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Russia: Changing times
Valery Yermilov, manager of a textile factory in Ivanovo, near Moscow explains how life has changed in Russia.
Q: Does the factory make a profit, and does it matter these days?
Yermilov: Yes, our profit matter s a lot for us. In fact it's the main aim of our production, is to make a profit. And every month we get the profit, in the region of one million roubles.
Q: Is it easier or harder to manage the business now, than in the Socialist period?
Yermilov: It's more interesting to work now than in the Soviet days. In that time, all the direction came from the Party, and you never had any chance to develop your own initiative. You would get all your supplies, according to the Plan, and then you had to arrange production according to the Plan. Now, work is much harder, but you can see the results of your own work. We have very good staff now - engineers, designers, and other workers - all of them are interested in making a profit.
Q: There is a joke that in the Soviet period, workers said they pretend to pay us, so we pretend to work. Was that a fair description?
Yermilov: I can say that life at that time was quite hard, because we were given a plan, which never corresponded to real life, because we never had enough cotton and other raw materials, half-finished fabric and so on. So we couldn't really fulfil the plan. And we couldn't go out and buy what we needed on the side, because that was illegal as well.
Q: What sort of life did people have in the Soviet era? What living standard did they have, what recreations, what did they do when they were not actually working in the factory?
Yermilov: I can say that in the old days, people had a better and easier life than now. They had more spare time for leisure, they also had somewhere to go for their holidays - to their houses in the countryside. There were also organised holiday camps for children, and the equivalent for adults, where they could stay together and spend their holiday. Now it costs a lot of money so they can't afford it. So life is harder now.
Q: Would people prefer to go back to the old days?
Yermilov: Yes, to be honest with you, people would want to go back to the old days. I would say about 80% of people.
Q: But I notice that you have a picture of Lenin, hanging by your desk. Why is that?
Yermilov: I consider him to be a national hero, like Roosevelt or Lincoln. At school we used to study his works, and I think he is a genius.
Edited highlights of a recorded interview.
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