The life of women in the USSR was significantly different from that of modern Russians. The frequent factors that accompanied it were shortages and shortages of the most necessary goods and products. At the same time, a woman always remains a woman, and therefore in those days everyone dreamed of looking attractive. We will tell how they succeeded, and what they were, Soviet women, in this article.
Soviet beauty
Women in the USSR, even in those days when the real problem was to find good makeup or a new model of dress, still managed to make a marafet. Shadows at that time were replaced by shoe polish, the powder was more like dust, and together with the cosmetic pencil we used the most ordinary.
During the period of total deficit, women of the USSR suffered great inconvenience for the sake of beauty and attractiveness. For example, perms were popular, which adorned the head of almost half of Soviet workers. She looked, frankly, specifically, moreover, it was very harmful to the hair itself. But fashionistas still preferred to sacrifice their health for a stylish hairstyle.
At that time, there was not a wide variety of hair colors, mainly for sale were basma and henna.
Among the perfumes for women of the USSR, photos of which are in this article, the perfumes "Red Moscow" were most valued. And there were practically no other alternatives.
Separately, it is worth mentioning about such a feature of Soviet women as golden teeth. In the USSR, they were not considered a sign of provincialism or bad taste, but immediately showed others that a person has money.
Appearance
Women's underwear in the USSR was not distinguished by sexuality; it was solid, comfortable, but completely shapeless. It is worth recognizing that women should not be blamed for this, they simply didn’t have much choice then, almost the entire country was provided with Belarusian knitwear.
Outerwear was more diverse, but there were not many options either. The mink and astrakhan fur coats of Soviet fashionistas (in retro photos of women in the USSR you can see them well) were very heavy, and the draped coats had a very strange cut.
It was considered special chic to buy boots from Czechoslovakia that served for a long time, although they were not very attractive. On average, for the salary of a Soviet engineer, you could buy Yugoslav boots, which were a real miracle for that time.
Soviet diets
As in our days, women of the times of the USSR wanted to remain slim and fit. But liposuction methods were not known then, powders with diet pills did not exist in the Soviet Union . At that time, everything was much more complicated.
Most importantly, there was no information on diets and healthy nutrition; there was practically no where to get it from. The only way is to transmit some methods by word of mouth, while there was no confidence in their effectiveness and safety. For example, in the 60s apple cider vinegar was popular to maintain a slender body, by the way, some still use it. To do this, vinegar was bred in water or tea, drinking such a mixture in the morning and evening. A certain result could be noticed, but more likely women had gastritis because of it than a slim figure. Epsom salt was added to the sweet tea, which also led not only to weight loss, but also to stomach problems.
Over time, gymnastics began to be very popular, which was initially introduced at enterprises to maintain a good physical condition of the work collective. Many women adopted it at home. Hoops, squats, hula hoops are remembered by many who wanted to lose weight in Soviet times. If you approach this with enthusiasm, then gymnastics gave good results.
There were also enough people who went to extremes, almost starving to earn a thin waist.
Family life
In the USSR, official marriage became very popular after the Great Patriotic War, because there were simply not enough men in the country. Girls often started a family, not really looking at the groom's appearance or affluence.
The widows of the front-line soldiers were especially hard, many of the husbands were officially considered missing, and there were cases when, many years after receiving an official funeral, a soldier returned home. Therefore, many continued to wait for their loved ones, remaining lonely.
It is worth noting that in the Soviet Union it was decided to take seriously the creation of a family. Marriage from selfish ends could easily be condemned. In addition, civil marriage, although it certainly existed, was much less common than now. Living with a man without a stamp in his passport was considered indecent.
A certain role in this was played by the state, which provided assistance to young families, while bachelors and children without children were taxed.
Children in a Soviet family
Perhaps because of this, children in the USSR were more likely to have children than now. Soviet women were much stronger than modern ones dreaming of their family and child. And often the couple was not limited to one child.
Many mothers were many even in the difficult post-war years. Despite all the difficulties, they managed to cope, to bring up healthy and strong boys and girls.
Women's work
In Soviet times, women's physical labor was treated differently than now. After all, during the war and after the victory it was required to help men who were always lacking. When the majority of the stronger sex went to the front, women stood behind the machines to provide the army with shells and ammunition.
It is worth recognizing that this affected their appearance, women began to look ruder, but then, of course, they did not think about it. After the war, it was also difficult, it was necessary to rebuild the destroyed country, rebuild cities, build new factories and enterprises.
Heroes in skirts
The highest award in the USSR - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union - was awarded to women. In total, there were 95 female heroes in the USSR. Only one of them was awarded this title twice.
This is Svetlana Savitskaya - the second female astronaut. She became the first woman in the world to go into outer space. She made her first space flight in 1982. An amazing fact is associated with this flight. According to the French press, the Soviet space industry leaders then admitted that the first attempt in intimacy in space took place on board the Salyut-7 station. It is only unknown who was Savitskaya's alleged partner. Together with her in flight were Alexander Serebrov and Leonid Popov. Officially, this information has not been confirmed, Savitskaya herself bypasses this topic in an interview.
In 1984, she became the first woman to enter outer space.
Valentina Tereshkova
The title of Hero of the Soviet Union is the first woman in the USSR and in the world to go into space, this is Valentina Tereshkova. She is still the only woman on the planet who flew alone.
She went on a space flight on June 16, 1963 on the Vostok-6 spacecraft. Outside of gravity, she spent almost three days, to be precise - 2 days 22 hours and 50 minutes. After this, there were no women in space for many years, not only in the USSR, but also in the rest of the world. The next was Savitskaya after 19 years.
Women criminals
In the Soviet Union, there were not only women heroes, but also those who broke the law. As you know, the death penalty was operating in the USSR, and women were sentenced to capital punishment.
The executions of women in the USSR were not common, but were taking place. There were three of them in all the post-war period.
This is Antonina Makarova, the executioner of the Lokot district during the years of World War II. She acted on the territory of the educated Lokot Republic on the side of the Nazis and Russian collaborators. On her account, about one and a half thousand people shot, the people around her gave her the nickname Tonka the machine gunner.
After the war, she managed to escape, Makarov was arrested only in September 1978. All these years, she lived quietly, started a family, worked in a sewing workshop, even regularly came to the honor board. The court sentenced her to death, in August 1979 the sentence was executed.
Berta Borodkina was the head of the trust of canteens and restaurants in Gelendzhik. According to investigators, she was an industrial speculator on a large scale, nicknamed Iron Bella.
It is believed that for all the time she received goods and money in the amount of about a million rubles. In 1982, she was sentenced to death for bribery and speculation.
The third was Tamara Ivanyutina. She worked as a dishwasher in the dining room of school number 16 in Kiev. In 1987, several students and staff were hospitalized with food poisoning. Two adults died, 9 people were in intensive care.
It turned out that shortly before this a nurse died, who was supposed to control the quality of food. Her death aroused suspicion. During exhumation, traces of the waist were found in the tissues.
During the search, Ivanyutina discovered "Klerichi liquid" - a toxic solution that is used by geologists. It turned out that her family had used it for many years, using it for personal gain and out of personal hostility. In total, nine of her victims were identified. By the decision of the court, Ivanyutin was shot.