What habits of Soviet people seem strange today

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

As they say, habit is second nature. There are good habits, there are bad ones, and there are those that came to us from the USSR. People of the older generation probably remember what life was like under the Soviet Union. He was very strongly influenced by the deficit, giving rise to even natural superstitions, forcing him to develop habits that today will be incomprehensible to many, or even completely ridiculous. Almost everyone knows about some today, but some have been forgotten. It will be all the more interesting to remember the strange customs of that era.

Sideboard with crystal and other utensils

Sideboard. A piece of furniture with glass doors and shelves, on which crystal dishes and tea sets were lovingly placed. If you could get hold of a Czech or German service, it was a real happiness. They did not drink tea from it, they took care of it and exhibited it like a museum exhibit. Arranging dishes beautifully was a real art. Salad bowls and vases were placed in the corners, in the middle were wine glasses and glasses, salt shakers and pepper shakers, in front of them were glasses in rows. If you got a backlit sideboard, it was a real treat. How pleasant it is to show guests the illuminated riches of crystal.

In addition to dishes, the sideboard often contained various figurines, souvenirs, and, of course, family photographs. Of course, the dishes were taken out of the sideboard. But this was not often, some serious reason was needed, for example, New Year, March 8, or any other favorite holiday.

Buy products with a stock

In the USSR, it was customary to buy food for future use. This did not mean that people were greedy or capricious, it just was an urgent need. Scarce products were not often thrown out on the shelves. Krupp, pasta, fish or poultry - must be taken, otherwise tomorrow you can see empty shelves. It was so commonplace that people were calm about the situation.

By the way, in Soviet times, shops were open most often until 18:00. Today you can find out late in the evening that there is no bread in the house, go out and buy in any small shop. Scarcity dictated its own rules. The man with several rolls of toilet paper riding the bus was no surprise. The rolls were strung on a string and hung around the neck like beads. And if during lunchtime a woman ran out to the store and saw a scarce product there, she was sure to share this good news with colleagues so that they could make a purchase. While there is something to buy.

Repair shoes, sew up tights, wash bags and store

People are still fixing their shoes today: they put on heels, change the zippered runners, and so on. But under the USSR, everything was much more serious. Shoes were also in short supply, so they took care of them as best they could. And sometimes the repair was such that the shoes or boots could not even be recognized. The soles, upper, zippers and so on have been completely redesigned. In order not to spend money on repairs, they carried out the so-called preventive measures: they rolled onto the sole, sewed the heel, and strengthened the seams. This does not mean that all the shoes were of poor quality. Just to buy shoes, women stood in line for hours.

Nylon tights were also not sold on every corner. To make them last longer, very strange methods were used. For example, they were frozen in the freezer or doused with hairspray, hoping that this would increase the strength of the product. If an arrow appeared, then such tights were either worn under trousers, or the defect was neatly sewn up or covered with nail polish.

Well, the packages. Almost all housewives washed these plastic bags, dried them and reused them. Yes, they became ugly, looked old and shabby, but they were always at hand. By the way, today the leaders of the "green" movement are promoting the use of environmentally friendly bags, since they are reusable and do not litter nature. And before they were replaced by ordinary shopping bags.

Clothes for growth and a rag for the floor from old sweatpants

If today someone sees a child on the street in a jacket with rolled up sleeves and trousers, which are very large, they will be surprised. Under the USSR, this was normal. No emotions - it's clear that the clothes were bought for growth. Children's things were also in short supply. But they also treated clothes much easier than they are now.

Then no woman would have thought of buying a rag to clean the floor. These are now hardware stores littered with microfiber, linen, and cotton rags. In Soviet times, first of all, this was not the case. And secondly, why waste money if you can take an old T-shirt, children's tights, or something else. But the best rag was worn out cotton sweatpants, or "sweatshirts," as families called them. Clothing served a person faithfully, first protecting from the cold, and then participating in cleaning the house.

Boxes with buttons of all stripes and a gallery of empty glass jars in the kitchen

Clothes wore out despite careful care, and became either a rag for the floor or rags for some other purpose. But before that, zealous Soviet housewives cut the buttons from the thing. Then they put the accessories in a special box. This could be a candy or cookie jar, a glass mayonnaise container, or any other suitable container. Buttons were also in short supply, and when repairing clothes, one could not do without them.

And another habit is to save up glass jars. They were never thrown away, because almost all hostesses made preparations for the winter. Tomatoes and cucumbers, jam and canned salad, anything that grows in the garden was prepared and stored in glass jars. Special lids and rolling machines were sold. The most popular were three-liter cans. They took pride of place in kitchen cabinets and waited for their finest hour.

The post-war era has also greatly changed the way of life. Especially fashion. In a difficult economic situation, women still tried to look good. Exactly this was the fashion of the post-war years, and it was worn by women when the country was starving.