5 unexpected functions of the carpet during the Soviet era

Director Alexander Sery in the 1972 film “Gentlemen of Fortune” quickly found a kind of use for the rug. His swindlers Khmyr, Kosoy and Ali Baba at one point eliminated the “recidivist” Associate Professor, wrapping him in a carpet.

But seriously, the carpet was a real must-have in the interior of Soviet times.

Back then, not having a carpet was like now not installing plastic windows and painting peeling frames with oil paint. The woven product was an indicator of status, wealth and well-being in the home. And every Soviet person who took part in the building of communism knew that everyone is equal, which means that everyone should have a carpet. It’s like the first phrase from the ABC book “Mom washed the frame”, I read it – I learned the basics of literacy. Hang up the carpet – you are an accomplished and full-fledged member of society.

Many modern boys and girls do not understand what was the need for this dust collector. So we have collected several purely applied functions that the carpet performed in Soviet society.

Be as good as a neighbor

The carpet was expensive: its price started at 200 rubles – with an average salary of 120 rubles. In Soviet times, we lived from paycheck to paycheck, and our grandmothers had small savings – they could only save for a rainy day. Therefore, not every family could afford decoration for the entire wall, and even more so for the entire floor. But here the conviction worked that the revolution of 17 overthrew the entire bourgeoisie, now there are no rich and poor, everyone is equal. You just need to strain yourself and get this scarce product.

In the middle of the last century, there was no concept of “demand creates supply”. It was a little different: demand gave rise to a deficit, black-boxing and speculation. You can imagine how our grandmothers were dear to any thing that got from under the floor. Or bought out of great luck: the carpets were “thrown” into the store, grandfather took a queue at 4 am, stood for 10 hours, fearing that the last one would be bought right in front of his nose, but still became the owner of the precious carpet. The booty was hung on the wall and they rejoiced over it for more than one year. And even tens of years.

By the way, the word “thrown out” in modern language is translated as “a product of high demand was brought to the store”.

Soundproofing

In the Soviet years, at 21:00 every weekday on the Central Channel (there were only two of them), a feature film was shown, and before that they showed news that covered the next congress of the CPSU. So at these great meetings, against the background of all the positive achievements, programs were also voiced to eliminate the shortage of housing. The massive construction of Khrushchev houses was launched in the late 50s, then the construction of brezhnevka began. These typical (panel and brick) houses were extremely simple, small-sized and functional, but there was a drawback – high audibility. Voices behind the wall, clattering overhead became a problem for many families.

Do you know why people banged each other on the battery? Do not know? It means that you are too young. Anyone who grew up in the USSR remembers this way to reason with noisy neighbors: you take a metal object and pound it on the pipe until the neighbors calm down. The escape from the acoustic nightmare was the carpet: the wider, the longer, and the thicker the better. If you have a high audibility and you feel the “effect of presence” in a neighbor’s apartment, take this experience into service.

Warming

Let’s remember a romantic picture. The child clings to the windows, on which frost has drawn bizarre patterns. He scrutinizes them, finds in each the outlines of fantastic trees, comes up with fabulous plots and melts these complex drawings with a light breath. Immediately new ones appear, which you can melt with your finger and look at the blizzard behind the glass.

We will not talk about frosting glass from a physical point of view today. Frost on the windows, and sometimes even on the walls, appeared in housing from poor heating. They paid for the communal flat, of course, but very few people dared to complain in those days – it was useless. They saved themselves as best they could. Some grandmothers and mothers still remember how in winter they walked around the apartment in woolen socks, warm sweaters and shawls draped over their shoulders. And our favorite carpet was also warming. In order not to touch the cold wall at night, a soft coating was simply necessary. A cozy carpet was hung behind the sofa or along the bed – it was much more pleasant to the touch than an ice wall.

Protection for children

After the wall carpet had served its life, it became the floor covering. The wall, of course, was not empty, a new, more modern carpet was hung on it, and the old one was laid underfoot. It was a luxury. “Everything in carpets” is a sign of the prosperity of the Soviet family.

A side effect is safety for children. Battles with plastic swords were played on a woolen carpet, wooden constructors were assembled, toy trucks were transported on it. The mothers were calm because the child would not catch a cold, would not catch a splinter from the plank floor, would not interfere with the neighbors from below, and would land softly in the event of a fall.

Carpets appeared much later, not to mention laminate and heated floors.

Defect masking

Remember the cartoon about Prostokvashino? There mom lucidly explained to dad that there is a practical benefit from the picture on the wall – it covers the hole in the wallpaper. So it was possible to cover a crack in the wall, torn wallpaper, uneven putty with a carpet. There was no non-woven and vinyl wallpaper, decorative plaster at that time. Paper wallpapers were glued to newspapers and very quickly got dirty and torn off.

And the decor? In those years, the apartment was decorated with shelves with books (which were extremely difficult to get), black and white photographs of loved ones, reproductions of paintings (they were easily sold in stores, especially Shishkin and Aivazovsky).

Well, the carpet performed its decorative task much better – it decorated the room and masked defects.

PS By the way, the carpet had one more purpose – to serve as a background for a photo. “With his nap” – this is how this genre is called now.

Do you still have your grandmother’s carpet?