As I mentioned before, my colleagues often ask me about experiences of living in the Soviet Union. Not very often, but once in a while they would shoot a ‘blunt’ question, something like this:
“Was it the state in the Soviet Union that used to make decisions who goes where, and in your example, - whether they had decided that you would go to aviation, or it was your own choice?”
At the first time my reaction was just a good burst of ‘polit-incorrect’ laughter. It is a common knowledge from the recent history that the Soviet Union wasn’t a ‘Rose Garden’, or ‘Heaven of Freedom’. It was indeed a very authoritarian state. Or you could call it even a ‘totalitarian’ state.
But in fact it was not ‘absolutely totalitarian’, may I put it so.
There’s always been ‘clusters of relative freedom’ in the continuum of the Soviet Union life, and a degree of such a freedom was an intricate equation with quite a few variables. Sorry for this terrible wording, - and if you are satisfied with it right on, we are done with this ’science’.
So, the answer to the question above would be ‘Yes’, and ‘No’.
‘NO’ - nobody ever decided for me, that I would have to go to the aviation.
‘YES’ - once you are IN, - with almost no exception it would be THEM who decide where you go to (to work - in the civilian aviation, to serve - the the Air Force, etc.) .
It was my DREAM - to fly, to be a pilot. It is funny to say, but I was a boy, - exactly like that happy kid from this old Soviet poster, - and I just wanted to be a pilot! And PROPAGANDA had nothing to do with it. Believe it or not.
(”And we’ll be the pilots too!” - a caption on the poster)
May 12th, 2007 at 1:12 am
I believe it! There is something special about flight - it goes beyond propaganda, prestige or money. Most kids who tell you their dream is to be a pilot know nothing of these things.
I know I didn’t!
May 12th, 2007 at 9:19 am
Hi, Colin,
Thank you for visiting this place of ‘testimony and confession’:)
Yes, flying is a sort of OBSESSION, - a ‘natural’ obsession which just quietly sleeps in the spirits of all human beings before the TIME COMES, and it is much stronger and more sustainable than any imaginable effect imposed by any kind of ‘brain wash’.
Oh, do not take this statement seriously:)
Flying is fun,
Cheers,
Clash
June 21st, 2007 at 6:57 pm
You are correct, flying is a passion and I’m the first to admit it. Some guys claim it’s just another job but if you go to their home you see a picture, or model plane or poster of an aircraft on the wall.
The guy next door to me is a great guy in construction but when I go over there’s no pictures or model homes or posters of construction equipment. My accountant doesn’t even have a poster of his calculator! Those are “just jobs”, this thing we do called flying is a passion.
As for Western ideas of Soviet life, lets just say a lot of us grew up with NATO misinformation and propaganda about the East Blok as much as the other way around. For most of us, “The Life of Ivan Donisavitch” & “Fiddler on the Roof” was about all of Russia we really knew.
June 22nd, 2007 at 10:27 pm
Hi, Eric G-man,
This is a good one - about ‘the calculator poster’
I agree, flying profession, - and the whole AFFAIR OF FLYING - from the very beginning of it, and further on - to the first SPUTNIK, first STEP ON THE MOON, involved a great deal of PASSION.
Re: ‘A real life in the SU’: In a number of posts on different topics I’ll try to fill in those ‘gaps’ your propaganda somehow overlooked:) I’ll try to be sincere and honest - but this is going to be my PERSONAL ACCOUNT; so, having said that, I’m taking liberty to get a sort of ‘waiver’; on the other hand - if a ‘judgment error’ is to happen - it will certainly be a ’sincere misjudgment’.
And, about at least one thing you can be sure: there won’t be any kind of PROPAGANDA, or CONTR-PROPAGANDA whatsoever.
So, talk to you,
Clash