I was coming home from work, exhausted. 10 floors to climb was too much, so I took the elevator hoping that there wasn?t going to be a power cut. But there was. Imagine the torture I endured for several hours until someone heard me and came to help me out. (A. B., 68)

Power consumption became rationalized. Consumption norms were established for blocks, neighborhoods, whole localities. Public institutions had a clearly drawn usage program. But control of private homes was impossible. So they chose to cut electric power for a variable number of hours per day. Power cuts were wholly unpredictable.

People found various solutions to replace the electric power and heat that the State took away from them: the power and heat ?surrogates? ? gas lamps, oil radiators, improvised heaters. (90)

We started to look for gas lamps in the countryside. We had two of them, with reserve glass bulbs. We had a hard time finding the lamp gas, which was traded for eggs in the countryside, and was very scarce in towns, and could only be found at gas stations on the periphery. (90)

When there was no power, we used gas lamps, which, if you were not careful with the wick, could give out a lot of smoke? But the power cuts were not that frequent, and when there was one, the children would go out and had a great time shouting, singing and raising hell. It didn?t bother me too much. Anyway we felt safe, no one was afraid that someone might come and hurt us or anything. Nothing of the sort.

It was the month of August, we?d just come back from the seaside and the other kids rushed to ask mom to let me out and play? and there was a power cut that lasted for about 15 or 20 minutes? and mom let me out, but only as long as the power cut lasted?so I went out and ran around a bit until power was on, and I was very upset I had to go back in? (S. C., 5)

I can still remember power cuts in the evening, and mom lighting the candles or the lamps. It sometimes lasted for 6 hours on end, and I, who had to go to school in the morning, didn?t even get to finish my homework. I wrote at candlelight or lamplight. It did happen several times that I went to school with unfinished homework, because of the power cuts. But when light was out and I happened to be alone in the house, I was really scared. My parents worked in the afternoon shift, and until they came home around 10 or 11 PM, it was hell. It often happened I had to stay there in the dark because I couldn?t find or didn?t have any candles. (O. S., 120)