What an accurate word was found to describe the life in the Soviet Union: a standstill. Precisely! Absolute standstill indeed!
You are 10 years old. Your mom gives you one ruble and sends you to the store:
– Get a loaf of black bread (12 kopecks), a loaf of white bread (13 kopecks), a liter of milk (28 kopecks), some butter (100 grams for 36 kopecks); and yes, you may spend the change on ice-cream (ice-cream bar, 11 kopecks).
And so I go. I kick a can as I cross the street. I walk into the store, get to the counter, tell the lady what I need, and hand her my ruble.
The lady at the checkout yells, “People! Please! Mind the child! Let him through!” The child is taken care of: I get my butter, my milk, pick up the bread at the next counter, put it all in my bag, and step out into the bright sunshine. I cross the street, walk over to the ice-cream stand on the corner, hand the lady my 11 kopecks and get a shiny silver ice-cream bar. I unwrap it, take a bite, then a lick, then I gobble it up in no time, the whole thing, and drag myself back home.
Finally! The endless ruble is spent.
The little boy gives the bag to his mom and runs back outside to play soccer.
In the evening, once he is done with his homework, he plants himself in front of the TV and watches The Uncatchables or the Animal Kingdom.
Boredom… Standstill I say.
Five years later – the boy is now 15 – he takes a ruble and goes to the store. The same store. Buys the same things. Gets his 11 kopeck ice-cream bar and goes outside to play soccer. Or hockey. Or, perhaps, he goes to the Palace of Young Pioneers and builds models of airplanes and ships. 1)Pioneers are young Communists-to-be, 9 – 14 year olds; Young Pioneers’ Palace – a special building where after-school and week-end activities for children take place. RV Or he does boxing. Well, boredom, you know… Standstill!
Five more years go by. The boy is now 20. He is a student at the university. He gets his stipend, goes to the store, and hands his ruble at the checkout. He buys a loaf of bread (12 kopecks), a cheese bar (10 kopecks), a bottle of beer (37 kopecks), 100 grams of sausage (23 kopecks), collects the change and puts it away in his briefcase. He thinks for a bit, smiles to himself, and walks over on the other side of the street for his still-11-kopeck ice-cream bar. The remaining 7 kopecks go to pay for a newspaper and a subway ride to the dorm.
Well, not much to say here… Standstill. A horrible, serene standstill!
Five more years later he is 25. The boy graduated from the university a while ago. He works in a research institute making 110 rubles a month. It is 1983.
He gets his paycheck and goes… where? That’s right, to the store! That very same store! He gives his one ruble to the cashier. He gets his usual order hold the ice-cream; he is a bit too shy for that now.
Instead, he buys three newspapers for 9 kopecks and takes subway home (still 5 kopecks).
He stops at the kiosk by his house and gets a pack of Belomor cigarettes (22 kopecks) and a box of matches (1 kopeck). Finally, SOMETHING is different! 15 years ago Belomor was out of his reach. Completely! He would probably even risk catching a cuff had he asked for it! Someone could have told his dad: everybody knows each other, you know.
Things have changed: he is a big boy now, living on his own. He gets a paycheck; he can pay the 22 kopecks – he buys cigarettes!
How do you survive in such a stagnant atmosphere where nothing, absolutely nothing changes for years, I ask! Nothing changes for decades! Neither prices, nor people! For crying out loud!! What a standstill!
Evening news: some factory is built and some ship is launched. We roared at the West, so it doesn’t get out of line.
And again he watches The Uncatchables or something, for everything is well and proper on TV, like it is in life. No blood oozing from the screen, no massive gun fire, no dozens of corpses, and not a single bare butt!
Year in and year out! The news anchor on TV talks like a professor of linguistics, and the programs are about scientists, builders, cosmonauts, and such. How boring and dull. Year after year nothing changes!
Everything is the same – everywhere! Just think! Everywhere! An everlasting standstill of sorts!!
You sit down to watch TV: you see people in Africa fire shotguns at each other; you cannot help but think, “Whoa! Man, things are happening in Africa!” Here at home – not so much; how disappointing!
Here at home life is predictable: have a fight with your neighbor – get a 15 day arrest. Steal something – serve jail time…
And if somebody shoots and kills someone while getting rowdy – the whole entire city of a million people goes abuzz.
– Have you heard?! This is dreadful! How could this ever… Just think, a live person, living breathing person gets shot! Horrible, just horrible! To kill a man! To end a human life!!
…for months and months.
Standstill I tell you… Halt of some sort… I am gasping for words… A standstill!
No cocaine, no chowing gum, no gunfire! Only Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Tolstoy, or Pushkin…
What kind of life is this?!
Think about it! Just think about it for a moment! For years, you take a tram for 3 kopeks; grab a subway for 5! For years, you pay for your apartment 5 rubles per month! 5 fricking rubles!
As you are growing up, you know that once you graduate from university you will have a job. A job in your field! Unemployment is unheard of. You don’t have to bribe anyone; no resume-building excitement; no need for a “rich daddy’s help.” What kind of life is this, I ask you?! How do you stand such predictability?!
…It’s a standstill, not a life. It’s too reliable, this kind of life. The life that is way too stable. Year after year. How long can it last, really. Come on!! Where is the end?!
***
The end did come.
Russian source:
http://matveychev-oleg.livejournal.com/2903340.html
Link active as of February 16, 2017. RV
References
| ↑1 | Pioneers are young Communists-to-be, 9 – 14 year olds; Young Pioneers’ Palace – a special building where after-school and week-end activities for children take place. RV |