(Text of Irina Malenko' s lecture in Tar Isteach, Dublin, April 2002)
I dedicate this text to Jim Monaghan, my friend who believed in me, who took me seriously and who gave me so much inspiration.
1. An ordinary Soviet family: daily life and expectations in the 70s-80s. The way we saw the world (our norms and values)
2. Perestroika through Russian eyes
3. USSR versus the West: pluses and minuses. ___________________________________________________________
An ordinary Soviet family: daily life and expectations.
The way we saw the world (our norms and values).
I come from an ordinary Soviet family, I am only 2nd generation of the so-called "intelligentsia": my both grandparents and their parents and grandparents were all of working class background (metal workers). They lived for many generations in my city that is called Tula, the first big city to the South of Moscow, traditionally well-known for its samovars, pryanik cookies, harmonicas and arms industry that has been developing here since 1712, when Peter the Great has founded the first ever arms factory in Russia here. It is our pride. "Tula has become looking like a rifle itself", says our city s anthem. "The importance of Tula for the Republic is enormous", - said Lenin about our city during the civil war. I am the only child of my parents who are both engineers by profession. It makes me laugh when I here some people saying nowadays that life was "better" under the Tsars. Better? My grandmother's eldest brother had to start working in the factory, with melting hot metal all around him, at the age of 9! And the factory had belonged to the Belgian capitalists. My great- grandmother was a medical worker's daughter, but after his death she had to make her living by serving as a maid for some rich people until she got married. Better? 85% of the population were illiterate! Not to mention their housing conditions which I have experienced for myself - since my grandfather was reluctant to change anything on his house that belonged to his parents: 1 room of 16 sq.m, kitchen, no running water, all the "facilities" outside (yes, it winter too!), and a little plot of land, all for a family with 6 kids*
My life was pretty clear, without any major worries, and all roads in life were open for me when I grew up. It was not a question of whenever you can afford it to go to university - it was simply a matter of you doing your best at school and knowing what you want to become. I had an extremely happy childhood. Not rich or posh or anything like that, but that is not what makes you happy. I had a very loving and caring family around me; I had plenty of interesting books, I have travelled more than any of my friends - every year several times with my mother, all around the USSR, and it was an enormous country! The life was sometimes a bit boring, maybe a bit predictable, but we never knew what it is like to worry about your tomorrow and the future of your children. The usual road in life was kindergarten (or staying with granny, which was a far more preferred by the child and a very convenient option) - school - university (or work, or another types of specialized education first).
The childcare was available for all; it was my preference to stay with granny after being in a kindergarten for sometime, because I was simply not a very social child. It cost my mother about 12 roubles a month to bring me to the kindergarten: all for full 5 days a week, for full working days and with 3 hot meals included. The payment was depending on a woman's wages. The kindergarten was a property of her employer, and he was obliged to provide all his female workers with it. Sometimes there were waiting lists, but nothing major, like in Holland where you had to apply for a place for your child nearly before it was born!
Grannies staying with kids - providing that they were not working anymore - were never a question. It is only in the capitalist countries that people are so selfish that they think about themselves first, and only after that - about their family. For us, it was a perfectly normal thing. A granny and a granddad would love to stay with their grandchildren and to educate them - they wouldn t shout at their children asking for it that they would prefer to spend some time together on a Black Sea Riviera instead. Socialism is all about being unselfish. And we could all get to our own Soviet Riviera, after all! The turn of their kids will come too - when they will become grandparents. We all knew that.
After school you'd have to pass entrance exams for the university. Your average mark from school would be considered, but would never be a decisive factor. All kids, except for kids with special needs who had special schools, had the same program for 10 years of education. 10 years was compulsory for all, between the age of 7 and 17. There was not a question of "early selection" at the age of 11 or any other age - one program for all, point out! It was maybe tough for the not-very-bright ones, but fair. Everybody was given the same chance. And the education, dare I to say, was by its quality far better than any other I came across in Europe and beyond, especially in science, maths, physics and native language. It was REAL education, and I feel extremely privileged that I have received it. I have a feeling that the capitalist system keeps people stupid on purpose. Most people here used to think of their education as the very best, but to me, it is pathetic. They just don't know any other. For instance, most Dutch kids know everything about contraception and how to put a preservative on a cucumber - but can't even show their own country on a map! What kind of education is that?
My experience is that the difference between our educational system and those in the West is in the approach: ours was giving a broad basis of knowledge, a structure on which you could build, brick-by brick, while the Western one (again, I speak out of experience as I had to get another diploma in the West and graduated in Holland again) is a chaotic collection of bits and pieces that might be useful, might be not, but they most certainly to not allow you to see the overall picture. It is much easier to study in the West, even if it is in a foreign for you language, than it was in USSR - but your knowledge at the end is far more superficial, and I think this is being done purposely.
Once you entered university in USSR, you didn't have to worry about how you were going to finance it. The education was totally free of charge. The state was even providing with a grant to live on (sufficient for food and small expenses). The grant depended on your results: if they were excellent, you were getting a bit more, if you failed your exams, you didn't get any, until the next term, and were forced to take a part-time job. To give you an idea of how much the accommodation costs were: the monthly common grant was 40 roubles, the annual rent of a place in a student house - including everything, electricity, water etc! - It was only 24 roubles!
The price you paid for that totally free of charge and high quality education, was that the state was sending you somewhere for 3 years after your graduation, and you were obliged to work these 3 years in this particular place, but after that you were free to go anywhere you wanted to - and the specialists were needed everywhere. In practice, there were always exceptions even from this rule, depending on your personal circumstances.
So, at that stage I thought my life was going to follow the normal for an educated person in USSR course: university - postgraduate course - research work - PhD - working on various books. My dream was to become an anthropologist and to go to Africa. My secret dream was to meet there a new Patrice Lumumba, to make a revolution together - and to become a well-known writer.
In 1984 I entered the prestigious Moscow State Institute for History and Archival Science - to my own surprise, at the first attempt, even though the competition was fierce, with 8 people competing for each available place. The new life, the 5 most interesting and most happy years in my life, have begun. Little did I know that the dark clouds were coming together over my country, my way of life and everything I cared about, and that my life will never be the way I wanted it to be, after that*
full: http://www.marxmail.org/ussr.htm