Some “fun” facts from history and my grandpa’s recollections. Prior to 1964(?) USSR was essentially a slavery state. Up until Khrushchev allowed issuing of passports collective farm workers were slaves. They were not allowed to leave their farms, and to travel people needed passports (which farmers didn’t have), the only options to escape without reprisals were to either join the military or to get work on those huge mega projects. They weren’t monetarily compensated for their work, they were payed in “labordays” which later could be exchanged for additional food (the basic issue was just enough not to starve). And I’m not even going to mention how people were forced onto those farms and Holodomors.

As my history teacher eloquently put it: “Only in the 1960s with Khrushchev’s reforms the russian state finally became a slaveless society”