Free thing in Communist nations?

[NorwegianCommunist]

If I lived in the Soviet union, Yugoslavia, Albania, Cuba or another communist country, would I then get an apartment, electricity, bus/train and food for free?
But if I wanted something more like a cellphone or tv etc THEN would I have to buy it with money earned by working?

Can someone please help me understanding how it was in the different countries and if it changed over time?

I would really appriciete some help! =)

[Vyacheslav Brolotov]

All things would be provided by the state (because the state should own everything) or a state approved corporation (revisionism), but you would earn it because all the labor you do will be for the state (and thus for the whole of society). I am pretty sure it works like this. I went to Cuba a few years back and they had free TVs, but old European ones from the late 90's.

[Yuppie Grinder]

There's no such thing as a "communist nation". Communism is a global, stateless, and classless society. The governments of those nations claimed to be socialist and moving society towards communism, in reality they weren't either.
Comrade Commistar, if you think the state owning everything is socialism you are very mistaken.

[Tavarisch_Mike]

I can just speak for sure, what i have seen in Cuba. First all education and healthcare is free and the quality level is high. Then, all sport and cultural societies gets goverment support in order to be free. Evry week all households gets El bolso which is a bag of grosseries (oil, rice, sugar, salt, beans, milk and sometimes meat) this is a ration system to make sure that evrybody gets things to eat. The if youre home gets destroyed by fire or a hurrican. The goverment has to get you somewhere to live, or if you are a handyman you can applie for some materials to reastore youre home. But this system has started to fail since the beurocracy, sometimes, takes to much time to give someone a new home. Also, because of the lack of resources, many goverment employees tend to steel any buildingmaterial thats supose to go in restoration of homes.

Ten ofcourse Cuba has a lot of downsides....

[Caj]

There's no such thing as a "communist nation". Communism is a global, stateless, and classless society. The governments of those nations claimed to be socialist and moving society towards communism, in reality they weren't either.
Comrade Commistar, if you think the state owning everything is socialism you are very mistaken.

True, but I think the OP still has a good question so long as one assumes that by "communist" he or she actually means "Marxist-Leninist."

[Yuppie Grinder]

True, but I think the OP still has a good question so long as one assumes that by "communist" he or she actually means "Marxist-Leninist."

Well in that case, the party dictatorship will do what it has to do to maintain and expand it's power. If that means free televisions, then you'll get a free television, but it probably doesn't mean free televisions.

[Caj]

Well in that case, the party dictatorship will do what it has to do to maintain and expand it's power. If that means free televisions, then you'll get a free television, but it probably doesn't mean free televisions.

If free televisions contribute to keeping the masses from revolting, maintenance of state power could very well mean free televisions.

[Yuppie Grinder]

If free televisions contribute to keeping the masses from revolting, maintenance of state power could very well mean free televisions.
I suppose so.

[Regicollis]

If I lived in the Soviet union, Yugoslavia, Albania, Cuba or another communist country, would I then get an apartment, electricity, bus/train and food for free?
But if I wanted something more like a cellphone or tv etc THEN would I have to buy it with money earned by working?

Can someone please help me understanding how it was in the different countries and if it changed over time?

I would really appriciete some help! =)

The "communist" country I know the most of is the DDR. There you did not get food and housing for free but price controls meant that it was very cheap. For instance food prices were fixed at 1948 prices which led to absurd practices like cattle being fed bread because it was cheaper than grain.

If an east German wanted to buy luxury goods his best chance was to get his hands on some Deutschmarks through family in the West or through the black market. He could spend this money in so-called Intershops to buy quality products.