We moved into the khrushchoba in the summer of 1962. That khrushchoba house still stands there and I think a few old-timers still live there. It is located right opposite Glory Park in Kiev, where the obelisk to the Unknown Soldier stands. At that time the park was very cosy, “homelike,” and in their free time the inhabitants of our house could walk in the park.
I remember one propaganda stand that stood at a side entrance to this park. Now they have put a little monument there of an exhausted hungry girl… so on this stand a diagram was drawn of the planned growth of the well-being of a Soviet family, starting from 1961–1962 and ending (graphically a family of three was drawn) ….. with 1980, the complete building of communist society!
And every time I went to walk in this park, I “ran into” this stand and “noted” in my child’s head: Aha! In 20 years communism will come! And I will live in communism! What that was, of course, I did not know. Once I asked Papa “what does that mean?” I think I caught him “off guard.” He began with the fact that under communism there will be no money and we will be able to go into a shop and take what we wish. “Hmm,” I thought. “Like that? Everything and a lot?” I asked Papa. (then the shops had half-empty shelves) “Well, why ‘a lot’? You will be able to take what you really need.” Of course in 1980 communism did not come, but instead I gave birth to a son!
To be continued…