Well in the west the propagand is the old KGB is now the organized crime of Russia, and while there is and has probably always been organized crime in North America, most people are not involved. However, for those that are it would be called brutal.
However, as far as monetary compensation, the government doesn't pay exceptional contracts at any time (except for hidden expense claims), so not surprising if Tretiak and Larionov weren't well paid. Go back in time though NHL players didn't make enough money during the season and had to have summer jobs.
Times change, and thanks to organizing the NHL players now make plenty. Free market has forced other leagues around the world to follow suit.
Very much agree with your "compesation statements", the professional athletes of the 1970s-1990s weren't THAT much more above the rest. Most just received "special treatment" and were celebrated as national heros, so even though they would not have become millionares, their lifestyles were often MUCH better than the average doctors or scientist because they had first dibs on vacationing on the black sea resorts in the summer time, mountains in the winter, etc.
With regards to organized crime, it really blew up post 1991 and yes many ex-KGB folks involved but also a ton of opportunists who were in charge of lets say an oil refinary or a lumber mill. They found ways to "purchase" these assests from the government and become virtually instantly rich (often through violence).
The thing with organized crime though is that generally it doesn't affect regular citizens and if often MUCH less traumatic to society that gangs and drug cartels. I work in a related field now here in Canada so speaking from experience.
The fist unclenched somewhat past Andropov. Chernenko was mild and he was very sick and passed fairly quickly. I remember being in a shoe store when they announced his death with my mother. One of the cashiers started crying. Gorbachev was all about carving his name in history, a lot of reforms and lifting of the iron curtain.
Agreed, i have read about Andropov and Chernenko. My dad has relatively positive things to say. Similarly, most people probably wouldn't realize, but many people loved Lenin. Right up until he died he was very concerned about Stalin coming into power because Stalin's views were very much against what Lenin had hoped for.
Anyway, can get really political quickly hehe...
While I appreciate the first hand account, I cannot agree with it.
The Soviet Union may not have been as bad as it was from the 1920's on through to the 1960's, but it was still a totalitarian state. Citizens were not entitled to a public or private life, the KGB was active and as brutal as ever, dissent was put down with violence, a Russification policy was still being pursued, and most relevant to the topic at hand, wages were insignificant.
The average citizen had difficulty putting food on their table. It is outrageous to compare what Soviet hockey players earned under such a disgusting regime to NHL players who, in theory at least, get paid what the market gives them (when the NHL is not trying to artificially drive down wages).
The average citizens were not hunted by the KGB in the 1980s and 90s. I was born and grew up in Kiev, Ukraine. Although it is true that Russian was enforced as the primary language in all parts of the Soviet Union, noone held a gun to your head if you spoke Ukrainian. School was taught in Russian but we still have Ukraining classes every single day and all kids i knew where fluent in both languages.
As i briefly mentioned in my first post, my family WAS NOT anywhere near middle-class...we were pretty dirt poor in comparisson to the rest. Largely because of the fact that both of my parents where nuclear physicist's and got paid by the state institute which wasn't able to pay their staff from time to time. At one point in ~1993-1994 my parents had worked for 6+months without a pay cheque but the institute kept operating and most people kept coming to work because the average person in the USSR was actually a very honest and decent individual (i would have ****ed off a long time ago but my parents are better people
).
Its not to say that there was no propaganda, obviously the Soviets had their spin but my point really is that the Western view on what was going on inside the USSR was also twisted and often based on some biased opinion. The truth is not on either side, its somewhere in the grey middle.
You are right about the wages and really most of my first post was not revelant to hockey (since i am quite annoyed with both NHL and NHLPA), i thought it would be fun to change topics a bit and hopefully some of you believe my account of what occured.
What i have always said to people who i meet here in North America on the subject is that even though there was all kinds of crap that went on in the soviet union and people in satellite states got the short end of the stick most of the time, terrible murders and artificial famines that happened throughout 1920s-1960s...all caused some either political maneuvering or personal greed.....BUT moving into the 1980s and 1990s most of the day-to-day people who lived in the Soviet Union were actually quiete honest and caring for their neighbor many time more so than what we see today in North America. With no way to rely on the state, people relied on each other and life was ok....not brutal as many will try to portray. The brutalities really weren't as frequent as some may want to make you believe.
Alright...back to work lol
he was working first hand on the project, then launched windows before jobs had a chance to launch apples OS. The 5 year project was then scrapped and apple had to start from the beginning. This in turned lead to the apple crash, Steve jobs being fired and starting Pixar, then coming back with the iPod. It's been all up hill from there, but gates back stabbing lead to jobs crash for a small period of time.
Where do you get all this ****?
