If I want to learn more about life under communism in the USSR, where should I go?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For Eastern Europe, I would read Milan Kundera— really good depiction of what life was like in thr 1960s.

There was also a great article that came out about 20 years ago about how the stasi had infiltrated the East German leftist poet scene. It was amazing. Maybe someone can find it.

For a Russia, I think the book mastering the art of Soviet cooking: a memoir is maybe the best thing I’ve ever read on the good and bad of living under Soviet communism in Russia.

The movie Burnt by the Sun is an amazing movie about the Stalinist purges that I think dealt gives it the right flavor.

There is also an old memoir by a dissident about growing up in Stalinist Russia, if you can find a translation, see this article here:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03064229008534989

And the book about the publication of Dr zhivago has a lot of detail about the lives of the intelligentsia weunder the first half of Soviet rule.

In general,Soviet life was very different in the 70s-80s than it was in the 50’s or in the 30’s, or during the war.

The movie "The Lives of Others" was also fantastic, about the 80s in East Germany. It won the best foreign film Oscar for 2006.

Excellent movie. I also recommend "Goodbye Leniin," which is also about life in East Berlin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Slightly later period (1985-1999) but I highly recommend watching The Trauma Zone documentary (used to be on YouTube and hopefully still there)
Also remember that this period in history is highly politicized. Eastern Europe is trying to break free from their socialist past and their museums will certainly be politically exaggerated, just as it is now en Vogue in say Russia to romanticize the past. You need to get a balanced view by getting acquainted with both sides.
It’s sad that Russia is perceived as too dangerous/bad form to travel RN, but the Leningrad siege museum in St Pete would be totally worth visiting.

Perceived!

I'll pass on becoming another Brittney Griner, thanks.

Just don’t bring your drug paraphernalia and you’ll be ok I promise

LOL. If the Russian authorities want to, they’ll “find” all sorts of paraphernalia on you.

They don’t want you if you are a lowly tourist

Gretchen please stop trying to make "fetch" happen.

You are overestimating your importance in life

Too funny! That's essentially what PP is telling you. They don't stream "Mean Girls" in Russia?

Well we brought up on true classics and some some American bubble gum lol

Well, la-de-da.
Here you are on a thread suggesting visiting Russia. Critical thinking doesn't seem to have been part of your education.
And it's okay to have fun, you know. No one is going to send you to a gulag these days.

[Anonymous]

Berlin has a really excellent museum (the DDR Museum) dedicated to everyday civilian life in East Germany, which I recognize is not the USSR, but it's in the same vein. They have consumer products/brands, a model apartment, and a car that you can actually get into. I really loved that museum - it's actually one of my favorites I've been to. I assume if you're interested in the USSR you'll go to Berlin at some point, so I highly recommend stopping by.

[Anonymous]

To those who says that many people in FSU are till nostalgic about soviet times, it has changed dramatically since Russia invaded Ukraine. Ask them again.

[Anonymous]

OP, safe places to travel where people will speak with you freely are all three states of Caucasus, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan. Uzbekistan is heavily promoting tourism to the West nowadays. But I don't know if they will speak to you openly. It basically just reopened. Someone who traveled there should confirm. Check out Bukhara, Khiva, and Samarkand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh and of course you should go to Berlin I think.
Germany is not engulfed in all encompassing communism hatred like the Baltics or Poland so it will give you are less biased picture

Gee... the people who lived under the system hate it, but you think people need a "less biased picture."

I lived under the system

Seems more like you were the system…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Slightly later period (1985-1999) but I highly recommend watching The Trauma Zone documentary (used to be on YouTube and hopefully still there)
Also remember that this period in history is highly politicized. Eastern Europe is trying to break free from their socialist past and their museums will certainly be politically exaggerated, just as it is now en Vogue in say Russia to romanticize the past. You need to get a balanced view by getting acquainted with both sides.
It’s sad that Russia is perceived as too dangerous/bad form to travel RN, but the Leningrad siege museum in St Pete would be totally worth visiting.

Perceived!

I'll pass on becoming another Brittney Griner, thanks.

Just don’t bring your drug paraphernalia and you’ll be ok I promise

LOL. If the Russian authorities want to, they’ll “find” all sorts of paraphernalia on you.

They don’t want you if you are a lowly tourist

Gretchen please stop trying to make "fetch" happen.

You are overestimating your importance in life

Too funny! That's essentially what PP is telling you. They don't stream "Mean Girls" in Russia?

Well we brought up on true classics and some some American bubble gum lol

Well, la-de-da.
Here you are on a thread suggesting visiting Russia. Critical thinking doesn't seem to have been part of your education.
And it's okay to have fun, you know. No one is going to send you to a gulag these days.

I was kidding fool

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh and of course you should go to Berlin I think.
Germany is not engulfed in all encompassing communism hatred like the Baltics or Poland so it will give you are less biased picture

Gee... the people who lived under the system hate it, but you think people need a "less biased picture."

I lived under the system

Seems more like you were the system…

Yeah at the mature age of 14
What a fool

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Check out Bald and Bankrupt youtube channel. He is into all this stuff, but not so much the museums, more the buildings and monuments.
I grew up In Soviet Union, but the most western part of it.
Every time somebody goes on and on how bad life was, I'm looking at them as if they are doing or saying it for attention. For my parents, grandparents, myself, my friends and most of my countrymen life was beautiful from 1945-1988.
There are a few museums left in the Baltics.The Baltics were also very eager to take everything down as fast as possible.

You are more of an exception in terms of your attitude. Many Soviet Jews came to the US as refugees/asylees and they have come to believe in their own stories they told to immigration authorities so they are happy to curse the old country and say how horrible it was.

Well, if the PP is not Jewish, their experience might be quite different.

Jews and non Jews had almost the same experiences in the 1070s and on

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Slightly later period (1985-1999) but I highly recommend watching The Trauma Zone documentary (used to be on YouTube and hopefully still there)
Also remember that this period in history is highly politicized. Eastern Europe is trying to break free from their socialist past and their museums will certainly be politically exaggerated, just as it is now en Vogue in say Russia to romanticize the past. You need to get a balanced view by getting acquainted with both sides.
It’s sad that Russia is perceived as too dangerous/bad form to travel RN, but the Leningrad siege museum in St Pete would be totally worth visiting.

Perceived!

I'll pass on becoming another Brittney Griner, thanks.

Just don’t bring your drug paraphernalia and you’ll be ok I promise

LOL. If the Russian authorities want to, they’ll “find” all sorts of paraphernalia on you.

They don’t want you if you are a lowly tourist

Gretchen please stop trying to make "fetch" happen.

You are overestimating your importance in life

Too funny! That's essentially what PP is telling you. They don't stream "Mean Girls" in Russia?

Well we brought up on true classics and some some American bubble gum lol

Well, la-de-da.
Here you are on a thread suggesting visiting Russia. Critical thinking doesn't seem to have been part of your education.
And it's okay to have fun, you know. No one is going to send you to a gulag these days.

I was kidding fool

Right on schedule