Khrushchev Goes To America
In 1959 Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev visited the USA.
Khrushchev’s visit to Coon Rapids Farm in Iowa forever has changed the Soviet agriculture – upon his return home he insisted that corn is the answer to all of the problems which resulted in corn being planted everywhere from the Arctic Circle to the desert, sometimes when it couldn’t possibly survive. Khrushchev’s name is forever associated with corn in the Russian people’s memory.
Old Photos: Kansas City Gambling
In 1939 Life Magazine published an article “America Gambling: Half of the nation made bets in 1938“. Kansas city was prominently featured as one of the most notorious gambling towns.
Continue reading →Old Photos: Russian Orthodox Easter
According to the original Life Magazine article published in 1952 these photos were taken in the Cathedral of Holy Virgin Protection in New York. In Russian Easter is called “Pascha“; after the all-night vigil the believers declare “Christ is Risen!” and everyone responds “Indeed, He is risen!”.
Russian icon depicting the resurrection. (source)
Sergei Rachmaninov: Liturgy Of St. John Chrysostom, Op. 31httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHmSzN84p6w
Continue reading →Behind The Iron Curtain:Hitching a Ride
Recent post by Scott Adams described his vision for the future of public transportation in the new economy.
Suppose the government enacted laws that made it legal for anyone to be a taxi driver in his own car without a special taxi license. And suppose the income was non-taxable. The result would be cheap taxis and high availability. Every time you wanted to run an errand, and had an extra minute, you could choose to pick up a rider and cut your own driving expense in half. Technology will make it easy to match amateur taxi drivers with riders. And the market would keep prices low.
This is very similar to the system that existed for years (and still alive an well) in the USSR and countries that followed it. In addition to pretty well developed system of public transportation and state-owned taxis, a person could just stand on the street, raise a hand and flag down a private car. Both sides benefited equally: a passenger received a semic0mfortable ride for a price comparable to a cab (general price/distance ratio was common knowledge) and a driver made some extra money without making any extra effort. Some people liked it so much that they made it into a part-time job. Others just picked up passengers on the way home or wherever.
Imagine yourself standing somewhere on the Lenin Street (each city had one of these), you raise your hand and soon one of these beauties stops to pick you up:
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.Soviet Union had its own “Big 3”: GAZ, AutoVAZ, and AZLK; ZAZ in Ukraine produced some of the ugliest and the most unreliable even by the Soviet standards vehicles. Due to the shortage of cars and years-long waiting lists people were happy to get anything with wheels. Sometimes, when at the end of the month autoworkers were rushing to fulfil quotas so they can get their bonus, a lucky buyer would find a bucket of uninstalled parts inside his new vehicle. Despite these cars being 20-30 behind the rest of the automotive world when they came off assembly line, many of them are still on the road closing in on 40 years. Soviet people invented ingenious ways of keeping them going and they turned out relatively easy to fix and maintain.
My current situation does not easily lend itself to carpooling: I don’t always go straight to work and don’t always drive straight home. The other problem is potential emergency situations that happen rarely but still have to be planned for. In this city I don’t have a reasonable way of getting home from work without my personal vehicle, so I would welcome an opportunity to get a ride from someone who is already headed in the same direction. The only issue is that when I was growing up© people getting into a stranger’s car were not afraid to be later found in the woods in a block of concrete; drivers were not generally scared of being robbed, killed or raped. Once I hitchhiked almost 200 miles from where I was stationed in the army to my hometown, changing 5 or 6 cars in the process and never felt any danger; I was wearing my uniform and no one ever asked me for any money. (if some window pops up, just click “return to map”) I don’t know if I would have the same trust now, but if sharing a ride was commonly accepted practice I would probably give it a try.
If you are ever so lucky to get a ride in an old Soviet Car make sure to try this, it will make you instantly popular:
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Soyuz:To Infinity and Beyond
AP released the photos of the Russian rocket Soyuz TMA-14 being prepared for the launch on March 25th (click the photo for more).
Some of you may be old enough to remember the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (coincidentally called “Soyuz-Apollo” in Russian) launched in 1975. Years before the International Space Station Americans and Russians shook hands in space.
I don’t have much recollection of the flight, I was 5 years old, but Soyuz-Apollo became a familiar phrase in Russian and the mission insignia still was around years later.
Trivia:”Soyuz” means “Union” in Russian, as in the Soviet Union.
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