The media does a good job at representing Soviet Russia as a gloomy place where the laws are stricter than Saudi Arabia or the UAE. Even those countries manage to have have fun doing the same mundane things westerners do.
I always like to point out that the first woman in space was chosen in part because she had experience parachuting (as the space capsule at that time required you to bail out and parachute down on your own). Where did she get experience parachuting? In an "Aero Club" in Yaroslavl, which she joined while employed as a textile worker.
It's wild how many people straight up think that people never had fun in the Eastern Bloc
The media does a good job at representing Soviet Russia as a gloomy place where the laws are stricter than Saudi Arabia or the UAE. Even those countries manage to have have fun doing the same mundane things westerners do.
I always like to point out that the first woman in space was chosen in part because she had experience parachuting (as the space capsule at that time required you to bail out and parachute down on your own). Where did she get experience parachuting? In an "Aero Club" in Yaroslavl, which she joined while employed as a textile worker.
In the USSR women were forced to parachute out of planes even if what they really wanted to do was work another shift in the textile plant.
People still think that about places like China. The irony is that the USA IS like that for many people who have to work 70+ hours just to live.
Go to
Gulagwork all the time!