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Leisure Time: U.S.S.R.

by: Bryan, Julien Hequembourg; International Film Foundation

Publication date: 1968

Topics: Recreation, Recreation

Publisher: New York, N.Y. : International Film Foundation

Language: English

A Julien Bryan production

The working Russian has only in recent years had time for leisure activities. Now, as shown in this film, Russians enjoy sports and amusement parks, visit museums, enroll in adult education classes, read, and travel to resorts. From the Russia Today series

Addeddate: 2015-05-22 23:56:29

Boxid: IA113018

Identifier: leisuretimeussr02_201505

Ocr: As his leisure hours increase the ordinary citizen has more time for purely private amusement. Unable to afford a car. Living in the extremely crowded quarters a Russian is up to find intertainment in a social life away from home. Moscow's exhibition of economic achievements and elaborate showcase for Soviet technology is a popular place for a Sunday stroll. Russians are not only proud of their nation's accomplishments they are fascinated by science and technology. Countless novels and films glamorized science and engineering making these vital professions popular with thousands take adult education courses in their leisure hours. A. Leisure is also a time to forget technology and ideology. A Time In spite of ice and snow just to go fishing. As much as seventy five percent illiterate after century ago. Russia Today is a nation of avid readers. Books are fairly cheap and so keen is the appetite for reading material that often entire additions sell out overnight. Russians enjoy many Western authors among them Charles Dickens Ernest Hemingway Jack London. But the government enforces rigid censorship no Soviet readers sees Life magazine the New York Times or The London Observer. Nearly every large city has its own permanent one ring circus. For the more affluent areas the ballet. And almost everywhere there amateur folk dance groups perhaps organized by a local trade union to help celebrate such outstanding events as this year's corner artist. The Soviet Union even reserves a place for pop culture provided it is freed from decadent western influences. Russian maintained. And list museums most of them inherited from Doris Day. Admission is either free or nominal and attendance is always good. Soviet Russia is chief monument is the premolars long the seat of the central government and Communist Party. Now a vast historical museum. Each year thousands of tourists travel from all parts of the Soviet Union to see the capital wander through Red Square stand in line for the Lenin muscly. Dedicated Party members as well as casual sightseers come to pay homage at the graves of famous book of acts including Stalin's modest plaque. And here today find remnants of brushes czarist past. The tedious legal Russian winter make some a vacation and altogether a serious matter. Some of the Soviet Union's most popular vacation spots are resorts on the Black Sea which Russians call sanatorium. There's some two million visitors largely upper class and elite undertake a regimen of exercise regulated sunbathing and dieting. The now. Since most Soviet women work it is not uncommon for husbands and wives to vacation separate. From. But those who can afford to travel beyond Soviet borders is limited almost entirely to Eastern European countries like Romania and Bulgaria. Here's a vacationing Russian may find a few unfamiliar luxuries better food new accommodations sandy beach where. Foreign travel even a group tour to Hungary is for the browsing to luxury enjoyed by a select few. Will increasingly just someday bring such privileges to the ordinary citizens. From. The implications of leisure time in Russia remain uncertain the state still strives to dominate its citizens non-working hours. The Russians are beginning to discover that leisure is also a time for realizing personal goals and private aspirations that Mary. Mary. Mary. You know. It was the worker who paid the terrible price the Soviet industrial and economic progress. Price pay was staggering work hours impossible production quotas scant wages. Yet within a single generation shorter working hours and higher living standards have confronted Soviet So science without ironic twentieth century dilemma the challenge of leisure time. The Ideal be your time is still new to Soviet Russia. Welcome luxury with uncertain meaning. To sports fans a soccer game is just a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. But the government uses sports to influence and organize public opinion to rally enthusiasm and build more out of the state. Sports are considered so important to the nation's image that the government fully subsidizes the best out who in turn symbolize so be a problem as both at home and in peaceful competition with other nations.