Цитаты из книги The Russians

"We have a caste system," a senior scientist told me. "Military families intermarry. So do scientific families. Party families, writers' families, theater families. Sons expect their fathers or fathers-in-law to promote their careers through blat and fathers take it equally for granted that they should do this. Others do it. I did it for my son. Why not?"

Blat, as the Russians call influence, is a constant, vital and pervasive factor of Russian life.

Money is an inadequate measure because the benefits enjoyed by the Soviet elite depend on influence, connections, and access that money cannot buy.

They don't say the system is wrong. They want exceptions made for them personally.

The middle-aged people, the people from 30-40 years old and a bit older, are what I call *the genera- tion of hungry children. In their childhood and youth they saw enough hardship for a lifetime. Today, their attitude is, 'Give us food, a roof over our heads, and work, and do whatever you want politically. Give us the material minimum. We won't ask for more.'

One of my own earliest impressions in Moscow was that people were better dressed than I had expected.

The list of scarce items is practically endless. They are not permanently out of stock, but their appearance is unpredictable — toothpaste, towels, axes, locks, vacuum cleaners, kitchen china, hand irons, rugs, spare parts for any gadget from a toaster or a camera to a car, stylish clothes or decent footwear.

Paradoxically, Russians have less money than most Americans but are more instinctively generous with it to friends. People think nothing of borrowing — or loaning — 25, 50 or 100 rubles until the next pay day, if they can spare it — and sometimes even if they can't. For most people, money is less important than a good opportimity to use it.

Although few Western goods are available, even goods from Eastern Europe and Third World countries have a certain snob appeal and Russians will readily pay exorbitant premiums for them even when Soviet goods are adequate.

People want something that is not Soviet — anything, a shirt, a tie, a handbag, any little thing at all. It makes them feel better than other people.