My Soviet youth : a memoir of Ukrainian life in the final years of Communism / Irina Rodríguez.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rodríguez, Irina, 1975- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Communism--Social aspects--Ukraine.

Communism.

Ukraine--Biography.

Ukraine.

Ukraine--Social life and customs--20th century.

Rodríguez, Irina, 1975---Childhood and youth.

Rodríguez, Irina.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (226 pages)

Place of Publication:

Jefferson, North Carolina : McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, [2019]

Summary:

""Putting on gas masks and learning how to shoot Kalashnikov rifles in grade school made Soviet children fear possible attack by Cold War enemies. But a more prosaic invasion of Colorado beetles in the 1980s turned out to be a far more real threat to Soviet families. Many had to master farming when the state, near its demise, no longer had the finances to pay salaries. One of the last generation of Soviet teenagers who tasted the political restrictions and propaganda, and the benefits and deficits and of the communist state, the author recalls her early years in a Soviet school, a Young Pioneer inauguration ceremony, work on a collective farm, her family's plot of land and their fights against invasive insects, and her first breaths of post-Soviet freedom, which brought economic havoc and bitter disappointments, along with new hopes."-Provided by publisher"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Propaganda and Life

Teachers

Culture, Entertainment and Censorship

Parties and Holidays

More Celebrations and Home Life

Military Training and Shadows of the War

Community and Town

School Fears

Exams

Joys of Labor at the Soviet Schools

More About School

Living on Land

Extracurricular Activities

Death of a Leader

Healthcare

Bureaucracy

Turn to Democracy

The News

American Afterword.

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-4766-3806-3