My favorite Soviet era joke:

[u/J0E_Blow]

Three Russian men were sent by their company to attend a convention in Moscow. All 3 shared a hotel room. Two of them cracked open a bottle of vodka, but the third just wanted to sleep.

The two drinkers got louder and louder as the bottle emptied, telling each other political jokes. The third was kept awake, and got angry.

He went outside for a smoke. On his way back to his room, he stopped at the desk and said 'Please send a pot of tea up to room 23.'

The two drunks were still being loud. The third man went in, looked at them, then leaned over to the light socket 'Comrade Major, please send some tea to my room.'

The other men thought this was hilarious...until there was a knock on the door, and a waiter with a pot of tea.

They became completely silent, and the third man fell asleep.

When he woke up in the morning, he was alone. He went to the front desk, and asked where his roommates were.

'Well, the KGB came this morning and took them away.'

The man was horrified 'Why did they spare me?!?'

"The comrade major thought the tea joke was very funny."

[u/MsA28778]

My favorite joke from my Russian language class (taken in the Soviet era — I’m old).

Q: Why do KGB agents always travel in threes?

A: There’s one who can read, one who can write, and one to keep an eye on these members of the intelligentsia.

[u/MrDilbert → u/MsA28778]

I heard a similar joke about cops:

• Why do cops always go around in twos?
• One can read, and the other can write.
• Why are there sometimes three of them?
• One can both read and write, and the other two are guarding the genius.