A Year With the Soviet People
A YEAR WITH THE SOVIET PEOPLE The following quotations, culled from the Soviet press by the Russian emigre paper Voice of the People, illustrate life. in the USSR last year: "In the town of Kemi...
...In the settlements of Kadzharan, Okhchi and Aralykh (Armenian Republic), one cannot buy milk and milk products, vegetables, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, fresh and dried fruits...
...In the Zvirgzden machine-tractor station, there is no place to eat...
...In the drug stores, there is a shortage of the most common medicines...
...In the town of Sovetskaya Gavan, on the Pacific, it is impossible to find glasses, dishes, overcoats or children's clothing...
...Soviet Trade, July 24...
...There is nothing but vodka and shoe polish...
...In the stores of the district consumers' union of Gauen district (Latvian Republic), matches, salt, tea, chinaware and other goods are unavailable...
...In Irkutsk, one has to stand on line at least half an hour in order to buy a glass of seltzer water or a portion of ice cream...
...Soviet Latvia, June 23, 1956...
...Matches are often unavailable...
...Soviet Trade, July 3, 1956...
...Soviet Latvia, March 3, 1956...
...Soviet Trade, June 28, 1956...
...Trud, July 19, 1956...
...In the Donets Basin, green vegetables are virtually unavailable...
...On most collective farms of the Sverdlovsk district of Dzhambul Province (Kazakh Republic), the mechanics do not get hot food for days at a time...
...Soviet Latvia, May 24, 1956...
...In Kaunas, which has a glass factory, it is impossible to buy glasses and other glassware...
...Leningradshaya Pravda, May 15, 1956...
...There are not enough places in the hospitals, and many patients are refused admittance...
...Soviet Moldavia...
...In the town of Mozhaisk, one cannot buy ordinary buttons, bluing or needles...
...There is no tea at the tea-shop, and when there is one must bring one's own bread...
...September 7, 1956...
...Pravda, April 16, 1956...
...The Faletsh district consumers' union (Moldavian Republic) is overfulfilling the plan for sales turnover by selling vodka, but salt, gasoline, matches, soap, and cheap tobacco and cigarettes are partly unobtainable...
...In the stores and restaurants of Chita, one cannot find fresh fish, poultry, mushrooms, berries or even milk...
...The stores in Novorossiisk do not have cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, or any other vegetables...
...At the collective-farm market in Moscow, fresh pike costs 20 rubles [$5 at the official rate of exchange] and fresh bream 16 rubles per kilogram [2.2 pounds...
...Soviet Latvia, March 31, 1956...
...Soviet Russia, July 5, 1956...
...In the stores of Ulan-Ude, it is very difficult to find bread, flour, meat, butter, vegetables, sugar, gasoline or footwear...
...Kazakhskaya Pravda, July 7, 1956...
...In the stores of the Tyumensk district, it is impossible to obtain milk or meat products...
...In the village of Krestovka (Donets Basin), one cannot buy a piece of soap, a handkerchief, socks, spoons or frying pans...
...Dawn of the East, January 14, 1956...
...Only rarely can one obtain meat, fresh fish, animal fats, children's shoes and woolen fabrics...
...In the collective farms of Kinch-khi (Georgian Republic), one cannot buy soap or gasoline...
...Leningradshaya Pravda, January 1, 1956...
...Soviet Trade, July 7, 1956...
...Water Transport, July 28, 1956...
...1956...
...Kommunist, March 1, 1956...
...Not even radishes are sold...
...in the USSR last year: "In the town of Kemi (Karelo-Finnish Republic), it is impossible to buy tooth paste, tooth brushes, needles, pins, buttons and gasoline...
...Soviet Trade, April 10, 1956...
...In the stores of Petrozavodsk, one cannot find paint, wallpaper, window glass, bleaching agents or lime...
Vol. 40 • March 1957 • No. 12
