I am saying that the 100 photos presented did not look especially austere to me. As some one growing up in similar times in a middle class (more rural) area these pictures just looked pretty normal slice of every day life (with a difference in location and culture). Any pictures of then compared to what is available today to many (next day delivery of almost any consumer item, on credit) would likely look austere.
Those photo's don't look austere because they were meant to show the great and immortal ideal created in the unbreakable union of Soviet republics:
Sing to the Motherland, home of the free,
Bulwark of peoples in brotherhood strong.
O Party of Lenin, the strength of the people,
To Communism's triumph lead us on!
They do not show life for the average Soviet citizen but the way the Party wanted people to think Soviet life looked like.
Славься, Отечество наше свободное,
Дружбы народов надёжный оплот!
Партия Ленина - сила народная
Нас к торжеству коммунизма ведёт!
