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Moscow, Arbat Street, 2009
People who lived through Soviet times are called “Sovok” now. For years they lived under socialism where their life was planned according to schedule, not their schedule, but the schedule dictated by Moscow. Then communism/socialism fell and suddenly the system became capitalism and there was no schedule, no guidance, no big brother doing your thinking for you. Frightening, especially for the older Soviets. For seventy years they’d been taught that to try to make money was evil and now they had to make money or starve!
To read actual accounts of Sovoks read, “Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets” by Svetliana Alexievich.