The fraught relationship between Russia and Poland is playing out in an unexpected way: in a conflict over a board game. Russian authorities have decided that a popular Polish game that has been dubbed “Communist Monopoly” disseminates anti-Soviet content, and thus should not be sold in Russia’s stores.
The Russian version of the “Queue,” which simulates the experience of shopping in the empty stores of communist-era Poland, was released in Russia in November 2015. Several months later, the country’s consumer protection agency Rospotrebnadzor informed the game’s Polish producer TREFL that if it does not change the historical content of the game, it would have to take all of its products that are on the Russian market out of circulation, according to IPN, the Polish historical institute behind the game. IPN says that Russians have been allegedly filing complaints to authorities, outraged by a negative description of the communist system, and by the information that the Soviet Union had forcibly installed a communist regime in another country. For Poles, who lived under a Soviet-backed communist regime for nearly five decades, the historical irony is palpable.
IPN refuses to make the changes, and so “Queue” is no longer available in stores in Russia. […]
“Queue” was released in Poland in 2011, with translations into five languages. It aims to show a younger generation of Poles the exasperation of everyday life in communist-era Poland. Players have to buy all the products on their shopping lists in the five stores in the neighborhood–or on the black market. They have to wait for the products to be re-stocked, and in order to advance in the line, they can use cards such as “mother with child.” The game quickly became a hit, drawing long lines to get one, ironically.
I want one
@$470
Kolejka – Queue – Board Game
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/8376293419/ref=dp_olp_new_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=new
Download English print-and-play version of „Kolejka” game.
http://ipn.gov.pl/en/news/2011/download-english-print-and-play-version-of-kolejka-game.
Greetings:
Back in the mid-70s, I found myself being squired around Murmansk by one of the Party’s faithful. Having already done the local Dollars Only tourist trap store for the Stolchi, caviar, and those idiot babushka dolls, I asked that we go to the largest department store in town and off we went with my pocketful of rubles.
Now one of the formational parts of my earlier years was being dragged from the bliss of the Bronx by whatever body part was reachable by my mother on to the IND subway and down to Herald Square for some school or Christmas or Easter conspicuous consumption at Macy’s or Gimbal’s or Altman’s. My favorite department wasn’t the toys but the TVs where even though it was still the ’50s there would be whole walls from floor to ceiling filled with TVS in different sizes from different manufacturers.
So, when we got into Murmansk’s version of the GUM store, I asked for the TV “department”. And after winding our way through too many of the aforementioned babushkas and some of the sullenest salesclerks (We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us.) in or out of the Arctic Circle, we arrived to find one console (floor) model with a “portable” (it had a handle) model sitting on top of it. The fact that neither one was plugged in or anywhere near an electric socket gave me a pretty good idea about how well they were selling.
Thankfully, I had conspicuously over-consumed at the Dollars Only store.
404: Not Found – How very, well, Russian.
we mustn’t look upon these things even a little bit smugly
ipn.gov.pl/en/news/2011/download-english-print-and-play-version-of-kolejka-game
here’s the instructions
http://pamiec.pl/ftp/kolejka/GB_print_and_play/GB_instrukcja_2013_podglad.pdf
>404: Not Found – How very, well, Russian.<
no the auto link leaves off the "." at the end of the address. click the link again and add the period to the url when you get 404
we mustn’t look upon these things even a little bit smugly
Indeed. The Commiecrats here have that future planned for us.