Jokes under communism were not just a welcome contrast to the dreariness of everyday life; they also helped undermine it. For example. "How do you deal with mice in the Kremlin?" "Put up a sign saying 'collective farm'. Then half the mice will starve and the others will run away."rnBen Lewis has collated some of the best, and best-known, jokes that were told under more than seven decades of communist rule. His work is based on more than 40 previously published collections ranging from underground selections, to those published by anti-communist emigres, and a large sprinkling that appeared after 1989, once it was safe to air them.rnMost make you giggle and groan in equal measure. It is worth remembering that in some countries and some eras, being overheard telling or laughing at just one of these jokes could mean you died in a labour camp; there are plenty of jokes about that too. canal [Stalin's single most murderous slave-labour project]?" "The left bank was built by those who told the jokes, and the right bank by those who listened."
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