The Soviet Union kept a tight grip on its citizens, but the methods it used were often downright bizarre. In this roundup we explore the 10 bizarre ways the regime bent reality to keep everyone in line.

Bizarre Ways the Soviets Bent Reality

10 ‘Struggling For Truth’ Was Considered A Symptom Of Schizophrenia

The Soviet Union felt it had the best political system in the world, but for some strange reason, its people just didn’t seem to understand how great they had it. Inexplicable desires for useless things like “freedom” and “justice” ran rampant, and no one could explain why. Finally, in the 1970s, Soviet psychologists figured out why the people were so unhappy: They were insane. Dissenters, they declared, had “sluggish schizophrenia.”

This was a form of madness where people would act completely normal, except for holding ideas of reforming society, a clear sign of insanity. Symptoms listed in Soviet psychology books included “reform delusions,” the “struggle for truth,” and “perseverance.” Thousands of people were sent to mental hospitals for suggesting that Soviet society could be better, and hundreds of psychologists worked on teams dedicated to diagnosing dissidents with schizophrenia.

9 Jokes Had To Be Approved By The Department Of Jokes

For comedians in the Soviet Union, every attempt at humor had to be read from a government‑approved list of comedic material. Each year, comedians were required to submit every joke they’d written to a section of The Ministry of Culture called The Department of Jokes, and they couldn’t crack a single one until it had been approved.

Jokes against the state, of course, were forbidden, as was everything even remotely edgy. Even jokes against the United States had to be tame. When the list came back, comedians were usually left with a handful of tame jokes about their mother‑in‑laws.

For the next year, they could only tell jokes from their approved list. Improvisation was strictly forbidden. The only way a comedian could keep an act fresh was to steal gags from the competition. Plagiarism was fine, as long as the material you stole was approved.

8 Conducting An Orchestra Was Viewed As Capitalist

Moscow launched the First Symphonic Orchestra in 1922. It was a special type of orchestra, hailed as a “revolutionary step in music.” It was, after all, the only orchestra in the world without a conductor.

Conductors, the Soviets felt, were the bosses of orchestras, and having some big shot with a baton telling everyone else how to keep time seemed counterrevolutionary. They wanted an orchestra powered by collectivism, where every man was equal, and no one stood ahead. The party loved it and started clamoring for more like it.

Secretly, though, the orchestra had a leader: The first violinist would covertly conduct the group by shaking his head. Even with his help, the group couldn’t keep tempo. The more they practiced without a conductor, the sloppier they got, and within six years, they’d given up.

7 Museums Of Atheism Taught People The Evils Of Religion

Lenin demanded a policy of “militant atheism” and wanted to systematically stamp out religion wherever it could be found. Atheism was set up as the scientific truth, and churches were torn down. In their place, the Soviets built edifices that could be called churches themselves: Museums of Atheism.

Families around the country flocked in to see exhibits on the evils of religion. Topics would range from how the Catholic Church has propagated war to how the Salvation Army is just in it for the money. Some even had religious relics stolen from churches on display—but with a whole new context.

At least one museum had the mummified body of a saint on display. A tour guide would stand next to it and tell people that the reason the bodies of Catholic saints didn’t putrefy wasn’t divine intervention. It was a fraud, they told them, orchestrated by storing the bodies in a dry space.

6 They Made Their Own Calendar

Religion, Lenin felt, had to go—in every form. Even the seven‑day work week was a problem. Lenin didn’t like the idea of people measuring time based on the Biblical story of creation or taking the Lord’s Day off, so he made his own calendar.

It was called “The Eternal Calendar.” It had five days in a week, six weeks in a month, twelve months in a year, and five bonus days scattered about. The bonus days were holidays, all of which had been ripped from their religious traditions and remade into celebrations of the party’s rise.

It wasn’t nearly as eternal of a calendar as Lenin had dreamed, though. It didn’t take long before they added a sixth day, and then a seventh. Pretty soon, they were simply back on track with the rest of the world.

5 Unemployment Was A Crime

It can be hard to get people to work in a socialist paradise, but the Soviets found a way to take care of that: by throwing everyone who didn’t show up to work in prison.

Soviet law labeled anyone who was unemployed as a person leading “a parasitic existence.” The day you lost your job, you became a criminal, and you could be thrown into forced labor for the offense.

Even if you didn’t lose your job, you could still get arrested for showing up late. Twenty minutes of tardiness brought you into the realm of a capital offense. Leaving work early could lead to up to four months in prison, and missing a shift would lead to six months of corrective labor.

Trying to make ends meet on your own was completely out of the question. The law was very specific about the crime of trying to feed yourself. In Soviet Russia, there were specific, written provisions against collecting wild fruits, nuts, and berries. You could find yourself in a work camp for picking a cherry off a tree.

4 The Grapes Of Wrath Was Banned For Showing Poor People With Cars

When Stalin first heard they were making a movie of The Grapes of Wrath, he was thrilled. This, he believed, would be the perfect piece of anti‑American propaganda. The story of the plight of impoverished US laborers would show the dangers of capitalism and the misery that afflicts its poor.

The movie came out in the USSR, titled The Road to Wrath because they couldn’t let anything allude to the Bible. However, instead of pitying the Americans, the Soviet people were impressed because even the poorest people in the film still had their own cars.

The book and film were banned shortly after. The lives of starving Okies, it turned out, were too glamorous to be shown in the communist state.

3 Mop Tops Were Forcibly Shaved Off

The Beatles spread to the Soviet Union like everywhere else, and it was a huge problem. Their music was outlawed in the USSR as capitalist contraband. College students would even be expelled from school if they were caught listening to a track by the Fab Four.

Nevertheless, bootlegged copies of Rock ’n Roll albums were spread through the country. Since they couldn’t be printed on vinyl, they were etched onto discarded X‑ray films—often with broken bones and skulls still on the record.

It was enough of a sensation that mop tops caught on as a new hairstyle in the USSR. The police dealt with that fad quickly, though. Anyone caught sporting one would be detained, and their hair would be forcibly chopped off.

2 Plants Were Required To Follow Socialist Principles

Soviet scientist Trofim Lysenko had some strange ideas about botany. Whatever you did to a plant, he believed, would be passed on to their offspring. That meant that you could, for example, pluck the leaves off of a rose, and its descendants would all be leafless.

His ideas were demonstrably untrue, but the USSR loved them anyway. They fit the socialist ideal that human nature could be changed through socialism, so they adopted Lysenko’s ideas and taught them to children. Every scientist was required to support them, and they were legally required to denounce those who didn’t. Dissenting scientists could be imprisoned and sometimes executed.

Lysenko’s ideas spread to China, where Chairman Mao required his farmers to follow them. They ended being one of the biggest causes of the Great Chinese Famine, which killed millions.

1 Clap Or Go To Prison

Nobody ever wanted to be the first to stop clapping in the USSR. It was incredibly dangerous; it meant you were a dissident. People clapped for so long that sometimes, a bell would have to be rung to let them know they could stop.

The consequences of insufficient clapping were severe. In Moscow, after a tribute to Stalin was proposed, a crowd full of people applauded for 11 minutes straight. No one in the audience had the courage to stop, including the person who started it, so people clapped until their hands were red.

Finally, one man, the director of a paper factory, got fed up and sat down. Instantly, the entire crowd followed suit, knowing they were now safe. Sure enough, the factory director was arrested that night and sentenced to ten years in the gulag. Before he was sent in, the police warned him, “Don’t ever be the first to stop applauding!”

Our DNA does far more than dictate eye color or height; it also pulls the strings behind many everyday quirks. In this roundup of 10 things surprisingly controlled by our genes, we’ll explore how genetics steer our cravings, finances, fears, sleep, shopping habits, fidelity, relationships, musical talent, victory gestures, and even whether our armpits stink.

10 Things Surprisingly: The Genetic Pull Behind Our Sweet Tooth

10 Fats And Sugar

Our so‑called “thrifty genes” are hard‑wired to nudge us toward fatty, sugary foods, making obesity a tough battle to win. Back when our ancestors were hunter‑gatherers, three regular meals were a luxury; many didn’t know when—or if—the next bite would arrive.

Early humans quickly learned that high‑fat and high‑sugar fare supplied long‑lasting energy. Fat packs more calories per gram than other nutrients and is lighter to store, while sugar converts easily into fat, giving a sustained fuel source.

Those with thrifty genes survived famines because they could hoard energy when food was scarce. Over millennia, the genes persisted, leaving most of us with a built‑in sweet tooth and a penchant for calorie‑dense foods.

9 Spending And Investment

Researchers Stephan Siegel and Henrik Cronqvist uncovered that our DNA helps shape how we spend, save, and invest. By studying 15,000 twin pairs, they found strikingly similar financial habits even when the twins lived apart.

According to their findings, family upbringing steers our money behavior until roughly age 25, after which our genes start to assert influence, especially around age 40, nudging us toward particular risk tolerances and portfolio choices.

The study showed that genetically‑influenced risk appetite affects whether we diversify our holdings. While some twins gravitated toward a handful of stocks—potentially risky—they also tended to chase previously successful equities, reflecting a genetic bias toward familiar wins.

Additional work by Hersh Shefrin suggests that only about a quarter of people carry a “thrifty” gene that curbs spending, while the majority possess variants that predispose them to higher expenditure.

8 Fear Of Snakes And Spiders

Even infants display an instinctive wariness of crawling critters. In two experiments, six‑month‑old babies showed heightened stress when shown images of snakes or spiders, yet remained calm when viewing pictures of fish or flowers.

Joshua New and Tamsin German of Columbia University found that 252 adults could quickly spot a spider in distorted images, underscoring an innate detection ability likely forged because venomous arachnids and serpents posed lethal threats to early humans.

While many modern spiders are harmless, ancient ancestors faced highly venomous species capable of delivering fatal bites or debilitating toxins. Those lacking the genetic sensitivity to these creatures often fell victim, leading to the preservation of fear‑related genes. Some scholars, like Jon May, argue that cultural factors—such as the unsettling appearance of spiders—also play a role.

7 Sleep

The average adult needs about seven hours of nightly rest; dropping below six typically triggers fatigue, impaired cognition, and mood disturbances. However, a distinct subset of people thrives on far less sleep thanks to a variant called p.Tyr362His, nicknamed the “Thatcher gene” after the former British Prime Minister famed for sleeping only a few hours.

In a twin study involving 100 pairs, researchers discovered that carriers of this gene maintained sharp mental performance despite chronic sleep restriction, whereas non‑carriers showed noticeable declines in alertness and cognitive function.

This genetic advantage appears to allow the brain to operate efficiently on reduced rest, challenging the conventional wisdom that everyone requires the same amount of shut‑eye.

6 Shopping

While “shopping” is often stereotyped as a female domain, Geoffrey Miller of University College London argues that men are genetically primed to purchase. Male shoppers are motivated by the desire to signal wealth and attractiveness to potential mates.

In prehistoric times, men adorned themselves with animal pelts and body paint to impress women. As societies evolved, the same drive transferred to clothing, automobiles, and other status symbols, turning material displays into evolutionary courtship tools.

Today, many men cease lavish gifting once a relationship is secured, shifting the burden of appearance to women. This dynamic helps explain why women appear to shop more often, even though the underlying genetic impulse originates in men.

5 Infidelity

In 2010, Justin Garcia and his team at Binghamton University identified a link between a specific DRD4 gene variant and a higher propensity for cheating. The study surveyed 181 men about their sexual histories and then analyzed their DNA.

Men carrying this DRD4 variant showed a statistically significant tendency to cheat, even without obvious external motivators. The researchers suggest the gene influences dopamine pathways, prompting a heightened need for rewarding experiences.

Critics like Robert Weiss caution that the sample size was modest and that environmental factors—such as personal values and life circumstances—also shape fidelity, urging a more nuanced interpretation.

4 Relationships

Researchers at Peking University pinpointed the C‑1019G variant of the 5‑HT1A gene as a factor that nudges individuals toward singleness. In a cohort of 579 Chinese university students, only 40 % of those with the gene were in a romantic partnership.

The gene appears to foster moodiness, anxiety, and a generally gloomy outlook, traits that can deter people from pursuing or maintaining relationships. Parallel work also links lower oxytocin levels—a “bonding hormone”—to reduced sociability, further supporting a genetic basis for relationship choices.

3 Music

While early theories posited that early exposure to music hones talent, a study of 568 British female twins suggests genetics play a decisive role. Participants listened to 26 familiar tunes—such as “God Save the Queen,” “Yankee Doodle,” and “Happy Birthday”—each containing deliberate errors.

One in four twins failed to spot the mistakes, yet when an identical twin detected an error, their sibling was far more likely to notice it as well. In contrast, fraternal twins showed no such concordance, underscoring a hereditary component to musical perception.

2 Victory Sign

The triumphant “V” hand sign, along with accompanying body language—raised arms, expanded chest, and a lifted head—appears to be hard‑wired. Earlier assumptions labeled these gestures as learned, but observations at the 2004 Paralympic Games revealed that blind athletes, who had never seen anyone else perform the sign, instinctively displayed it after winning.

Conversely, after losing, these athletes slumped their shoulders and concealed their faces, mirroring the behavior of sighted competitors. Researchers infer that such expressive patterns were ingrained in our genes by ancient ancestors who used body language to signal dominance or submission.

1 Smelly Armpits

About 98 % of people experience a distinct odor when they perspire, but a rare 2 % remain odor‑free thanks to the ABCC11 gene. Researchers at the University of Bristol examined 6,495 women and identified only 117 carriers of this variant.

The gene was originally linked to dry earwax, a trait prevalent among East Asian populations. The ABCC11 variant reduces the production of certain amino acids in sweat, limiting bacterial growth and thereby diminishing odor.

Even among those with the gene, many still opt for deodorant, suggesting cultural habits often trump genetic advantage.