What were the things Soviets were told about the world outside the Iron Curtain? - Quora

What were the things Soviets were told about the world outside the Iron Curtain? - Quora -John Dewar Gleissner, Auburn & Vanderbilt graduate; lifelong student of history

"Soviet citizens were told the Americans were oppressed by the rich and that we did not live any better than Soviet citizens. President Nixon arranged a cultural exchange whereby ordinary Russians visited the USA and Americans visited Russia.

One Russian lady, a confirmed communist, visited the USA on a cultural exchange and was taken to a modern grocery store/supermarket. This lady chose which direction the car should drive so that she would get an objective sample of American grocery stores. 

She walked into the store, saw abundance she’d never seen in the USSR, and burst out crying. 

Some emotional reaction was common when people from communist countries visited American supermarkets for the first time.

Communism always produced shortages of food and provided limited selections; to buy groceries most communists had to stand in lines. 

Store shelves were often bare. 

When people from communist countries entered our grocery stores, they could tell at a glance that they had been lied to by the communists, that communism did not provide a better life, and that the average American had a better selection of food than any Russian or Soviet citizen. 

The superiority of capitalism was made obvious to these visitors in the most elemental, rapid and non-verbal way. 

And the communist store clerks were not that friendly, either..."

Read on!