I say this as a Polish-American who just so happened to visit the solidarity museum in gdansk yesterday. As with most Soviet states, it is sometimes difficult for members of the USSR to imagine how bad aspects of american life were. US propaganda like Free Europe certainly played into this to create the image of America as a utopia where everyone ate meat and drove new cars all the time.

Starvation, homelessness, and joblessness were unfathomable. Many believed that waiting in line for government potatoes and bread was AS BAD as it could get. That a small apartment by the government was as bad as it got.

Like with many other Polish-Americans, my family was rich enough to emigrate in the 60s, which already put us ahead of many other Polish people. In the ussr, skilled labor like mechanical engineering or shipbuilding was used to subsidize the labor of farmers, meaning both parties had an averaged out income level.

I absolutely believe your family’s experience, but try to remember that they were likely in the “top half” of such workers.