Photos from the "old days"

A perfect companion to the above shot is a 1972 comedy "Ivan the Terrible's new gig" (my title translation) about time travel, with Ivan traveling to the modern Soviet Union and his look-alike going the other way. In the film, a brilliant engineer builds - or dreams about building - time machine. When the machine blows up, he needs to find some spare electronic parts in a state store ... instead he has to buy them from a "capitalist", who knows that the state run stores never had what was needed.

PS. The full film is on YouTube. It's not bad.

https://bigpicture.ru/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/50c9492c0b55f536e25fa2b63a0.jpg

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Victor Belenko was a Soviet Air Force pilot, who defected to Japan in 1976. His escape was meticulously planned. As his fighter squadron got up in the air, he told the commander that he was having engine problems and had to return to base. He then dove closer to the ground before turning on the afterburners and heading toward the foreign lands. He was flying there on a thereto secret MiG-25, (NATO code name Foxbat) a speed king of the era with a 2,000 MPH max speed. His commander was a tad busy that day and called the base an hour later to inquire if Vic got to the base safely. The response from the base was likely, "WTF are you talking about?" The distance across the open waters was about 300 miles, the low altitude was safer at the speed of sound. I.e., by the time the inquiry was made, both the plane and the pilot were already in Japan.

After plopping down on the first available airfield, Belenko asked for a political asylum in the US. The Japanese contacted the US embassy and informed them about the real catch - as Tattoo said on the Fantasy Island, "the plane, boss, the plane". American hierarchy quickly figured things out and sent a C-5 to Japan. The Soviets demanded an immediate return of the plane, as they were entitled to under the international law, but the Yanks took it to the US, disassembled it, tested the parameters, including the heat signature of the engines, then flew it back to Japan. The Japanese subsequently returned it in the same disassembled state to the Soviets, not forgetting to charge them for the shipment.

https://external-preview.redd.it/toy...2cff7eb4321457

toygx20dN77cmhQjt3BPBFpXtjEwW42vvqC5Gz6oG6w.jpg?auto=webp&s=5bcd0350dc2991b8e2202149c22cff7eb4321457.jpg - Click image for larger version Name: toygx20dN77cmhQjt3BPBFpXtjEwW42vvqC5Gz6oG6w.jpg?auto=webp&s=5bcd0350dc2991b8e2202149c22cff7eb4321457.jpg Views: 0 Size: 14.6 KB ID: 5699736

https://www.historynet.com/wp-conten...UMN-MIG-03.jpg

MiG-25

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March 8, 1976. Moscow.. The International Women's Day. An open air market, with the farmers from the North Caucuses selling flowers. Their hats are a giveaway to their origin. These private markets were controlled by the police and the organized crime groups. If someone wanted to open a stand, he'd be notified of his impending doom. Moscow markets are still controlled by these gangs. It's a profitable business.

https://scontent-mia3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...AQ&oe=640D819C

330287076_654187469802391_5883724910637259895_n.jpg?_nc_cat=108&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5cd70e&_nc_ohc=EyCAkWYqIhwAX9KYnTZ&_nc_ht=scontent-mia3-1.xx&oh=00_AfDFQr_H3k6J8ryhJQk-RJYrNpY5ereR4O58IERcUkfnAQ&oe=640D819C.jpg - Click image for larger version Name: 330287076_654187469802391_5883724910637259895_n.jpg?_nc_cat=108&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5cd70e&_nc_ohc=EyCAkWYqIhwAX9KYnTZ&_nc_ht=scontent-mia3-1.xx&oh=00_AfDFQr_H3k6J8ryhJQk-RJYrNpY5ereR4O58IERcUkfnAQ&oe=640D819C.jpg Views: 0 Size: 164.8 KB ID: 5700682.
 
A scanned newspaper page from the perestroika era of 1987 (albeit first year). It's a list of meat and egg consumption per capita between different countries -- socialist USSR, Bulgaria, Hungary, GDR (aka East Germany), Poland and Czechoslovakia, capitalist - USA, UK, France, FRG (aka West Germany), Italy, Japan, Denmark and the Netherlands.

In bold - top half - meat products, bottom half eggs.

335066985_199127382743538_2135137393125569380_n.jp g (459×1080) (fbcdn.net)

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A Soviet high school from the 1970's. It says 1970 but looks more like 1973-76, given the type of desks, dresses and do's.

ac1f3fea6b.jpg (700×527) (kulturologia.ru)

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Tell 'em that when people drank together (which actually has to be mentioned because a good portion drank by themselves), they always passed around a bottle, multiple bottles.

Groups always drinking out of the same bottle. Probably still a practice until today, at least in some parts by some creatures.

___

BTW, those playgrounds over there and other places in the early days were at times extremely dangerous. Going down a slide could rip a limb off because of no maintenance to what the metal/etc. turns into.
 
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