End of Empire

Yuri Maltsev, at the Soviet Bank for Foreign Trade in the mid 80s:

I had a secretary, Lena, a very nice young woman, an ex-student at Moscow University, and I saw her picking up paperclips putting into her purse. And I said, "Lena, why do you steal State property in such a strange form, paperclips?" And she went ballistic on me, she said, "Yuri! What else can I take from this" - she used a very bad word - "office? Well, show me, I'll take that. Nothing, nothing! Paperclips, nails picture, nothing!" And I was walking back home thinking, if the youngest and the brightest are going to work only to steal something there, that's the end of this economy and this experiment [30:32].

Maltsev is very funny and very scathing about the Soviet 'experiment' and on the world since and now.

Alas, watching his lectures has triggered me to buy three books so far from Amazon clicketty click click. I am arsing around on sabbatical studying at the mo, and the faster the money flows out the sooner I will have to go back to seeking an honest day's work for an honest crust, paperclips not included.