his district committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation are involved in this specific matter?
Apart from vile malice - this is your ED, nothing more.
And even then, the matter is small, specific, requires effort, and most importantly, there is no need to overthrow and change the “system.”
A rally, a meeting, is a completely different matter. social network, TV, it’s much more pleasant to shake up the situation here.

RљРелячков Валентин 14.06.2016 22:48:45

Actually, as far as I understand, the purpose of human life on earth is to prolong the human race... It’s not for nothing that the most touching pictures in life are recognized as those from which the happy, big-eyed faces of our children and grandchildren look at you... I read these “smart” characteristics of Soviet times, and whining that then someone had to stand in lines all their lives for something exquisite, which the USSR could not yet provide 100% and I think: but to the body that comes “one "to live once" usually comes with a soul... Or is it not attached to everyone?.. Well, about everything that Sergei Salnikov does not want, he said; he just didn’t say anything about the fact that in the USSR children were much happier than now, when stores are filled with sausage, and auto giants are out of work because there is overproduction of cars. In kindergartens there is security, in schools there is guards armed to the teeth, children without parents do not play in the yard, sports schools are paid, music schools are paid... why am I listing all this?! everyone knows this very well. We conducted research in our city: 25% of children have the opportunity (their parents have the opportunity!) to receive leisure activities (sports, music, dancing, foreign languages, etc.) Well, convince me that children can live without this!..

Sergey Salnikov 06/15/2016 07:52:08

Convince you?
What and most importantly why?
I don't do useless work.
Those who are prevented from prolonging the human race by the social system, and not by their own impotence, cannot be convinced.
Clueless, lazy, with hands growing out of their ass, for some reason they believe that the next revolution will make them smart, lucky and help them realize their “giant potential”
Completeness is simply inflated self-esteem and the structure of society is not to blame here, and the next “revolution” will not make a macho out of an impotent person.
Good luck!

МарРеРЅР° Григорьевна 01.03.2016 13:00:11

But I really want to go to the USSR!!! Yes, I have never been abroad, and I didn’t want to. I've been to the sea once in my life! This doesn’t bother me! I was born in Siberia among tall Russian birches. among tall slender pines, among beautiful flowering meadows, among daisies and cornflowers, and a fairy-tale winter forest, clean, heady ringing air, and dazzling white snow! I don’t need any foreign countries! I also stood in queues, but it was temporary! I watched good positive news, listened to good music, read good books, watched wonderful films. I worked with pleasure as a nurse! Then there was no bullying of medical workers! We had a clean environment over our heads ,peaceful, blue sky! I can still list so many positive things! I love Russia!

Sergey Salnikov 03/01/2016 14:05:27

Hmm, have the birches and cornflowers withered and disappeared now?
And there is no more winter with snow?
Is someone forcing someone to go abroad? If you don't want it, you don't have to.
I’m very happy for you that you didn’t stand in line your whole life, but only “temporarily.” Although, if you get bored, you can play it with your nostalgic neighbors :)
Does someone stop you from watching old films and reading Dostoevsky and Chekhov? ( Good books- is this about them or someone else?) :))
Do you love Russia? This is good, but only in the USSR this word was not used. As, however, there were no Russian people, only Soviet ones.
And do you also need exams at school and the great Lenin in the mausoleum to be completely happy?
Lenin is still sunbathing there, and you obviously won’t take the exams anymore, even if they are reinstated at the request of pensioners.

RЎРљР 17.02.2016 22:34:12

I partly agree with Salnikov: life is short and you need to live in the present, and that the past always seems better. If you look at it objectively, in the USSR they tried to build a much fairer society in relation to capitalist society. Unfortunately, socialism did not last long. There were, of course, negative aspects of this socialism (some of them are described in the material listed above), but this does not mean that socialism is absolutely bad, it is stupid to think so. After all, mistakes in the implementation of a political and economic system that has no analogues in history (from scratch) are inevitable and it would be more rational to objectively (this is the most difficult thing) evaluate the Soviet experience, highlight effective methods for working with something, preventing something. One of the things that people like is confidence in the future. In the USSR (until 1990) there was this confidence. It is important to understand that the 80s were not the entire USSR, and judging the USSR by looking only at the end of the 70s-91s would be a serious mistake.

To Aza Pravdina’s comment:
About the “false paradise for workers” this is generally cool, by the way, thanks to the Soviet experience in capitalist countries they began to pay attention to the proletariat (medicine, paid leave, quality of life). But snitching has not disappeared anywhere and it was not only in the USSR/RF, in in some cases it can even radically change the situation (yes, many criminals were mowed down by this back in Stalin’s time, then they began to sharply condemn him after his death, which is somehow suspiciously straightforward), and it is important to note that a denunciation is a denunciation, and not a court decision about that the person is guilty. Despite rebuilding the country, it is impossible to win the war, simply because without a clear goal understandable to everyone, without an ideology that unites and guides society, without the organization of this society, it is impossible to simply produce anything at all, and in the USSR it was the Communist Party that was able to govern society in such a way that he was able to win. A person will not do anything on his own. In addition, there are no communist regimes, there is a totalitarian regime and there is communist ideology.

Sergey Salnikov 02/18/2016 17:23:06

On this occasion, I remember a fairy tale about how a fox found himself in a wonderland and asked: “Are there any hunters here?”
They answer him - No.
-Great! Are there any chickens?
- Also no-
- Eh, there is no perfection in life! -
Judging by the USSR in the late 70s, it’s not such a bad option in favor of the USSR. The late 20s or thirties were much more difficult to praise. :)
Confidence?
Well, yes, you could be sure that in fifteen years you will get an apartment, in five years they will add a chervonets to your salary, in ten years it will be your turn to get a car and at 60 you will retire, and, if you behave correctly, you will even be given a ticket to a house recreation.
It surprises me that now there seem to be not so many people working, there seems to be an awful lot of stealing, but we live better.
Where did everything go under the “most just system”, when everyone worked and no one stole?
Here's a puzzle!

Ярослав Гайдученко, 46 лет. 13.02.2016 19:31:50

And I don’t envy today’s youth at all.
Living knowing that in your entire life you won’t save up for an apartment, and you won’t get a free one.
Living with the constant fear that your tyrant boss could fire you at any moment, for example, for having excessively sweaty palms (see. french film film "Toy" with P. Richard).
Living from one crisis to another, expecting your business to go bankrupt and you to be thrown out onto the street.
Live with the fear that your loved ones will get sick, and you won’t have the money for an expensive operation.
Live with the fear that you will end up homeless or that in old age you will have to beg and eat from the trash can at the nearest restaurant.
Live with the fear that an official will hit you with his expensive foreign car, and you yourself will be the one to blame, since he has everything under control.
Live. . . we can continue this endless list.
I don't envy today's youth, except for the fact that they are young now.

AiF answered this and other questions economist, rector of RANEPA Vladimir Mau, most of whose scientific works are devoted to the history of the economy of the USSR.

Where is sour cream for 1 rub. 70 kopecks?

Alexey Chebotarev, AiF: Vladimir Alexandrovich, are we really “returning to the USSR”?

Vladimir Mau: Which USSR exactly? Soviet Union 1920s was very different from the same country in the 30s, the economy of the 1930s was very different from the economy of the 70s. But there is, of course, common features. Soviet society was very poor. The economy is inflexible and ineffective. USSR in the mid-1980s. imported up to 46 million tons of grain from abroad - was it possible to talk about food security? Modern Russia, on the contrary, annually sells 25 million tons of grain...

“But everyone feared and respected us.” In the era of stagnation, life was calm and satisfying...

— This country was feared, yes, because of its unpredictability, and this is not difficult to restore. But they were respected - it’s unlikely. What could we produce that would be popular on the world market? What a joke V. Putin, perhaps galoshes, which they loved to buy in Africa, because they were comfortable to walk in the Sahara. There was no abundance in Soviet times even in Moscow. I remember how much sour cream cost: 1 ruble 70 kopecks. So what? Few people had cars - it was difficult and expensive to buy them, apartments were not for sale in principle, the quality of the products was unimportant. Any books were in short supply, even Pushkin. Here are the essays Lenin It was easy to buy, 65 kopecks volume. I bought it - it’s interesting.

— When they talk about returning to the USSR, they refer to the strengthening of the role of the state in the economy...

— The state plays a significant role in our economy, but not as much as in Soviet times. In the USSR, the state's share of GDP reached 64%, now it is less than 40%.

- And a new cold war, an iron curtain - does this threaten us?

- There is no Iron Curtain - you can go anywhere. As for the Cold War, even before the USSR, Russia’s relations with the West often deteriorated.

— Attempts to regulate prices are also a ghost of the past...

— I don’t know a country where prices are not regulated. Yes, in the USSR they did it very harshly. CPSU(b) activist Yuri Larin he painted a wonderful picture in his book: “A party member says: “We asked the traders not to raise the price of bread. They took me to prison and explained that if they raise prices, they won’t leave prison alive.” But here's a story from life Russian Empire. On the occasion of the extraordinary increase in bread prices in St. Petersburg Count Mikhail Loris-Melikov, the Minister of Internal Affairs, gathered the traders and persuaded them to lower their prices. They objected, complaining about the poor harvest. Then Loris-Melikov announced that if they did not lower prices, they would be expelled from the capital. The very next day, newspapers announced a reduction in bread prices. I wrote this story in my diary on November 2, 1880. Secretary of State of the Russian Empire Yegor Peretz. The minutes of the meeting of the Council of Ministers in the summer of 1916 on the introduction of criminal penalties for raising food prices with an emotional resolution were also published Nicholas II:"Finally!" But now serious price regulation would be harmful for Russia.

- But maybe it’s worth restoring?..

- It's not worth it. The Soviet economy is a product of the industrial era. If we do not want to sit in the era of industrial dinosaurs, then there is no need to revive the economic system of the USSR. This is not happening. The fundamental features of the Soviet system are total state ownership, criminal punishment for private entrepreneurship, state establishment of the ruble exchange rate and prices, and commodity shortages. Fortunately, there is no recovery of all these elements.

Why don't we trust anyone?

— And people miss the USSR...

“Our people are just more pro-market and pro-capitalist than people usually think about them. Years Soviet power They taught people not to trust each other, the state, the police, and to rely only on themselves. Our society is atomized, we have much less solidarity than in Western countries, therefore there is much less inclination to strikes and protests. And in agriculture we are following the path of developing large-scale production, since farms require high collective organization. In our country, cooperation from below does not work.

There is no turning back. The only thing similar to that time today is the world situation: oil prices in real terms are at approximately the same level as after 1986. Therefore, the relevant question is not the return of the USSR, but another: what Soviet mistakes should be taken into account in modern conditions?

- And which ones?

— In my opinion, the acceleration program was a serious mistake economic development. Then, instead of structural reforms, the USSR began to formally increase growth rates. In fact, by digging pits and purchasing imported equipment. This was achieved at a cost fast increase external debt and budget deficit - from almost zero to several times. In 1987-1988 the growth rate increased, but then a decline began and the country collapsed. Therefore, now we need to focus on modernization, which will become the basis for long-term, sustainable economic growth.

— Among the modern Russian elite, are there those who strive to restore the USSR?

“There are those who would like to return a country that would be feared. But I don’t know anyone who would like to restore the country with state prices and a shortage of goods.

I was tired of following the path of democratic reforms, I ran out of money, and my neighbors drank themselves to death. And on my TV, the winds of future change howl ominously, and the heads of newscasters vying with each other to scare me about the riches of democracy.

I slowly dream of buying a pie with jam for six Soviet kopecks and wrapping the herring in the latest issue of the unread Pravda newspaper. I want to turn around and go back. I want to go to a country where there are no terrorists, prostitutes, racketeers, mayors, presentations, dollars and a multi-party system. Well, the question arises, why did we drive out one party ten years ago, only to then put dozens of others on our necks? Well, we still won by dispersing some officials and raising many new ones.

This means that in order to become free, we had to become beggars. And who did we pay for our freedom and give everything we had? Oligarchs, politicians, bandits, officials, or are they the same thing?

Once again, I want people to lie to me on TV all day long about the successes of socialism, and not scare me with the failures of capitalism. Let me go to the USSR. I will be able to find my way back, since we gradually abandoned everything along this road in order to walk lightly. I will pick up all this along the road of our reforms and return back to the USSR, not empty-handed.

In the distant past, I took numerous oaths as an October boy, a pioneer and a Komsomol member, and for some reason I broke them all. And then I completely sold my Motherland. In that past life, back in the USSR, I swore allegiance to the socialist fatherland in the Red Army, and my fingers sweated patriotically on a Kalashnikov assault rifle. I broke my oath and now must answer in front of my comrades, who, in turn, also sold their Motherland and must answer in front of me.

I often think why I then betrayed my military oath and did not rush to defend the heritage of socialism. It was a massive betrayal of our socialist ideals and the acquisition of capitalist ideals, which today we are also ready to sell.

In principle, I agree to remember my military oath and fulfill my duty, but my Motherland does not give me a machine gun and even searches other passers-by on the streets to take away weapons.

Apparently, the Motherland no longer expects a feat of arms from us, it is offended and tired of waiting. And we again feel that the fatherland is in danger, and we are thinking how to escape from it. I don’t want to go to America, I want to go to the USSR. I will courageously stand in lines for sausage until the last drop of blood, go to community cleanups and carry the heaviest banners at May Day demonstrations. I swear, believe me, if you can still believe me.

It’s never too late to learn communism, and you don’t even need to learn it, just repeat it. In the morning, stand up to the words of the old anthem, eat a slice of coupon sausage, buy a tram ticket for three kopecks and proudly walk through the entrance of your native factory.

I will be a drummer of communist labor, honestly, and I will voluntarily begin to buy tickets for the DOSAAF cash and clothing lottery.

Well, to the point of tears I want to see at least once again the slogan about the victory of socialism and the friendship of all Soviet peoples. We almost surrendered Riga, lost Crimea at cards, and now we are luring the Japanese to us through the Kuril Islands. Yes, bring back your mother, and Kyiv is the mother of our cities. I want to go to the USSR, where we are all still together, all alive, where we have not yet been shot, blown up, bombed, or divided. If we gave all this for sausage, Tampax and canned beer, then take it back, I don’t want any more thanks.

And we are frightened every day by the ominous changes in the latest Constitution. Yes, there is no need to scare us with this, few people have read it and no one will even notice if something is rewritten on the sly. The right to work will never be taken away from Russians, they will still force them to work, and they tried to take away the right to rest only once, when they cut down the vineyards and banned drinking. Still, they returned it without any Constitution, because it was absolutely impossible without it. I once tried to compare all our Soviet and Russian constitutions. One turned out to be more beautiful than the other. In principle, each subsequent Constitution was better and more impracticable than the previous one.

For example, I urgently want to take advantage of the constitutional freedom of speech, but I cannot find the appropriate words.

Today I don’t want to take everything and divide it, I just want to return to the USSR and not give anything to anyone there.

I want to go back to 1980, gather in one place all today’s politicians, still young and unspoiled, tell them everything about the next twenty years and see how they change their minds.

It would be better for us in the USSR to turn the rivers back again than for the whole country at once.

In the past of the USSR, I will happily hand over all the GTO standards, waste paper, scrap metal, Komsomol contributions and money to help oppressed Africa. Take everything, I don't mind. It turned out to be not at all expensive for a quiet life. We will dig up Leonid Ilyich, revive him, kiss him anywhere and hang the remains of his party chest with orders, and let him continue muttering to us about a bright future from the high rostrum of the next congress. This reliably lulled the whole country to sleep, which there was no need to wake up if they didn’t know exactly what to do with it. Well, who the hell barked in the ear of a peacefully sleeping country, and, not allowing it to get drunk, persuaded it to exchange the values ​​of socialism for US dollars. We now have more of these dollars than in America itself, but there is no more nichrome left, well, there is, of course, a little, but we are changing it to the euro.

I can no longer follow the path of reform. I don’t trust the Reds or the Whites, the Left or the Right, and for that they all don’t believe me. I would stay with all the other people, but most of all I am afraid of these very people. I was always with him, and suddenly I fell out, well, I thought, by accident, now I’ll be back in line, but suddenly I see that I wasn’t the only one who fell out, there were many attacking around me.

It was apparently a dream. I began to pick them up, but they spoke to me in obscenities that I almost did not understand. I looked at myself and saw that I myself had gradually turned into a contented bourgeois and became like the old “Bad Boy”. I began to shout that in three days the Red Army would come and rescue us from the filthy bourgeoisie, but no one listened to me. I woke up and decided to return to the USSR.

I don’t invite anyone there, I go alone to that country where everyone expected the best and missed the good.

I feel that soon almost everyone will want to go to the USSR, and will go there in orderly ranks, perhaps even led by our government. I want to run there first, and get in line for literally everything. The rest will start borrowing after me, but there will still not be enough for everyone.

It will happen, but it will happen later. And I'll leave now. They will throw stones at my back. And then they will throw stones at the backs of those who run to bring me back, but leave with me. And then a monolithic everything will walk along these stones, and so that it does not get lost, I will leave chalk arrows on how to return correctly. It's easy. Yes, it is necessary for Lenin to be alive again, for the party to become an honor and conscience, for children to enroll in the Komsomol and engage in physical education. It is necessary to ruin all the rich and equalize them with the poor, make vodka for 4 rubles 12 kopecks per bottle, and together with the Ukrainians, Belarusians, Estonians and other friendly peoples, drink so much that you forget the hostility and wake up again in the USSR. This is the only road, and there is simply no other path. Today's children will no longer live in socialism, even if it goes wrong three times. And our grandchildren will begin to build communism, not immediately, of course, but they will definitely begin.

We will soon return to the USSR, we will again make a powerful country and an honest party, we will hang portraits of our beloved leaders and their glorious words everywhere, they will learn to fear us again the developed countries, and we will peacefully get drunk in our small kitchens and begin to fearlessly tell jokes about the government and the ruling party. This is true happiness - to have nothing and to lose nothing.

And then everything will happen again. Once again, someone will bark into the ear of a peacefully sleeping country, and it, reeling from drinking, will joyfully perk up and cheerfully follow the path of new democratic reforms. We will, of course, go a little further than we went today. But we Russians never go strictly forward or backward, but simply walk in a circle (Lenin, out of politeness, called it a spiral), and the most cunning among us turn first. According to all our proverbs, it follows that our king must be wise, and our people cunning. And if we choose our own ruler for the kingdom, then everyone immediately becomes cunning and turns around together. It is important that this turn is not taken too sharply, otherwise a lot of people may be run over, although no one will be offended, and everyone will blame it on bad roads and destructive forces.

I don’t want to turn with everyone else, I want to go straight back, strictly and along a straight road, and straight to the USSR. I'll wait for you all there.

Preface:

Why am I writing? I read custom articles about why we should return to the USSR, how good it was there. Laughed. But some readers got excited and forgot, or may be so susceptible to propaganda that they do not notice that this article only says good things. Were there any shortcomings?
Therefore, in contrast, I would like to straighten this stick that has been bent several times, especially since everything good about the USSR has already been sucked out of thin air. Therefore, I apologize to those who want to go back to the USSR. Yes, I won’t write about the advantages anymore.

What's wrong with my memory? Why do I have a good memory and others have a bad one? Interesting.
Maybe because I have a collection of all the speeches and films with the participation of Arkady Raikin, a kind of apostle of satire of that time, but who exposed only some of the shortcomings of the society of that time - not everything could be criticized. Mainly household and psychological portraits. He made fun of low level services and the decadent quality of products, ridiculed drunkards and bureaucrats of the USSR.

Maybe also because I have a collection of USSR films and why-why children? Maybe because when watching these films, I try to answer my children why the aunties in the film immediately stood in line, without even knowing why they were standing, and only then asked why they were standing in line. Why do children wear rubber sneakers instead of normal shoes or sneakers? Why are people’s clothes gray and identical, out of size, sometimes in patches? Why people don't have enough money and why they won't take out a loan (film "Carnival"). Why are there large counters and meager shelves in the store, what is the shortage, why does my uncle shout: “Will there be onions or not?” and doesn’t go to another store, why is the meat free... free??? (free - here is childish naivety - good meat was given through connections to “their own”, the film “The Blonde Around the Corner”). Why does little Lala scream so much (because she’s wet), and why isn’t she wearing diapers (in the USSR there were almost no diapers “For family reasons”)? Why are there no cars at night, why didn’t your uncle find it and call a taxi service (“Big Brother”)? Why does the aunt boast about cigarettes - she can’t buy them herself (“Guess what I’m smoking now, Marlboro” “Office Romance”).

What period will we consider? Let's consider the USSR in its entire history, and not when the price of oil was sufficient for its development. Otherwise, people take the period of the 70s, believing that this is the heyday of the USSR. But in fact it is oil in period of high prices, which the USSR later happily squandered, which already speaks of the myth of the “greatness of the USSR economy.”

1. Propaganda, freedom of speech, repression

In the USSR it was forbidden to criticize the Communist Party and leaders in any way. Repressions are most active and known from 1937, but they existed before and after this repressive peak. Even in the post-Stalin era, one of the essential elements of censorship were articles of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR No. 70 (“anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda”) and No. 190-1 (“dissemination of deliberately false fabrications discrediting the Soviet system”). According to the KGB of the USSR, 3,448 people were convicted under these articles from 1958 to 1966, and another 1,583 people from 1967 to 1975
The ideas of communism are placed at the highest value (True, they are interpreted somehow “in the Soviet way”). Starting from September 1920 and until 1990, only the CPSU existed (until 1952 it was called the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), until 1925 - the Russian Communist Party). Since the late 20s the accusation of creating political party(Industrial parties, AOTZTS and so on) - a standard accusation in political trials.

However, those who want to go to the USSR need to be reminded. The USSR began its existence in the 1920s. That is, be prepared to end up not in 1970, but in 1937. It will not be possible without clearing the ranks of citizens from rich inheritances, wealthy farmers who doubt the division, skeptics of communism or representatives of other political movements.

Conclusion: If you want to live a lie, if you want to be afraid to say too much, to be afraid not only to tell, but also to listen to jokes, if you are ready to go to prison on false charges, then you are made for the USSR. But that is not all...

2. Commodity shortage

The commodity shortage in the USSR is a phenomenon inherent in the Soviet planned economy, a constant shortage of certain goods and services that buyers could not purchase, despite the availability of money.

The disadvantages of a planned economy were:
- the difficulty of promptly responding to the needs of society, which can lead to a shortage of in-demand goods and services
- a high probability of making incorrect decisions about investments, about the volume of production of a particular product or service;
- lack of incentives for producers to use resources efficiently, to expand the range of goods and services, and to innovate;
- the desire to exceed the plan has a negative impact on product quality;
- the impossibility of effectively managing the increasing complexity of the production chain, which limits the use of economies of scale for various technological stages and does not allow reducing production costs;

According to the influential British weekly The Economist, “central planning is remembered as the greatest economic disaster of the 20th century.”

Only in some large cities could one find, stand in a long line and buy something rare for other regions. The quality of the goods was also controversial. We were looking for foreign equipment, furniture, and building materials. Even if you had money, you still had to find it and give it to you.

For example, goods for women were in particular shortage. Women spent their time knitting hats, sweaters, skirts, etc. Even finding high-quality perfumes, cosmetics, pencils, and nail polish was extremely difficult. My wife told me a story when her music teacher always had beautiful red “polish” on her nails, which prompted questions from her friends - where did you buy it? Until one day I accidentally wet my hands and the “varnish”... started to flow. It turned out that the poor woman painted her nails in the morning with ordinary watercolors and did not wash her hands until the evening. This Funny case We may treat this with humor, or it may cause bewilderment among those who did not live in the USSR and do not understand all these deprivations.

Those who are forgetful can retort to me that in photographs of USSR stores, the shelves are always full. Funny. Well, of course they are filled - just look at these photos carefully. You go into a store and on the shelves littered with goods you cannot find what you need. Have you taken a closer look? Monotony! The same thing is displayed in whole line 3-4 meters or built into the pyramid of Cheops. Looking at these photographs I see quantity, not variety and quality. I see sellers who are indifferent to their goods and who will not get anything for being rude to the buyer.

I remember very well the most varied store of that time - a bazaar, a market. At the bazaar you could find almost any fruit or vegetable in excellent condition, because the sellers were interested in selling. The rest, shops and department stores, in a planned economy did not care what they sold. And what they needed to sell was decided by “smart” people in the ministries.

It was not because of a good life that Soviet people spent their free time and knitted, darned, baked, pickled, boiled, salted and drove.

Conclusion: If you have a lot of free time and are bored, you want to make your wardrobe and food simpler, as well as knitting, darning, pickling, boiling, salting, and chasing. If you want another 3-4 hours of free time after work, stand in line. Then you are made for the USSR.

3. Class society

What touches me most are those who write that “in the USSR everyone was equal,” but now rich “sons” have appeared.

I assure you, in the USSR the life of the son of a factory director from Moscow was very different from the life of the son of a worker from the village of Gadyukino. Or the daughter of the chairman of the district committee dressed better than the daughter of a textile factory worker. Guess three times which product the director of the meat or fish departments did not suffer from a shortage of. Someone could travel abroad for work and, accordingly, have a foreign car and supply their relatives with foreign goods. But these are just narrow examples.

And if we look at it more broadly, then in the USSR there was the so-called. nomenklatura - a considerable layer of the population that occupied various key administrative positions in all spheres of activity: government, industry, Agriculture, education, etc.
For the Soviet nomenclature, privileges were introduced (starting in the 20s) in the supply of goods and products, including those in short supply - the so-called. special distributors (“200th section of GUM”, a special service store on Kutuzovsky Prospect, etc.), “order tables” - and could purchase (often at a much lower price) goods inaccessible to the rest of the population. Medical care was separate and of higher quality. The nomenklatura had special clinics, hospitals and sanatoriums, equipped with last word medical equipment, with highly qualified specialists subordinate to the 4th Main Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Health, popularly nicknamed the “four”. Detailed description The privileges of the nomenklatura of the Khrushchev and Brezhnev periods can be found in the book by Mikhail Voslensky “Nomenklatura”.
In the book, M. S. Voslensky estimates the number of nomenklatura workers in the USSR during the Brezhnev period to be 750 thousand people.

Let’s rest a little in this chapter, laugh with Roman Kartsev and continue reading the next 3 chapters:

4. Foreign policy, wars

The history of the USSR is a 70-year history of wars, a history of eternal struggle with the eternal enemy. The USSR considered it its duty to interfere in all world processes and lose its citizens there for the sake of a “high” goal. Wars were started either by the USSR itself, or started against it, the USSR intervened in other people's conflicts, sent its soldiers there, many of whom did not return. In addition, I will note how much Soviet equipment was given free of charge to other countries or destroyed in these wars.
By the way, who did the USSR care about?
Did this country exist for the people or did the people exist in it to achieve its goals?

Birth of the USSR: Civil War(1918-1922) (Total 10,500,000 died, 2,000,000 emigrated)
Soviet-Polish War (1919-1921) (More than 120 thousand Red Army soldiers were captured (up to 200 thousand), mostly captured during the battle of Warsaw, and another 40 thousand soldiers were in East Prussia in internment camps)
Sino-Soviet military conflict (1929)
International assistance to Spain (1936-1939) (In total, it was supplied from October 1936 to January 1939: aircraft - 648, tanks - 347, armored vehicles - 60, torpedo boats - 4, artillery pieces - 1186, machine guns - 20486, rifles - 497,813, cartridges - 862 million, shells - 3.4 million, aerial bombs - 110 thousand)
Providing international military assistance to China (1923-1941) (In total, the USSR delivered to China on the basis of treaties (from November 1937 to January 1942): aircraft - 1285 (of which 777 fighters, 408 bombers, 100 training aircraft) , guns of various calibers - 1600, medium tanks - 82, machine guns and light machine guns - 14 thousand, cars and tractors - 1850, a large number of rifles, artillery shells, rifle cartridges, aircraft bombs, spare parts for aircraft, tanks, cars, communications equipment , gasoline, medicines and medical equipment. 227 USSR military personnel died)
Fighting near Lake Khasan July 29 - August 9, 1938
Fighting near the Khalkhin Gol River (1939)
Liberation campaign in Western Ukraine and Western Belarus (1939)
Soviet-Finnish War (11/30/1939-03/12/1940) (11,676 were killed and died from wounds and illnesses; 5,965 were missing; 35,800 were wounded;)
THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR 1941-1945
Civil War in China (1946-1950) (936 people died from wounds and illnesses)
Korean War (1950-1953) (335 aircraft and 120 pilots lost, 315 people killed in total)
Vietnam War (1965-1974)
Caribbean crisis(1962-1964)
Algeria (1962-1964)
Arab-Israeli wars (1967-1974)
Somali-Ethiopian War (1977-1979)
Hungary (1956) (720 killed and 1,540 wounded)
Czechoslovakia (1968)
Border military conflicts on Far East and in Kazakhstan (1969)
War in Afghanistan (December 25, 1979 – February 15, 1989) (15,051 dead, 53,753 wounded, 417 missing)
Soviet military and military-technical assistance was also provided to other countries, where there were also casualties:

Mozambique 1967 - 1969 from November 1975 to November 1979 from March 1984 to April 1987
- Angola 1975-1994
- in Syria: June 1967 March - July 1970 September - November 1972 October 1973
- Yemen from October 1962 to March 1963 from November 1967 to December 1969
- in Laos 1960 - 1963 from August 1964 to November 1968 from November 1969 to December 1970
- in Cambodia: from April to December 1970
- Bangladesh: 1972 - 1973
- Pakistani-Indian conflict 1971,
- Chadian-Libyan conflict 1987
- Conflict in Yugoslavia. 1989-1991
- Fighting in Syria and Lebanon: June 1982

Let me not draw any conclusions in this chapter, but simply mourn for those who died. One way or another, these people are really sorry. But still, it depends on us, on a real and comprehensive assessment of history, whether we want to repeat this with ourselves and our children?

5. Culture

I also read interesting comments about high culture films and cartoons in the USSR. That in the USSR cartoons were filmed specifically for the children's psyche, there were no scenes of violence in films, etc.

Let's start with children's films.
- After watching the “children’s” film “The Headless Horseman” during the holidays, at a young age I could not sleep normally for several nights.
- “Mio, my Mio” is a sad tale about a lonely, unwanted orphan boy who is transported from dull Stockholm to a fantasy land and decides to stay there forever.
- “The Tale of Wanderings” is a dark, unpleasant film for me as a child. Martha is looking for her brother, wandering with a friend through terrible swamps swirling with fog, toothy mountains, caves entwined with tree roots, dungeons, burning stone cities and other unpleasant areas. Schnittke's music is beautiful, but does not correct the horror of flying to the ground where there are a lot of fires where people who died from the plague are burned. Martha's friend also dies of the plague and leaves her alone in this world to look for her brother.

And cartoons in the USSR hit the children’s psyche:
- “The Wingless Gosling” is a psychedelic cartoon based on a Chukchi fairy tale. There, a man constantly tears off his head so that birds fly out of his body. And the unfortunate gosling is either buried alive by a fox, or lowered into hell by mice that turn into cockroaches... In general, in 10 minutes of a cartoon, the Sverdlovsk film studio could easily turn a child into a neurasthenic.
- "Barefoot Gen" - the hellish horror of every schoolchild in the late 80s, full-length anime about dropping nuclear bomb to Hiroshima. What the teachers were thinking when they took first-graders to the cinema is unclear
- "Black chicken, or Underground inhabitants" - a gloomy cartoon about dungeons, dwarf people and shackles for betrayal.
- “The White Heron”, where an evil princess orders the killing of a bird in order to make a decoration out of its crest, and after the princess, the whole nation begins to engage in the aesthetic extermination of herons. The heartwarming plot is supported by dark colors and heart-chilling music.
- “Caliph Stork” - when children are taught that they can forever remain an enchanted bird by forgetting the word “mutabor”. Some children, they say, wrote this word on themselves in order to turn back into a person.
- “Silver Bell” is about a boy who broke a valuable bell and ended up in the deserted kingdom of Sukhovey, where in the muddy glow some sticks and twigs dance eerie dances, and Sukhovey itself is an unpleasantly moving spot with a creaky, whispering voice

We can continue for a long time. Even everyone’s favorite Aibolit, where they want to eat children, or in “Moidodyr” the crocodile forces the boy to wash himself in this way? Is it normal to run after the hare throughout the entire plot and try to eat it in “Well, Just Wait”? Does smoking wolf have a normal effect on the psyche of children? Maybe I'm too strict - but they're just such amateurs Soviet cartoons at the same time they hate foreigners and see there something that for some reason they don’t notice in Soviet ones - that’s what’s offensive.

Was it not on these cartoons and films that the army of Soviet serial killers and maniacs grew up?

And in ordinary films there were scenes of violence. Were there where they had to create an image of enemies. How else can you make people differentiate? Soviet soldiers from the Fascists? Therefore, the Enemies “could” burn, kill, rape and shoot. To make it easier to hate them. That is, violence in Soviet films a priori it could not help but be.

Conclusion: In this case, it is not necessary to return to the USSR to remember all the films and cartoons listed in this chapter. Just choose and see. I don’t recommend more than one a day, despite any Soviet GOST standards for the quality of these products. Otherwise, you are all “Garage”, “Office Romance” or “Old, New Year"Strive to re-watch. And in the USSR, the program schedule was strictly regulated. So watch everything that is shown. And not just white spots. Don’t forget to watch such “movies” to complete the memories and feelings.

6. Distribution of income of the union republics

The distribution of income between the republics of the USSR was uneven. Some republics, due to their hard work and way of thinking, could work and earn more than others.

For example, I will consider only the Latvian SSR, annexed in 1940:
The LSSR supplied radio receivers, automatic telephone exchanges, minibuses, carriages, washing machines, light and food industry products, etc. to other union republics. LSSR industrial products were exported to more than 100 countries. In terms of national income production per capita, Latvia occupied one of the leading places among the union republics. In terms of production per capita, the LSSR occupied 1st place among the Union republics in the production of mainline passenger cars, tram cars, diesel engines and diesel generators, automatic telephone exchanges and telephone sets, refrigeration units, plywood, slate, wool and linen fabrics, knitwear, radios, household washing machines, mopeds, as well as by the volume of work of consumer service enterprises and the transportation of passengers by rail (1972)

Please note that everything was transported to the center, to Moscow. Often, in the regions, manufacturers had to contact Moscow through Moscow to order goods produced in the region. It was in the center that it was decided to whom the goods would be distributed. Most often, the majority of goods remained in Moscow or were exported, distributed between departments in Moscow and the regions, supplied for the needs of the army, and only the remainder was determined in big cities and often did not reach the counters (they waited under the counter for thieves' "friends"). Often goods that were in short supply in the country were exported to other countries.

Conclusion: If you want to work and earn more than others, but so that everyone is paid equally. If you consider it honest that your people should feed other peoples with their hard work. Then perhaps I have no more arguments left. Live in the USSR.

Afterword:

For the effective development of any political system What is needed is a model of a responsible, decent, hardworking citizen. It must be admitted that the USSR also failed, partly because of the “ruin in the heads” of both the authorities and the people.
I would even say that the USSR demanded more responsible citizens than in the current market economy.

Nowadays, people with “ruin in their heads” themselves have a difficult life, and life is difficult only for them, but not for everyone. They only make things worse for themselves.
Those who want to live well, who work hard, who understand how much they should study and work, those who succeed in a lot.
Maybe this is an element of that justice that was difficult to achieve in the USSR?

I deliberately did not finish this article, since I did not describe such shortcomings as theft at enterprises (I even prepared a joke that “this is salary compensation, not theft”), I did not provide figures for drug addiction and drunkenness, and some other issues. I wanted people to learn how to find this information and think for themselves. Draw your own conclusions and build real pictures of the past.

List of sources and used literature:

Don't talk to me about nostalgia. I tried to compare the past and present without the touch of my childhood memories. I tried to separate my childhood life from my life today in order to be objective. I a real man, who survived perestroika and the first shock, coped with the internal crisis. It was very difficult for me, as a person brought up on the principles of “Freedom, equality and fraternity.” rethink everything that happened in the first years after perestroika and the collapse of the USSR. However, the most important thing is that I did not break down fundamentally, did not step over myself, over the principles on which we were raised. And most importantly, I’m not alone. We are the majority. We cannot be calculated and doomed to extinction. Our grandfathers and great-grandfathers did not give up after the war; they raised the country from the ashes of devastation. And now, when in spite of everything we live. I’ll just cite the case of a friend of mine whose husband was killed in a car accident and she was pregnant. She leaves a third child despite the death of her husband. Despite death. This makes me happy, as long as there are people who cannot get over themselves, we will not be lost and we have a future. For us and for our children. And it’s funny to me when they start reproaching me for nostalgia.

Not everything was good in the USSR either. But this moment is precisely subjective for those who are trying today to justify the present by throwing mud at the past. He is trying to present what is happening today as white and fluffy. I came to the conclusion that the country of the USSR was a great power.

But then we began to live separately in our own countries. Separated. That now we’ll divide everything up, take it to our own corners. We divided the country of the USSR. Only I’m interested in how we will divide 70 years of our common history, how we will divide our Victory in World War II, how we will divide the children who were born in mixed marriages.

Everyone reassures us well: there is no war, no hunger, no repression. No, no, but look around. You will see that the processes taking place today are scary because they may turn out to be irreversible. Has it become better to live separately? Ask yourself each of these questions. We live democratically, freedom of the individual (although if you look at it, there is none), freedom of speech (which in fact turns out to be an empty phrase).

The collapse of the USSR led to the fact that production in the republics of the former union passed into the hands of new owners. They tell us this is good, it turns out that previously it was state-owned and, accordingly, no one’s, no one cared about it or developed it. Now the new owners will take full responsibility for the development of production and modernization. But the new owners came not to create, but to destroy. They do not have, and did not have, any prospects of working seriously and for a long time. For what? Scheme of short and fast money much more profitable. Thus, we received collapsed plants and factories, expensive equipment cut into scrap metal, and workers thrown out onto the streets. However, industry is, whatever one may say, the basis of the country’s economy.

Agriculture of Ukraine. We are independent and will abolish collective farms. Canceled. Giving former chairmen the opportunity to become lords. The equipment is gradually written off and bought back by them as scrap metal. Free work force fortunately there are still some in the villages. Where should the peasants go to the cities? Many people travel and work. They rent housing. They cannot buy it, since the price of housing compared to the level of salaries is still incomparable. Someone who has worked this way returns. They work seasonally in the village: six months working for a new master, six months at an employment center. The working day is 14 hours, of which 8 hours are actually paid. A large number of livestock in the farm ordinary picture. It seemed that it was good from each according to his ability, to each according to his work. But no, it is difficult, almost impossible, to sell everything grown at the market. Because each of our bazaars is someone’s business and everything is purchased wholesale from peasants. And the new price increases several times. At all times this was called speculation. And now it's a business.

It seemed that it would be easier for the state to revive the state purchase of surplus agricultural products from the population. Thus, reducing inflation and being able to regulate the pricing policy for food products. But apparently there is no reason for us to pay. We remain silent and buy. But the worst thing for villages is empty houses and entire streets. Empty!!! There is no hunger, no war. I am not writing this unfoundedly. This is the reality of today's village. Our fields are rented by the Germans and the Dutch. They are sown mainly with rapeseed and soybeans. We buy cane sugar because our own is more expensive.

My nostalgia for the USSR is not nostalgia for childhood. This critical analysis happening in our time. I understand that we live without hunger and war. We have adapted to live, or rather to survive. The main and perhaps the only advantage of perestroika is that we have learned to survive, not to rely on anyone but ourselves, and when it’s really bad, on God. It’s funny for me to hear about economic growth, reforms, etc. Because no logic can explain why our minimum wage is less than the subsistence level. Why can’t a person working for his own wages provide for your family. I can’t understand whether we earn little or everything is expensive. I understand that we have people who live financially in a slightly different dimension. I'm not talking about them. Not everyone can trade and steal. And not everyone wants to. If everyone starts trading and stealing, then who will work in ordinary “earthly” jobs? Who will grow and bake bread, heal and teach, etc.? If we all start working only in those jobs where we can get the maximum profit. Will we have doctors, engineers, teachers, firefighters, miners, peasants, plumbers, turners and mechanics? Or we will only have managers, salespeople, designers and models. Answer me.

The collapse of the USSR disrupted the world balance. And all the subsequent military conflicts that occurred in the world after the collapse of the USSR might not have happened. The USSR was a counterweight to America (and a real one, we were feared and respected) with its spiritually impoverished culture. Our moral values were stronger than the cult of serving one's ego propagated by America. I'm sure America is still afraid of our unification. Russia alone cannot (unfortunately) fully replace the USSR. Apparently, only together we can get the maximum result in everything in culture, in sports, in industry, in science. We can live separately. It's not a problem. Ukraine will not be lost without Russian gas, Russia will manage without Ukrainian products. But analyze how much we have achieved separately.

How many medals have we won since the collapse of the USSR? The failures of our team and the Russian team at olympic games a vivid example of this. I'm not talking about football. We can only remember the results of our victories.

Movie. After many years of stagnation, films and TV series began to be made. Moreover, the latter large quantities. However, all this is watched only once and there is no desire to watch it a second time. And the continuation films (or rather remixes) “Irony of Fate-2”, “Carnival Night-2”, “Queen of the Gas Station-2” and all these 2 I would call creative plagiarism. I remember the names: Tikhonov, Bykov, Mironov, Ulyanov, Mordyukova, Papanov, Yumatov... The list will be long. Now tell me today surnames that can be compared with them. Each surname is not just a person, it is a personality (yes, a person with his own advantages and disadvantages, but a personality). And this is also a separate bright page in the history of the country. A country that is now being criticized. Which has been unfairly slandered, but in our independent and free time, unfortunately, we cannot offer anything in return.

Variety of the USSR: Muslim Magomayev, Mark Bernes, Klavdiya Shulzhenko, Evgeny Martynov, Anna German, Valentina Tolkunova - this is our yesterday. Ours today: “Factory 1, 2, 3...”, Timati, Dima Bilan, Nikolai Baskov, “Ranetki”... Beautiful figures, beautiful clothes and that’s it. And then there is emptiness.

Our country, the USSR, won the Second World War. She defeated and liberated not only herself, but the whole of Europe. She won not because there were penal battalions, NKVD barriers and a hundred grams of vodka, as they are now trying to convince us. But there was patriotism, a spirit of unity, and a person did the incredible. He did not spare himself: he volunteered for the front, he did not hide behind other people’s backs, he went hungry, he worked at the machine for days, he sheltered Jews, he fought and survived. And now, what can we now stand as independent states? Ask yourself this question. Start the war now. Will we have volunteers? Can we unite in the face of danger?

Our children, I’m not saying that now they are all bad. Not at all. I am glad to see many thinking and reading children among my son’s friends. I believe that the family can instill those true values ​​that will help each of them to be human. But I was recently told a case. IN kindergarten The psychologist asked the children to wish for a seven-flowered flower. And she says that before, children usually wished health to their loved ones, peace, but now computers, Cell phones, radio-controlled cars, etc. What is happening to our children? How can I help them? Of course, one cannot shift all responsibility onto the shoulders of parents. The state must promote universal human values. Morality and morality must be restored. And don’t complain later that your parents didn’t pay attention.

Policy. I don’t want to write about it, but apparently it’s impossible without it. I'm in Lately For some reason I remember the cartoon “Dragon”, filmed in Soviet times. Let me remind you of the plot: a dragon ruled the people and killed every daredevil who challenged him. However, there was a brave man - a little boy who decided to kill the dragon. But his grandfather advised that before fighting the dragon, ask the wise turtle for a sword, and most importantly, advice for the fight. The advice was: “Fear the dragon within you.” And now the victory is won. But when he enters the next room, the brilliance of wealth blinds him. He forgets his promise given to people and turns into a dragon. In the fairy tale, everything ended well. What do we have? Look at our current rulers. I conclude that the fight with my “dragon” is lost. I don’t blame them and I don’t envy other people’s money. Each of them, when setting up their business, believes that they are not doing anything wrong. That he does not steal, but earns. Only according to the law of conservation of energy (nobody has canceled it), if somewhere it becomes more, it means that somewhere it has become less. It is thanks to our politicians that people go to European countries in search of work. Not from a good life or in thirst big money. Young people are coming who need to start a family now and have children now and on their own land. They put off starting a family, trying to create a base for it in the long term (not luxury, but basic conditions). How many uncreated families, how many unborn children. Who counted these losses of ours not during the war, but in peacetime. Older people come for a variety of reasons, unable to earn money in their country for an apartment, for education for their children, for treatment for seriously ill people. They often go to nowhere, leaving their parents, and most importantly their children, who grow up without parents for many years. And when our ex-president Yushchenko, while on a visit to Portugal, said the phrase: “We will cooperate with the Portuguese government to create conditions for our citizens to work.” I felt offended. Is this what people expected from their country? No, they are waiting, hoping that in order to make money normal life You won’t have to go as a servant to different countries, you won’t have to leave your children and the elderly unattended, and you’ll be able to live and work on your own land.

A friend of mine recently objected to me that in Soviet times our leaders also lived better than ordinary people. I can't argue, I don't know how they lived, and how much better they lived than us. But now I see the houses of our politicians being shown, which more often resemble palaces of culture. Apparently it’s not enough, just steal it. It's a shame because no one knows. Everyone needs to know about this. For our poor country, where the minimum pension is 600 hryvnia. And in our faces they are empty beautiful words: reform, GDP is growing and we must be patient. And before I thought that I really had to be patient, that everything couldn’t be fine right away. The state is just being built and everything will be in order over time. But year after year passed (almost 20 years passed) and I realized that there would be no order. Our government doesn't need him. Not needed.

I am not a revolutionary and I do not call for revolution. In 2004, in Ukraine, we were one step away from it. And thank God that we didn’t take this step then. But I can't accept what's happening now. I cannot agree with those who claim that we must forget the past and accept the present in the form in which it exists. I just want to encourage everyone not to go with the flow and accept the present. Although we are forced to forget our yesterday by convincing us that this is “just nostalgia for childhood.” And I know that it will no longer be as it was. Those in power will not allow us to unite. But we still need to try to remain human, first of all, and raise our children worthy of our great Motherland. I hope, no, I believe that there are people for whom the word Motherland is not an empty phrase. Which will build a worthy present taking into account the past. And among them will be a MAN who will defeat his “Dragon”. Which will be able to lead the country out of spiritual and financial poverty. And most importantly, he will be able to restore our self-respect and pride in our Motherland. I TURN TO THIS MAN, I BELIEVE HE EXISTS AND I HOPE HE WILL HEAR ME.

© Rita Shevchenko

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