>>11990749
Famines were a thing in the earlier years (and during WW2), but no, most people were not starving for most of the Soviet Union's existence, in spite of the steadily declining economy. Agriculture wasn't always perfect, but it generally trucked along, and there was foreign trade.
>>11990838
There was that, yeah. The majority of Soviet Russian society was propped up by black market trade, because the official centrally planned economy just was not sufficient to meet people's needs.
People didn't starve, and people often COULD get certain goods they needed or wanted, but often it meant people doing each other favors by trading things they (usually illicitly) acquired, which they themselves didn't maybe need, but which they could trade with someone else who needed to get something they needed.
For instance, foreign cigarettes were regarded highly in Russia and were thus valuable for bartering, if someone visited outside the Iron Curtain, smuggling home western smokes was common.
In Eastern Germany, there were periods of shortages of coffee, something which people had grown accustomed to, and they weren't particularly happy with the substitutes, so trades with relatives and acquaintances in Western Germany to get proper coffee was very common (send a gift, get a gift).
>>11990062
I'm glad he was able to get restitution and recognition for his work eventually, particularly with the deck stacked against him. Timeless game, I've been playing Tetris almost every day this summer, it deserves all of its recognition.
