Putin in his youth: alone against a crowd of drunken Germans

a reply to: RussianTroll

You mean, only those countries that he can exploit?

When your only friends are NK, Iran and Venezuela, there's a reason for that.

Even China is lukewarm, at best.

So, what do you mean by "the entire civilized world"?

Is the West not civilized? The UK, for example?

a reply to: Oldcarpy2

In Russia, in your case they usually say:
"Victim of propaganda"))))

Regarding civilization: any civilized person in the world simply stands on end at the horrors that are happening in your supposedly “civilized countries.”

originally posted by: ohahhupthera
I spent a bit of time in Poland before the Wall came down and the Soviet Union broke up. It wasn't all that bad. Certainly not as bad as we were programmed to believe.

Yes, the ordinary working-class people didn't have the luxuries that the West had, and some freedoms were curtailed but I found it an ok place to settle and most of the people I was introduced to seemed happy enough and made do with what they had. Lovely people who would cook you there last and make you feel welcome.

I'll tell you what. No gangs were loitering around the streets day or night. Never seen a crime committed, though I'm sure like everywhere else crimes were committed. The streets were clean and the weather was magical.

The streets were mostly deserted at night. Just some of the young Military lads dressed in civvies who were allowed out of the Barracks for a few hours to play arcade games down in the underpasses.

I used to eat in a couple of nice restaurants (One Chinese) and drink some of the best Vodka and champagne you could get your hands on for like 80p a bottle of 80% proof. Hotels were fine, Mostly tourists and Workers passing through for a few weeks...The prostitutes were obvious.

The nightlife was there but kinda hidden away, You had to know where to look and grease a few palms with some gangster types Just to be on the safe side. I never encountered a problem once they got to know me. I had also the secret Police tail me for about a week until they got bored. lol

If you wanted Coca-cola you would struggle, you had to get up early to join a queue for meat, and once it was gone it was gone until the next delivery was in town.

If you knew the right people you could probably get a Giraffe as a pet never mind Coke as a thirst quencher.

At the weekend a Beer stall would open for a few hours. It was very popular and the Beer would soon run out. Once again a massive queue for the Beers. But if I was anything in my youth I was patient, Patient when it came to Beer queueing time. Supermarkets were kinda empty though by our standards but a lot of people would buy fresh from stalls, small shops, or farms around the city.

Also. Never seen a fat child on the verge of Diabetes the way we have here.

I think my girlfriend at the time's Doctor father was making $25 a month...or maybe that was a week?. It Didn't stop them from doing the things we did. Like a Holiday once a year. Ski in the winter etc. They just didn't piss their money away on crap the way people do these days.

People need to travel more and listen to the Western media less. You might just come to the realisation that the third-world corrupt #hole of a country that they try to portray is your own country.

This is 100% accurate.

I always enjoyed going overseas to Europe and enjoying that aspect and hominess.

Pretty much everyone in the U.S. that has family or connections in Europe, enjoyed this too. And still enjoy it from whatever stills lingers from it.

Waking up, roasting a pig that was just slaughtered in the yard. Stews and Salads later from freshly picked vegetables off the vine.

Pretty much everyone seemed to brew their own booze or make their own wine. Yet you’re walking distance to the center of the town/city.

I remember growing up here in the U.S, and if you were seen roasting a pig in your backyard, it was viewed as either weird/frowned upon, or the few chill laid back families would be excited and curious to join in lol

a reply to: RussianTroll

Like, in Ukraine, for example?

a reply to: Oldcarpy2

Is the West not civilized? The UK, for example?

russia does have the best kamikaze from the 100th floor, swan dive to the street competition in the world for those that cross ol farty. doesn't that count as being a civilized country?

a reply to: BernnieJGato

I believe it's now their national sport?

originally posted by: RussianTroll
a reply to: Creaky

Now the reality is that it is Western countries that are holding Eastern Europe as their hostages and satellites. The difference is that they are now required to sacrifice themselves with complete destruction in the future. During the USSR they flourished and did not die))))

By the way, the “wall” is a purely Western invention. It is Western countries that are currently building walls, real and sanctioned.

No argument, totally agree
Think I would prefer to live in Russian now than many Western countries
But, back then, not a very nice system in control of Russia, even for its own people

Sometimes I wonder if you deny Russian history, gloss over the dark parts

a reply to: BernnieJGato

www.newsbytesapp.com...

The Clinton death count?
Have a read

Democrats stole an election, planned a pandemic the list is nearly endless
Thinking most people don’t look to the US as anything but a corrupt dictatorship who can’t identify its own values or gender
Long way away from its empire now

a reply to: Creaky

hey you ain't tellin me nothing i've always said clintoncide follows people that cross them.
two in the back of the head, found on a park bench, gun and note found in their office is a sure sign someone killed themselves. i for one believe larry nichols when he said they just kill me.

got any thing else.

but i'm not the one making claims about how civilized our government and noble our leaders are when there is more than ample evidence from the time the dirt water river side town became a principality to now, on how evil and corrupt russia /ussr/russian federation leaders have been. using revisionist history.

a reply to: ohahhupthera

I think my girlfriend at the time's Doctor father was making $25 a month...or maybe that was a week?. It Didn't stop them from doing the things we did. Like a Holiday once a year. Ski in the winter etc. They just didn't piss their money away on crap the way people do these days.

The prices were regulated back then by the government. The private business was severely limited when it came to raising prices, this is why poorer people could afford more. The way the government still controls energy prices this day is a reminiscent of this system. Most businesses were also nationalized so there was practically no unemployment. The state tried to give jobs to everyone. The welfare was much more developed than it is now. This was, I think, the bright side of socialism that the state actually cared about the citizens and it's a pity that some retarded liberals are trying to totally dismantle what they mockingly call the "nanny state." The nanny state, as imperfect as it is, is still better than the parasitic state which sucks the citizens' blood (collects tax money) without giving anything in return.

However, each coin has two sides. I don't know when you lived in Poland because it's crucial. During the martial law in the 80s life was actually crappy. People were poor, the economy was on the verge of collapse and it was risky to roam the streets at night because of the night curfew. I was born in 1981 and all I can remember from that time was how my grandmother had to wait nearly the whole day in the queue to buy some meat and I was sitting alone at home freaking out. Another thing I remember was how the pavements' edges were painted white for the 1st of May, the most important Communist holiday.

The rest I got from what my mother said. Before the martial law life wasn't bad. There was no fear of unemployment, the prices were quite low. It was easy to afford going for a holiday, to theaters or restaurants. Life was less stressful, slower than it is today and people seemed to be nicer to each other. And yes, the weather was nice, winters were snowy and frosty, not warm and rainy like today. Still I wouldn't blame capitalism for climate changes.

She also said, like you, that she felt safer coming back home late in the evening as the criminality was low. But guess what. I often come back home late in the evening and I didn't encounter any criminals. I think the crimes happened as often as today, only you didn't have a chance to hear about them in the news. Today the media are free from communist success propaganda but are into sensationalism instead. Every crime, even minor one, gets reported and discussed. Things are exaggerated, there is a lot of fear mongering.

So when it comes to socialism here, it wasn't really 1984 nightmare but it wasn't a paradise either. Personally, I prefer today's world. I just can't picture myself standing long hours in the queue to get some basic stuff. I'm patient but not that much.

a reply to: RussianTroll

I don't know much about Putin's earlier life but from what I managed to check, you've got the story right. Putin's biographers seem to agree that the Dresden incident was a turning point in his life, a kind of breakthrough that shaped his future views as a dictator. Seeing the fall of the empire, his aim from then on was to rebuild it. The sight of angry revolting masses and their power to overthrow the authority determined his future unpardonable attitude to dissidents.

a reply to: ohahhupthera

I know what you are on about with the pay in eastern countries as I have worked with a lot of guys from there and have family members through marriage that come from Russia and Poland .

One workmate was on $ 100 a month in Moscow, he told me that was a good wage , even 20 or so years ago guys from Poland were telling me they were on a dollar a hour back home and that was good money for them , his wife worked full time in a supermarket and made less than $100 a month .

Even now the average salary is 3 to 5 k per annum

a reply to: BernnieJGato

Totally agree

originally posted by: twistedpuppy
a reply to: ohahhupthera

I think my girlfriend at the time's Doctor father was making $25 a month...or maybe that was a week?. It Didn't stop them from doing the things we did. Like a Holiday once a year. Ski in the winter etc. They just didn't piss their money away on crap the way people do these days.

The prices were regulated back then by the government. The private business was severely limited when it came to raising prices, this is why poorer people could afford more. The way the government still controls energy prices this day is a reminiscent of this system. Most businesses were also nationalized so there was practically no unemployment. The state tried to give jobs to everyone. The welfare was much more developed than it is now. This was, I think, the bright side of socialism that the state actually cared about the citizens and it's a pity that some retarded liberals are trying to totally dismantle what they mockingly call the "nanny state." The nanny state, as imperfect as it is, is still better than the parasitic state which sucks the citizens' blood (collects tax money) without giving anything in return.

However, each coin has two sides. I don't know when you lived in Poland because it's crucial. During the martial law in the 80s life was actually crappy. People were poor, the economy was on the verge of collapse and it was risky to roam the streets at night because of the night curfew. I was born in 1981 and all I can remember from that time was how my grandmother had to wait nearly the whole day in the queue to buy some meat and I was sitting alone at home freaking out. Another thing I remember was how the pavements' edges were painted white for the 1st of May, the most important Communist holiday.

The rest I got from what my mother said. Before the martial law life wasn't bad. There was no fear of unemployment, the prices were quite low. It was easy to afford going for a holiday, to theaters or restaurants. Life was less stressful, slower than it is today and people seemed to be nicer to each other. And yes, the weather was nice, winters were snowy and frosty, not warm and rainy like today. Still I wouldn't blame capitalism for climate changes.

She also said, like you, that she felt safer coming back home late in the evening as the criminality was low. But guess what. I often come back home late in the evening and I didn't encounter any criminals. I think the crimes happened as often as today, only you didn't have a chance to hear about them in the news. Today the media are free from communist success propaganda but are into sensationalism instead. Every crime, even minor one, gets reported and discussed. Things are exaggerated, there is a lot of fear mongering.

So when it comes to socialism here, it wasn't really 1984 nightmare but it wasn't a paradise either. Personally, I prefer today's world. I just can't picture myself standing long hours in the queue to get some basic stuff. I'm patient but not that much.

86-87. oh, there was curfew alright, but I chose to ignore it on occasion as I preferred to walk the empty streets.

I was pinned against a wall by a couple of obnoxious policja one evening. Their car mounted the pavement and had me pinned to a music store window. I was looking in the shop window marvelling at the Polish pop stars of the day. An artist named Fresh seemed to be a big hit, think Fat Roy Orbison with a sparkly shirt and Zorro mask on his face.

Anyway, I apologised and explained as best I could where I was coming from and going to, showed my Passport and they let me on my way. They mumbled something in Polish and pointed at their gun. I got the message.

My Girlfriend at the time had some friends on the edge of the city whose house was constructed mainly of doors. They grew Tomatoes and other vegetables on a large plot of Land, Each field was separated by 8' tall Hemp/Cannabis hedgerows. Stuff you couldn't smoke, well you could smoke it but it wasn't pollinated. They called this one guy the Polish Bluesman. I've never heard a guitar player like him. Pretty awesome. He gifted me his guitar at the end of the evening. I couldn't accept. Their hospitality was more than enough.

I miss these people and wonder what happened to them over the years.

a reply to: RussianTroll

they are all really just #s , the lot of them , not leaders of men
they just lead themselves to personal fortune and leave everyone else behind

alright ... I just gotta say ... I thought this would be a cool story about a teen drunken romp at a bar or something. . Interesting read though.