I remember when my parents first brought home an unknown unit called Volga-8, then I thought it was a spaceship.

Spring has come, and it’s time to visit the country. The first check-in to the summer apartment began with checking the availability of all property and its operability. So that nothing happens or breaks in the winter. It came to checking the washing machine. As expected, nothing broke or damaged it. Washing machine of the USSR It wasn't just for years. It is now passed down from generation to generation as the greatest value and rarity.



I remember very well when the first washing machine appeared in our family. I was just in first grade when my parents brought this unit home. It was called Volga-8. She still lives in my house and does great laundry. I don't know what to do. A stainless steel frame, almost like a spaceship. An engine that can be easily replaced or repaired. And rollers for spinning, which is not very convenient to use.



Mom was just dancing around this washing machine. We had a big laundry day on Saturdays. I was my mom's top laundry assistant. Mom warmed up a large boiler because there was no water heating function in the washing machine. The household soap was rubbed on the grater. Although, I remember, washing powder was already there, but for some reason my mother loved household soap more. Laundry was loaded into the washing machine, I carefully distributed it inside with a special wooden stick. We closed the lid and turned on the wash timer. After washing, the laundry had to be passed through the push-up rollers and thoroughly rinsed.

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A couple of years later, Volga-8 went to her grandmother in the village. And at home there was a new fashion washing machine ZVI. It was with a centrifuge, and there was no need to spin the push-up rollers. However, the water was still not warmed, and my mother still had to pour hot water into it for washing. I thought it was just a leap into the future and the height of engineering and electrical thought. I didn’t know that the first washing machines appeared in 1910 in America, and in our country only 40 years later. It's been a generation since our women stopped washing.



And when semi-automatic cars began to appear in the shops of the USSR in the 80s, the whole West already had them in every house. By the way, the first semi-automatic machines in the USSR were manufactured using Ariston technology. In the 70-ies in Kirov began construction of the plant under the license of the Italian company "Merloni Elettrodomestici". There they began to produce "Vyatki-semi-automatic", which the Soviet industry was so proud of. True, this machine cost almost 500 rubles. For an ordinary worker, the amount is simply cosmic. Yes, and to buy it, it was necessary to bring a certificate from the housing and communal services to the store that the electrical wiring in the house allows you to install such a unit.



With the collapse of the Soviet Union, European equipment began to appear in stores. But factories in the USSR were converted at best, at worst they were closed as unnecessary. Domestic washing machines were no longer necessary. Their cost is 10 times higher than the cost of European. But no longer need to monitor the flood of water in the tank, which is the same and heated to the desired temperature. The washing process has become routine, daily and not at all interesting. Even a cat doesn't watch a rotating drum like that anymore.



And when I come to the country, I start washing things after a long winter. It’s like going back to my childhood, where my mother and I performed a magical ritual of cleansing from dirt, and each wash was a holiday and a special ritual. And somehow warm and cozy becomes on the soul.