Why did the USSR collect Marlboro cigarette packs: the reason will make you laugh

Collecting is an interesting hobby. Many children of the USSR era were very fond of creating certain collections, which was a real challenge in the face of shortages. In addition to stamps or coins, they even collected... cigarette packs.

This kind of hobby was especially popular among young people. Why people in the USSR collected Marlboro cigarette packs, read in the OBOZ.UA article.

The fact is that everything foreign was considered very valuable. And in the 80s, after the Olympics, new products entered the Soviet market: foreign cigarette brands: "Marlboro, Kent, Camel, and Bond in soft packs. They cost one ruble each, and after the price increase, one and a half rubles.

Of course, such cigarettes were considered a luxury, and not just because the price was so high. They were simply impossible to buy in ordinary stores. You had to have connections among black market dealers.

The most fashionable brand was Marlboros from the American tobacco company Philip Morris. In the 70s and 80s, there was a real boom in sales of these cigarettes.

In 1981, representatives of Philip Morris agreed with their Soviet colleagues that a factory in Moldova would start producing the famous Marlboros. The tobacco used was mostly Moldovan.

However, it was not the tobacco that Soviet collectors valued, but rather the packaging. The Marlboro trademark could make a great impression on others. There was even a popular trick: ordinary cigarettes were placed in Marlboro packaging to take out a pack on occasion and show off the scarce product.

Those realities were also reflected in Soviet cinema: in the movie Sportloto-82, one of the characters, San Sanych, takes a Soviet Prima out of a Marlboro pack. "Marlboro was also used as a gratitude for a blat, which can also be found in films of that time.

Subscribe to OBOZ.UA channels on Telegram and Viber to keep up with the latest events.