uno_yakshi

Doesn't make the war with Ukraine any better.

Not sure how that contradicts anything given that housing had to be built quickly out of necessity. Please do enlighten us all what your solution would’ve been.

Let's start with the basics. This thread's title claim "for USSR goods, quality > quantity". Then you say "plenty of cheap housing". "Plenty of cheap" means "quantity over quality". Hence, you contradict yourself.

there was plenty of communism in USSR

I guess not having a monetary system and an oppressive government are not parts of communism for you. Got you.

repressing capitalist provacateurs like you

I'm more into anracho-communism, thank you. After anarchists and radical socialists were driven out of the country, or sent to labour camps, or just being killed by the 1930-s (if you want "proofs", I have the notes from archives right next to me), I tend to be sceptical towards people praising the USSR system w/o mentioning how many lives it costs (and how big of a negative impact it still is in modern Russia).

USSR had excellent public transit

How's that has anything to do with "quality vs. quantity of goods"?

You do realize I live in modern Russia and I have [alive] relatives who lived in USSR, right?.. So it's strange to read something like "once you learn a bit of history". That's the whole point I disagree with your initial statement about quality vs. quantity. Because I know some.

The whole point was to make stuff "good enough". Not top-notch or something, just "good enough". And it didn't work all the time, of course. I mean even planes were crashing all the time (wiki).

Repairing culture is a good thing, don't get me wrong. I like how they sent the schematics for the TV or a radio set you bought. I got this culture myself from my grandparents. Except for when you need to repair everything all the time: sanitary ware, electronics, automobiles, houses – everything. In a 3-room apartment, we had a huge closet full of repairing tools and small materials. And we weren't nearly as close to handymen or something. The granddad was a lawyer (ex-military-prosecutor). The other granddad was a factory director (or something like that) – he had a room and a garage for those tools and materials.

Do you know what's missing in the article, why people bought a single car at most? Well, one of the reasons is pretty simple: you could become an enemy of the state if you are too rich [publicly]. And I don't say it's good or bad. It's just missing, yet it's an important point.

a lot of cheap housing

It contradicts this thread's title.

Also, there was no communism in USSR. Not sure what are you talking about. The money was still there, the state was there, too. I do remember, however, tons of repression towards everyone who've been saying anything against the party. Starting from the 1920-s, in fact.

Have you ever lived in khrushchyovkas? "Good ol' " door handles weren't working in every place I've been. You had this trouble of setting the right temperature when you are taking a shower – it's always either too hot or too cold. Mold and cockroaches. Had to fix holes in windows frames every winter.

I'm sorry to disappoint you but it wasn't that great as you might think.

Should I mention how Chernobyl went?

and still run great

The Lada is nearly unkillable

I'm not sure we live in the same world but we have jokes about all those "cars" that they need technical maintenance about once in two-three months. I do remember from my childhood how we ended up multiple times not being able to run the engine during semi-cold winter (ca. minus 15-20 degrees). So I have literally 0 ideas what those perfectly manufactured cars you folks talking about.

German and Japanese cars worked pretty well in comparison, though.