When I was a middle school student in California we had a foreign exchange teacher from Moscow. Helga really laid it on thick. When she got on a roll she'd start yelling at us about how wonderful life was in the Soviet Union. In the USSR everyone was big and strong because everyone when out for sports! Everyone was healthy and well educated because medical care and education were free. Everyone was happy, happy, happy because transportation, food and housing was so inexpensive that everyone could afford two homes one in the city and a second in the country. As far as crimes was concerned forget about it. There was no crime in the Soviet Union, no poverty and no racial hatred. Everything was perfect.

Or so Helga said.

Now you'd think that all us American 7th graders would be dying to get to the USSR anyway possible. The Soviet Union was the place where dreams came true! But the odd thing is none of us wanted to leave California. Strange huh.

Good history for April 1st! That about what was told by Helga about the USSR was similar to the truth, but of course, was not that. The utopia was impractical, such state collapsed...

I watched a great movie about a boy in summer camp in Russia. I guess it's a bit of a classic there. Having grown up in a country with a national health care system, even with all it's shortcomings, is still far better than what passes for healthcare here in the USA. I was chatting with a friend recently who doesn't like his job, was offered his dream job, but because of the lack of health insurance he needs for his children, he is stuck where he is. I find this just incredible in the greatest country in the world!

I was brought up on the Soviet cinema. During existence of the USSR many good children's movies were created. To me those which were removed based on literary works of world classics were especially remembered.

The national health care in the USSR was valid available practically for all. Children spent vacation at free summer camps. All adults were always provided employment on their specialty. Human relations were more benevolent...