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

Re: Этот парень настоящее сокровище

[seadevil001.livejournal.com]

How do you know he does not doing all things mentioned AND writing? 8-)

Re: Этот парень настоящее сокровище

[andrey-kaminsky.livejournal.com]

He predicted the capture of Crimea. I could not even imagine what will happen, he really could. After such a brilliant prediction, i realized that this guy is tuned in unison with my government. This means that my government is the same deformed by Cold War assholes like this poor man. I would not like to believe that my country is governed by complete idiots, that would be terrible. Therefore, for my own peace of mind, i believe that this guy is just a weirdo.