Comments by "TotalRookie_LV" (@TotalRookie_LV) on "USHANKA SHOW" channel.

  1. My mom paid around 30 rubles per month to my school in 1980s. School was free, yet breakfast, lunches and dinner were not, it was an "expanded day" boarding school, I did not live there all the time, but returned home each evening. Another 10 or 11 rubles went to my ticket - all kinds of public transport (busses, trolleybusses and trams) in my city, except trains.
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  2. 14:18 - Oh, we rented one of those ZIM-12 fro our wedding! It was expensive, but that's one in a lifetime event, so why not?! Hopefully once in a lifetime. 😆 After all, we still enjoy each others company after 20+ years together.
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  3. I guess in English it's called "the wolf's hour", not "the bull's hour" - the darkest part of the night (around 3am), when there is some tension in the air, when evil spirits reign and death often comes after those, who have reached the end of their lives.
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  4. RAF (Rīgas autobusu fabrika / Рижская автобусная фабрика) stands for "Riga Bus Factory", not "Riga Automotive Factory". And yes, the minivan on photo was made in Riga, however RAF factory was moved (|IRC in late 1960s, maybe in early 1970s) from Riga to Jelgava - a city ~40km to the South-West form Riga. Both parents of my wife worked on that factory from mid-1970s all the way to 1990s. When USSR collapsed and used cars (mostly from Germany) flooded in, RAF buses were no match to Western ones, and by late 1990s factory closed.
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  5. For comparison, our family of three spends around 400-500 Euros per month on food, we buy nuts, meat, salmon (this one only on discount), cheese (currently Camembert is my favourite), vegetables and mushrooms, pastries, sometimes chocolate and ice-cream, and I mean real European chocolate, not just a sugary bar or "stuff" that Americans or Brits would have. I earn around 1140 Euros per months, my wife earns around 950-1000 Euros, as we live in relatively poor (by EU standards) post-Soviet country.
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  6. TBH, my all time favourite novel by Efremov was "Таис Афинская" (Thais of Athens) - a historical fiction, so to speak. However now it might feel like incredibly sexist in some aspects to some, but on the other hand, we can't judge the people, who lived 2,5 millennia ago by modern standards.
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  7. Yeah, that's a well-known Soviet joke, another one Soviet saying is "no matter how much you steal, you will never be able to compensate (Russian word literally means "to return") what has been taken from you" (Сколько не воруй, своего не вернёшь).
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  8. Fuel got siphoned on every stage - from refineries, from storage, on their way to gas stations, from gas stations themselves and then by drivers of state owned companies - shortage of supply spawned a large black market. Besides, why pay, if you can just steal?
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  9. Huh, "Ford" cars very similar to this one were also assembled in Riga, Latvia between 1937 to 1940, branded as "Ford-Vairogs", as it was "Vairogs" factory/ Wonder if the particular car was then nicked, as Soviets occupied Baltic states or maybe it's just a "Ford" from the same era.
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  10. I looked up average monthly salary in my country - around 1114 Euros after taxes, so in 1984 prices of monthly income they would cost: "Volga" x93.79 = 104'482 Euros, WoW, that's definitely a luxury car! Both "Moskvich" x44.48 = 49'217 Euros and "Lada" x42.72 = 47'701 Euros are relatively close, now that's also a good car, like some models of "Lexus", something from German brands or some electric Korean cars. "ZAZ" x33.02 = 36'784 Euros - also not exactly "peoples car" to put it mildly (starting price of BMW series 1 is around 31'000, series 3 start from 39'000), as my in-laws bought a new "Dacia" for only 12'000 Euros a year ago, and they are both retired, never owned a business or something, just simple workers.
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  11. Both parents of my wife worked at RAF plant from 1970s to it's end. Mother in-law has a slight disability and has to attend medical examination each year due to lead accumulation in her body, because, you know, USSR was a country, where "interests of the workers came first", thus work safety was often neglected. Of course their production was no match to second-hand Western busses. For a while they tried to assemble "Gazelle" busses imported as parts kits form Russia, but unlike in Russia, Latvia had no high protectionist import fees, so those were not much more appealing than Ford Transit, VW, Renault, Toyota and others. Besides Russian suppliers had issues of their own, leading to delays, thus they were not reliable partners.
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  12. "Час быка" is not necessarily a criticism on Soviet system, it supposedly addressed issues with Chinese "improper Socialism" (back then relations between USSR and PRC were quite hostile). However, from our perspective all those issues were also quite typical for Soviet system too, especially environmental issues caused by pollution and mindless exploitation of nature.
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