There were “lines for everything” in the former Soviet Union. That’s what Hedrick Smith conveyed to rapt readers in his 1976 book, The Russians.
As frustrated Americans endured long waits for price-controlled gasoline in the 1970s, Smith reminded Americans of how good they had it through Russians for whom shopping was an endless, frequently fruitless exercise. That is, unless they had “blat,” which was a Russian word for access to goods (including Western items) only available in shops accessible to a small elite.
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