chapotraphouse

“who would ask such stupidity?”

“stop using that moronic website”

Commie granddad calling Hexbear libs confirmed.

This made me smile and ache a little. Your grandpa sounds like a character .... grumpy but golden. I’m a trans woman living in a refugee camp in South Sudan, and it’s wild how we’re all navigating such different lives but still connecting on places like this. If anyone’s ever curious about what surviving looks like from here, my page is open. Solidarity and ice cream to you both.

Please read the updated post

Damn 78 is really old for a cat. His fur looks impeccable.

I'd really like to know how the average person in the USSR was given instruction in regards to racial/minority sensitivity. Like there are the famous quotes from Paul Robeson and Muhammad Ali about how Soviet citizens weren't racist, and the Soviet Union itself was a diverse country with dozens of languages and ethnic groups. And I'm sure there were unresolved tensions but as an American looking backwards in time it seems the Soviet population was remarkably tolerant of women's rights, racial minorities, etc.

So I'm wondering how formalized it was to learn how to be respectful. Was it something in school? Were there outreach programs or what?

After seeing Chinese citizens on RedNote react to westerners confirming that capitalism really is as bad as they've been told and the Chinese govt isn't lying to them, I'm curious about the average soviet citizens' view of the West and specifically , what was your understanding of the capitalist world and did you or your comrades have doubts about what you were told about it?

UPDATE

Damn, I had been looking forward to answers to a bunch of the great questions that were posed. I'm really curious what specifically made him mad, though. Like,

one of the questions I gave him threw him off and kinda put him in a bad mood

Which question was it? And when he said “who would ask such stupidity?” was it about that particular question or the things you were asking him in general?

I don’t really know what he was expecting but he seems to think the questions weren’t good enough.

I'm sure it will be apparent when you post the 5 detailed answers he did give, but I think it would have been good if we had known beforehand what kind of general sentiment he has about the USSR. I would ask different questions of someone I knew looked back on the USSR fondly with nostalgia versus someone who saw it mostly as an impediment to the way they wanted to live. I realize it's probably too late now, but if you get the chance and it doesn't seem inappropriate, I want to know what kind of questions he wanted us to ask. Since he agreed to do it in the first place, even if he didn't quite understand the situation, I would think there must have been something he did want to share - but what was it?

Hi, Melina.

What was it like changing jobs, or choosing jobs out of school?

I know there's a lot of writing I can read about the on-paper process but how did it actually feel in day-to-day life?

Was there a sense you could quit if your workplace was unfavorable? Or transfer? Was there a sense you could move up in your job (or was there even a huge motivation to want to move up?)

Curious because I'm in a younger part of my career and this kind of thing has been on my mind lately lol.

Thank you for making the time to answer us, comrade!

One thing I've always wondered: was the word "comrade" used in place of a title like Mr., Mrs., Ms., etc? What about titles like doctor or professor?

Hello grandpa. How have your views towards life, the nature of humanity and the world changed from when you were a young man of 24 to now?

Did work feel more meaningful under the Union?

I read an article a while ago about nostalgia for the plombir ice cream they made in the USSR. Are there any items from that era (e.g. food products, household goods, clothing items) that he's particularly nostalgic for?

Probably the largest thing that turns people into socialists is the prospect of turning all the productive capacity the industrial world has into something that can feed the hungry, house the homeless, heal the ill, etc. i.e. poverty reduction. However, there's also a more selfish reason: many jobs under capitalism feel extremely useless and like they only exist to facilitate shuffling money around for arcane reasons. They're alienating.

Under the Soviet system, does he think people genuinely felt like their work was making society better in tangible ways? Or is this grass always greener on the other side syndrome?

Trade schools, apprenticeships, simply hard work: how was training dealt with in the USSR? Did the unions mostly handle it, and did they send people out to get certifications? Or was it mostly in-house? What were the safety standards like for those who worked in fields like mining and construction?

Also, Dacha culture and Sanitoriums. How prevalent were trips to the countryside? And what was it like visiting the Sanitoriums? Were there different amenities depending on the union? Or were they all mostly the same?

Did people feel like they had a say in how things were organized? like in their local communities or workplaces?

What were the unions (soviets) like, to what extent could a simple worker participate in democratic centralism, and were most workers participating or was there a lot of indifference to it like you see with people nowadays?

Also what was free speech and political dissent really like for a working class person? I understand this is inherently tied to the period we're talking about and how much internal class struggle the state faced.

Thank you comrade grandfather

How ideologically committed to the communist project were the average people? Were there many true believers, or were people mostly disinterested/disgruntled (which is how I would describe most people's opinions of government)?

Did the education system provide foundational knowledge of class struggle and Marxist theory?

What does he consider the USSR 's best accomplishment/contribution to human achievement (besides winning WW2)?

Does he/did he consider himself a socialist?

Big question, so I don't expect an all encompassing answer, but if there was one thing he could change about life in the USSR, what would have been?

Appreciate grandpa taking the time to answer questions

Did he feel a stronger sense of connection to his immediate community and nation as whole in Soviet times? I mean that a bit more broadly than actual personal relationships as those tend to ebb and flow as you age, just curious if there was any real “camaraderie” between relative strangers

whats his favorite dinosaur

Listen to your grandpa

I'm curious about the dissolution of the USSR, and for something so recent, it seems everything I read online or get told about it is very conflicting. I suspect experience and narrative changed drastically from country to country.

Did he take part in the referendum? Did people feel the referendum result effectively ignored (ie did people feel they voted to not dissolve the USSR, then it happened anyway)? What was the general sentiment about the dissolution & Communist party, before, during and after?

In that period from 1987-1991, events at the top of Soviet leadership (Gorbachev, Yakovlev, Ligachev, et al) seemed to be happening rapid-fire. Was he and the people he knew informed of all the changes the Soviet leadership were implementing as it was happening. Or did he feel sort of in the dark regarding the changes that were happening.

For example, practically overnight Gorbachev instructed the industrial central planning firms to switch to more of a market-driven model, which threw these industries into absolute chaos (even by capitalist thinking, this is a bad idea unless you subscribe to Musk’s inane ideas about “breaking stuff”). Was this something people knew about before and after it happened? Or were these changes largely kept out of view from Soviet citizens?

I guess the broader question is, the late 80s (specifically that 1987-91 period) saw HUGE changes in how Soviet governance, economy, and society were organized. These decisions were made almost entirely at the top. I am curious to know how much your typical Soviet worker was informed on these changes, and how overall how they thought about them.

I doubt he’s ever read Socialism Betrayed given that it’s an obscure book that I don’t think has been translated into Russian, but if he ever reads it I would love to hear his thoughts. I think he would probably like it.

Edit: cards on the table, because reading what I wrote it feels a bit like a leading question… I have the impression that the changes made happened so quick on purpose, and that the public was kept in the dark to some extent; mainly because if the public was fully aware of how Gorbachev was changing things the people wouldn’t have gone along with it. But I would love to know if this is correct or not (or somewhere in between).

cute cat

Was gonna ask what does he think of Putin ?

Can we ask more than one question?

I am a communist with a Time Machine. This Time Machine lets me visit precisely one calendar year. Based on his personal experience, what year would he recommend I go visit to see the “peak” of life in the USSR?

as an adult, what did you carry around with you in your pockets or on your person on a typical working day. currency for daily purchases, identity documents, work ID/ membership cards, pocket knife, keys, vehicle license, watch, etc. ? was any of it a hassle?

just trying to get a sense for what one would feel important keep on their person, because I am always trying to carry less crap and wonder what that looked like there, back in those days.

Haven’t thought of a good one yet, but he’s top-shelf in my book just judging by the state of that cat

When you were young, what did you think about your future? Did you have specific careers in mind and a plan to get there? What did you think about the future of your country.

Do you like belly scritches or will you try to knife me?

Seriously, do you feel that Khrushchev greatly impacted how the average person thought of Stalin or did people on average have a negative perspective already before Khrushchev?

I'm not sure if you're Russian or from another SR, but how were internal dynamics between Russians and, say, Kyrgyz people? How were their cultural/religious traditions viewed?

Good questions, I look foward to reading your grandpa's replies.

What were his favorite activities to do outside of work, like sports, reading, etc?