[anigbrowl]

Having visited the USSR in the 1980s I can well imagine the problems you experienced (I traded duty-free shopping bags rather than jeans).

On the other hand, it's misleading to draw too many inferences from extreme cases. I was arrested recently for having a bag of very ordinary picket signs while not being anywhere near a political demonstration in time or space, but the repression in question was local in scope.

[vkou]

> I traded duty-free shopping bags rather than jeans

What did you get for them?

[anigbrowl]

Military clothing. Tourists could visit department stores like GUM but were forbidden to purchase anything that was part of an official uniform like hats, boots, medals etc. Additionally, all outgoing baggage was x-rayed because you weren't supposed to take out money or forbidden items, but the people operating the X-ray machines didn't care even though it was perfectly obvious that I and everyone else in my high school group was smuggling out such material.

I wore a red army belt buckle on my jeans for years afterwards. I think it's still sitting in my friend's attic in Amsterdam.