7 "luxurious" things from the USSR that now seem wild

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

And again, on Kramol, a dialogue between the modern generation and the "scoops" from the USSR. The dialogue, which began in the article "Habits from the USSR, which seem wild to the modern generation," continues, only now grandfather will discuss the topic of "luxury and wealth" from the USSR with his grandson. Who is more convincing?

Grandson:

Throughout the years of the existence of the USSR, Soviet propaganda praised and exalted the image of an ascetic and a rogue, attributing some non-existent dignity to the urban poor and all the declassed elements there - they say, poor, but honest, lives in thoughts about the welfare of the people and so on. At the same time, ordinary Soviet people tried to live in a completely different way - showing the world, so to speak, the brightest image of the very "consumer society" that propaganda criticized. Here are some examples of a la "expensive-rich" originally from the USSR.

Grandfather:

Well, well, come on, come on, and in 30 years your grandchildren will laugh at you, dense people who have not inserted an electronic implant into the brain or who do not understand that an apartment and a car can be taken into car sharing, let the bankers have all the property, and there is nothing to bother with this "junk".

And it's easier to raise children in an incubator, there are technologies, high-tech, everything is better than feeding semolina at home, in 2050.

Yes, and show-off, in principle, did not disappear, but only transformed in a modern way. An iPhone on credit, duck lips and other modern ignorance looks just as wretched.

1. Litter up the whole apartment with furniture and carpets

Grandson:

The "expensive and rich" apartment of the times of the USSR was necessarily closely packed with furniture and things - this stemmed from the fact that at that time people often understood "wealth" as "the possession of a large number of things." And you can easily trace how such a worldview was formed - at work people were paid a salary, but good things (for example, high-quality furniture) were in short supply, and as soon as such a product appeared on sale, they immediately tried to get it for the accumulated Soviet money (which themselves in themselves were not perceived as such a value in comparison with things).

As a result, the "rich" Soviet apartments were packed to capacity with furniture and interior items bought "on the occasion." The typical interior of such an apartment in the 1960s and 70s necessarily implied the presence of a large number of paintings, vases, figurines and all sorts of knickknacks, as well as several sideboards, a bunch of armchairs, chairs, and so on. This also includes wall carpets - they were often bought simply "so that it was."

Such apartments remain even now, read a report about the children / grandchildren of some Soviet leader who live in their father's / grandfather's apartment - and you will see the very interiors filled with a bunch of dusty things. Now this style has smoothly flowed into a laughing stock called "agroglamour".

Grandfather:

Personally, I am now on the one hand on the side of the large cabinets, but on the other hand, I sincerely do not understand what to do when the "old huge and terrible soviet bookcase" crumbles - there is a very good library, half of which is personally mine, science fiction. And what to do with all this? On "modern, beautiful and / ergonomic / three shelves on a cardboard"? I beg you, everything will collapse, along with the wall. By the way, ati, and how to teach children to read if these books are stupidly nowhere to put? Let them read from the screen like adults - i.e. spoil the eyesight nafig?

Carpets. Well, if it's more pleasant for you to knock your heels on cold bare concrete or an equally hard laminate, there is no dispute about tastes. I prefer coming home and taking off my shoes to bury my feet in a soft, warm and fluffy carpet.

And the carpets on the walls are a rudiment, of course, but it also had its own prehistory.

The walls were often "painted" (whitewashed), and it was better not to lean against them.

And if the sofas still had backs shielding the sleeping-sitting people from the wall, then the beds (iron with mesh, rarely "shell") had no backs. And every bed, if it stood along the wall (and this was most often the case), always had a woven rug. So classic: with swans or deer. Those who were richer could already afford a carpet with a pile. They didn't sell them in the store at that time. They had to be "taken out". However, like crystal and other "modest luxury items".

I remember once at a visit I saw a room where three walls were hung with carpets, and the fourth carpet covered the sofa. It never occurred to anyone to put such a jewel on the floor.))

2. Buy unnecessary, but "status" things

Grandson:

The second point smoothly follows from the first, but has a significant difference - if the presence of a whole heap of furniture can still somehow be understood, then the presence of "status" things from a practical point of view cannot be explained. Such things include everything that is not used in any way in everyday life and has only one purpose - to impress the guests who come to the apartment.

The piano was a very high status thing - it was often bought even when no one was involved in music in the family, just "for show" - so that all guests would understand that cultured people live in the house. For the same purpose, bookcases were often bought, which they completely forced into some kind of "Great Soviet Encyclopedia", which no one read; the only purpose of having a closet in the house was show-off and force in front of guests - they say, "not worse than people." Interestingly, this behavior was ridiculed even in Soviet films, for example, in the film "Old New Year", where the hero of Vyacheslav Innocent bought all unnecessary junk into his house, like a piano and the like.

Now such behavior is typical for poor people, but people who are very concerned about their status - they get into an unprofitable loan and buy some kind of iPhone, which they can crash or lose in a week due to drunkenness. Bottom line - there is no iPhone, interest on the loan is dripping, "there is no money, but you are holding on."

Grandfather:

There have never been "status" things in the interpretation of the above. There were "status" things - which were rare to get / the same jeans, only good ones, not from the basement /, generally high-quality clothes, upbringing, behavior - this is how my mother taught me that status is determined by your appearance (they are greeted by clothes) and your intellect (they are escorted - according to the mind), and not "a piano on which no one is playing." Although we just had it, and, subsequently, was replaced by electronic fano, and not a balalaika synthesizer, Yamaha. True, both my mother and myself - with a musical education and playing.

Moreover, in the USSR it was very high status to study from music schools, and not buy a piano, and it was still necessary to enter that school, not everyone was taken.

3. Have a private car

Grandson:

In the USSR, a personal car was a terribly expensive and inaccessible thing - to buy it, it was necessary to stand in a considerable "queue," and even pay colossal money - for example, Lada "two" cost 7000 rubles, which was equivalent to the average Soviet salary for 4-5 years. Because of this, many who lived in the USSR retained the idea that a car is "not a means of transportation, but a luxury" - since then, every "scoop" who bought a car sits behind the wheel with the look of a king and begins to look out the window on passers-by as on subhumans - they say, you get confused here underfoot, interfere with the passage of status and important people, is it not a vision or something, the rich man is going?

In fact, in a modern comfortable city, a car is not such a necessary thing. Personally, I can buy myself a car even today, but I just don't need it - I live in the city center with good transport infrastructure, for infrequent trips to remote parts of the city I order a taxi, and for long city walks I have an electric bike. The car would add only problems to me - I need to think about where to store it, how to take care of it, refuel it, spend money on consumables, and so on.

Think about it, do you need a private car?

Grandfather:

A private car is no longer a luxury. Honestly, while I was single, I did not even think about him. When a family, children appear, everything changes dramatically. But you try to stand in a traffic jam in a stuffy bus in a "modern, well-equipped city" / moreover, just stand with a half-year-old crying child in your arms - they did not give up a place to you, such boors got caught. At least half an hour. Yes, and then another half hour from stopping to carry this wriggling and trying to slip out of the body to, say, a polyclinic. And if there are several of these bodies? And you will immediately understand why you need this "bucket of nuts".

4. Insert gold teeth

Grandson:

It is surprising, but many still believe that the presence of gold teeth in the mouth is an indicator of some kind of wealth, I came across such an opinion in the Russian province. In fact, gold teeth in the mouth became a sign of poverty back somewhere in the late nineties - "gold" crowns do not cost too much money, it is much more expensive to install an implant that will not differ in any way from a living tooth.

Purely aesthetically, gold (or white metal) teeth look terrible and speak not of some kind of "wealth", but on the contrary - of the extreme poverty of their bearer, "gold teeth" now continue to be placed only in third world countries where there is no normal dentistry and normal materials. Remember - if you do not want to look like a bum of the Perestroika times, never put metal teeth, it looks creepy.

Grandfather:

Gold / metal teeth - agree. Although now, in my opinion, they are not even put anywhere. Then nothing else was easy. Now they offer "porcelain" crowns, which are cheaper, but at least somehow look like teeth, and not like fragments of a circular saw, or the same implants, but made of cheaper materials.

5. Wear fur coats and clothes made of natural fur

Grandson:

The "sign of a major" comes from the USSR - to have clothes (fur coat, sheepskin coat) made of natural fur. It was difficult to get such things in the USSR, they were expensive and spoke unambiguously about the "respectability" of the owner. Now, with the advent of modern lightweight and comfortable materials, fur coats made of natural fur look like some kind of atavism, plus the entire "fur" business is built on the suffering of animals. I think that in 50 years a fur coat will look about the same wildness as a necklace made of ears on a Papuan's neck, but now many people continue to buy them - and this is sad.

If you do not want to seem like a scoop, never wear fur coats, hats, sheepskin coats and other junk. Now in them you will not look like a "respectable gentleman", but an Yerevan rose merchant from 1991.

Grandfather:

Again, tastes differ. And yes, give your wife a sable, but at least a mink (only from a mink, not from tails / paws and other bits that are now issued in stores for fur), a fur coat "on the floor" and "ultra-modern super warm / no, really, two times warmer than that fur coat /, but a synthetic down jacket "- and see what she will be more happy about. And yes, the down jacket will not look "rich". By definition. Be it at least three times warm and four times modern.

6. Go on vacation to Crimea

Grandson:

Another indicator of the "scoop" is to dream of going on vacation to the Crimea. Apparently, the Soviet propaganda a la "Crimea is an all-Union health resort" was somehow inherited, and now some even young people who almost did not find the USSR dream of going on vacation to Crimea, since the Soviet years such a trip has been considered "prestigious and status" … Resting in the Crimea - busy enough ridiculous, and now there is certainly nothing to do there.

I will probably surprise many "Crimea fans", but flying to Turkey or Greece on a charter flight will now cost even less than a vacation in Crimea, while you will receive incomparably better service - no one will call you "bzdykh" or pester you on the beach with shrimps, mussels and rapa, and in the evening you will not witness a drunken fight between two red-backed alpha males from Surgut and an involuntary listener to a thug chanson.

Grandfather:

Against the background of the mess that took place in Ukraine, with the subsequent separation of Crimea, it is at least incorrect to compare the "all-Union health resort", the tourist infrastructure of which was poured into a lot of money, and the region, which for 30 years was in an essentially impoverished country, without due subsidies and resorts, conventionally, of the "international" level, which make almost a third of the GDP to their countries on tourists and live this not for the first or second years. Where to fly cheaper is a question for our transport workers. Why is it cheaper for the average Russian to travel abroad than to travel within his own country? Does not apply to the topic of conversation. From the word at all.

7. Arrange home meals

Grandson:

It is a purely Soviet habit to set up a table at home for any reason and without a reason. Promotion at work, New Year, name day and so on - for all this in the USSR it was necessary to set the table with alcohol, salads "crab", "Olivier" and "mimosa", get drunk, then "remember youth" and bawl drunken songs, interfering sleep neighbors.

Many people call it "soulful gatherings", but I see in this only a sign of poverty and the absence of normal facilities for cultural leisure. Often the "feast" became a memorable event only because there you could try expensive and scarce products that the owners kept "for a special occasion." In addition, no one thought at what cost such a "feast" was organized - the landlady (and often her mother or friends) had to stand at the stove all day, and then clean up after the guests and wash the dishes for another half day. The guests who came were making noise until late, not letting the neighbors sleep, smoking on the stairs and stuff like that.

Now there are many cafes and restaurants of various price categories, and it will be much easier, and often cheaper, to organize get-togethers with a company there. Now you will not surprise anyone with a "luxurious feast" at home.

Grandfather:

If there is no difference between "sincere gatherings", "a feast in honor of a birthday", a "New Year's table" and a banal booze, when "all swords are on the table, with vodka will go" - I sincerely sympathize.

To stand for half a day at the stove, cook, then clean up the same amount of time, wash the dishes - have you ever heard of "you like to ride - love to carry sledges"? Well, don’t stand, don’t cook, who’s stopping you - go to the store for rotten 3-day salads, for “instant” noodles and soups of the same chemistry, for “fresh ready-made” shashlik (which is already marinated, filled with sauce and only fried), but this fresh and ready-made one has been warming itself under the lamps of the showcase for a week … Cleaning is even easier: disposable tablecloths and dishes. After drinking, you take the tablecloth by the corners and roll it into a knot, after which you carefully take everything to the trash cans and throw it away. It takes a maximum of 20 minutes.

And you will not have any holidays or gatherings. Because the soul was not invested anywhere, neither in cooking, nor in cleaning, nor in books, nor in a piano, etc. Empty "middle manager". With a credit iPhone, no less credit Volks Polo, talking about the new adventures of a certain Buzova or, there, "shining" with the mention of the names of Coelho, Castaneda, Murakami, for the life of me does not remember who Don Rumata Estorsky is, or who are Ji and Kji, or at least a word from the magnificent war stories of Soviet authors, or the classics (honestly, did you read War and Peace? by yourself, not out of hand? to the end? to say the least). And there will be nothing to remember in retirement, although where are you - you would once again whine for an increase in the retirement age. Although those who like work do not want to leave, and whoever plays solitaire all day, of course, the day would end faster, but retire - play the same solitaire …