On the methods of theft of meat from the meatballs and sour cream of sour cream I told you, dear readers, in my previous post.
Today we expand horizons and think about how we, the Soviet people, stealing money in other sectors of the economy.
Let’s start with the theoretical justification of the inevitability of massive theft under socialism.
After the nationalization, collectivization and ban private ownership of all property of the Soviet country was owned by party officials. The common man had nothing left except his chains, comrade. Lenin, the father and founder of the Soviet Union was considered an unconditional good.
That is poor, deprived of any property, the proletariat, in accordance with the teachings of the great Lenin correctly saw the historical path of mankind. The bourgeois, i.e. the person with the property, eyes swam away from devouring pineapples and grouse. The peasants, thanks to the private nature of its production, had inclination becomes the petty bourgeoisie. Intellectuals were bourgeois prostitute, pathetic and rotten layer, and not even class.
To improve vision, all the Soviet people have turned to the proletariat has nothing to lose. The bourgeoisie was partially shot, so as not to interfere with the happiness of mankind, partly made the “disenfranchised”, and soon from them there were only vague memories, emalirovannoy theatre and cinema in the charming and sexy shape. The peasants land was taken away and the cow that turned them into rural proletarians. Intellectuals deprived of unearned fees (for example, the limit of remuneration for the invention have been 20 thousand, I think), and they became proletarians of intellectual labor.
Deprived of the right to property, the proletarian educated people, however, in the spirit of “all around national mine all around”. The people readily believed. And tyril, then said “I comunisti” people’s home that could, of course. And opportunities depended largely on the work place.
Workers of Soviet trade
Selling products, sales staff weight wrong buyers, using petty dirty tricks, such as selling wrapping paper for the price of food, small high-speed underweight. The outage, shrinkage, fight, salvage the rot, everything was going in. Saved products brought home and ate. I couldn’t eat were exchanged for manufactured goods.
The sellers of manufactured goods “traded left”, “selling under the counter”. This means the following. Brought to you, for example, Czech shoes. It is clear that Czech shoes is the dream of every Soviet citizen, but in vain – nothing will get except for the boots “goodbye youth” factory “Bolshevichka”. Because you don’t put the import in the commercial space and sell the familiar “black marketeer” or “fartsa”, but a little more expensive. Fartsa sell the goods from Moscow to cities of the USSR, and they sell at the flea markets too much more expensive. Fashionistas have saved money and dressed “out of the market,” meaning cool, as if of the boutiques.
A more sophisticated version of selling through Commission shop. In the system of Commission shops reselling imported goods purchased with checks in the “Beryozka” shops for those who returned from trips abroad, smuggling, introduced by sailors, things stolen from their apartments – which was of course full of crime, and the deficit, zanykal of normal trade.
A particular form of theft was barter. When you “hid” one product in your store and sold it on the “state price” the man who “hid” other items in your store to sell it at “state prices” for you. Since you’ve saved by not buying the shortage on the market at a speculative price, you actually earned on such barter a lot of money.
Soviet workers
It would seem that what is useful can be stolen from the machine building plant? And how to steal from the enterprise regime?
This is what I saw in the pantry of a respected Soviet worker: carbide drills, sandpaper of different varieties, pasta GOI, a set of needle files, including “diamond”, files, bolts and nuts with “silver” – very expensive taps and dies for thread cutting, chisel, wire all, including expensive chrome, pieces of metal are different. You ask why it was necessary? Not all of it could be bought. And he was making at home. Almost all the furniture with his own hands made, jewelry for women made of white wire. By the way, in the sideboard standing turbine blades – instead of elephants.
Car parts – they had been stolen in such quantities that, for example, when there was another shortage of constantly breaking the camshaft for Lada, then they can be bought at any flea market in the country.
In short, from their factories stealing everything that could be useful in the household, did the masses of people. Petty thieves were called “thieves”, they were full of caricatures in the Crocodile, and so on for sale stealing of course not all – it was a recognized crime and “ashamed”, but still a lot.
For example, I have not seen charmig offering bulk chocolate, potyrili at the candy factory. Bought cigarettes in a metre uncut Kolbasina, it is clear, was stale with tobacco factory.
Sausage wrapped around the body and covered by clothing. Thick aunts have the advantage – not so noticeable and less shmonali.
To the crankshaft Muscovite attached the counterweight to the crankshaft on the back opposed to the chest. Top dress coat. You have to go slowly, and try not to swollen eyes and look fresh.
In the car with rubbish from the factory can hide a lot of things. But you need to have familiarity with the chauffeur.
The builders were pinched materials, tools and work clothes for the garden – just took and took. It was quite possible for a few tens of rubles to buy a couple of cubes of concrete from a nearby construction site and some bricks. The bricks are debited to the fight, and the solution in my opinion and is not considered. He froze permanently unused.
The railwaymen. The wagons had no locks. Apparently, not to carry keys. Door they were planirovalos. The railroad could open a tin of the seal, to steal a bit from the cars and sealed as it was. Speaking of salonlarina. Of the sleepers, as we know, make for a wonderful base for greenhouses, foundations for baths and even whole garden. Therefore, sleepers stealing EN masse.
That’s what I was told by one loader, when we were tired they drank Duchess, stolen from a truck that has just unloaded. He worked at a dairy plant, and a fence was a winery. Lunch in the winery through the fence exchanging packets of milk, cheese. We flew back the wine in the rubber container, the container returned. Then he got a job at the winery. Being an alcoholic, drank wine on the spill were nicking his home in the warmers, and once he managed to steal the whole jar, with the help of the driver. Drank together all the time for a whole week, for which he was fired.
Another example of life. The refinery fills gasoline tanks and sends it to a sorting station. Station, finding flow, after the user drives the tank to the alternate path and informs the plant. 60 tons of gasoline flows into a ditch near the plantation and spread to nearby glades – the representatives of the plant can drive through the night. The compilers and drivers of shunting locomotives, seeing this thing, approaching the tank with their keystroke. Soon they drove up to the station bus with the barrels, which are then sold to “traders” – i.e. the owners of private cars, in the garage cooperatives. Since the flow in the tank is a regular thing, gradually, the process of connecting controllers slides, heads the station. Entering into the taste, tanks start to spoil on purpose.
Soviet farmers
The farmers stole everything I could, including manure. It was a top seller among truckers, about 50-100 rubles per car. One day, a drunken impromptu, was in some farm, in the house of a fellow student friends. The next morning when we sobered up, we, six people, fed a wonderful lunch – salad with chicken, noodles with chicken giblets, fried chicken. “And where do you think it works?” proudly asked the father of the man. “On the farm!” – has guessed we.
Village men sawed wood for huts in the grounds of the local timber industry. Tyril boards at a local sawmill. Cucumbers I once stole with the village boys. Once stealing sunflowers in the Crimea, trunk full Cossacks loaded. Once stolen corn because they cooked and ate it. I was a child. But remember that not considered theft in the state farm fields crime. The crime was to steal the private garden. I also once did was steal apples. But here the motive was hooliganism, we knew what we were criminals, it was opened.
Drivers
The drivers were stealing what was taken – a few apples, if vodka, then a bottle from the machine, according to the norms of combat. But most importantly – they were stealing time and gasoline using the state machinery for private business. This was called “podrabatyvat”. Try to move to another apartment without a car. But moving service was not. For a tenner-another friend of a friend was able to help you. Drivers personal VOLG was podrabatyvala bablenam, it was called to leucite, leftists, if I’m not mistaken. Taxis were scarce, and they have, moreover, been a lot cheaper.
The Sabbat even drivers of electric locomotives, although it is exotic. A couple of times I traveled between the cities in the cab of the second locomotive. The tickets were a deficit, and the extra tenner operators do not interfere.
The taxi drivers were completely criminalized. First, taxi drivers stupidly stole revenue, not including the counter. Secondly, they are by all the laws of the market, paying for repairs, wash the staff of the fleets. Thirdly, tinkering with gasoline and spare parts. They unfastened all around, as needed, including police officers.
The Soviet intelligentsia
You say, do not steal the doctors? My friend’s mom was a doctor, well, and tasty as rubbing alcohol we had drunk, when she wasn’t home!
Teacher here, in my opinion, do not steal – that the school will be stolen?
While staff at the zoo to steal food. Remember, “the lion nedokladyvayut meat”? About meat I’m not gonna lie, but I saw myself as an employee of the fed monkeys with carrots and beets and had a delicious dinner this vinaigrette yourself. To be honest, I can’t blame this stuff, their salary was eighty rubles and higher education and they worked on the enthusiasm.
Designers stealing pencils kohinor, gum and a paperclip, if you do not have access to pilot production. If you’ve had something stolen as all the drill any “real American gold” for jewelry.
But in General, the intelligentsia had fewer opportunities to steal.
When engineers removed the cabbage from farm fields, that drove them to these fields at the factory and taken from the route buses. Fields surrounded spectator, on the way back the buses were stopped and robbed of engineers sacks of cabbage. Two to three head per day was allowed to steal. Thousands of engineers were stealing potatoes, cabbage, carrots from farms which used their slave labor. That was true in the General opinion, and were not condemned even by authorities.
Artisans
Because goods and services are not enough, there were craftsmen who slightly helped the population to fill this deficit. They were nicking at the factories the materials and made something that was better than the Soviet junk, or repaired this stuff, or do the same stuff.
For example, all the electric had come regularly to break down. It is now we got used to the fact that the TV works while you are out of date and we don’t buy new. A Soviet television broke down at least once a year. If you say that my Outlook still works, explain why everywhere were workshops, littered with appliances.
Wait for the TV repair was possible and the month and year – read old Newspapers, “Service life” was so cheesy that it was allowed to criticize without restrictions. So, a certain engineer, steals from his factory of military communication radio with an asterisk and repairs for a small fee, electrical engineering, she works longer.
For those who do not know. Quality components in the production of goods is set by tolerances, for example in percent of the nominal value. The Soviet radio was done on a single conveyor, but the best – i.e., the resistors, for example, where the resistance was close to declared, metilici star and was in the military factories, the next civilian plants, and the worst – in repair and shops of radio components. So home master of the stolen parts could significantly improve the reliability and quality of your amp “Odyssey,” just replacing it “manaki” four of the power transistor.
Craftsman trimmed flimsy and curves of the Soviet doors insulation, which consisted of stolen colour options, technical wool and furniture nails. It’s not sold until the nineties, as I recall. Walk around the old houses – all the doors covered, if not been replaced in the 90s on the iron.
Informals
Aerobatics Soviet theft was to establish the underground production. The fact that in those days did not need the marketing, branding and other tricks to get people to buy. Rubles were not provided with the product, so I bought everything that was even slightly better than the Soviet Rostovskoe shit, and shit Rostovskoe bought too. Informals released additional products from stolen materials, and sold them through criminal and store Manager.
The benefit for this great mind is not required — all you need lay here and there — mismanagement.
(Say, with a planned production in addition to deficit continuing problems of overstocking – Gosplan dictated item, but if boots, stockings went out of fashion, they could release two more years, then sell another four years in the stores to discount stores, and rural stores).
In the 90s I knew a former shadow, that when the USSR made equipment for the oil in their network was part of the Institute, who made the orders and the plant. The scheme is not known to me, but the gist of it is that from the air appeared, for example, bolts, which are then sold to oil companies. In the 90s, they just bought the plant and mismanagement ended. But the beginning of their problems — racketeering, taxes, gaskrise.
Summary
I do not denigrate the multinational Soviet people, and Vice versa. Stealing from each other has always been considered a crime. Not condemned in the people only stealing from the state, which took from citizens and brazenly appropriated the ENTIRE property.
Mass stealing in the Soviet Union, because were not the owners, and all citizens were made a crappy rogue, living on the warrant of gescartera employed on the goszavod, without the right to make money and something to pass on to children, but only with the exciting prospect of successfully save up for my own funeral.
Officials are Directors in fact were the same rogue and a factory or a collective farm was in the drum. Members of the CPSU Central Committee also directed, but to sell something it could not. So use the country purely for showing off, for example, to missiles, to build and to outdo the Americans.
It is understood and Communists, even a term such came up with “mismanagement,” strange, by the way, first shoot all of the owners, and then crying in their absence.
You say that now steal a million times more and you’re right, but how can you force people not to steal, for example, taxes if they lived almost a century in terms of when to steal from the state for a little family was a matter of honor of citizens. Still need a century to wean the population of the former Soviet Union from theft, to begin to consider the state something that should be protected, because it is useful.
By the way, this Soviet relic may explain why the new generation continues to spoil the newly renovated the entrances of their homes. Their is only what is behind the door to the apartment, and the rest – as if the state, i.e., no one’s hostile.
One more thing. To find fault with the Soviet Union – is not necessarily to praise the authoritarian state capitalism. It may instead be due to the fact do not want more neither socialism nor state capitalism in any form.
