Not so much lines for bread but more special items that ran out quickly, the USSR had plenty of bread and sausage coming out of state-owned bakeries on the cheap. Complaints about shortages were about things they mostly had to trade for like sugar, fruit, coffee, chocolate (the Cuban revolution was a godsend for the Soviets in that regard). Even then the lines were for the cheap subsidized versions of those products in the normal grocery stores. most of the time these were still available in special foreign imports stores, but obviously these were more expensive.
And liberals will hold up “fill the shelves with tropical fruit by maintaining impoverished fascist neocolonies in the Caribbean” as the superior system because they do not give a single solitary shit about anyone outside the imperial core.
Also underappreciated is that the worst non-war-related shortages experienced in the USSR happened under Gorbachev and were a direct result of his first privatization reforms.
There were no major shortages prior to Perestroika. There was slower economic growth as a result of the oil crisis of the 1970s, but otherwise the economy of the socialist bloc was doing fine pretty much until the USSR decided to liberalize. They did this primarily for ideological reasons, not material ones. Then everything became severely fucked up and this had downstream effects on other socialist countries, where you had the dual shock of losing the strong economic anchor of the USSR coupled with their own liberalization reforms inspired by the ideological movement for liberal reform that was emanating from the USSR, which then destroyed the basis of their socialist economies. Even countries such as Romania, which did not liberalize and which was doing very well up until the 1980s with some pretty incredible growth, had the rug pulled out from under them when the USSR started wrecking its own economy and abandoning its allies, and this forced Romania to go into austerity to repay IMF loans which in turn created the shortages.
Silly Soviets, lining up for resources that have no business being rare treasures.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to scour up linkedin for any job opportunities and make sure I’m among the first 100 applicants on the first day. You know how competitive the job market is these days!
so many/most/all of those “starvation bread lines” were actually just “people lining up to get the freshest bread lines”?
Not so much lines for bread but more special items that ran out quickly, the USSR had plenty of bread and sausage coming out of state-owned bakeries on the cheap. Complaints about shortages were about things they mostly had to trade for like sugar, fruit, coffee, chocolate (the Cuban revolution was a godsend for the Soviets in that regard). Even then the lines were for the cheap subsidized versions of those products in the normal grocery stores. most of the time these were still available in special foreign imports stores, but obviously these were more expensive.
And liberals will hold up “fill the shelves with tropical fruit by maintaining impoverished fascist neocolonies in the Caribbean” as the superior system because they do not give a single solitary shit about anyone outside the imperial core.
After WW2 at least, yeah.
Also underappreciated is that the worst non-war-related shortages experienced in the USSR happened under Gorbachev and were a direct result of his first privatization reforms.
I thought his privatizations were in response to shortages. Or was it just to get the US off their back?
There were no major shortages prior to Perestroika. There was slower economic growth as a result of the oil crisis of the 1970s, but otherwise the economy of the socialist bloc was doing fine pretty much until the USSR decided to liberalize. They did this primarily for ideological reasons, not material ones. Then everything became severely fucked up and this had downstream effects on other socialist countries, where you had the dual shock of losing the strong economic anchor of the USSR coupled with their own liberalization reforms inspired by the ideological movement for liberal reform that was emanating from the USSR, which then destroyed the basis of their socialist economies. Even countries such as Romania, which did not liberalize and which was doing very well up until the 1980s with some pretty incredible growth, had the rug pulled out from under them when the USSR started wrecking its own economy and abandoning its allies, and this forced Romania to go into austerity to repay IMF loans which in turn created the shortages.
Silly Soviets, lining up for resources that have no business being rare treasures.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to scour up linkedin for any job opportunities and make sure I’m among the first 100 applicants on the first day. You know how competitive the job market is these days!