ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Fartsovka

Farts-ov-ka is a funny word for something that people used to do a long, long time ago when they lived in a very different kind of world. Back then, there were some things that were really hard to find, like toys or candy or pretty clothes. But some people were really smart and figured out a way to get those things even if they were really hard to find. And that was called "fartsovka".

Here's how it worked:

People who knew how to fartsovka would find things that were really hard to come by, like I said before. Maybe they found some nice clothing or shoes or something like that. Then, they would take those things to a different place where they weren't so hard to find. This was usually somewhere far away, like in a different country. They would sell those hard-to-find things for a lot more money than they paid for them, because people in that other place really wanted those things.

Then, they would take all that money and buy even more things that were hard to find and bring them back to where they started. They would sell those things too, and the cycle would keep going.

Of course, fartsovka was kind of a sneaky thing to do, so not everyone was happy about it. But for the people who knew how to do it, it was a way to get things they otherwise wouldn't be able to have, and maybe even make a little bit of money too!
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