The Soviet Perspective

Part 1

The+Soviet+Perspective

Lydia Brady, Reporter

I have always wondered what it was like to live in the Soviet Union because I have family that lived there at one point. I decided to interview someone who lived in the Soviet Union from 1937, until leaving after its demise in 1993. My great-grandmother, Liliya, lived there for 56 years until coming to the United States, so I thought she would be the best person to interview on such a topic. The failure of the Soviet Union is one of many examples of failed socialist governments.

With some previous knowledge on how occupations were limited, I asked her what restrictions there were on choices of jobs. She responded, “Once you graduated university in a specific field, you were assigned a job based on that field. It was a government job, assigned by the government and for the government,” Liliya told me. “There was a significant amount of freedom when choosing what field you wanted to go into, but there was no choice in a specific job.” Limits on things such as occupation and housing were even greater for those of Jewish descent, with them not being able to purchase houses or own land outside of the city they resided in.

Rationing on food was put in place during World War I, and continued throughout different points in time in the country’s history. Liliya expanded on this: “We were given ration cards, or vouchers, which could be used to get a kilo of each different food item, such as butter, buckwheat, bread, flour, and sugar.” Liliya explained the unfortunate issues of the rationing system, “Sometimes, though, the food wasn’t available. You may have had a voucher for it, but you could not always get it.” Vodka, an infamous Russian drink, was able to be bought freely– except for a five year period of time where a voucher was needed. People in different social classes were entitled to different amounts of rationing, a result of social discrimination.

The KGB (Комите́т госуда́рственной безопа́сности), roughly translating to Committee for State Security, monitored all citizens of the Soviet Union. People were afraid to show their dislike for the country, as word would spread to the KGB and they could be imprisoned. My great-grandmother shared what could possibly happen to someone who criticized the government: “If you said something bad about the government, someone would essentially ‘tell’ on you by informing the KGB, and they would come and interrogate you. Depending on the severity of your statements, you could be tried for treason and imprisoned. Today, the situation is almost exactly the same.” When my family left the Soviet Union in the 90s, they did not tell anyone they were leaving until the day before, for fear of the possible consequences. In the 80s, it was impossible to leave the country unless one was invited to visit from someone in another country. They would then have to petition the government to let them visit, and even then it was not guaranteed. 

Media, such as television and radio, was extremely limited. The only information that could be received was from the government directly, and it was illegal to receive mail and calls from other countries. “The only way to get outside information was from bootleg radios, and we could get arrested for that. It was basically impossible to get information that wasn’t in Russian control.” Liliya told me.

I inquired about her opinion on why the Soviet Union fell apart: “The absolute lack of freedom definitely contributed to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. But we didn’t know any different. Due to the extreme lack of information, to us it seemed like life was good. We thought that was how everyone lived. If you couldn’t find something at the store, you would find it another way. It seemed normal to us.” She then explained the propaganda and information they were given about the world outside the country, specifically the United States: “They constantly told us how bad it was in America. They said Americans lived horrible lives, had no homes. We learned English in school, but they purposefully taught us the wrong pronunciations so that we would never get it right. To this day, I still have trouble pronouncing some words.”

In my next article, I will be accounting my family’s escape from Russia, and their first impressions of America. I want to thank my great-grandmother, Liliya, for being so kind as to listen to my questions.