The history of the USSR in the 80s from family albums is the way people saw it quite recently; naturally, these photographs cannot cover everything that happened then. We, those who are older, remember that time well, but those born in the 80s, not to mention those born later, know it mainly from the disgusting slander from the zombie box. "If we remain silent, the devil will triumph."
Old Master. 80s. Kolomna. Photo: G. Chistyakov.
A number of photographs have a “continuation” today. How it was in the USSR and how it is now. The first half of the 80s is very similar to the 70s, so about school, kindergartens, holidays, etc. Very few photographs were selected. Those interested can watch the previous album.
The 80s were a very difficult period in the history of the USSR. This is his “golden period,” when there were no armies on Earth capable of defeating us, the time of space stations and lunar settlement projects, the emergence of future technologies and the conquest of the harsh nature of the USSR. But at the same time, this is also the period of development of his illness, which became fatal - the degeneration of the elite into a disgusting clique. The time of destruction of morality, lies and duplicity of ideologists, the beginning of civil and interethnic wars, Chernobyl, the time of the murder of a great country.
The 80s are a point of bifurcation, a fork in the road - the USSR could become not a rudiment, but a real Future Society with developed and harmonious people, technologies for transforming nature, interplanetary flights, settlements on Mars, an unprecedented rise in science, technology, medicine, and education. This is, in general, how it was planned. But events began to develop in a different way and USSR-1 was killed by traitors at its own top.
Now, when we look at the advancing global crisis and the economic misery of the West, we see that there were literally a few steps to complete victory. We didn't get there quite a bit.
Bibirevo. Beginning 80's
The glass and doors in the entrances are still intact, there are no iron doors or large windows welded with steel sheets - it is light in the entrance. Children can be allowed outside without fear. Now it seems almost incredible.
Haymaking. 80s
The horrors of Soviet collective farms.
New school. Mid 80's
This is now the construction of a new school - an event of national scale, which is reported in the news. During the years of Soviet Power, almost 200,000 (two hundred thousand) new schools were built in the USSR. There was enough money, and enough children were born. The Germans destroyed 82,000 schools and rebuilt them. In the 70s and 80s, from 1,500 to 3,000 schools were built every year, depending on the five-year plan - that’s 5-10 new schools every working day, if they were talked about even briefly, there would be no time for other news. It's hard to imagine now, isn't it?
I won't do it again!" 80s
Trusting relationship between student and teacher.
In the West, the relationship between student and teacher can under no circumstances be personal, human. For example, in the USA and Canada, teachers can easily lose their license just for human relations with students. There should be nothing human in the New Order - disunited people - cogs - ambitious, unhappy, lonely, easily controlled. It was very different in the USSR. The ideal from the very formation of the USSR was a harmonious personality and the education system was built with this goal in mind. Another thing is that there were a lot of mistakes - for various reasons, partly from ignorance - after all, the country was making the very first attempt in history to create such an entity, partly because the initial start from the position of “Russia-which-we-lost” was too low, partly because it took a lot of effort to fight off enemies. And from a certain period, the degenerate party leaders began to be afraid of a possible harmonious person and were not too persistent in his upbringing. But despite all the shortcomings, the Soviet education system was the best in the world. It could have been made much better, but it wasn’t possible.
The first camera. 80s
Many boys were interested in photography, electronics, model making, and sports. For this purpose, there were special Pioneer Houses with many clubs for every taste - photography, radio, dancing, biology, and so on.
The first "triangle". Early 80's
Scooter. Sakhalin. Ser. 80's
They have been produced in the USSR since the 50s. In terms of production of motor vehicles (1.5 million per year), the USSR ranked 2nd in the world after Japan. Our cars were very actively sold for export. There were also imported scooters and mokiks on our roads - Czech, Japanese, even Italian. Mopeds (mokiks) and small scooters cost a little more than 100 rubles, and you didn’t need a license for them. The photo shows, formally speaking, a mini scooter - no need to “step over” the frame. The word "mokick" dates back to the 50s and meant being started by kicking the kick starter. In reality, they were often produced with an electric starter. I still haven’t recognized what kind of car it is in the photo. I saw these sometimes on the streets. But mostly there were other “big ones” like “Verkhovyna”.
A lot of boys in the USSR rode mopeds, especially in the 80s.
Cigarette behind the school. 80s
Barrel with kvass. Siberia 80s
Kvass was very cheap. A glass - 3 kopecks, a half-liter mug - 5. Apparently, people are celebrating some event - judging by the clothes, the girl is wearing a dress that is not the most comfortable for everyday life.
Barbecue in nature. Siberia. 80s
“There was no meat in the USSR,” yeah. No matter how you look at the photographs, they are all picnics with meat and barbecues.
So they served. 80s
A group of young people at the dacha. Early 80s
These are not majors, not the children of sales workers - ordinary boys and girls. Most likely, from families of scientists. In my opinion, this is the Moscow region.
Employees of the research institute at the ski resort in the Elbrus region. Early 80s
Caucasian ski resorts were among the best in the USSR. Almost any Soviet person could go there. I emphasize - any. Georgian resorts were famous, especially Gadauri and Bakhkuriani. The Armenian Tsaghkadzor was one of the training points for the Soviet team, the Uzbek Chimgan was excellent, as well as the ski resorts of Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, the RSFSR - Altai, Ossetia and so on.
Typical photo shop. 80s
This is exactly what a typical Soviet photo shop looked like. The stores were simply filled with cameras, all kinds of lenses, photographic papers, reagents, lamps, flashes and other paraphernalia. I remember that time very well - I have been doing photography since 1980.
Soviet cameras were some of the best in the world - cheap, high quality and very reliable. They were exported to many countries around the world, even such as England (since the 50s). Reviews from Western experts about the quality of optics and mechanics were enthusiastic. The external decoration caused criticism - they did not look as presentable as Western ones, and, of course, the packaging. An interesting point - the British government has more than once banned the export of advanced Soviet models in order to save its manufacturer. Only the import of cheap ones like “Lyubitel” and then “Smena” was allowed. This is a “free market”, you know.
It’s hard to imagine now, but counterfeits of the Soviet brand “Zenith” were quite common - it was very popular. Small firms in Japan were especially guilty of this.
Foreigners were happy to exchange or buy Soviet cameras privately. The USSR produced approximately 10% of the world's number of cameras (approx. 3,500,000). The 60-70s are called the “golden time” of the Soviet photo industry. Starting from the 80s, shortages of some cameras began to periodically appear. What is very interesting is that problems began to appear not when the products became more complex, but when they were simplified and the range was reduced. That is, these were not problems of system complexity, but problems of centralized violation of control.
But still, the USSR’s position in this segment remained extremely strong. Gorbachev’s reforms and “perestroika,” like everything else, dealt a mortal blow to the industry.
Residents of Pevek. Chukotka. Mid 80's
Just hard workers from the North. These are not employees of the Central Committee, not thieves or hucksters. A leather coat with a fur collar and “puffy” jackets, which were very fashionable at that time. Back then they went “to the North” to make good money. After working in the north for 10-15 years, you could easily move to a place further south, buy a house or a cooperative apartment, a car, and still have a lot left over. In the USSR they knew that “the northerners have money.”
Kindergarten "Teddy Bear". Chukotka 80s
Therefore, the northern regions were developed very quickly. Beautiful cities and towns were built there, with wonderful kindergartens, schools and hospitals. In total, approximately 120,000 kindergartens were built in the USSR during the years of Soviet power.
The horrors of totalitarian childhood. Are the exhausted children dressed in rags?
Northerner Temchenko. Chukotka 80s
Like this - in a leather jacket and a Kirovets. The people in the North have always been stern and strong - it cannot be otherwise.
Delivery of goods to the taiga. 80s
The USSR was the first in the world to begin intensive development of the North. Cities and military bases were built, and a huge amount of research was carried out. Almost all resources that are used now were discovered during the Soviet era.
Half of the territory of the USSR was in the permafrost zone. Even the Baikal zone belongs to the permafrost zone with a predominance of taliks (large areas of thawed soil). Despite the largest territory (1/6 of the earth's land), it is extremely difficult to use.
There is little economic sense in a territory that consists of tundra, swamps and impenetrable taiga, isn’t it? But there are also mountains and deserts, there are simply cold areas where any activity is ineffective compared to warm regions. These are areas of Karelia, the White Sea region, the north of Russia - there is no permafrost there, but living and working is very uncomfortable. As a result, the area of territory relatively convenient for human activity in Russia has always been very small.
In terms of effective territory area, Russia is inferior to countries such as Brazil, the USA, Australia and China. In particular, the effective territory of Russia is only 70% of the effective territory of the United States. This is despite the fact that quite a large part of the territory of our main enemy is located in an extremely favorable zone for activity - the tropics and subtropics (Florida, the Pacific coast, Hawaii, south Texas). And the “effective territory” of Russia itself is very different from that of, for example, England and France.
But we don’t have any other territory, so we’ll have to use the one we have. It’s kind of stupid not to use half of your territory, isn’t it? Inconvenient and expensive? In a capitalist system - absolutely. For example, Canada, in principle, has not been able to develop its northern regions, despite several attempts - and 90% of the population is huddling close to the warm border with the United States.
Northern pilots. 80s
The USSR was built as an integral system, as a single indivisible whole, and in it the development of the North and its inconveniences was very profitable. Everything was built as a complex - cities, power plants, roads, ports, mines, etc. Obviously, a large power plant for a mine has greater efficiency than a small and temporary one. Obviously, it makes no sense to build a large power plant just for a mine and a small village of shift workers. Consequently, its power must be used for a fairly large village, transport, processing cycles, port, etc. And if there is a port, then why not use what the sea provides - fish, crabs, shellfish? The life of a shift worker, to be honest, is very so-so - uncomfortable, far from family, but here everything is nearby - schools, kindergartens, hospitals, sanatoriums, excellent gyms and libraries, television via satellite - the Orbita program.
Individually it was ineffective or ineffective, but together it was very effective. And if you consider the role this played for the security of the state, it becomes clear that the role of the North is enormous.
Storehouses of minerals immediately became available. At the same time, northern routes, ports, infrastructure, resorts, tourist routes (Kamchatka, Sakhalin, Kolyma) appeared based on the already formed infrastructure, and so on. The cruel northern nature turned into its other side - amazing and harsh beauty. You just need to know how to handle it.
Neighborhoods of Sinegorye
The USSR knew how to do this better than anyone in the world, ahead of the whole world not by years - by an entire era. His leadership in the development and transformation of cold lands was absolute. Integrity, a single planned system - the know-how of the USSR, the first society of this type.
But that's not all - projects of space mirrors were being prepared, which were supposed to illuminate northern cities, creating unique thermal oases in the Arctic without destroying the ecosystem of the surrounding tundra.
Developing the North is much cheaper than, for example, Mars. Although the exploration of Mars and Venus was also planned. It is interesting that the exploration of Mars was planned to be carried out with the experience of the development of the Soviet North.
Dormitory. Cape Schmidt 80s
A network of small, carefully planned cities began to cover the North.
First, dormitories were built for construction workers and shift workers, and then cities and towns were erected, which is a delight to see. Without exaggeration.
By the way, as a result of the collapse of the USSR, 65% of the territory of the Russian Federation is in the permafrost zone and the top of the country is not interested in the development of the North - they are here temporarily.
"Yuzhak" - Pevek, Chukotka 80s
In addition to the severe cold in those places, there is another test - hurricane winds. Yuzhak is usually a spring wind that brings a storm.
Pevek now
One thing is obvious - the market economy is many times, many times less efficient than the socialist one. An example before our eyes is the USSR. The “inefficient” USSR had enough money to build cities, maintain a powerful army, brilliant science, excellent education, advanced technologies in many areas, the most advanced space, many schools and kindergartens, a decent, although not rich by Western standards, life for almost everything population, there was enough money even to support developing countries and communist movements around the world. There is nothing even close to this in Russia - there is no money for it, despite the fact that the future of our children - raw materials - is being exported at an accelerated pace, and the country is simply being sucked to the bottom.
The USSR exported raw materials, but they accounted for the majority of export income even in the worst years - the Gorbachev years. In the 1980s, the USSR earned only $12 billion a year from the export of hydrocarbons out of approximately $80 billion in total exports.
The Soviet Union was a major exporter of metallurgical, energy, chemical and other industrial equipment, reactors, cars, ships, helicopters and airplanes, televisions (mostly black and white), watches, optics, high-tech devices, isotopes, complex medical equipment, medicines, weapons . All this has been practically destroyed, only part of the military equipment and metallurgy from the times of the USSR remains, and even then only the old - under the “effective owners” nothing new has been created. The lion's share of income comes from the export of raw materials.
That is, the conclusion really is this: Russia, “freed from totalitarianism,” is many times less effective than the USSR. Not to mention such concepts as humanity, morality, etc.
Pevek now
Moreover, the continuation of “reforms” and the existence of the current ruling elite is the death of Russia and many other fragments of a great country. Death is quick and cruel.
Kadykchan 80s
Mining town of Kadykchan. Once one of the most beautiful cities in the northeast of the country. Deposit of unique hard coals.
The Dead City of Kadykchan now
The city, as they say in those parts, was “unfrozen” (northern slang), that is, the heating and water supply system was frozen in the northern frosts. The authorities considered it unprofitable - a sharp drop in production in the country made unique coals unnecessary. Now, in order to restore it, it is necessary to change absolutely all the pipes in the city, inside every building, every room. That is, in essence, this means rebuilding the city. All. The city is completely destroyed.
The Dead City of Kadykchan now
Such cities were quite profitable under the USSR. The new regime and the formed socio-economic system showed a complete inability to manage a complex device. It is not even able to maintain the legacy inherited from the USSR - cities, infrastructure, factories, science, education, and the army. There is not even talk about building a new one. So who talked about the “ineffectiveness” of the USSR?
Sinegorye. Kolyma, 80s
The most beautiful city-village in the Magadan region. - Sinegorye. The hydropower city is the world's first large hydroelectric power station built in extremely harsh climatic conditions. The average annual air temperature is minus 12°C, the continuous spread of permafrost up to 300 m thick, the temperature in winter drops below sixty degrees, and seven months a year with negative temperatures make the construction of the Kolyma Hydroelectric Power Station a unique phenomenon in the practice of hydraulic construction.
The height of the dam is 130 m. The hydroelectric power station building is located deep underground and houses five hydraulic units with a total capacity of 900 MW in an artificial underground cave. Water is supplied to the units through five tunnels, each 200 meters long. This is a masterpiece of world hydraulic engineering and energy. The first hydraulic unit was launched in 1981. The unique power plant was built in just 7 years.
The city-village of 10 thousand inhabitants had very comfortable residential buildings, a hotel, a cinema, a sports complex with a swimming pool, a games room and a gym, a hospital, a clinic, a dispensary in a beautiful place, a kindergarten, and a school. - The communists mocked the people as best they could.
In total, it was planned to create a cascade of three hydroelectric power stations on the Kolyma River, building, in addition to the Kolyma hydroelectric station, the Ust-Srednekanskaya hydroelectric station (started in 1991) and the Verkhne-Kolyma hydroelectric power station. Well, as you understand, things didn’t work out with them after the “collapse of totalitarianism.”
Sinegorye. Now
There are still areas there that support the Kolyma hydroelectric power station, but now it’s like this. The population declined sharply. Entire areas of the city were destroyed. People live so well that they don’t even need privatized restaurants. The only building that was built in 17 years was the church. Well, what would we do without her?
And how many such cities and towns are there - dead and half-dead in Russia? How many military camps were killed that could have lived with dignity? In today's Russia there is no place for them and for the people who lived in them.
In general, this is simply called a crime against one’s people and country. This is exactly what was previously directly called - treason to the Motherland.
Strong pitching. Sakhalin Fishermen. 80s
The USSR had a huge fishing fleet. After the destruction of the “ineffective USSR” the number of fishing vessels in Russia decreased by 2 times, more than 80% of the vessels are extremely worn out and belong to the so-called. "critical age", the fleet was practically not updated - the shipbuilding industry was destroyed more thoroughly than after defeat in a major war. Russian shipbuilding, which was one of the largest in the world, was on the verge of extinction.
In the late 80s, the USSR produced about 11 million tons of seafood, now it is about 3 times less, and 80% of what is officially produced is sold to foreigners for next to nothing. Not processed products, no - caught. But it's not just a matter of malicious intent - the processing industry was almost killed. The export of unprocessed seafood is a characteristic feature of a third world country.
Currently, seafood consumption in Russia is about 10 kg/person. while the medical norm is 19 kg, in the USSR, by the way, about 20 kg/person was consumed in the 80s.
Sakhalin Fishermen. 80s
It’s immediately obvious that they are very cool, persistent, skillful and brave guys.
An attempt to patch the hole on your own. Sakhalin 80s
Then the fish and crabs were handed over to their base, and not quietly - to the Japanese. According to the former chairman of the Russian State Committee for Fisheries, Evgeniy Nazdratenko, more than 40 of our ships enter the ports of Hokkaido every day to unload. About 2 million tons of fish are smuggled out, but no one knows how much in reality. Nazdratenko reports that due to Russian poaching, the Japanese have 1500% of their profits, they have equipped their ports and the entire infrastructure. The total amount stolen from our people is at least 7 billion dollars a year. A “fish mafia” has formed and is flourishing, finishing off the resources of the Far East. There is no real fight against this, and the threads go to the very top - to the so-called. "Russian Government". According to the most conservative estimates, the “fish mafia” extracts about another $3 billion a year. The Russian fishing industry is called the most corrupt of all.
The ships and floating bases were sold for next to nothing to foreigners and were destroyed by the incompetent and predatory exploitation of the remnants of the Soviet fleet. The losses of one of the largest and most successful fleets in the world cannot be accurately calculated. Many ships were sold for next to nothing, many were destroyed by exploitation for slaughter, but even more were transferred to other flags.
58% of Russian ships now sail under foreign flags - this is more profitable for shipowners. The situation with large vessels is generally shocking - by the time of the collapse of the USSR, about 1,800 large sea vessels sailed under its flag. Now the Russian tricolor is on the flagpole of only 172 civilian ships. Patriotism has nothing to do with it - the main benefit, shipowners say openly.
The Japanese are now in charge of our Pacific waters. In 1998, the Russian “government” entered into an agreement under which Japanese fishermen were allowed to fish in the South Kuril Islands without complying with Russian laws and regulations in the field of fishing.
If this is not a state crime, then what is it?
Old Master. 80s. Kolomna. Photo: G. Chistyakov.
Such people built the USSR after the War.
They worked for the defense industry. Plant of Hydroacoustic Devices in Krasny Luch (photo by V. Dronov) 80s
The main purpose of the plant was the production of hydroacoustic and navigation systems for the navy. High tech.
Chassis for speakers of the Radiotekhnika 35 AC type. Photo: Kosanyuk L.
In addition, the plant produced very good audio speakers 35AC "Kliver", Ukraine, Krasny Luch - the foundry produces speakers that were very popular at the time, analogues of the Riga ones. The photo shows the finished chassis for the speakers.
Now this plant has been killed - it was closed due to the fact that it could not pay taxes, and its property was transferred to a small enterprise selling ketchup and vodka. The mechanical, frame and stamping, assembly and installation shops, plastics, printed circuit boards, galvanic and paint coating shops, including land and buildings, were valued at approximately $6 million. A high-tech plant of this level costs several billion.
They say that the so-called The “Ukrainian state” is as poor as a church mouse. So any richest country will go bankrupt if it sells property 3 orders of magnitude cheaper than it is worth.
Strange, it was a prosperous Soviet republic, and the hysteria with self-determination was created under the pretext that “Ukraine is being eaten up by Muscovites.” It’s like how “independent and independent” she would have lived richly and wonderfully if she hadn’t been in the USSR.
The result of all this is “on the face”. About the same as on the so-called face. "President" Yushchenko.
Chemical scientist R.A. Buyanov (center) 80s
A few words on the topic of Soviet science. The topic chosen was deliberately unpretentious - chemistry.
A typical worthy Soviet scientist, Roman Buyanov, created a fundamental theory of the magnetic action of catalysts in the low-temperature conversion of ortho-hydrogen to para-hydrogen. Sounds harsh, doesn't it?! And the result of this was the creation of a whole industrial production of liquid steam-hydrogen - this was the fuel on which our Buran spacecraft flew.
He and his collaborators also deciphered the “mechanism of the carbide cycle,” as a result of which fundamentally new types of catalysts and what are now called “nanomaterials”—carbon nanofilaments—were created. The entire USSR industry for the production of synthetic rubber worked on these catalysts for more than 10 years. These technologies were bought from us by advanced countries like France. Modestly so. Yes, by the way, scientists have developed a scientific classification of all possible causes of catalyst deactivation.
Soviet science was 5-10 years ahead of its competitors in this area. And in others, there was much more.
In 1979, Buyanov was appointed head of the Coordination Center of the CMEA countries on the problem of "Development of new catalysts." On his initiative, a technical project was prepared for the construction of a specialized catalyst factory in Tomsk, where the production of fundamentally new catalysts developed in social networks was soon to begin. countries. In theory, we were supposed to take a sharp lead; the plant promised colossal profits. Needless to say, the planned construction has not started? The USSR was facing an unprecedented technological takeoff, and not only in the field of catalysis. This was one of the most important reasons why he had to be killed so urgently.
Educational laboratory of the Institute of Chemical Technologies. DVK computers. 80s
Soviet computers are used to solve problems in chemical technology. DVK computers (Dialogue Computing Complex) developed and produced in Zelenograd - the Soviet "Silicon Valley." They solved their problem quite successfully; moreover, they were united into a kind of local networks through special buses with SM-1425 control computers. I had the opportunity to work for them. There was no fundamental lag in electronics and computers from the West at that time. It appeared as a result of “reforms”.
Do you know what happened to the Kvant plant, which produced it? After a series of raider attacks during the so-called. "President" Putin, a controlling stake in the plant was sold for... $7 million.
Construction team 80s. Cowshed.
The first detachments appeared in the USSR in the 60s and, in theory, were a very useful undertaking. The idea was that during the summer holidays, students formed special teams and went for 1.5-2 months to work where workers were needed. In the USSR, not only was there no unemployment, there was a constant shortage of workers. Students typically worked on urban construction sites in rural areas building housing and infrastructure. There were also construction teams that worked on the restoration of cultural monuments (for example, in Kizhi), there were teams of student conductors on trains, etc.
Construction brigade memories are some of the best for many students during their student years. Friendship, student romances, acquired construction professions, bonfires and guitars, construction brigade traditions, sports competitions - in general, it was very cool. There were often adventures; for example, I had the opportunity to take part in putting out a steppe fire. Poor students could earn good money in the construction brigade.
In the construction teams, of course, they drank, but they knew when to stop - you can’t work effectively if you’re too drunk. Payment was usually piecework-bonus ("accord"), that is, if you manage to deliver the object by a certain deadline, you will receive from 15 to 25 of the piecework amount on top. Therefore, they didn’t particularly want to tolerate drunks and dunces in the squad. Construction teams were completely self-governing units and formed themselves - that is, a team meeting could accept anyone and nominate anyone.
The first detachments were built on the “commune” principle, that is, what they earned was divided equally. But in reality, this was expressed in a sharp drop in labor productivity and disinterest of good workers - why work until you drop if your money goes to some armless lazy person? For this reason, since the 70s, the time-tested “collective farm” system was introduced, but not additional workdays were credited, but the KTU was established - the labor participation coefficient, that is, the coefficient by which the base salary was multiplied. The KTU was established by general open voting at a detachment meeting. I must say that the KTU was installed very fairly.
The construction teams were a great chance to see our huge country. Well, when, for example, would a person get ready to go to a Kazakh village or to the White Sea? And it was very useful for aspiring intellectuals to get a feel for what hard physical labor was like.
"Hurry - the chord is burning!" Construction team 80s. Cowshed.
But the MTR also has its other side: the construction teams (“construction teams”) of the 80s in many places degenerated into the most ordinary gang with all its disgusting sides. The processes of decomposition of the country's elite, which became completely obvious by the mid-80s, had a very strong impact on the construction brigade movement. Although... where were they not reflected?
"Shabashki" - seasonal work for the purpose of large earnings, a phenomenon that emerged in the USSR in the 60-70s. Due to processes of intensive urbanization, the share of the rural population has sharply decreased, while at the same time the share of the population with higher education has grown rapidly, that is, the number of workers in agriculture for heavy physical labor has noticeably decreased. Khrushchev's destruction of the highly developed system of cooperatives and artels in the USSR led to a severe imbalance in the economy. A large number of orders appeared from collective farms that Mezhkolkhozstroy, a specially created centralized organization, could not fulfill. Small jobs were difficult to carry out - there was no scope for a centralized organization.
At the same time, the progressive wage system was destroyed, the attempt on which in Stalin’s time was equated with anti-state activity. The progressive system is when, when the plan was fulfilled over 100%, the payment coefficient was 1.5, over 150% -2, over 200% - a multiplier coefficient of 3. This was “slave labor”. Did you think that the mass movement of the Stakhanovites was based on sheer enthusiasm under the leadership of the Communist Party? Yeah... There was enthusiasm too, naturally, but there was also very good money. And then all this was taken away from people and the people began to respond with increasing indifference.
Collective and state farms still had a share of financial and organizational independence left over from Stalin's times. They had the right to enter into seasonal agreements with the so-called. "temporary labor collectives". From this opportunity and the beginning of the deregulation of the USSR economy in the post-Stalin period, the “coven” were born.
The unusual situation was that the shabash teams were usually staffed by non-professional builders who worked during their summer vacation. Often, research workers with academic degrees worked in coven teams. They worked in gross violation of safety regulations, 12-16 hours a day. For a season (approx. 2 -2.5 months) with the “right hillock” (team leader), a good coven worker earned 3-4 thousand rubles, sometimes up to 7-8 thousand, which was significantly more than his annual earnings at his main job.
What negative psychological effect this had on the image of the country in the eyes of its citizens, I think there is no need to explain.
A similar thing happened with construction teams. For example, I was a concrete worker, fortunately God did not harm me with my health. During the construction team season in the mid-80s (about 1.5 months), I brought about a thousand rubles - and this already took into account food and travel. KTU (labor participation rate) was quite good, but damn, where in the USSR did a professional concrete worker earn 1000 a month, even for a 12-hour working day like ours? And a professional concrete worker was clearly no match for a self-taught student, albeit strong and smart. Another thing is that this concrete worker was not interested in working the way they worked in the 30s - 50s, that’s all.
What happened in reality - the chairman of the collective farm knew that no one would come to him for a salary of 300 rubles, so large sums were obtained from contributions to collective and state farms. Well, who will check whether you painted the wall at the Zapupinsky collective farm with two layers or five?
Often the commander shared money with the chairman, who closed the fake outfits. In large cities this was usually not allowed and people earned money there as it should have been - 200 rubles per season.
And the result of this was this - entire mafia clans grew up, consisting of proven accomplices. From the construction brigade figures, Komsyuk’s perestroikas turned out - “Gorbachev’s infantry”. They greeted “perestroika” choking with squeals - it was their time.
It was they, together with the institute secretaries, who launched the scam with NTTM (scientific and technical centers for youth creativity). Since 1987, NTTM centers began active work to pump non-cash money into cash, playing an important role in the destruction of the Soviet financial system. NTTM did not pay any taxes at all (!), but 30% was transferred to local and central NTTM funds. There were, of course, devotees who did not participate in this obscenity, but honestly promoted innovative models, but alas, they did not make the difference.
Cashing out took place for 50% of the cost of the fake order for “scientific development” given to such a center. The mechanism of theft and division of stolen goods with superiors had already been worked out on construction teams. “Komsomol capitalism,” as it was called then, got a green light in the plunder of the country, huge sums were “unfastened” to their “roofs” in the Central Committee and other key organizations. NTTM and the enterprises created under them received the exclusive right to import office equipment and export some products for the currency with which office equipment was purchased, which was then sold for rubles. The profit on one cycle reached 2000% - I'm not kidding at all.
People who did not participate in this were thrown out of the system. This is how the first Komsomol oligarchs were formed under the close control of the CPSU Central Committee and the leadership of the Soviet secret services. Cunning accomplices gathered around such centers of crystallization, contacts were established with organized crime - Russian business was formed. Interestingly, the very famous Menatep bank at one time was registered as... a subsidiary farm of one such NTTM, and NTTM could receive loans without interest and immediately gave this money for growth.
The names of these figures are on everyone’s lips, and their faces are on TV. I don't want to put photos here. Their curators usually did not occupy the seats of the central chairmen, but took control of key points of the state apparatus. The result was the bastard system that exists now.
Could this be stopped? Easily, and strictly within the law, but this was not done in principle - the goal of the degenerated elite was different.
The occurring phenomena were not properties of Russian socialism, they were just signs of its illness, which was not purposefully treated. After the destruction of the USSR, all these diseases, coupled with new ones that appeared, turned the country into a walking, rotting corpse.
Did people, for example, ordinary Komsomol members, see this? They saw and looked at it with disgust. Without a doubt, real Komsomol members of the 20-40s would have slapped all these Komsyuks without hesitation as a classic “counter.” These are precisely the “contras” - traitors who destroyed the system and the country, which they swore to serve until their last breath.
Head of department
