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rpannier

(24,304 posts)
Thu Jun 18, 2020, 05:21 AM Jun 2020

In Photos: What Was Life Really Like In The U.S.S.R.? (8 pics)

https://www.rferl.org/a/photographs-shot-by-soviet-engineer-show-the-harsh-reality-of-life-in-the-ussr/30675553.html

Valeriy Reshetnyak led a double life during the Soviet era. Officially, he was an engineer in Kyiv. But in his spare time, he photographed ordinary people in the Soviet Union.

"None of my coworkers knew what I was doing. It was a kind of dissent,” says Reshetnyak.

He knew that his photos would not be printed or exhibited anywhere while the Soviet system was firmly in place.

“I naively thought that one day people would look at my photos and reflect on their lives, but I was wrong," Reshetnyak says.


A village teacher returning home from school in the Sumy Oblast.


On the left is the 'elite' passenger transport. Only the head of the collective farm or local Communist Party 'princes' could ride in such sledges. Ordinary people were only allowed to use the sleds at critical moments like carrying a patient to the hospital.


Children were constantly prepared for war -- this was the basis of Soviet ideological education.


All of the people in this photo apparently survived the famine of 1932-33. During the Soviet era, the Holodomor was spoken about only among one’s closest companions. My father and a colleague told me how they were almost killed and eaten by a local cannibal.


A father with his two sons and wife. The lives of village women were harsher than that of men. Both the responsibilities of the household, and for the work in the fields, lay on the women’s shoulders.


The last inhabitants of a ‘liquidated’ village in Belarus.


Most of the workers came from villages and didn’t have their own housing. Soviet organizations built cheap housing for them


Locals waiting outside a government office in Lviv for a ‘reception’ with local officials.

14 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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In Photos: What Was Life Really Like In The U.S.S.R.? (8 pics) (Original Post) rpannier Jun 2020 OP
Wow, impressive and horrible irisblue Jun 2020 #1
These photographs are a glimpse into the lives of Soviet citizens. gademocrat7 Jun 2020 #2
Fantastic photography. Ilsa Jun 2020 #3
Agreed, though the link gives a bit more info TheRickles Jun 2020 #4
Thank you. Photo #7 of the woman washing dishes Ilsa Jun 2020 #8
#6 looks like a painting Danascot Jun 2020 #5
In Photos: What Was Life Really Like In The U.S? TomVilmer Jun 2020 #6
+many... flotsam Jun 2020 #9
+1,000 misanthrope Jun 2020 #11
The look in that man's eyes; the death of hope. BComplex Jun 2020 #12
Thanx for nice replies! TomVilmer Jun 2020 #14
And that was before the purges. ananda Jun 2020 #7
So not terribly far from the way it would have been here misanthrope Jun 2020 #10
Incredible photos. smirkymonkey Jun 2020 #13

gademocrat7

(10,623 posts)
2. These photographs are a glimpse into the lives of Soviet citizens.
Thu Jun 18, 2020, 07:24 AM
Jun 2020

They show the bleak harshness many endured.

TheRickles

(1,999 posts)
4. Agreed, though the link gives a bit more info
Thu Jun 18, 2020, 07:41 AM
Jun 2020

Esp. about the people in the photos and what they're doing, but the dates of the photos are only hinted at. His best photos were described as being taken "from 1977-1990", yet some of these look like they're from much earlier, maybe from the '50s.

Ilsa

(61,675 posts)
8. Thank you. Photo #7 of the woman washing dishes
Thu Jun 18, 2020, 08:46 AM
Jun 2020

with her toddler in a public facility reminds me of the comfort stations in the public camps and parks built by the CCC during the New Deal, circa 1933, except her dress is shorter.

TomVilmer

(1,832 posts)
6. In Photos: What Was Life Really Like In The U.S?
Thu Jun 18, 2020, 07:46 AM
Jun 2020






http://www.american-pictures.com/gallery/

Since I myself have been visiting Russia for years, I could paint a quite different impression. Though I never liked their system, now or then, I found many nice people there living a good life.

In a big world it is easy to focus on the bad - or the good. As a friend has done with the images above...

TomVilmer

(1,832 posts)
14. Thanx for nice replies!
Fri Jun 19, 2020, 04:45 AM
Jun 2020

I get sad when I see such weird generalizations as "What Was Life Really Like In The U.S.S.R.?". That area stretched ten time zones and a myriad of different cultures over 70 years - every area making their very own interpretation of what a Soviet society could be. The Baltic countries and East Germany was way richer than Russia. The wealth was actually more diverse between states than inside them.

Then and now the poverty in Russia is quite equally spread out - with the very exception of the oligarchs. And yes, you could make USSR photos like the ones shown, but without exact area and date they are meaningless.

We all know other photos with more wealth from the US. So, here are some selected photos of "What Was Life Really Like In The U.S.S.R.":
'








http://www.maxsher.com/work/a-remote-barely-audible-evening-waltz/

ananda

(28,782 posts)
7. And that was before the purges.
Thu Jun 18, 2020, 07:50 AM
Jun 2020

How the Soviets survived it is amazing.

But look where they are now ... under a severely
oppressive oligarchical system so brutal and corrupt
it makes our system look better, and ours is very
very bad.

misanthrope

(7,405 posts)
10. So not terribly far from the way it would have been here
Thu Jun 18, 2020, 10:08 PM
Jun 2020

had the lords of the Gilded Age had their way completely unfettered?

 

smirkymonkey

(63,221 posts)
13. Incredible photos.
Fri Jun 19, 2020, 03:08 AM
Jun 2020

Very bleak. I honestly think I would have killed myself if I had to live like that. I would just see no point in living.

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