What was life like in Soviet Russia 1917-1991?

Answer 1

To address the question that was actually asked, unlike the other two responses, I can recommend three excellent books, Russia, the People and the Power by Robert G. Kaiser, The Russians by Hedrick Smith, and Behind the High Kremlin Walls by Vladimir Solovyov and Elena Klepikova. Some other good ones include "Mig Pilot", that is by the pilot who flew his fighter to Japan in 1975, I forget his name, "Breaking With Moscow" by Arkady N. Schevchenko and anything by Alexander Solzhenitsyn.Michael Montagne

AnswerWell, apart from the 'purges' of dissidents by those evil few with power in their hands - and over the years that meant killings by the million - life for the common people meant that they were well educated and well cared-for, and always knew where their next meal was coming from, which should be all that matters.

That is more than you can say for now, with our grab-as-grab-can society imposed on them via just one or two corrupt leaders now retired to fat lives abroad together with those with the riches which those 'leaders' permitted them to scoop from the rest during the few years since '91

Russia is now the ruins of what was a great able and cultured nation only a few years ago. The common people - the vast majority -now live in abject poverty, in a 'market economy', which means you need money to live, and in the Russian climate, which has to be experienced to be believed.

That shows the erosive power of finance in the hands of a few malicious amoral villains. And those are the ones who now rule'our' world.

That should make us think, and see exactly who they are who are now paying all our presidents to do what they want. - Shouldn't it?

AnswerI'm sure that the Soviet government tried their best to provide a comfortable, peaceful and stable life for its citizens. Whether or not they actually did is a different story. Only those who were unswervingly loyal to the Party and its principles reaped the most material benefits. Of course, Party personnel reaped the most, followed by military and police forces. At the bottom of the barrel was the "worker" all of the bureaucrats were claiming to represent. AnswerGreetings from Russia! (Siberia)

Before 1991-93 we (Russians) could be shure in our future, we had guarantees of medical service and education for-free. Also we had normal life level. But we had not enough commodities and products.

After 8 years of anti-Russian "democracy" and wild/criminal capitalism Russian GNP became extremely lower than before that period. People became extremely poor in this 8 years. Economy was almost destroyed.

Now we have true democratically choosen pro-Russian government. And we grow rich and repair our economy.

P.S. Excuse me for my terrible English

AnswerIt is impossible to answer briefly to the question....First it was a cruel civil war and collapse of empire in the beginning, violence, blood, new hopes, -really hard times, after there came a period of modernization which was unseen before in the modern world's history - during a dozen of years ruined collapsed mostly agricultural country became one of the leaders in Europe..but people paid really tremendous price for that - terror, slavery of GULAG, starving villages, it is incredible that the nation was able to survive all that and was capable of real feat to save their country, what the Soviet people experienced in the 30s is almost nothing in comparison with terrors of the WWII or the Great Patriotic War as it is called in Russia and this nation showed tremendous strength and courage and won its War...Stalin was the most lucky tyran to have Russians under his power......sure there were traitors, there were about 1 million who joined Nazis Russian Liberation Army, some of them really thought that Russia should be saved from Stalin's tyrany, but if the Nazis won there were not be Russia any more...9th of May was a real triumph of soviet people, not of the criminal system that ruled them...and this country was ruined, devastated, lost millions of people - incredible, but it was the first to send a sattelite and human being in space - sure, there were lots of politics about that, but it was one more real triumph, the 60-x to my mind is the best time in the entire history of the USSR...main reason- people got much more freedom after the tyrany, after the 70s the country started slowly to slide to its collapse...corruption, decay of political elite, exhausting arms race with the US, fear of truth, time of inefficiency and incompetence...but collapse of the USSR just accelerated degradation in most of the former soviet republics, and this decay is not stopped yet...in the end of the 80s we had better health care sytem, better education, our science was on a higher level and the nation was less corrupted, simply people lived longer than now in Russia

Answer 2

Russian life was very disorganised in 1917. The Russians were having a bad time in the First World War, starvation was widespread. There were two revolutions in Russia in 1917, the first, in February, overthrew the Czar (Emperor) and established the mildly socialist government of Kerensky, the second, in November, turned the whole state upside down and established Communism under Lenin.

Answer 3

For the vast majority of the population, life was a struggle, as wages were not high enough for a decent standard of living. And there was no democracy, and people had little control over their lives. The same as under all forms of capitalism (the USSR was state capitalist).

Answer 4

Hi i do not know this answer u might want to try and use wikipedia. Sincerely Anonymous