United24: It's not what it seemed

Gen Z romanticizes the Soviet Union as “vibey,” forgetting it was a regime of repression, poverty, and silence.

It’s not what it seemed…

The thread below published by United24 on life in the USSR seeks to provide a clearer picture of what it was really like in the USSR under the yoke of the repressive Soviet machine. It is a response and corrective to the trending Gen Z videos that are being disseminated across social media platforms. The Gen Z videos seem to be part of an influence operation, which remains to be investigated in depth.

The Russian influence operation machine targets younger generations through various vehicles: youth conferences, music, art exhibitions, activist networks and more. It is especially active in targeting high school and university students who participate in various associations and movements.

In addition, Russian authorities have trained young Western influencers in journalism camps. The Chinese have been doing this for years as well. Young Western influencers post videos on Telegram and YouTube about their ‘studies’ and great life in Moscow, or travels across the Russian Federation, depicting life in the Russian Federation as exciting and full of cultural gems to discover and appreciate. In doing so, these operations aim to normalise Russian life in the eyes of Western audiences and distract them from the horrific reality of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and repressive measures at home.

Reaching out to the world’s youth isn’t new. In 1920, in a speech at the 3rd All-Russia Congress of The Russian Young Communist League, Lenin talked “on the fundamental tasks of the Young Communist League and, in this connection, on what the youth organisations in a socialist republic should be like in general”. He said this was fundamental to the future because “the youth will be faced with the actual task of creating a communist society.” Hence, Russia has always placed particular attention to the creation of youth organisations, and the indoctrination of their members to ensure the continuation of the regime. That is still the case today. Russian children are subjected to martial rituals and values starting from their first years in school as reported in a foundational investigation by InformNapalm.

The task assigned to the youth of the Soviet Union in Lenin’s speech to build a new society was never accomplished: the Soviet regime was ‘communist’ in name only in the end. What many Gen Zers don’t realise is that the ‘communist’ USSR was a totalist surveilance state, which curtailed all forms of freedom not only in Russia, but across the Soviet Union, resulting in the atomisation of Soviet society, mass deportations, mass incarcerations, and mass killings. It was not as it seemed: it was the exact opposite of everything our younger generations hold sacrosant today.

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Gen Z romanticizes the Soviet Union as “vibey,” forgetting it was a regime of repression, poverty, and silence.

You could be imprisoned for a joke: People were arrested for things as small as telling a political joke, singing a banned song, or owning the wrong book. In a climate of constant surveillance, people reported on each other not out of loyalty, but out of fear.

Over six million people were forcibly deported during Stalin’s repressions (1920s-1950s). Many froze or starved to death in exile or GULAGs (forced labor camps).

You couldn’t wear jeans. Western fashion was banned as “decadent”. People dreamt of Levi’s like gold. To get a pair, you had to smuggle them, bribe customs officials, or buy them on the black market for a month’s salary. And you could go to jail for that. The only alternative? Ugly, low-quality Soviet clothes that all looked the same.

You couldn’t freely talk about sex. Sex wasn’t talked about publicly. There was no sex education, no open discussion of intimacy, no concept of consent, and no space for LGBTQ+ people at all. Queer people were imprisoned, forced into psychiatric institutions, or simply erased.

You would go on a parade while the air was filled with radiation. Mass parades were a Soviet tradition, always mandatory for workers and students on holidays like May 1st, Labor Day. When Chornobyl exploded in 1986, no one was warned. People marched in parades and went about their lives, unaware that they were being poisoned. The government delayed evacuations, silenced scientists, and sacrificed thousands just to protect its image.

You would probably live in communal apartments. It could take 10 or 20 years to get your own flat, if you were lucky. However, it wouldn’t truly be yours; the state could evict you at any time. One wrong word or lost job could cost you your home.

You wouldn’t have access to modern contraception. Abortion was the primary method of birth control. Condoms were difficult to find and of poor quality. Sex education did not exist.

For those who want to rebuild socialism, the USSR isn’t a good example. It collapsed not because of the West, like many believe, but because it was founded on lies, repression, and dysfunction.

As a peasant, you wouldn’t own a passport until year 1974. For more than 50 years prior to that, peasants had been de facto serfs on collective farms since the formation of the USSR. They were automatically enrolled at age 16 and could not leave without a certificate from the collective farm authorities. Those who violated this rule were punished with a fine or prison term.