XPost: soc.culture.baltics, soc.culture.czecho-slovak, soc.culture.russian
XPost: soc.culture.nordic, soc.culture.baltics
From: holman@mappi.helsinki.fi
In article , James A. Donald
wrote:
> Eugene Holman:
> > rubles have been around long before socialism, and the
> > ruble today is a strong and fully convertible currency
> > that has nothing whatsoever to do with socialism.
>
> "Ruble" symbolizes pretend money, unconvertible into
> goods,
This is nonsense. The ruble was a strong currency inside the USSR and was
convertible to the goods and services that were on sale there. I spent a
month in Moscow in 1983 on a 200 ruble research grant and could live like
a prince on that money, considering that the average salary at the time
was about 120 rubles. The problem was that when buying most things for
rubles, you had to deal with the complexities of socialist commercial
transactions. This is what you had to do to buy a 1 kg. of potatoes, 1 kg.
of onions, 1 loaf of bread, nd 250 grams of sausage.
First you had to find the vegetables shop. You stood in line outside for
half an hour to get in. Then you had to find the potatoes section. You
stood in line for ten minutes to place your order, wre given a receipt to
pay at cash register no. 4, stood in line there for ten minutes, then went
back to the potates section to stand n line again to exchange your recepit
for payment for the potatoes. Then you had to go through the same process
at the onions section. Then you had to find a bread shop, stand in line
once again, first to get in, then to order, then to pay, and then to
receive your purchase. Then you had to find a meat stroe, and repeat the
process yet again to get your sausage. This was in Moscow, the showplace.
There were two alternatives available. The legal one was to purchase your
groceries at one of the many outdoor markets. There you had the luxury of
being able to pick the potatoes, onions, and sausage that you wanted, not
what the clerk selected. Prices were about five times higher than at the
stand-in-line shops. The illegal one (for Soviet citizens, not for me as a
foreigner) was to shop at one of the discretely hidden and well-appointed
supermarkets that were comparable to anything in the West, had their
prices in roubles, but accepted only Western currencies at the official
exchange rate which, at that time, was 1 ruble = $1.60. On the black
market rubles could be exchanged at 1 ruble = $0.40, but making such a
transaction could get you into serious trouble if you were caught...
Instead of buying your own groceries you could eat out, but many of
Moscow's nicer eateries were closed for an hour at lunchtime so that their
waiters and cooks could have lunch. So do things go when there is no
profit motive.
> much as "Finland" symbolizes submission to a
> hostile power,
Maybe in your world. As the recent tragic events in Georgia show, small
countries living on the vicinity of Russia have to figure out strategies
for managing the relationship if they are to survive. Georgia is more
closely aligned with the West than neutral Finland was when it was first
attacked by the USSR in 1939. Yet, there is nothing that the West can
offer but words.
Finland figured out a way to manage its relationship with the USSR, retain
its dignity, and prosper. The price was discretion and erring on the side
of caution in controversial dealings with its giant, irascible, but quite
generous and exploitable neighbor.
> and "Peso" symbolizes inflation. I don't
> think that pesos are suffering unusual inflation today,
> but people still use "peso" in that sense.
People still say "sound as a dollar"...
Regards,
Eugene Holman
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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