Truth About Soviet Union

In view of many false accusations and lies that capitalist media is trying to instill in the modern society about Soviet Union, I feel my responsibility as a citizen to refute them and to restore the truth about the country of my birth, USSR, which ceased to exist, but will always live in the hearts of the people who experienced life in the Empire of Good.

First of all I want to mention that we did not have homeless people, like we see in the streets and parks of all US cities. For all my 25 years of life in the Soviet Union, I saw only one homeless person. Unlike the United States, where there are 842 000 homeless and 18.4 million empty homes with 22 homes for each homeless person, the Soviet Union took care of their people. There was no foodstamps, as there was no need for them. Everybody was working, and if someone lost his or her job, there was Bureau for Employment, where they always find you some job to do full time, even though it may not match your training.

Second, I want to mention the care about working people and in particular about women. Every mother had a full year of paid vacation for the birth of each child. All medical expenses were paid, because the medical care was free for everybody. A patient was not rushed out of hospital, like in US, but is taken care of if the care is needed as long as it is needed. It is worth to note, that the Soviet Union was first country in a world to legalize abotrion in 1922, something that activists in US are still struggling for.

The 8-hour work day was established in the USSR 4 days after the October Revolution 1917. Comparing to USA, where it was not won until the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Each major factory had it's own dining facility, where people had full square meal with first - some kind of soup or borsch, second - main course, and a compote (fruit drink). All of that costed close to equivalent of one dollar in US money. Workers had an hour for lunch. The whole institutes were working on the standard recipies in order to give the members of the society the most healthy, most nutritious, most tasty food. Today many of the people, living in Russia and Ukraine, regret that they cannot buy such delicious food in the stores anymore in this profit-based capitalist economy.

Education was free in the Soviet Union. From kindergarten to the University, all doors were open to all who want to study. For higher education, there were entry tests. There were entry tests also in the music and art schools. The public libraries were full of books, reading was one of the most popular activity. Results of the international study, made in 1950s, shows that the citizens of USSR spend reading approximately 11 hours per week, which was twice more than the americans, british or french. Many decades in a row Soviet Union was the country with the most printed books in a world. Here is an interesting fact: In the severe winter of 1942 when Leningrad was under blocade, in the time of severe shortage of food and firewood, by the initiative of the city members is being reprinted the book by Nikolay Ostrovsky "How The Steel Was Tempered". The text was typeset in a half-destroyed building, the press is moved by spinning wheels by hand, for the absence of electricity. And the whole edition of 10 thousand copies was sold in two hours.

It is notable, that the moral of this new society, build on collaboration and brotherhood, was in general significantly higher than the moral of the modern capitalism, based on greed. In words of writer Sergei Kremlev,
"In order to understand this correctly, let's start with a question:
Have there ever been such a period and such a society in world history, when all people lived as human beings, lived humanely, compassionately? That is, they lived according to the principles of Freedom, Equality and Fraternity, according to the laws of Kindness, Justice, Reason… Lived without using or humiliating each other but instead becoming better and better, smarter, more friendly to each other, more selfless…
Straight and honest answer for this question - no! There have never been such a society in world history.
Now here is a different question:
Have there ever been such a period in world history, when a lot of people - a whole society, lived not in dreams, but in a political reality, more like humans than any other society before or after that? Has there ever been in the world history such a society which would become more kind and more generous to its members and took care of them, so that its members are more developed, educated and happy?
There is also only one straight and honest answer - yes, there was such a period and there was such a society. This society - the Soviet Union from about the beginning of the 30s to the mid-50s… Even the times of Khrushchev, even the Soviet Union of late Brezhnev were humane and promising examples of social structure and social practice!…
…Capitalism cannot be moral, because the ethics of capitalism is greed, and greed is immoral, so even the most shameless advocate of capitalism has nothing to object.
The moral of socialism is solidarity and cooperation, and cooperation is always moral, and against this also even the most shameless advocate of capitalism has nothing to say."

And just to prove that the socialist economy can be more efficient than the capitalist one, Soviet Union rose up from the poor agrarian country to the level of one of the world's super powers, country that sent the first man into the space - Yuri Gagarin, first woman in space - Valentina Tereshkova, fought and won the war against fascist Germany, helped development of many third-world countries. The whole truth about the Soviet Union cannot be made fit into the space of a single web page, but it must be heard, for the sake of the future generations, which will learn from the lessons of the past and build a new society where there will be no exploitation, no discrimination, but rather collaboration. Society, where democracy both economic and political, freedom and fraternity will blossom in full.