Soviet Prices

I still have in my possession a Soviet tea glass whose minuscule price, fifteen kopecks, is actually molded into its base. A rather more luxurious item, a Soviet ice bucket, has its (considerable) price of one hundred forty roubles (about two weeks’ pay) stamped into the metal. Nobody expected these things to change. A basic loaf was thirteen kopecks, so cheap that it cost less than pigswill, so farmers bought bread to feed to their hogs. Soviet power offered certainty and stability in every direction in return for quietude about a lunatic system. Who are we now to say that people were not content with that system, in our world where inflation roars and stamps about and there is no such thing as a secure job?

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Peter Hitchens, (2026) 'Fireworks in Daylight', in "The Lamp Magazine" (Issue 36)
https://thelampmagazine.com/issues/issue-36/fireworks-in-daylight