Real USSR » vagrancy

21+ Depressing Photos of Post-Revolutionary Russia by Arkady Shaikhet

eugenia — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:11:22 +0000

When the new Soviet country was born, the people were promised a wonderful future under the socialism — just a few more years, the billboards boasted — and we’ll live in a glorious state. However the early days were more than gloomy: the rundown economy, disoriented society, the reek of fear and uncertainty — and that clearly can be seen through the photos of a prominent Soviet photographer Arkady Shaikhet.

This collection of photos starts off with nice, clearcut images of what the country was portrayed as by the media and propaganda — and progresses to a unsweetened world of the simple folk, vagrants, and peasants. Please let us know if there is a photo below that has touched your heart — we always value your feedback.

Gymnasts. Red Square. 1924

Arkady Shaikhet’s life story is one of the most remarkable ever. A fourth kid in a Jewish family from the South of Russia, with no school education or special skills, he was called in the army to serve in the WWI. However, the outbreak of typhoid saved him and so, being discharged at the age of 24, he moved to Moscow in search of great opportunities. And there they were: after getting a job at a local paper, Arkady tried his luck with a camera — only to realise that he got a special talent. It was all uphill ever since: publishing in the most influential newspapers, the honour of duty to photograph Lenin and Stalin, busy exhibitions and so on. He had the most remarkable shots of the Second World War events, which we hope to publish here in the future.

The cycle parade. 1924.

Morning exersize. 1927

Morning exersize. 1932

A sportsman. 1932

At the gym. 1928

And here’s some of the less life-assuring images of the new country.

A street kid is learning a shoemaking skill. 1929

A village in the mountains. Father and son. 1929

Engineers to be. Moscow. 1930

Bathing of a vagrant kid. Moscow. 1927

Voting. 1925

Out in fields. 1927

Plowing. Samara. 1927

Test drive. Moscow. 1924

City of Elista. A school lesson for the kalmyk’s kids (a small indigenous nation).

Electrification. 1925

Visit of a tax collector. Moscow. 1928

Putting up the poles for the electrical cables. 1925

Sharpening the tools. 1939

A building site. Uzbekistan. 1939

Workmen resting by a fountain. 1926

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So! What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?

eugenia — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 10:42:14 +0000

You will be quite a craftsman!

A Review of Occupations in the Soviet Society: the high, the low and the marginal.

The Professional Orientation in the USSR meant, first and foremost, a process of advising the youth on the future career choices. A group of teachers and fresh graduates of a college would go to high schools to give talks to school kids in order to deliver the first hand information on vocational choices. Every occupation is regarded highly in the Soviet Union — well, this slogan turned out to be quite untruthful. Please read on find out about the differences in social ladder between the different occupational groups. The hierarchy of labour was a prime element in social discrepancies in this country.

Certainly the system of socialism would deny the mere existence of the dual labour market, yet all occupations in the USSR occupations were covertly divided into the primary and secondary ones. If we were to analyse the Soviet media press releases, then we’d notice that 90% of all jobs mentioned in the papers as cover or success stories were of the working class origin. Certainly the list of jobs was just as wide as anywhere else in the world, however, the working class had a special attitude towards its.The working class was declared to be the base for the ruling socialism due to its hegemonic part in all part and future revolutions.

Gagarin, from ‘Paper soldier’ movie

There were two reasons for it – a political and an economic one. On one hand, it was well worthy to praise the hegemony, on the other – it was important to attract new members to its teams, as nobody really wanted to join in. The technical colleges – where one could become an electrician, a seamstress, or a locksmith – were a constant scare for the growing generation of high school kids. Like, if you don’t do well, you end up as a painter. This was the absolute and finest example of the Soviet double standards: from the papers the working class was praised daily, in reality, it was almost like a curse to belong to it. Certainly the workmen did well, they had respect in the society and they had their privileges, but nonetheless, it was somewhat of a forced choice. The USSR had a cult of tertiary education – of universities and institutes of all sorts, often of any sort, as long as it was a university, not a technical college. The highest-flying uni was the MGIMO – the Moscow State Institute of Foreign Affairs: diplomats, ambassadors, attaches and future politicians and ministers graduated from there. The Moscow State University was also highly regarded. These two had very high level entry exams, and often the knowledge itself was not enough – one had to be well connected to get in. Needless to say, kids of diplomats, ambassadors, attaches and politicians were destined right in.

MGIMO graduate

As for the technical universities, Moscow had a great range of those. Excellent engineers of all sorts were graduating in huge amounts, and, if a student had half a brain to hold on to his place, they became very knowledgeable and very employable specialists in the chosen field. However, the ideology went as far as to remain people that it was shameful to engage into a career path solely on the monetary rewards: the media, the movies, the books were constantly reinforcing the goodness of any job, regardless of the pay. Every now and then there would be a story full of good morale: how a guy would want to get rich quickly and abandon his geological research for the instant cash reward of being a taxi driver. The USSR philosophy was to strongly discourage such action. Interestingly, what strongly encouraged was a long tenure, a job for life kind of a thing. Those who liked to change jobs (or even worse, careers) often, were called “flyers” and it was a shame to be identified as one. Another unusual moment was that women doing the typically male jobs were praised highly. This Soviet phenomenon could possibly start after the war, due to the severe shortage of males, and then somehow lingered. Women operated heavy machinery, women did road works, women engaged in oil refinery – the list is long. We mentioned it in more detail in our article on Russian feminism. What didn’t occur to this staunch feminists was that the labour itself did not have to physical in order for a woman to be equal – managerial positions were just as good. Unfortunately, it was just as hard for a woman to make it to the top — as anywhere else in the world.

‘Postwoman’

To conclude, it would be a fair assumption to say that in the Soviet Union the most prestigious occupations were considered those of the importance to the well-being of the country. Everything which was related to a personal well being was always secondary and supplementary. Understandably, the people’s choice begged to differ: so a good-for-everyone hairdresser had more social leverage that a good-for-the-country production line worker.

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USSR, the Birthplace of Feminism

eugenia — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 04:46:11 +0000

From the very dawn of Soviet power and development, due to a series of tragic events, women significantly outnumbered men by about 20 mln. The Revolution of 1917, first World War, Stalin’s political repressions, second World War, tough recovery periods — all of this contributed to the number of men steadily decreasing. Not only it affected the marriage market — it had a few more severe implications to the canvas of the Soviet life altogether.

Love is in the air.

Firstly, industrialisation was extremely labour intensive, and with manpower shortages, women had to step in to keep the processes going. It didn’t matter too much whether the jobs were mundane, or physically demanding, or simply tough — they had to be done. Thus women were trained as construction site workers, crane or digger operators, foundry workers, oil rig workers, asphalt layerers and so on — there was not a job considered “too manly” or female unsuitable.

Two is better than one.

The Revolution of 1917 gave the women their right to vote, be educated, and, in contemporary jargon, have equal employment opportunities. This allowed the Soviets to call the USSR one of the most advanced feminist country in the world. However, all of the industrialisation of the USSR never provided women with enough of the home help — and women, coming home after an 8-hour shift at a factory, still had to take care of their families.

Nonetheless, the USSR was notorious for its bad roads.

Everyday appliances, like washing machines, so widespread in the West, were still scarce in the USSR — and, according to the statistical data, on average a Soviet woman would spend another 6 to 8 hours a week hand-washing, ironing and mending clothes. These extra 8 hours of unpaid labour did not include cooking or cleaning time. Scary, really.

Ms Kiseleva has achieved a 414% excess on her production plan by 8 March, the board boasts.

Very few women of those times were officially housewives. Firstly, anybody without a job could easily be labelled a vagrant, and that was a jailable crime in the USSR. More importantly, the wages were still fairly low and a family of four would need two incomes to survive. The state would also try hard to get as many people out into the workforce as possible; hence the image of a housewife was far from a Western pin-up beauty with a steaming hot pie in her hands.

Quite the opposite: in the Soviet books and movies, housewives were portraited as slothful women of no education, lacking social graces and ambitions — in other words, not good citizens at all. To be fair, though, the state would provide financial maternity support — women can stay at home to look after the newborns for up to three years. In a way, that was a win-win situation: women could stay home providing they popped a baby every fourth year, and the state had its birth rates up. Not too bad, after all.

They wouldn’t miss.

As the marriage market was skewed due to the lack of men, the government, in a bid to raise the birth rates, issued a bylaw, allowing the men not to pay alimony on their children born out of wedlock, thus indirectly encouraging single motherhood and, in a way, adultery. Financial support was provided by the government, as well as a range of social security measures.

She looks young, grumpy and not very motherly.

Being a woman was challenging. All those pretty shiny things that women need were not to be found in the Soviet shops. The state, however, realised that and issued appropriate propaganda lines. Like, spending time on beautifying was announced to be wasteful, as this time could be spent on education and self-improvement.

Hard to call these lingerie! Also, it does not look like there was much of a variety in colour, model range or sizes, for that matter

All in all, there is much to be continued about here. The list of issues and challenges that women faced in the USSR can be extended for many pages, from Soviet cosmetics industry to the basic non-existence of hygienic goods; the high morale of a woman-member of the Communist Party and double standards in the society. Stay tuned. Also, if there is anything that particularly interests you, please let us know — new topics for investigation are always welcome.

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