DOMUS PATRIS
Soviet Life
Learn how to dodge [3:01]
The saying, however, “If you want to live, learn how to dodge” reflects the condition of Soviet society well. Government action wasn’t followed by a reaction, but rather by citizens’ adaptation.
By breaking the traditional family and religion, taking control of children’s education, prying into spouses’ bedrooms and even the minds of people with the system of denunciations, refusing people respect and their basic rights, the government corrupted the country’s population. By paying peanuts for labour, it taught people to steal. The necessity of demonstrating one’s “civic position” and supporting the Party line taught people to be hypocritical.
The monolithic period of repression
In the cities, fear of losing one’s job or drawing the attention of the ORGANS forced people to blend into the masses of other similarly grey and lifeless people. Hiding family tragedies, when loved ones were taken away. Leaving and changing your name in order to save yourself and your children. Repudiating your relatives. The government killed people’s trust, friendship and nobility. Imagine how lonely a person was – a part of the apparently ...
Text of the Trailer
‘Once, on the dance floor, I was, what you would call it, insulted. So right there I got together some of my mates. About twenty-odd of us got together and we caught up the guy in a quiet side-street and beat him up brutally. He fell, I recall, tried to raise himself on his hands, and we started kicking him; even something in his chest juddered. Even now I cannot forget it’
‘…there would not have been such debauchery, immorality, and so on, if ...
Testimonies
-
Elda Veselova
The Fate of the Children [3:04]
-
Kseniya Lyubimova
Not to Forget [2:26]
-
Soviet Families
The war against family [3:14]
-
Archimandrite Nikolai Sokolov
Remember the Past [2:24]
-
Soviet Life
Learn how to dodge [3:01]
-
Valentina Puzik
A Prospective Nun [2:34]