Russian Lessons: Time Schedule

SHOPPING
 
Concepts of shopping in the old Soviet Union and in the West had very little in 
common. The purpose was certainly the same: 
купить нужные вам товары [ku-
'
pit
' 
'nuzh-n.y-ye vam ta-
'
va-r.y] "to buy the goods which you need". But the processes, 
procedures and final results were so much different... 
In western countries, certainly if you have a sufficient amount of money to 
spend, shopping can be a sheer pleasure for you and your family. In Russia, even if 
you had 
деньги ['dyen'-gi] "money", it could be anything but pleasure. 
First of all, apart from a short period of the Soviet history in 1920-s when Lenin 
announced 
НЭП {новая экономическая политика ['no-va-ya e-ka-na- 'mi-chye-
ska-ya pa-
'
li-ti-ka] "new economic policy"}, it would be difficult to recall any year at all 
when shops were sufficiently stocked. Goods which were not readily available in the 
shops were called 
дефицитные товары [dye-fi-
'
tsit-n.y-ye ta-'va-r.y] "scarce goods". 
Such goods as 
холодильники [kha-la-
'
dil'-ni-ki] "refrigerators" or 
стиральные 
машины [sti-
'
ral'-n.y-ye ma-
'
shi-n.y] "washing machines" nearly always belonged to 
that category. And nearly any item in Russia could become scarce at one stage or 
another. From time to time shortages extended to such basic goods as 
хлеб [khlyep] 
"bread", 
сахар ['sa-khar] "sugar", мука [mu-
v
ka] "flour", 
мыло ['m.y-la] "sоар, яйца 
['yay- tsa] "eggs", 
молоко [ma-la-
'
ko] "milk", 
кофе [
'ko-fye] "coffee", etc. and so on. 

---

233 
Shortages or not, 
очереди [
'o-chye-rye-di] "queues" were in fact an inevitable 
and constant feature of everyday life. The queues still remain one of the most vivid 
recollections of my childhood. 
The year was 1945. The whole world celebrated the historic victory over Hitler's 
Germany and its most powerful ally, Japan. 1945 was also a significant landmark in 
my personal life: I just turned seven and started my first year in school. 
But coming home from school, before I could play with other children outside or 
do my school assignments, I had to go to the shops and buy whatever my mother 
listed in her note to me, prior to leaving for work. Shopping had to be done each day 
because our family (like most other ordinary families in that time) did not have a fridge, 
let alone a car. 
Everywhere were queues, everything was rationed, and sometimes I had to 
spend up to 5 hours just to buy half a kilo of sugar or flour. People in the queues were 
unfriendly and embittered. From time to time they exchanged verbal insults, which in 
turn could easily grow into a nasty fight (people did have their reasons to be angry and 
frustrated: indeed, everyday life was a constant struggle for survival; too much time 
and effort were spent in order to satisfy just the very basic needs, too little space was 
left for happiness). 
Gradually, life improved and the queues got shorter. Still during the Soviet 
years they never disappeared completely. 

---

234 
Obviously, most queues were created by shortages. But even without 
shortages, the queues existed because there were too few shops for too many people, 
and the way these shops organized their work was far from the best. For example, 
each shop usually had two kinds of queues: one