17 cartoons satirizing the everyday life and habits of Soviet people

Crocodile, 1977, №32
The ‘Crocodile’ magazine quipped about bad habits, total bureaucracy, and empty shelves in shops, and most of these jokes are still funny today.

1. In love

“Honey! I see the whole world in your eyes!” “Tell me, young man, don’t you see our inspection commission? I just wonder what it is doing!”

2. Neighbors

“Comrades!  It’s 4 am! Could you be more quiet? Other people in the house can’t sleep!” “Can’t? Poor they. We need to help them! Guys, let’s sing a lullaby!”

3. Municipal improvement

“Thus Andrey Petrovich will again blame us for bad improvement. But he’s guilty. Who told him to go to that street while we paved this one specially for him?”

4. Sensitivity

“I require a sensitive approach!” “On the sensitivity issue you need room number 6, visits on even dates from 3pm to 5pm.

5. Lunch

“Why are you so rude with customers? You need to be polite at work.” “I am having a lunch break now.”

6. A seeing eye instruction

“He cannot even take one step without me!”

7. The way to hospital

“Tell me please, how to get to the hospital?” “Go down this street and you will get there.”

8. Degrees

“A test for degrees.”

9. Spectators

“I really don’t get it, Polony, why the spectators behave so weirdly.” “What can we do? They get used to watching performances on TV…”

10. True friends

“You are true friends; you could raise a sick person out of bed.”

11. Little Red Riding Hood

“Well, just you wait Little Red Riding Hood. Oh, where is Little Red Riding Hood?”

12. The fall

“Broken? Thank God, it’s saved.”

13. Promise

“Promise me, honey, that you will carry me in your arms after the improvement of the district, too.”

14. School

“A Farewell to Arms.”

15. God of trade

“Mercury is the god of trade.” “What god is he if he couldn’t buy jeans!” (in the Soviet Union jeans like many other things were in short supply. Read more about jeans here.) 

16. Sausage train

“It smells like sausages!” “This is the train from Moscow!” (in Soviet times people from regions often went to the big cities on shopping trips to buy things like sausage, sugar, etc., which were rarely on sale in regions.)

17. Bureaucrat in the desert

“Roar or no roar, but until you provide the document proving that you are a lion, I will not believe you.”

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