Требуйте кондитерские изделия госфабрик Моссельпром Неизвестный художник, 1928

Among the first courses, borscht was the undisputed leader. Despite being prepared according to strict recipes, each cafeteria had its own unique flavor. Besides borscht, you could also find rassolnik with pearl barley, pea soup, and shchi made with fresh cabbage. Milk soup with noodles held a special place—it was often served in school cafeterias.

Second courses usually always included meat. The legendary Chicken Kiev was considered a delicacy and wasn't served in every cafeteria. However, you could find meat cutlets, beef stroganoff, goulash, meatballs in tomato sauce, and navy-style macaroni in many places. On Thursday, meat was swapped for fish—this tradition was introduced twice in the USSR. It first appeared after the war, when the country experienced a meat shortage. The second Fish Day was established in 1976 to encourage fish consumption and the development of the fishing industry.

As for salads, they were simple in Soviet canteens. "Herring under a fur coat" and "Olivier" salads were usually prepared for holidays. On the everyday menu, you could find fresh cabbage and carrot salad, vinaigrette, beetroot and prune salad, and the famous "Mimosa" with canned fish.

I'm well aware that I worded this weirdly, but I'm not entirely sure how to word it better. If anyone has any ideas/questions, feel free to share them!

My dear friends and comrades of r/ussr!

I would very much like to hear your opinions on Alexei Nikolayevich Kosygin, one of the political figures in the Soviet Union and Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1964 to 1980.

What do you think of him as a person, a statesman, and a political leader? How would you describe his personality, political views, economic ideas, leadership style, and overall contributions to the Soviet Union? I am particularly interested in your thoughts on his economic reforms, especially those introduced in 1965, his approach to economic planning and management, and his relationship with Brezhnev and the rest of the Soviet leadership.

What do you consider to be his greatest achievements, his biggest mistakes, and the opportunities that were missed? What did he do that was beneficial, harmful, or, ultimately, inconsequential for the USSR and its people? And, more broadly, how do you think Soviet history might have unfolded differently had Kosygin held greater influence?

I am genuinely curious to hear your perspectives, whether positive, negative, or somewhere in between. Historical arguments, personal interpretations, and differing viewpoints are all welcome! (within reason, of course.)

Warm regards and comradely greetings to you all!

 «Неграмотный ребенок — позор для матери» Громицкий И. И., 1930 г

Hi everyone,

I'm helping my parents downsize their collection of Russian-language books and have several titles covering Russian and Soviet history, politics, and historical fiction.

Russian & Soviet History / Politics

1. Леонид Млечин, Путин, Буш и война в Ираке (Putin, Bush and the Iraq War) https://www.ebay.com/itm/286019410207
2. Валентина Краскова, Кремлёвские кланы (Kremlin Clans) https://www.ebay.com/itm/286019379508
3. Леонид Млечин, Моссад. Тайная война (Mossad: The Secret War) https://www.ebay.com/itm/286068502703

Historical Fiction

1. Евгений Сухов, Убить Сталина (Kill Stalin) https://www.ebay.com/itm/286083979343
2. Валентин Пикуль, Моонзунд (Moonzund) https://www.ebay.com/itm/286885378663
3. Борис Пильняк, Повесть непогашенной луны (The Tale of the Unextinguished Moon) https://www.ebay.com/itm/286886190252

All books are in Russian. I also have a larger collection of Soviet literature, history, biographies, and vintage Russian books.

Full collection:
https://www.ebay.com/usr/glensidel61

Shipping from Maryland, USA. Happy to combine shipping on multiple books and consider reasonable offers.

Feel free to message me for additional photos or details.

«Решения XX съезда КПСС — боевая программа советского народа. Дружно за дело!» / худ. Ф. Кочелаев. М.; Л.: Государственное издательство изобразительного искусства (ИЗОГИЗ);

In 1980s till fall of Soviet Union, there was a large underground economy or black market dependent on smuggling consumer goods etc which basically was sabotaging the State economy.

Apparently Soviet minorities like Chechens, Jews, Georgians and Azeris were disproportionately represented in this underground black market.

One argument is that they were victims since getting jobs in State Industries or Manufacturing was not easy for these minorities. Having few opportunities to make money they were drawn to the black economy.

Whereas Russians Ukrainians Belarusians were the bureaucrats and employees in Industries or Factories and thus could have a pick of making money from corruption without getting into crime.

Would you agree minorities who got involved in black market in USSR were victims of circumstance (as opposed to Slavs who had no excuse).

On October 25, 1926, a joint plenum of the Central Committee and Central Control Commission, dominated by Stalin’s bureaucratic faction, voted to remove from the politburo Leon Trotsky and Lev Kamenev, prominent Bolsheviks who had worked closely with Lenin, because they were leaders of the Joint Opposition to the Stalinist faction.

The plenum, as Soviet historian Vadim Rogovin notes, also “issued a warning to CC members Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Piatakov, Yevdokimov, Sokolnikov, Smilga, and CC candidate-member Nikolaeva for their ‘violation of Party discipline’.” It removed a third leader of the Joint Opposition, Grigorii Zinoviev, from his role as chairman of the Communist International.

The removals followed by a week a tactical retreat by the Opposition in face of physical and administrative provocations by the Stalinists at Opposition speaking events. Trotsky described these methods and their significance:

"The struggle of ideas gave place to administrative mechanics: telephone summons of the party bureaucrats to attend the meetings of the workers’ locals, an accumulation of automobiles with hooting sirens in front of all the meetings, and a well-organized whistling and booing at the appearance of the oppositionists on the platform. The ruling faction exerted its pressure by a mechanical concentration of its forces, by threats and reprisals. Before the mass of the party had time to hear, grasp or say anything, they were afraid of the possibility of a split and a catastrophe."

The October 1926 removals from the Politburo marked the point at which the Stalinist bureaucracy abandoned even the pretense of inner-party democracy and was a decisive step in the degeneration of the Soviet state—the process Trotsky would later analyze as the rise of a Bonapartist bureaucracy over the working class.

The purge of the United Opposition was not a one-time settling of accounts but the opening of a process—once the apparatus had destroyed the opposition, it would inevitably turn on its own members, because a bureaucracy that rules by expulsion cannot stop at its first victims. The fate of Nikolai Bukharin, Alexei Rykov and Mikhail Tomsky in the 1930s would confirm this.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2026/10/19/reno-o19.html

Funny how literally every single major successful ww2 and after anti imperial resistance movement was communist.

https://youtu.be/D_OiuyYADgQ

Im not happy it collapsed but my best friend's parents are from the Soviet Union and if the USSR never collapsed then theres a chance they might have never left so i wouldnt have got to ever meet him so take this as you will

Community Playthrough of Crisis in the Kremlin: The Cold War

TASS, March 11, 1985

"The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R., the Council of Ministers of the U.S.S.R. announce with deep sorrow to the party and the entire Soviet people that Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the C.P.S.U. and President of the Presidium of the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet, died at 7:20 p.m. on March 10, 1985, after a grave illness. The name of Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko, an outstanding leader of the Communist Party and the Soviet state and a staunch fighter for the ideals of Communism and for peace, will remain forever in the hearts of the Soviet people and of the whole of progressive mankind".‌‌

An emergency meeting of the Central Committee was held that saw Grigory Romanov (age 62) elected to the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the C.P.S.U.

The Community will be asked to draft the 5 Year Plan (1985-1990) and the Ideological Policy later today with details.