Decades after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, only a few things about the communist state are still well-known enough to be part of the public conscience. The Cold War, Sputnik, and the rule of Joseph Stalin are all infamous enough to be widely known. Yet, these larger-than-life facts and figures like this give us no hint as to how people in the Soviet Union actually lived.  Despite the privacy and secrecy of the Soviet Union, we’ve learned a lot over the years about the daily lives of Soviet citizens. Here, we will go over 7 interesting facts about daily life in the Soviet Union that might seem bizarre today but were just normal life for those in the USSR.  People in the Soviet Union Loved Soda  Even back when the Soviet Union was in existence, the Pepsi and Coca-Cola rivalry was going strong. At the time, trade negotiations between the United States weren’t exactly friendly, and despite the untapped market for soda products in the Soviet Union, neither of the two American soda powerhouses had managed to get a foothold.  That all changed in 1959 when the CEO of Pepsi snagged an invitation to the American National Convention in Moscow where he made his case for his soda to Khrushchev. It took over a decade, but in 1971 the CEO finally brokered a deal to bring Pepsi to the Soviet Union long before Coca-Cola. This made Pepsi the first foreign product legally sanctioned to be sold in the Soviet Union! Pepsi was a hit, and its solo existence in Russia gave it a leg up on Coca-Cola for the first time. While Coke would eventually make its way to Russia as well, there’s no replacing their first soda love.  Waiting in Line Was a Part of Life  Waiting in line, or ‘queueing’, isn’t unfamiliar to anyone. We wait in line for anything from a roller coaster at a theme park to a coffee from a favorite coffee shop early in the morning. So why was queueing the Soviet Union interesting?  Since the Soviet Union was a Marxist-Communist state, all means of production were publicly owned by the government and distributed to citizens. They made a normal trip to the grocery store for bread and milk impossible. Instead, people had to line up for hours in order to get basic life necessities like food, hygiene products, and even clothes.  Because of this unavoidable, forced lining up, queueing became a culture all its own. It paid off to be there first in line for things like meat because as the day went on, the quality of the products would go down. A few spaces in line might mean the difference between a juicy steak and a gristly piece of beef. So people in the Soviet Union would show up early for the queue, and use the time to socialize and catch up with their peers.  Rationing in the Soviet Union Was the Norm  During multiple different periods of the Soviet Union’s existence, rationing of food, common goods, and even money itself was necessary. These rationing practices were occasionally successful in helping the economy, but at other times the amount of food rations were so sparse that people starved to death.  One of the most notorious periods of rationing was between 1941 and 1947, due to the economic hardships of war. The worst rationing occurred during the German invasion, where the lower classes received incredibly sparse rations.  Communal Living Was More Common Than You Might Think During the early days of the Soviet Union, there was a massive housing crisis, specifically in larger cities and more urban areas. In response to this crisis, a new way of living was concocted to give everyone a roof over their head.  This response to the issue of homelessness in the Soviet Union was called kommunalka, or ‘communal apartments.’ With these communal apartments, multiple families would live within one apartment space, as opposed to each family having their own. These families would each have their own rooms which would have to serve as their bedroom and living area, but would have to share a kitchen and hallways.  While this arrangement ensured that more families than ever would have a roof over their heads, it wasn’t exactly convenient. New apartments were rarely constructed for communal living; instead, already existing single-family apartments would be converted into communal spaces, and up to seven families would be crammed into a space that had originally been built to serve just one.  Communal apartments were incredibly popular during the Soviet Union, playing perfectly into the idea of a Communist state, so much so that they became the main form of housing for decades.  Women Were Considered Equal to Men By Law in the Soviet Union In the spirit of improving the Soviet Union overall, women were declared, by law, to be completely equal to men.  The Constitution of the USSR stated, “Women in the USSR are accorded equal rights with men in all spheres of economic, state, cultural, social, and political life.”  Socially, women were still viewed differently than men. However, the inclusion of women in traditionally male-dominated fields in the workforce changed things, sometimes to a drastic degree. Women were able to find opportunities to gain higher education and enter fields like science and engineering for the first time.  Women were also welcomed into the military and would serve not just as nurses, but also as fighters. Many female soldiers excelled as pilots and one woman, Lyudmila Pavlichenko, became one of the most legendary snipers of all time, having killed 309 enemy combatants during her stint in the war. 95 women were eventually awarded The Hero of the Soviet Union distinction.  To help women in the workforce, the Soviet Union attempted to provide aid to women who wanted to work but also have a family. Maternity leave and childcare were offered for mothers, as women and men both were encouraged to strive for the success of the Soviet Union as a whole rather than focusing strictly on family.  Music Had to Go Underground  Music has always been one of the most important forms of protest, and music during the Soviet Union was no expectation. The difference was that the government blacklisted many Western bands and even a good number of Soviet bands as well, fearing the anti-communist message that was inherent in so much of their music. Rock music in particular was targeted, and the tunes were forbidden from being performed. This rule was occasionally enforced so strictly that some rock musicians even received jail time.  Distribution of this music was severely limited as well. But this didn’t stop the music fans who were hungry for new records to listen to. Most forbidden recordings were distributed through magnitizdat, which was the process of recording and distributing banned music throughout the Soviet Union via tapes. One of the oddest footnotes to come out of the Soviet rock music ban was the creation of roentgenizdat, or Ribs. Ribs, also called ‘music on the ribs’ or ‘bone records’ were recorded onto used X-ray material using a recording lathe. Because of the material they were created from, these Ribs, when exposed to light, would still show the X-rays that the film originally held. The process was time-consuming, and the quality wasn’t always great, which is why magnitizdat became the preferred method of banned music distribution.  Physical Activity and Sports Were a Huge Deal  It’s no surprise that sports were so important to the people of the Soviet Union. Even in modern-day Russia, training and sending elite athletes to the Olympics is still a large part of the culture. Soviet leaders used learning and training for a sport to not only win against other countries but also keep their populations in tip-top shape. Sports kept people busy, and the training was thought to make them more productive and effective in the workforce. It was also believed that when more people were trained, the more likely it was that top athletic talent would emerge from the crowd. Being a sports star in the Soviet Union wasn’t easy, though. Soviet athletes weren’t encouraged to take joy in their sports but to consider it a job and a lifestyle. The idea was to win, no matter what the cost. Add to that the fact that top athletes’ lives were controlled down to the minute by the government, and it’s easy to see why Soviet Olympians often appeared so grim.  Even if Soviet citizens didn’t train in a specific sport, physical activity and fitness were still a huge part of society. Calls for exercise would be played multiple times a day on the radio, and workers were expected to take breaks from their jobs to stretch and exercise to keep their minds and bodies sharp. The post 7 surprising facts about daily life in the Soviet Union first appeared on History Defined.

Throughout the Dark and Medieval ages, punishments for crimes would become both more creative and more gruesome than ever before. Tales of executions have fascinated and horrified have the public for as long as history has been recorded, and none so much as being hanged, drawn, and quartered.  Made famous by the execution of William Wallace in the move “Braveheart”, being hanged, drawn, and quartered was so barbaric that it couldn’t even been shown on screen. Reserved for traitors and criminals who were the worst of the worst, this macabre practice is a dark chapter of human history that shows just how cruel humanity can be in search of justice.  In this article, we’ll explain the terrible practice of being hanged, drawn, and quartered, the history of the practice, and how it eventually fell out of favor. What Does it Mean to Be Hanged, Drawn, and Quartered? There’s a reason this form of execution is considered one of the most gruesome in the history of the world. Instead of the goal being the death of the criminal, the goal of being hanged, drawn, and quartered was to cause unimaginable suffering.  The process would go as follows, with some alterations depending on the individual criminal and executioners.  The criminal would be transported from the jail to the gallows by horse, usually tied behind it, and dragged through the streets. When it was found that prisoners would die prematurely because of this, they were strapped to a wooden board and dragged instead. There is some debate whether the “drawn” portion of the execution refers to this dragging or the later evisceration.  Once at the gallows, the accused would be hanged until the point of unconsciousness or near death, but they weren’t intended actually to die during this portion. Instead, the hangman would try to keep the criminal alive so they would be concious to experience the horror of the next part of their execution.  Next, the criminal would be eviscerated. This is believed to be the “drawn” portion of the execution since it comes after “hanged” in the name of the process. The abdomen would be cut and intestines drawn out of the body while the criminal was still alive. Sometimes, they would be thrown on fire, all given the soon-to-be-executed. Occasionally the gentials would also be removed and burned.  Finally, the criminal would be killed, either by beheading or by the quartering itself. Often the previous tortures would be enough to kill them, and they would already be dead by this point. The body would be seperated into four pieces which would sometimes be sent to other cities, while the head would often be placed on London Bridge as an object of ridicule–one last degradation for the executed person.  Who Was the First Person to Be Hanged, Drawn, and Quartered?  The practice of being hanged, drawn, and quartered existed in various forms throughout the Middle Ages, but not as an intentional single punishment. Instead, any combination of the three steps–hanging, drawing, and quartering the body–would be used individually or in combination with each other or other forms of punishment.  The first recorded instance of execution by hanging, drawing, and quartering was in 1283. The man executed was Welsh prince Dafydd ap Gruffydd after he betrayed King Edward I. This execution method wouldn’t become an official punishment until the reign of King Edward III. Gruffydd was charged with the crime of high treason, and high treason would go on to be the central crime to be punished by being hanged, drawn, and quartered.  His execution was particularly brutal, as he was attached to a horses tail and drawn through the streets of Shrewsbury, England. H e was then hanged, but not until death, just to the point of near unconciousness. Following the hanging, he was disembowled, and his entrails burned in front of his eyes before finally being killed and his body quartered.  The Execution of Scottish Knight Sir William Wallace  Many people mistakenly believe that the first man to suffer this execution was Sir William Wallace, leader of the First War of Scottish Independence and the subject of the movie “Braveheart.”  While this isn’t true, considering Wallce was executed in 1305, 22 years after Dafydd ap Gruffydd, his execution was one of the most infamous by far.  After being forced to wear a crown of laurel leaves as a symbol of his status as an outcast, Wallace was drawn behind a horse to Smithfield, England before he was hanged and beheaded. While some accounts say that Wallace’s entrails were burned while he was still alive, most information suggests that this last torture was saved until after he was dead.  At the end of it, his body was quarted and sent to four different parts of England, while his head was placed on the London bridge as a grim message.  Who Was the Last Person to be Hanged, Drawn, and Quartered?  Despite how notorious the execution method was, being hanged, drawn, and quartered was not a common punishment, and it occupied only a small portion of history–499 years, to be exact.  The last person sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered was David Tyrie in August of 1782. Tyrie’s was the final execution to include all three portions of the hanged, drawn, and quartered punishment, as opposed to similar sentencings in later years where the more brutal parts of the practice were waived.  David Tyrie was a Scottish Spy who was convicted of the crime of high treason for engaging in treasonous communications with the French. He was executed in Portsmouth, England. After he was hanged for 22 minutes, Tyrie was beheaded, his heart burned, and his body quartered before he was placed into a coffin and buried.  His execution was marked by an exceptionally large, wild, and frenzied crowd. It’s estimated that over 20,000 people attended David Tyrie’s execution, and after he was buried near the seaside, the crowd snapped and dug the coffin up. Tyrie’s body was torn into hundreds, if not thousands, of pieces, which were taken as macabre souvenirs by the crowd of onlookers.  Another man, Edward Despard, and six other men who were involved in the treasonous Despard Plot were sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered in 1803, but their sentences were changed to just hanging, followed by beheading.  In the ghastly spirit of the hanging, drawing, and quarterings of old, the men were still tied behind horses. Instead of being dragged through town, though, they were placed on wooden sleighs and pulled in circles in the gallows cobblestone courtyard over bales of hay. The scene was so absurd that Despard himself was said to have exploded in laughter despite his death looming just minutes away.  When Despard and his co-conspiritors were executed, the crowd was equally as large as the one at Tyrie’s execution—some 20,000 or so spectators. The men were hanged first, and the crowd was said to have clung and pulled at their legs, hastening their demise, even if it was unintentional.  The subsequent beheading of Edward Despard was both messy and embarrassing, and after Despard, no one would be sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered again. The post The Horrific History of Being Hanged, Drawn, and Quartered  first appeared on History Defined.

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