Every person who grew up in the Soviet Union has photos like these stashed in their dusty photo albums. Not all Marriage Palaces used to belong to the Czar’s family but any self-respecting city had a place where the new units of society were forged or at least registered under the watchful stare of Jesus Christ Vladimir Illych Lenin.
I used to be better at remembering useless dates, I blame the atrophy of my memory on the iPhone. It’s the iPhone’s fault that I am posting this photo three days late. Vladimir Illyich Lenin died on January 21,1924.
Continuing my previous post about the comparison of the American and the Soviet education systems I will now post a few photos of Stephen Lapekas – Alexei Kutzkov’s American counterpart.
Lapekas became a Navy pilot, then a commercial pilot for TWA; I am told Kutzkov works for the Russian equivalent of the FAA.
Despite the seemingly different education systems in the Soviet Union and the United States, the article didn’t mention that the most important factor was not how the students were educated but how their country utilized their talent and knowledge after the graduation. In the USSR the graduate was likely to be drafted to serve in the military and after eventually graduating from college be assigned a low-paying job anywhere in the country. Most of the intellectual jobs such as engineering, science and medicine were paying less than manual labor to maintain the socialist class hierarchy, where intelligentsia was not considered a class like workers and peasants, but was tolerated as a mid-layer in order to serve the cause of the working class. Therefore, a welder was making more money than a doctor or a scientist with a PhD.
In the end, the quality of life was probably better for the fun-loving American kid, than for his serious Soviet counterpart, whose abilities could not deliver him the material success he deserved.
These photos show how stores used to advertise goods and services but the most interesting thing is prices.
As always all photos are linked to their large versions.
People shopping in an auto parts store in Lebanon, KS. February 1957Sign on window advertising a variety of services available in Kansas City, MO. August 1945Sen. Edward V. Long's law office is maintained in Bowling Green, MO. May 1967Sign on liquor store encouraging customers to buy quantity in Kansas City, MO. August 1945
Nowadays even XO has to pay more than 75 cents for his haircut.
A man waiting in a barber shop for a haircut in Lebanon, KS. February 1957
Carton of cigarettes for $2.25.
Teenage girls drinking milkshakes at a local restaurant in Lebanon, KS. February 1957
Notice – old-timey cereal boxes on the top shelf.
Enos A. Axtell (R), a candidate for office, standing with his family in the grocery store owned by his parents in Kansas City, MO. July 1946A man buying a greeting card from a drugstore in Lebanon, KS. February 1957A man waits for customers at a counter in Lebanon, KS. February 1957Men standing on in front of a local drugstore in Lebanon, KS. February 1957
Sa-Tan-Ic Laxative Compound in the bottom right.
Medicines for sale at a local drugstore in Lebanon, KS. February 1957
