daily life behind the Iron Curtian

[ChrisD(RJ)]

It's amazing for someone who grew up hearing the most hysterical cold 
war propaganda to read these tales from Woj of daily life in Poland 
and from ChrisD of the kids in Komsomol drinking, flirting, and 
listening to Pink Floyd. 
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In the 80s, Depeche Mode was king. On Martin Gore's birthday, which by
coincidence is also Victory Day, they all used to gather around the statue
of Karl Marx across from the Bolshoi (nice statue) with their Gore haircuts.

Western reporting on Russia and the USSR is/was crap. Positively delusional.
I recall one articlle in the WP of the "so much has changed in Russia!"
genre that used as its example teenagers making out in front of a statue of
Lenin, apparently under the impression that teenagers in the Soviet Union
did not make out. You can get away with writing literally anuything about
the Soviet Union. I recollect one guy, who is WRITING A BOOK on Russia,
claim that during communism it was illegal to own dogs and cats. Seriously.