People that lived in the USSR, what was it like?

HottieAutie@lemmy.dbzer0.com to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 93 points –

I'm interested in hearing about the personal experiences of living in the USSR without making it a political conversation. Rather, just what life was like, the good and the bad, from a nonjudgmental human perspective.

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Never lived in the USSR but travelled through the country on the Trans-Siberian Railway with my dad years ago when just a kid. He spoke fluent Russian and struck up conversations with locals wherever we stopped. At one point, they broke out into gales of laughter before we reboarded the train. I asked him what that was all about.

He said he had asked if anyone practiced religion in the USSR? At first, they were reluctant to answer. Who wants to know? Why do you ask? And he said well, I notice there are signs all over the train station that it is forbidden to walk over the tracks. Yet I see people going so far as to crawl under one train to reach another. After a moment of awkward silence, that's when the laughter broke out. "Ah shit man, you got us. Religion is alive and well here!"

Is the joke that they'd pray to some god that the train doesn't start moving? Lol

I think the punchline is that the people only followed the Soviet rules at a surface level.

doesnt even have to be soviet, basically worldwide. doesnt stop north koreans from watching South korean made content, doesnt stop americans from making or drinking alcohol during prohibition. Banning something that a lot of people do wont stop people from doing it, only from doing it publicly.

Yeah that was my read of it. I remember actually seeing people hopping onto the train even as it was starting to move out. It took those locomotives a long time to build up any significant speed, so I don't think anyone was freaking out about getting cut in half or anything.

I've met a guy on a long-distance train once. He just jumped off at his village, with a bag on his shoulder, in the dark.

The train could only go slow because of a sharp turn. I was terrified. He was okay.

I don't get it :/

You have to understand that religion was banned by the communist regime of the day. Admitting to it could get you locked up.

But my dad, as a tourist making this casual observation about flagrant rule-breaking going on in plain sight even as he spoke, broke the tension completely and made the locals admit there is a lot of rule-breaking going on everywhere.