From 1917 to 1991, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (the former Soviet Union) was the world’s largest socialist state and the United States’ biggest adversary from World War II until the late 1980s. But everyday life in the Soviet Union, especially in the early days, was notoriously bad: widespread famine, state censorship, forced labor camps, and countless other atrocities. But as these old photos of life in the Soviet Union below reveal, the quality of everyday life for ordinary citizens has changed dramatically over the past few decades.

Many of the famous photographs of communist Russia are bleak, depicting their poor living conditions, queues for relief, and dilapidated infrastructure. However, the following set of old Soviet photos attempts to paint a more complex and realistic picture of the lives of Soviet citizens. Yes, some of these stories still look bleak, but in general they show that the Soviet era was more than just a history book story.

Around 1985, Computer Class of the Second School in Chkalovsky Village

Shevchenko Orchard in Ukraine, circa 1980

Lee Harvey Oswald (wearing glasses) with factory workers, unknown filming date

Passengers board Moscow bus, 1967

Siblings on Leningrad Palace Square, circa 1978

Sergey Tyukevich on a bench in the West Ukrainian forest, circa 1982

Family road trip, Carpathians, Western Ukraine, circa 1982

approx. Mother with toddler in Leningrad, 1970

A man and boy prepare to go fishing, Dolishnee village, Western Ukraine, circa 1970

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