Bangladesh, Oct. 21 -- People who grew up in the USSR do not remember any wheelchair ramps or specialized restrooms designed for the disabled in Soviet cities. Disabled people were actually destined, at best, to “house arrest” and, at worst, to unpaid work in terrible conditions. Writes Georgy Manaev

During World War II alone, about 4 million Soviet citizens were demobilized, due to injuries and diseases; about 2.5 million of them were disabled war veterans, of which 500 thousand of them had lost limbs. Did the Soviet state rehabilitate and help people, who hopelessly undermined their health or partially lost their abilities defending their homeland, reintegrate into society? On paper, yes. In reality, the situation of the disabled in th...