22: Summer Behind the Iron Curtain: What We Actually Did

In this episode of The Soviet Life, host Kate Saba takes listeners back to the unforgettable summers of the Soviet Union, when summer wasn’t simply a vacation — it was an entire season of life. Through personal memories of growing up in Belarus and the broader story of everyday Soviet life, Kate explores how adults spent their much-anticipated vacations, where families traveled, and how children filled those seemingly endless months away from school. From dachas, summer camps, and weeks spent with grandparents to mushroom picking, forest adventures, sanatoriums, trips to the sea, and long days of childhood freedom outdoors, this episode captures a side of Soviet life rarely found in history books. Along the way, Kate reflects on the small things — like the smell of lilacs — that can suddenly transport us back to another place and time and asks why the summers of our childhood remain among the memories we hold onto the longest.

Key Topics

• The meaning of summer in the Soviet Union

• Vacation practices for Soviet workers and families

• How Soviet children spent their long summer break

• Pioneer and summer camps

• Spending summers with grandparents

• Life at the dacha and its cultural significance

• Outdoor childhood games and adventures

• Mushroom and berry picking

• Family vacations and travel within the USSR

• Soviet sanatoriums and organized holidays