Pictures from the Eastern Bloc in the 80s

University in &#x27;80s Warsaw - a math professor realizes he would make more money if he worked in the docks, so he quits his job and goes working in docks. And truly his first paycheck is double that of a university professor.<p>Party wants to increase education of working class so they offer 10% bonus to those who would visit evening school. So the professor sign up for it.<p>Very first day, the first class is math. But the subject is so simple that professor becomes bored and starts reading book under the desk. Teacher notices that and call him up to calculate area of circle on the blackboard.<p>Professor is taken by surprise and suddenly cannot remember the formula, so in his head he transfers circle to polar coordinates and uses integral to get the formula and starts writing on the blackboard: -πr²<p>Then he scratches his head and start thinking where the minus came from when suddenly from the back row someone shouts: flip the interval of integration, colleague.

Damn, those pictures really show my childhood (I&#x27;m born 1978 in Silesia which then already was part of Poland).<p>I was on a used car marked like that with my dad, my parents had the same car as those people with the pigs in the car, my grandma had the same cupboard as the boys rearing chicks, I lived in one of the panel house like in the picture of the Moscow suburb, my aunt was a egg saleswoman, my dad worked in a coalmine, the church was present constantly in all parts of our lives, my mum worked at one of those car factories, etc. ...

It seems the pictures are mostly from Poland. For more perspective, here is a large collection of old pictures from Bulgaria:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.lostbulgaria.com&#x2F;index.php?cat=9" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.lostbulgaria.com&#x2F;index.php?cat=9</a> (You can see the translated descriptions with the language combobox on the top)

Love the gritty aesthetic of old photographs like this. Actually prefer it to modern, razor-sharp photography. Or maybe analogue just fits the image we have of the past better?<p>I wonder what kind of equipment was used for these photos.

One of the photos is from my hometown - Sibiu, Romania: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;chrisniedenthal.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;works&#x2F;sibiu-1978" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;chrisniedenthal.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;works&#x2F;sibiu-1978</a>. I&#x27;m sure I recognise the area, it&#x27;s in the historical center.(<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;maps&#x2F;@45.7991068,24.150571,3a,75y,11.52h,83.53t&#x2F;data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1setu61uzikP4EWV8MAI6_0g!2e0!7i13312!8i6656" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;maps&#x2F;@45.7991068,24.150571,3a,75y,11....</a>). Surprisingly well preserved.

A bit different, Poland in the 80s <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;imgur.com&#x2F;gallery&#x2F;960KNrY" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;imgur.com&#x2F;gallery&#x2F;960KNrY</a>

For anybody who is interested here is the bio of Chris Niedenthal. He is one of the most respected photojournalists covering the Eastern Bloc in the 1970 to 90&#x27;s. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;culture.pl&#x2F;en&#x2F;artist&#x2F;chris-niedenthal" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;culture.pl&#x2F;en&#x2F;artist&#x2F;chris-niedenthal</a>

Most pictures are from Poland which was relatively better off than USSR at the time. My childhood memories from USSR are way grimmer than these pictures.

Somehow, they seem far more &quot;real&quot; than the actual photos I have taken or seen from my relatives in the last decade. And no, it&#x27;s not just the gritty analog fell, it&#x27;s the content.<p>Edit: Although, the lack of digital artifacts definitely helps. Digital smoothing or digital noise is something I can still see on a lot of photos from last-generation cameras. Maybe we should stop throwing so much procesing on top of &quot;raw&quot; images.<p>Edit 2: It feels like these photos have a very distinct color palette. But do they, really? Honestly, I spend so much time looking at digital images, it&#x27;s becoming hard to judge what&#x27;s &quot;realistic&quot; anymore, especially when you can&#x27;t look at the scene in real life.

I was surprised to see the pic - &quot;TV antennas directed towards the West, Neustrelitz 1984, East Germany.&quot;<p>Was that forbidden? It&#x27;s seem like that would have been influence the government would have tried to filter out no? Or was it forbidden but just not enforced?

Great pictures, thank you for sharing. Loved the C64 pic and the guy walking his pig home.

Prague in 80s <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hankermag.com&#x2F;prague-in-1980s-ed-sijmons&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hankermag.com&#x2F;prague-in-1980s-ed-sijmons&#x2F;</a>

To some, these might infuse some level of specific nostalgia[0], which is in many respects picking up steam in these regions in the last few years.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Communist_nostalgia" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Communist_nostalgia</a>

&quot;Moscow suburbs&quot; pretty much sums it up.

Something I noticed: nobody seems to have acne

Bloody hell, there were food stamps in 1980?! What did I miss?

Why do the &quot;Pilgrim Girls&quot; have bloody knees?

perfect. Just got a monthly pass at<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;sovietmoviesonline.com" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;sovietmoviesonline.com</a><p>for the holidays.

sorry, 490 euros? what?

Strange, I send the same link 1 day before. 3 points...

I like this collection. They complement the more recent series like Simon Roberts&#x27; Motherland (mid Aughts). Also some have an echo of Chris Killip&#x27;s In Flagrante&#x27;s aesthetic.<p>Wonder if any of it might get published by Steidl, as a collection.

Aside from the clothing, it looks like the Eastern Bloc now.