The Refuseniks - Hackdot

Re:The Refuseniks by googamooga on Saturday December 30, 2017 @04:08AM (#16034501)

Nice story, but as somebody who lived in 1982 in the USSR, I should note that there was no first class on flights between Moscow and Leningrad (St.Petersburg), incoming and outgoing international calls did not work in automatic mode - all calls were switched through operator, only Beriozka stores accepted foreign currency, GUM was local currency only.

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Re:The Refuseniks by ikonst on Saturday December 30, 2017 @04:18AM (#16034520)

Yeah, I was somewhat surprised by those. "Classes" on domestic flights in the USSR?! And yeah, GUM was (and still is) a department store for Soviet citizens - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUM_(department_store).

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Re:The Refuseniks by thriftwy on Saturday December 30, 2017 @07:12AM (#16034959)

Actually I won't be surprised about classes, given that railway trains had up to 5 different classes of carriages.

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Re:The Refuseniks by googamooga on Saturday December 30, 2017 @09:03AM (#16035253)

No, long-distance trains had four classes: SV (two beds per cabin), Coupe (four beds per cabin), Platzkart (six beds per cabin) and Sitting (no beds, just benches). This classification goes back to Tzar (pre-revolution) times.

It has nothing to do with air transportation which has been developed in Soviet era, where everebody was equal.

edit: minor mistakes.

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Re:The Refuseniks by thriftwy on Saturday December 30, 2017 @09:18AM (#16035306)

Weren't there also Soft ("мягкий", two posh beds per cabin)?

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Re:The Refuseniks by googamooga on Saturday December 30, 2017 @10:26AM (#16035607)

This is exactly SV ("спальный вагон").

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D0%BF%D0%B0%D0%BB%D1%8C...

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Re:The Refuseniks by thriftwy on Saturday December 30, 2017 @12:19PM (#16036160)

Apparently it's a different thing:

https://www.ozon.travel/help/railway/preparation/trains/

As far as I understand, М has private bathroom but СВ doesn't. It's confusing but I'm sure I saw them sold at different prices.

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Re:The Refuseniks by googamooga on Saturday December 30, 2017 @01:37PM (#16036637)

Are we discussing 1982 or 2017? :-)

There were no bathtubs on the trains in 1980-s in Soviet Union...

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Re:The Refuseniks by vadiml on Saturday December 30, 2017 @06:45AM (#16034873)

He probably does not remember the details. It was long time ago and he was under a lot of stress

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Re:The Refuseniks by pandaman on Saturday December 30, 2017 @04:39AM (#16034562)

Nor were there stuffed potatoes in street kiosks or kvas from wooden barrels.

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Re:The Refuseniks by 4WIW on Sunday December 31, 2017 @02:35AM (#16039789)

I think the author mixed this up with his second visit. Not a big deal IMO.

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Re:The Refuseniks by pandaman on Sunday December 31, 2017 @03:07AM (#16039832)

There never had been kvas from wooden barrels in Moscow in 1982 or after. Kvas was sold from metal trailer tanks like this one: http://mtdata.ru/u22/photo30E5/20831353979-0/original.jpg till 90s and then it was gone (I left in early 2000s though I doubt wooden barrels with a cup on a chain appeared later).

Stuffed potato is not something Russians eat, least something so popular to be sold on the street. So, again, it was not sold in 1982 or later.

Blinchiki is something that could have been possibly sold since Russians do eat them. I've never seen them sold on the street myself but I cannot possibly say it's as ridiculous as stuffed potato.

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Re:The Refuseniks by ta98789878 on Saturday December 30, 2017 @09:21AM (#16035314)

Ah! That seems to explain the name of this store then: http://www.berezkaboston.com/

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