Tail, Line, Queue, or a Journey to My Socialistic Past, Another Flash Back.
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By choice or out of necessity?
You can read about my first, “shopping- bag- trigged- flash- back” here!
Way back in my old country (socialistic Soviet Union), I was making my own clothes and later clothes for my son and nephews. I was sewing nice pieces, I can’t say I loved doing it, but I enjoyed it and it gave me certain satisfaction. I was sewing our own clothes not because it was my hobby, but because of necessity. The choice in the shops was very, very poor if not scarce. You could find on the counters of shops some kinds of dark colored ugly shaped simple things. Sometimes the local shop was getting a huge supply of similar clothes and then the entire town looked like multiple twins. When the shop was putting out any imported goods, people would form huge long-hours lines to buy them and very often people would get into real physical fights in those lines when the sale started.
It’s not like nowadays lines to buy a new product like iPhone, or Wii. The lines I am talking about were to buy essentials. Do you see the difference?
It was happening in old socialistic times.
Now sometimes I also sew, but not from necessity, just for pleasure. Do you feel the difference? Also I don’t have to stand in a line to buy milk, bread or cookies. It is awful when you consider it a luck when you has a chance to by essentials.
Queue (English), Line (American), Ochered' (Russian), or Tail (Russian slang)
Lines (queues)as a mass phenomenon came to life before socialism. In many societies lines (queues) were a sign of some kind of hard economical condition. Recollect “soup-lines” during Great Depression, for instance.
Lines for products of first need during socialistic times became not a temporary occurrence, but it was rather a way of life, a characteristic feature of that time. Socialistic system was unable to satisfy the essential needs of population, hence the following- lines, called "tails" in that time slang:
Lines in front of the shops
Lines inside the shops
In frost and heat
I thought these times were over, but...no... It's still there. This is the system, I suppose. Video from laptop sale in Moscow.
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SOCIALISM (Lib Works Ludwig Von Mises PB)
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Socialism: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
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The Case for Socialism
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Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy
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Comments
Yep. Or how about getting at 4 or 5 a.m. to get into a line to buy milk for a child after a shop opens at 8 a.m.?
How about that? Hm.
There are some interesting movies on Amazon I clicked on.
What an educational journey this is! I cannot imagine anyone in this country even thinking that Socialism is a good idea. You don't know what you've got til its gone.
Thank you for the great Hub. It was a pleasure to hear and see some truth.
A sad journey, James. Actually, my generation didn't know another life, so we were blind and happy, taking everything like it was the norm of life. If you don't have anything to compare with, you live with what you have. Than's why soviet people were not allowed to travel abroad, especially to the countries of capitalist system. Remember the Iron Curtain? We didn't have "rich" in our country and were proud of it. And we didn't know that we were just all equally poor.
I want to show real pictures from inside of that life, just pictures and facts. Without long treatises.
Thank you for taking time to visit and read!
I thoroughly enjoyed this read. Makes me thankful. Our complaints about the little irritations of life are nothing in comparison to your lively description of lines--waiting for hours in the harsh weather for basic necessities. What a life and you guys didn't know any better, which makes it sadder still.
Thanks for sharing.
You are welcome, Angeline and thanks for reading and commenting.
I like the statement: Socialism is global distribution of poverty. Not only that but there is shortage of everything. The prices are going now up in this country of plenty. There is shortage of energy. Why we cannot produce more, why not drill more?
In Czechoslovakia (Slovakia part) we have so much electricity, that we use to sell it out of country. But you have often black outs, many ours or days off of lights and so on. Do you like government control socialism?
Vladimir, I hope that Americans are clever enough not to let it happen here.
It really puts things in perspective. Thank you for the excellent visuals along with your writing. Thank you for telling your story.
cjv, thank you for reading and commenting. I have more stories to tell. Only that people will listen...
We're already starting to see shoddy goods in some stores due to over-importing from slave labor countries like China. And not just in Walmart, but even in Macy's and Nordstrom. It stems from a lack of pride in one's work because no one is allowed to reap the rewards of a job well done. Socialism doesn't work and yet they persist in shoving this on us. Very good hub ReuVera :)
Madame X, sad, isn't it?
Vladimir Uhri says:
5 months ago
Great hub ReuVera. We had the same socialistic problem in my sattelite soviet country, Czechoslovakia. We had to stay in line Saturday at 5-6 o'clock to get the beef for Sunday.