New Year in the USSR

It is always interesting to remember how we lived our parents and grandparents, and today we decided to see how they were preparing for the Soviet holidays, namely, to the most important and warm, despite the so-called "Russian Winter" holiday - New Year.





C 1918 to 1935 New Year was not an official state holiday, but most families traditionally celebrate it along with Christmas. Thus, in the first decades of the Soviet Union it was considered a holiday rather "family».

For the first time the holiday is officially celebrated until the end of 1936, after an article of a prominent Soviet politician Paul Postysheva in the newspaper "Pravda", here is a little of its passage: "Why do we have schools, orphanages, nurseries, clubs, palaces of Pioneers are deprived of this wonderful pleasure children of workers Soviet countries? Some, none other than the "left" distorters decried it as a bourgeois children's entertainment venture. It is the conviction of the wrong tree, which is great fun for children, to put an end. Komsomol, the pioneer of workers should make a New Year tree for children collective. In schools, children's homes, in the Palace of Pioneers, in the children's clubs, children's films and theaters - all children should be tree! City council, chairmen of regional executive committees, village councils, education authorities should help the Soviet device tree for the children of our great socialist motherland. »

New Year has allowed the state to celebrate, however, remained January 1 working day.



1941, Hall of Columns of the House of Unions.



1942, a group of scouts of the Western Front to celebrate New Year. The samovar is likely alcohol.



The famous photographer Emmanuel Evzerihin imprinted his family at the Christmas tree, 1954.





Only after the war began to really develop the tradition of New Year celebrations in the USSR. Christmas decorations began to appear: at the beginning of a very "modest" - paper, wool and other materials, and later - beautiful, bright, made of glass, and similar to the decoration Christmas trees pre-revolutionary times.



Of course, the toy could not escape the Soviet symbols - the Christmas tree decorated with various red stars, airships and images Pioneers and October.



Ready to party in the Soviet Union had to be ahead of time. First, purchase products - that is, "get", stand in the hour queues to get in grocery orders sprats, eggs, smoked sausage.



Be sure to cook it was Olivier, aspic, jellied fish, carrot and beet salad, herring under a fur coat, open in the summer harvested pickles and tomatoes, which are due to the lack of seasonal vegetables were an integral part of the holiday table.



Those who have had a familiar dealer at the grocery store, could afford to New Year cognac for 4 rubles 12 kopecks, champagne "Soviet" sweet, tangerines.

Ready-made cakes were also deficient, so basically had the furnace itself.



Or a long time to stand in line, like in this photo.



Secondly, it was necessary to ensure the child's ticket for the New Year's tree, gift, costume snowfields of gauze or dress bunny and tangerines. The gift, which included were caramel and apples, and walnuts, provides parents with the trade union. Every kid's dream was to get to the main tree of the country - the first in the Column Hall of the House of Unions, and after 1954 - to the Kremlin Christmas tree.



Vocational school students came to the Kremlin New Year's holiday in national costumes. Even densely crowded staircase! 1955.



Actress Clara Lucko at the Christmas tree, 1968.

Third, every Soviet woman most certainly needed a new fashionable dress is its could sew their own hands or in the studio, in rare cases - to buy from black marketeers; the store was the last place that really was the appropriate occasion to get yourself a new thing.



Christmas gifts - another obstacle to Soviet citizens in the process of preparing for the New Year. With any product in the country was napryazhenka and with beautiful goods it was even worse, so our parents went to visit, taking champagne, sausage, preferably - "Servelat" canned exotic fruits (pineapple), banks with red and black caviar and box of chocolates.

"Nothing paints the woman as hydrogen peroxide." - This thesis became could not be more relevant on the eve of every New Year's celebrations in the Soviet Union. The phrase "beauty salon" did not realize would be the most inveterate fashionista. The hairdressers were recorded in a few weeks, the preparation of hairstyles, makeup and all the "New Year's appearance" demanded from the Soviet women as much time, creativity and independence - sometimes hairstyles made skillful hands girlfriends.





The last stage of preparation - wipe (to fix) television, which, as claimed by the postman Pechkin is "the best decoration New Year's table." "Carnival Night", "Irony of Fate", "New Adventures of Masha and Vitya," "Blue Light", "Frost "- Soviet films, transfer and cartoons in the morning, without which no Soviet citizen could not imagine a festive night.



Source: bigpicture.ru