You're reading: Many still nostalgic for Soviet Union

Birth of Ukrainian nation an unhappy event for fans of Soviet Union.

Not every Ukrainian celebrated the 20th anniversary of Ukrainian statehood on Aug 24. There are still plenty of people nostalgic for the hammer-and-sickle times, and wish the Soviet Union had stayed intact, according to one survey.

According to the agency Rating poll conducted earlier this year, nearly half of Ukrainians (46 percent) regret the Soviet Union’s dissolution in 1991. Most of them are pensioners whose life had been “objectively better in the Soviet Union,” said Lyudmyla Cherenko from the Kyiv-based Institute of Demography.

“The pensions were not very high, but pensioners could afford food, clothes and even save some money to help their children or go on vacations somewhere,” explained Cherenko. “Healthcare was free of charge in the Soviet Union, and medicine was cheap.”

There are 14 million pensioners in Ukraine, and 90 percent of them receive less then Hr 1,000, according to the institute’s figures. This money barely covers food and utilities for people like Kylyna Soroka, 90.

Children play during a summer camp in this 1937 file photo.

When Independence Day comes, there’s nothing for her to celebrate. The World War II veteran can now hardly walk and talk.

“I’ve been calling on the authorities asking for some help [to assign a nurse], but they just ignore me,” Soroka said on her way to the store. It takes her about an hour to buy bread and milk, though the shop is only some 300 meters from her house.

“I’m lonely and need someone to care for me, but it doesn’t matter to anyone here,” she said.

According to Semen Gluzman, the head of the Association of Psychiatrists of Ukraine, old people are the most likely to feel nostalgic about the Soviet Union.

“Some of them just miss their youth, times when they were healthy and their whole life was ahead of them,” Gluzman said. “Others just feel lost in this new reality; they can’t get used to this new pace of life.”

Petro, 74, is another pensioner reminiscing about the good old days. He refuses to give his last name, being afraid of publicity. He lives with his wife and two sons, and one of them can’t find a job.

“It wasn’t a problem for anyone in the Soviet Union. You got a job the very moment you graduated from the university,” Petro recalled. “And what do we have now? There are no jobs, factories have been closed down, and young healthy people drink in the backyard near my house from dawn till dusk every day.”

People gather to celebrate an opening of a new blast furnace for making steel in the Donetsk-Yurevskom plant in this 1986 file photo.

Petro is also outraged by his small pension (around Hr 900) saying that most of it goes to cover utility bills. He worked as an ambulance driver for more than 30 years.

“The store shelves are filled with products, but what do they matter? Who can afford all that stuff? The average pension in the Soviet Union was about 120-130 rubles; a retiree could afford buying meat, clothes and save some money to go to the seaside. I can only dream about such life,” Petro added.

Cherenko from the Institute of Demography said many pensioners share Petro’s feelings. If they don’t have support from a working family member, they have to rely on food grown in their own gardens.

There are, however, even young people who praise the Soviet times judging from their parents’ memories. Oleksandr Smychnikov, 26, says his mother’s career as a teacher was a lot more stable and successful before independence.

“Today a teacher is nobody. They are not paid enough, so education gets worse and worse each year,” he said, adding that that there is also a lack of hobby and sports clubs for the youth in Ukraine.

“We need more camps and activity groups affordable for all children, not only for those who can afford to pay Hr 3,000-5,000 for two weeks in a summer camp.”
Nevertheless, unlike the old people, Smychnikov wouldn’t want to turn the time back.

“I am just against the critical denial of everything Soviet. We need to borrow all the good, leaving all the mistakes behind. The Soviet Union is never coming back.”

Kyiv Post staff writer Alyona Zhuk can be reached at [email protected]