The eternal catchphrase “There is no sex in the USSR” is almost as symbolic of Soviet austerity as clapped out Trabis. Coined during a televised conference between American and USSR audiences in response to a question about sex in the Soviet media, it was quickly hijacked. Of course in reality even the thin walls of hastily constructed shared apartment block flats couldn’t dampen ardours; however sex and Socialism did not overtly mix, and the facts of life went undiscussed on the whole.
Sex was imagined in the USSR as a necessary means of reproducing the labour force. Working mothers for example were exactly that, workers first and then mothers. Mother’s Day was even prohibited in the USSR as a bourgeois relic, although International Women’s Day was celebrated on March 8. Big families were encouraged; there were 454,142 Mother Heroine orders awarded, which celebrated all mothers bearing and raising 10 or more children. It was awarded upon the first birthday of the last child, provided that nine other children (natural or adopted) remained alive. Children who had perished under heroic, military or other respectful circumstances were also counted. These women received special benefits such as free bus rides and cheap or free food.
Sharing a home with parents or parents-in-law whilst waiting for an apartment must have been a bit of a passion killer but ‘leisure intercourse’ certainly was occurring, as standard issue contraceptives of the time testify. Officially they were known as ‘Product No. 2′ (because Product No. 1 was a rubber gas-mask made in the same factory), and were chronically unavailable as they proved profitable black market goods. Data from 1989 seems to prove the short supply of condoms: although women were officially discouraged from having abortions, they were legal and were the chief form of birth control in the country, with an estimated 8 million taking place each year. Abortions were free for working women and cost 2 to 5 rubles for other women, depending on where they lived. Despite their availability, an estimated 15 percent of all abortions in the Soviet Union were illegally performed in private facilities. The approximate ratio of abortions to live births was nearly three to one.
Images courtesy of English Russia.com
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March 29th, 2010 at 6:24 pm
First,Trabi wasn’t a Soviet car.
Second:what the soviet lady said was:There’s no sex in the Soviet Union,there is only love.
But the second part has been “forgotten” i guess…