"The course to accelerate" was announced in 1985 by the head of the country, Mikhail Gorbachev. In newspaper editorials - perestroika, reforms, glasnost. And in the life of Soviet citizens - continuous difficulties. What people did not go to, trying to defeat the deficit, poverty and even the state.
“There were different jokes. For example, “Do you like this book?” - "No, disgusting." And in response: "Well, what are you, damn soft paper." Or "What's your bag?" - "Yes, I got some toilet paper." "From the shop?" “No, from a dry cleaner,” says journalist Galina Ivankina.
Toilet paper was in short supply in the eighties, so citizens who could afford to make a necklace out of it and hang it around their necks were considered lucky. “They gave 2 rolls per hand. I had to bring my whole family with me to get more. They didn’t take my word for it that I have a husband, mom, dad, ”recalls psychic Alena Orlova.
WHAT PEOPLE DID TO AVOID THE LINE
The queue is one of the highlights of the eighties. At the beginning of the decade, they borrowed for an apartment, a car, imported furniture. By the mid-eighties they were behind meat, shoes, alcohol. And by the end of the era, the most necessary things are already in short supply: butter, sugar, flour.
“When you took out 200 grams of butter in the late 80s, you felt like an absolutely happy person. As if you got the opportunity to fly into space. Life was standing in line and trying to find workarounds,” said Olga Sviblova, Honorary Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, art critic.
To get around the queue, they came up with various tricks: from a baby doll to an elementary purchase of a place from pensioners, who created a whole business on this.
“There were divisions of grandmothers who had a lot of time, they were retired and could easily stand in some two-hour queue, and then sell a place in it for three rubles. So they could make an increase in their pension,” said journalist Olga Ivankina.
According to eyewitnesses, because of these grandmothers, it was often impossible to buy anything in a Moscow supermarket. They bought all the goods from 8 to 9 in the morning, and then sold them near the metro for several times more. But one of the most common ways to avoid long lines was to barter.
“When there is a shortage, everything changes for everything. That is, it is not money that decides, but the fact that a ticket to the theater must be exchanged for a coupon for a book. A book for a ticket to the doctor. A ticket to the doctor can be exchanged for a piece of jeans,” Sviblova comments.
In the eighties, special studies in the journals Peasant Woman, Technique-Youth, and Science and Life became commonplace in the 1980s. Citizens have learned to save with ingenuity. For example, Soviet music lovers find that an ordinary pencil fits perfectly into the core of a tape cassette.
“As for rewinding pencils, it’s purely a street thing, because everyone was saving batteries. The batteries were of poor quality, they were not always in stores, and in order for them to last, rewinding, which ate the maximum amount of energy, was done manually, ”said music critic Ilya Legostaev.
“It was difficult to buy batteries. We had advice: if the battery ran out, and it is absolutely necessary for the device to work, punch a hole in it with a nail, you can drop vinegar into this hole, ”added Yury Frolov, head of the department of foreign scientific and technical information in the journal Science and Life.
Keeping things to the last became the golden rule of Soviet ingenuity. And even the garbage needed to find a new use. Citizens saved money by handing over glass containers. It was possible to earn extra money by collecting scrap meta**l. True, more often it was collected by pioneers - for letters and vouchers to the sea. And children's ingenuity worked no worse than that of adults. The delivery of waste paper, which was strongly encouraged by the Soviet government, gained particular popularity.
“An interesting innovation was invented. You hand over from 10 to 30 kg of waste paper, for example, for 1 volume 10, and 3 volumes is 30 kg of waste paper. They put such stamps on your membership card, then you go to the store with this ticket and buy the first volume of Vicomte de Brazhelon for 3 rubles 10 kopecks, for example, ”Galina Ivankina recalled.
"Junk Series" - that's what these books were called. The list includes the most coveted publications: Notes on Sherlock Holmes, The Three Musketeers, stories about Captain Nemo and the amphibian man.
“Waste paper was handed over not far from this store in the yard, in a special house, they brought it all in huge shopping bags, and in winter they brought it on a sled. They were brought either by speculators who sold these coupons for those who are too lazy to collect waste paper, or those who sincerely wanted to get the opportunity to join high art, ”added psychic Alena Orlova.
WHAT THE FASHIONERS WAS IN THE 80S
The choice of cosmetics in the 80s was very modest, but Soviet beauties did not want to lag behind the Western ones and were ready for all tricks for this. For example, there were very few nail polishes, so the New Year's silvery rain, cut with scissors, became a late-term life hack.
“Then you take a colorless varnish, a box of purgen, then it was a common medicine that was in every home. You break a pill, crush it and put it in a bottle of clear varnish. The color is perceived as terrible, bright, like fuchsia. This is how they painted their nails, ”says Anna Stupakova.
“In the 80s, there were various shiny and pearlescent shades, varnishes, etc. in fashion. And since disco sparkles were not produced at all in the USSR, some girls thought of taking a dry silver coin, diluting it in vaseline and putting it all on themselves. And some even without vaseline. This is a very harmful substance,” added Galina Ivankina.
Soviet citizens are themselves chemists, perfumers and stylists. After all, it was not easy to get good cosmetics. And about mascara and eyeliner, whole legends have reached the modern generation.
“We had self-spitting mascara, such Leningrad mascara in a small box, we spit there with a plastic brush. Pour the powder there and smear the eyelashes. And then we carefully unstuck these eyelashes with a needle in front of the mirror, ”recalls Tatyana Gurenova.
“For three of us, the girls and I bought one pencil, cut it into 3 parts, did not sharpen it. A match is taken, the tip is sharpened, the match is thoroughly wetted, and the stylus is first stirred, and with a wet match, smeared with a stylus, you apply arrows, thin, thick - whatever. If you sharpen, firstly, the expense is high - it's expensive”says Alena Stupakova.
Imported items in the eighties were very popular. Foreign labels were even sewn onto the homemade products of Soviet cooperatives in order to convince everyone: this is a real company. Among Soviet women, home-made leggings were a success, because only a few could afford the real ones.
“Not everyone could afford such a luxurious thing as leggings. And what did some girls do? They bought tight tights and cut off the bottom. I remember a girl was walking, it was clear that she cut off her tights, because they were cut off very unevenly. But she was very happy that now she has leggings,” said Ivankina.
The stars of show business also showed ingenuity. They often had to make their own concert costumes. “The first concert costumes were generally made by hand. Some beads taken from my grandmother, disassembled for spare parts. All this was sewn onto costumes. As the late Zhenya Belousov said about his concert: “Here I go out - all in broken Christmas tree decorations.” So it was, I had to stick something on myself and sew it on, ”says the soloist of the Combination group Tatyana Ivanova.
Packages with portraits of Western musicians have gained particular popularity. People bought them from gypsies for three rubles and modernized them for themselves.
“There was a boom at one time when everyone was walking around with these bags. The coolest: a portrait of the bands Abba, Queen. It was super! And what did the people do? To make such a package last longer, they made special durable handles. I strengthened it with adhesive tape, plus they wrapped it in a transparent bag, ”adds Margarita Sukhankina, a former member of the Mirage group.
And if a scarce thing fell into disrepair, then it was still used. “How can you throw away torn tights if you can wear them under trousers! Now no one thinks about it: the thing has become obsolete and it is not necessary to wear it, since today everything is available. Then a thing is a thing! Often it cost much more than the owner himself, ”said psychic Orlova.
Soviet housewives gave spoiled things a second, third, or even fourth life. Near each front door lay a rug woven from scraps of cloth.
HOW PEOPLE WORKED WITH "DRY LAW"
Sobering-up stations, criminal terms for moonshiners and devastating feuilletons in the magazine "Crocodile" - nothing helped in the fight against domestic drunkenness. The state went to extreme measures. In 1985, a powerful anti-alcohol campaign was launched.
“I saw this terrible excitement, when people even took applications for a wedding, they went somewhere stamped to buy a box of vodka. On the other hand, you could come to a restaurant and buy vodka in a teapot. Cognac was poured into Pepsi-Cola - it was a little similar in color. Vodka - in bottles from under mineral water. All this was still in the restaurant,” says singer Kai Metov.
When people collect large volumes for the holidays, an ordinary household siphon is often used in order to give everyone a drink. From a bottle of carbonated vodka, one could quickly get drunk, but they also sobered up from such alcohol quickly.
“If we can talk about meetings, I don't mention cologne. There were different tastes - lily of the valley, iris. Some were less popular. The bottle contained 100 milliliters at 60 degrees. Two colognes could perfectly celebrate the holiday,” said Alexandra Sankova, director of the Moscow Design Museum.
With a snack by the end of the eighties, there were also big problems. Cheese "Druzhba" and sprat in tomato have become festive. And citizens invented red caviar on their own. “They scrolled diced herring, carrots and soft processed cheese through a meat grinder. And the resulting product was considered red caviar. There was quite a tasty and even some kind of fishy aroma and taste, ”Yuri Frolov recalled.
“There was even such a humorous saying: “You are the owner here, not a guest, bring every nail from work.” And these characters brought from work not only nails, but also rolls of chintz, screwdrivers, equipment parts and much more,” Ivankina said.
Nesuns - this is how they called the workers of enterprises that plundered socialist property. Theft at the place of work - both in small things and in a big way - became an all-Union disaster. By the early 1990s, Soviet citizens thought they knew everything about survival. That with such experience they will never be lost and will survive any difficulties. But ahead of them was a complete collapse of the system, hyperinflation, many months of salary delays.
