Our first car in Moscow, the USSR (the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics = the Soviet Union = Country of Matured Socialism = The Country of practically built Communism).
This story is kind of continuation of previous car story. I am almost sure it was 1970. I am sitting in my first new car on the government store lot and I have already gotten permission to drive out. First thing first – I have to take the car home. It was a winter day and the store was at least 1 1/2 hour drive from our apartment. The weather was good – kind of cold but no falling snow. After I was out of the gate it took some driving time for me to figure out, that the fuel tank was almost empty. When I understood it, I was frightened, turned on a small cross street and stopped. I started thinking about zapravka-“gas station”. I knew that there was a generic gas station problem in Moscow all the time. Bad part of the story was, that I was sitting in the car and I could not recall if I have ever seen any public gas station in Moscow. There were not many private cars in Moscow at that time. I was sure that there are public stations but I did not know even if there were any stations in Moscow, where I can buy benzene-“gas” for my car.
I have decided to stop a taxi and talk to the driver. It took some time to find a taxi. I asked the driver to show me the way to the closest gas station. I offered to pay him for his help. He said that taxi drivers in Moscow fill tanks only in their garages and he does not know, where the closest public gas station is. I asked him, what I should do in my situation. He advised me to forget gas station, go on a road, stop any government dump truck or an army truck and buy gas from a driver. I thanked him very much and lift my hand to the first dump truck. The truck stopped, the driver agreed to sell gas and asked, where my gas canister is. I told him that I do not yet have a canister. He pulled a canister and a hose from the truck cabin, sank one end of the hose in his truck’s tank, sucked other end of the hose, sank it in the canister and filled it up. He said that it is about 20 liters (I am not sure that I remember correct number) of gas and he can sell me canister together with gas. I agreed and have bought the canister together with gas. Later I found out, that the price, he charged me for gas, was less that official price at a gas station. He suggested to empty my canister in the car tank and he will fill it again. He also advised me to have two filled canisters in the car trunk all the time, since most of the time public gas stations are out of gas; and when one canister is empty I should ASAP find a gas station with gas or a truck to fill the canister. Before he was gone the truck driver told me “if you do not develop reliable approach to keep two canisters filled all the time you will not be able to use your car”. I followed this advice all years I had a car in Matured Socialist/Communist Soviet Union. Later I found out, that, if a station in Moscow or on any outside road did not have a gas, then there always stayed one or two trucks close by, whose drivers were ready to fill my canister. However, when we traveled on vacations outside of Moscow, there were no stations for several hundred kilometers and, if a station happened to appear, it always was out of gas. On a vacation, the only way, I knew, was to stop my car, stay on the road side with hand lifted to any dump or army truck. And sooner or later I had a filled canister. This is how any Matured Socialist/Communist country deficit economy works.
Finally I came to our apartment building. My wife and parents-in-laws looked at the car with disbelief. It was late and dark and my father-in-law asked me, where I will park the car for the night. All of us knew, that I could not keep the car near the apartment house for the night, since we have heard horror stories about cars disappeared or completely vandalized during a night. Socialist/communist propaganda starting from kindergarten to school, colleges and universities taught every child to envy and hate any person, who has more than you have. It was usually the main theme daily in newspapers, radio and TV stations. To understand how socialist and communist propaganda works is relatively easy in today’s United States. It is very much the same as daily publications in any American left liberal newspaper, blog or TV station about “fair” wealth distribution from people, who have money to people, who do not have enough money. Propaganda machine does not mention that to have more money people should work hard and longer hours. They usually say that those extra money are gotten wrong way, in other words by robbing other people. Thereby they repeat one of the most famous Lenin’s slogans Grab’ Nagrablennoe – “rob people who has money since they have gotten their money by robbing others”. Lenin put this slogan forward in 1917 to capture power in Russia. In 1917 coup and during following civil war this slogan resulted in distraction and burning to the ground by mob more than 70% of good houses in Russia and murdering millions hard working middle class peoples and their families including small children. A reader may remember behavior of “occupy anything” people a couple years ago in many USA cities. Majority of those “occupiers” never worked and answering to TV or radio interviewers they said that they are ready to start working only, if their starting salary/wage will be more than $80K. They were peeing and soiling right near the tents, where they slept during just another occupation. “Occupiers”, exactly as any socialist/communist, sincerely believe that everybody, who does not agree with them, should be beaten, jailed and killed. Those ideas of “occupiers” do not belong to them; they are slightly modified versions of another famous Lenin’s slogan “Anybody, who is not with us, is against us.” Any serious student of life in former USSR, China, East Germany, Cambodia, East European countries, etc. and today’s North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela and other Matured socialist and communist countries or a today’s visitors of those countries will be surprised how much American left liberal propaganda repeats propaganda of those socialist/communist countries. In my opinion socialist/communist propaganda was one of the main reasons of high level of crime in all those countries and especially in Matured Socialist/Communist USSR.
In previous paragraph I slightly digressed from main line of my “funny” story. Let me return to it. In short, I could not keep my car near our apartment house even for one night. Next option was to find any government parking (there were no private parkings in the USSR), which will agree to take my money and let my car to stay on its lot. I do not think I ever heard about a closed parking in Moscow. And the closest open parking was on a small open lot near VDNKh (Exhibition of National Economic Achievements). I drove to parking, parked my car and walked to the bus stop to return home. Together with walking from the car to the bus stop, waiting for a bus and walking from the bus stop to the apartment, return time was usually about 30 min in good weather and more in bad weather, especially during winter. Obviously there were other problems in cold and/or snowy days - cleaning car from snow and start a cold car at low temperature. But that is from another “funny” story.
B.V. October 2015
This story is kind of continuation of previous car story. I am almost sure it was 1970. I am sitting in my first new car on the government store lot and I have already gotten permission to drive out. First thing first – I have to take the car home. It was a winter day and the store was at least 1 1/2 hour drive from our apartment. The weather was good – kind of cold but no falling snow. After I was out of the gate it took some driving time for me to figure out, that the fuel tank was almost empty. When I understood it, I was frightened, turned on a small cross street and stopped. I started thinking about zapravka-“gas station”. I knew that there was a generic gas station problem in Moscow all the time. Bad part of the story was, that I was sitting in the car and I could not recall if I have ever seen any public gas station in Moscow. There were not many private cars in Moscow at that time. I was sure that there are public stations but I did not know even if there were any stations in Moscow, where I can buy benzene-“gas” for my car.
I have decided to stop a taxi and talk to the driver. It took some time to find a taxi. I asked the driver to show me the way to the closest gas station. I offered to pay him for his help. He said that taxi drivers in Moscow fill tanks only in their garages and he does not know, where the closest public gas station is. I asked him, what I should do in my situation. He advised me to forget gas station, go on a road, stop any government dump truck or an army truck and buy gas from a driver. I thanked him very much and lift my hand to the first dump truck. The truck stopped, the driver agreed to sell gas and asked, where my gas canister is. I told him that I do not yet have a canister. He pulled a canister and a hose from the truck cabin, sank one end of the hose in his truck’s tank, sucked other end of the hose, sank it in the canister and filled it up. He said that it is about 20 liters (I am not sure that I remember correct number) of gas and he can sell me canister together with gas. I agreed and have bought the canister together with gas. Later I found out, that the price, he charged me for gas, was less that official price at a gas station. He suggested to empty my canister in the car tank and he will fill it again. He also advised me to have two filled canisters in the car trunk all the time, since most of the time public gas stations are out of gas; and when one canister is empty I should ASAP find a gas station with gas or a truck to fill the canister. Before he was gone the truck driver told me “if you do not develop reliable approach to keep two canisters filled all the time you will not be able to use your car”. I followed this advice all years I had a car in Matured Socialist/Communist Soviet Union. Later I found out, that, if a station in Moscow or on any outside road did not have a gas, then there always stayed one or two trucks close by, whose drivers were ready to fill my canister. However, when we traveled on vacations outside of Moscow, there were no stations for several hundred kilometers and, if a station happened to appear, it always was out of gas. On a vacation, the only way, I knew, was to stop my car, stay on the road side with hand lifted to any dump or army truck. And sooner or later I had a filled canister. This is how any Matured Socialist/Communist country deficit economy works.
Finally I came to our apartment building. My wife and parents-in-laws looked at the car with disbelief. It was late and dark and my father-in-law asked me, where I will park the car for the night. All of us knew, that I could not keep the car near the apartment house for the night, since we have heard horror stories about cars disappeared or completely vandalized during a night. Socialist/communist propaganda starting from kindergarten to school, colleges and universities taught every child to envy and hate any person, who has more than you have. It was usually the main theme daily in newspapers, radio and TV stations. To understand how socialist and communist propaganda works is relatively easy in today’s United States. It is very much the same as daily publications in any American left liberal newspaper, blog or TV station about “fair” wealth distribution from people, who have money to people, who do not have enough money. Propaganda machine does not mention that to have more money people should work hard and longer hours. They usually say that those extra money are gotten wrong way, in other words by robbing other people. Thereby they repeat one of the most famous Lenin’s slogans Grab’ Nagrablennoe – “rob people who has money since they have gotten their money by robbing others”. Lenin put this slogan forward in 1917 to capture power in Russia. In 1917 coup and during following civil war this slogan resulted in distraction and burning to the ground by mob more than 70% of good houses in Russia and murdering millions hard working middle class peoples and their families including small children. A reader may remember behavior of “occupy anything” people a couple years ago in many USA cities. Majority of those “occupiers” never worked and answering to TV or radio interviewers they said that they are ready to start working only, if their starting salary/wage will be more than $80K. They were peeing and soiling right near the tents, where they slept during just another occupation. “Occupiers”, exactly as any socialist/communist, sincerely believe that everybody, who does not agree with them, should be beaten, jailed and killed. Those ideas of “occupiers” do not belong to them; they are slightly modified versions of another famous Lenin’s slogan “Anybody, who is not with us, is against us.” Any serious student of life in former USSR, China, East Germany, Cambodia, East European countries, etc. and today’s North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela and other Matured socialist and communist countries or a today’s visitors of those countries will be surprised how much American left liberal propaganda repeats propaganda of those socialist/communist countries. In my opinion socialist/communist propaganda was one of the main reasons of high level of crime in all those countries and especially in Matured Socialist/Communist USSR.
In previous paragraph I slightly digressed from main line of my “funny” story. Let me return to it. In short, I could not keep my car near our apartment house even for one night. Next option was to find any government parking (there were no private parkings in the USSR), which will agree to take my money and let my car to stay on its lot. I do not think I ever heard about a closed parking in Moscow. And the closest open parking was on a small open lot near VDNKh (Exhibition of National Economic Achievements). I drove to parking, parked my car and walked to the bus stop to return home. Together with walking from the car to the bus stop, waiting for a bus and walking from the bus stop to the apartment, return time was usually about 30 min in good weather and more in bad weather, especially during winter. Obviously there were other problems in cold and/or snowy days - cleaning car from snow and start a cold car at low temperature. But that is from another “funny” story.
B.V. October 2015
