Vysotsky

[ChrisD(RJ)]

I cannot speak about Russia, but that was not a problem in Poland.  Late
night entertainment was the norm, albeit most of it took place in
private homes (some of which also served as 24/7 "convenience" stores
selling booze) rathr than restaurants which curiously were called
"dancing"  (quite cheesy type of stuff).  Eastern European societies are
very high on informal networks in lieu of formal institutions (e.g.
verbal agreements instead of formal contracts, informal self-help
instead of nonprofit organizations, under the table deals instead of
market transactions, personal conncetions instead of formal application
process, etc.)  - so looking for late night entertainment in public
places could  be quite misleading.

Ditto for books.  You could get any publication (book or record) through
informal  networks.  

I dare to say that an average Pole under state socialism had a far
greater exposure to foreign ideas and publications than an average US-er
in this self-styled bastion of freedom.

Wojtek
----
Same in USSR. The state wouldn't publish Solzhenitsyn (or Freud), but you
could get informally produced copies. Totally legal. The most that would
happen is that, if you were arrested for a crime, they possession of such
texts would be adduced as evidence of an "anti-Soviet" attitude.

Really, Western understanding of really existing socialism is all fucked up.