Symbols of America

[peacetraveler22]

For the past few weeks, Ilya Varlamov has published posts incorporating photos from Moscow in the late 1980's - early 90's. I love these! Amazing to see how the country looked right before the collapse of the USSR. In today's post, I saw this photo from 1990. A massive queue to enter the first McDonald's in Moscow! I can't imagine such a scene, or how this fast food chain symbolized so much to people at that time. In 1990, I was 17. A senior in high school, getting ready to graduate and enter university, and closely following events overseas.

What other places, items and things did Soviet citizens associate with America before the collapse? My aunt visited Russia in the early 1980's, and she told me stories about locals asking her for bubble gum and wanting to buy her Levi's, straight off her body. This is no joke.

This is what makes Russia so fascinating to me - very rich and diverse history, constantly shifting and changing. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. Not sure how most Russians feel about the current direction in which Russia is moving...I hope you feel for the better, because it's depressing and sad to live in a place where you feel absolutely no hope or prospect for the future. I have never once felt this way about my life in America...

Comments

[mercibo.livejournal.com]

The main difference of Soviet era is that it was “economics of demand” in contrast of capitalistic “economics of offer”. So while in capitalist world to serve is privilege, in socialist world to get service was a privilege. Every capitalist merchant seeks how to attract customers. He puts up shiny signs, lavishly lights restaurant windows, trains the staff to smile. Soviet restaurants even the fanciest looked more gloomy and basic, that’s why the first McDonald’s was so attractive. Another reason: most of Soviet people had no chances to travel abroad and to see anything different from their everyday life, and ta-dam! ‘abroad’ came by itself!

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

I can imagine the curiosity and amazement of something new when you have been chained to the same ideology/location for so long, without the ability to explore or consider anything different or revolutionary. Btw, it seems sometimes that the socialist mentality regarding work/service is still alive and well in present day Russia, at least based on my interactions with workers in the retail sectors during my visits (restaurants, gas/parking attendants, hotel workers, etc.). Hopefully this will change in the future.

[mercibo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's appeared to be deeply rooted.