Hard work and no play
A good-sized Soviet factory usually consisted of up to a hundred industrial divisions, with 200 – 800 workers in each. They had to be accommodated, fed, and often educated, and typically to the Soviet way of doing things, that often wasn’t handled very well. So if you ever wondered what it would be like to be a young engineer at a large factory in the Soviet Russia — please read on.
Mid 1980s. Image courtesy of Life magazine.
Whenever there is a heated argument whether things were better during the USSR times, this statement invariably pops up as a mighty ace: At least they had free medical care in the Soviet Union! This is supposed to bring the opponent to the knees and make them beg mercy and forgiveness for betraying the Great October achievements.
Well well well. Let’s have a close look at what really was free then.
The console
A reader of our blog has sent us some photos of the chess computer he dug out at his home: made in late 1980s, this was the game to play.
Let us start with some sad news. Objectively, the automobile industry in modern Russia is way behind the rest of the world, with a 10 to 15 year progress gap. Lagging behind in technology, low and inconsistent quality of parts and assembling are the actual problems of all car plants in Russia. But was it all the same back in the Soviet times? Today we are going to try and answer this question.
Lada 1300/1.2 or VAZ 2101
Back in remote 1945, the year of the Victory in Second World War, just one day before the Triumph Parade in Moscow the team of Soviet engineers introduced new model M-20 “Pobeda” (eng.: Victory) to Stalin. Stalin was dissatisfied. “That is definitely not our best victory”, — he said with a frown. Nevertheless in the fall of 1945 the car mass production commenced.