It seems that whenever, in a tv show or movie, Soviet characters are introduced, they call each other "Comrade" in place of their name or title. How accurate is this? I was born after the USSR's fall, so I'm pretty unfamiliar with it, and my only family members who visited/lived there are long dead, which means I don't have anyone to ask personally.
Cannot say for Soviet Union but in socialist Yugoslavia the term Comrade was widespread in day to day conversation and especially in the media. The titles of Mister or Mrs. were seen as capitalist and therefore replaced with terms: "Drug" (lit. friend, comrade) for males and "Drugarica" (girl-friend, feminine form of 'drug'). In south Slavic languages, the term ''Gospodin'' (mister) carries certain authority that implies some dominance of that person above others. In socialist society where equality was one of main postulates it was seen as inappropriate.
In all formal occasions it was expected to address people as Drug or Drugarica, for example in school or a workplace. Nearly every speech from that time begins with ''Drugarice i drugovi!''
It is difficult to find translated examples but here's an example of a speech by Josip Broz Tito also known as "Drug Tito" (Comrade Tito). In it he uses the term in several places addressing Soviet leaders as comrades.
Edited for clarity, fixed link
I don't know why people always say they can't link when on phone. I did it
As a related side note, in Communist China "comrade", or 同志 tóngzhì, used to be frequently used among communists since revolutionary days. It was promoted after the creation of the PRC as it maintains ambiguity between the speakers. In Chinese one often calls out another by using terms that can imply some subordination link (师傅 shīfu master, 老师 lǎoshī teacher, 小姐 xiǎojie miss, etc) and communists preferred a more neutral term. It could be employed to imply a proximity between the two speakers and fitted with the communist frame of view against the more traditional confucean respect for hiercharchy. 同 tóng means same, 志 zhì means purpose, ambition, will.
Now where it becomes interesting, is that the term was reappropriated by the gay and lesbian activists in the 80's who used it to describe their shared goal of equality with heterosexuals. It is still used to this day in the political discourse but no ordinary Chinese would contemplate calling another "comrade" because of the homosexual implications.
Sources:
C. M. Scotton and Z. Wanjin, Tóngzhì in China: Language change and its conversational consequences, 1983
C. Wah-Shan, Homosexuality and the Cultural Politics of Tongzhi in Chinese Societies, 2008
Y. Chen, Tongzhi in China: A Social Marker or Not?, 2012
Before the revolution, the Russian honorific closest to "mister" was "gospodin," but that has serious implications of nobility (two workers in a factory wouldn't call each other gospodin, but they would call their boss gospodin). With the aristocracy gone, it didn't seem right to keep referring to each other as aristocrats. Also, all the ranks in the military except one officer rank and the politicall officers were gotten rid of. Tovarishch (last consonant cluster is pronounced like the middle of "fresh sheets") was a politically expedient title for people in the military and government and it spread from there.
For example, in WWII you did not have a lieutenant, because you were all good communists and you were all equal. You had a comrade-lieutenant.
It's comparable to how after the French Revolution, everyone went around calling each other citoyen (citizen) because monsieur/madame reminded everyone of the aristocracy.
Edit: I don't know how much the average Soviet citizen would call people comrade in their daily lives, but I don't think it was uncommon, especially for people in the military.
Can't speak for the Russians, but in Czechoslovakia, comrade ("soudruh" or it's female version, "soudružka") was really used pretty much like in the movies - it was an offical political way to address someone. It's use was often demanded in schools, in politics, interacting with local authorities etc. It was also forced to the public through movies, television and other media. It didn't really catch on among the general public, except for some more politically active people.
It was used in almost all cases where "Mister" and "Mistress" are currently used in English. However, there's a significant overlap with first name + patronymic term of address.
FN+P is generally a direct form of address and generally carries some notion of respect or authority. It can be used to refer to a third person when both speakers know that person. For example, teachers are always addressed as FN+P. Or another example from a Soviet comedy: Lyolik, a crook, says, "I have to parlay with the boss first". Gorbunkov, a naive protagonist, thinks Lyolik is a cop and asks, "You mean, with Mikhail Ivanovich?", meaning another, more high-ranked policeman who organized the sting operation.
Comrade+LN was a more formal term of address, showing some distance between the speakers or a shared code of conduct. This is why it is still being used in the Russian Army. As an example, a master being praised or blamed during a meeting would be referred to or addressed as Comrade+LN. Party officials would also call each other Comrade+LN during party meetings.
On the other hand, if this master's boss needed a favor from him or just wanted to have a friendly chat, he would address the master FN+P. The master would use FN+P as well, since his boss is his superior. But if there was a foul-up and the boss wanted to punish the master, he'd summon the master and say, "Comrade Smirnov, that and that was clearly unacceptable".
Finally, "Comrade" was a generic term to address a stranger. A policeman would call you "Citizen", but anyone else would shout out "Comrade with a red bag! You've dropped your wallet!"
Great and interesting question! As a few others have probably already stated, it really was quite common. There is a slight nuance to the reason/explanation. Traditionally in Russian culture, one does not call a person "Mister" or "Miss[us]" when addressing them formally. It it is much more common to address them by their first name (имя, imja/imya) and patronymic (отчество, otchestvo). This would be a bit like calling someone by their first and middle names here in the West. So as an example, Putin is not usually addressed as "Mister" or even "President" in formal situations, but as "Владимир Владимирович," "Vladimir Vladimirovich."
While they did (and still do) have a version of "Mister" (господин, gospodin) it had definite aristocratic connotations -- a better translation might be "lord." For instance, in a religious context, God is often addressed as "Господи," or "Lord" (in the vocative case) used in a slightly different sense.
So after the Revolution, "товарищ" -- as others have said, best translated as "comrade" -- was a much more egalitarian alternative, not unlike the French "citoyen/citoyenne," which were used during the time of their own Revolution, if I'm not mistaken.
Source: Student of Russian.
Socialist Romania would use the term tovarăș, pretty much taken directly from Russian. It was a widespread term, since it was the official terminology to address a fellow communist. In a public or official environment it would be ubiquitous, in a familiar one, it would come down to individual preference and trust between the participants in the conversation.
I'm not a historian but rather a student of Russian politics. I think I have a solid enough background in Russian/Soviet history to say with confidence that comrade (or tovarishch in Russian) was widely used as a title in the Soviet Union. In the spirit of equality under the Marxist-Leninist ideology, members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union did not use titles when addressing other people, except for "comrade." In official documents and newspaper articles, leaders are referred to as "Comrade" instead of "Mr." or "President" or "Secretary."
The practice of referring to others as comrade began in revolutionary circles in the late 19th century. So people who were eager to show that they were loyal communists (especially after the revolution) commonly used the term. By the mid 1930's all people had reason to be seen as loyal communists (lest they fall victim to one of Stalin's purges) and the term was used throughout the country. In everyday life, it was used as a neutral, all-purpose way to address another person. You could use it for friends, acquaintances, colleagues, and strangers you needed to interact with. You can commonly find people referring to each other as comrade in Soviet films, reflecting both the Party's desire for people to use the term and the reality of the term's use.
The term lost popularity in the 80's when glasnost cemented many people's opposition to the regime. When the Soviet Union disbanded, it fell into near total disuse. Last time I was in Russia, I jokingly called a friend comrade and he responded by giving me the finger (half jokingly, half seriously). I've read that some hipster-types use the term ironically though I've never personally witnessed it.
While I can't speak for all countries in the Soviet Bloc at the time, in Hungary and Transylvania, it was fairly common. The Hungarian "Elvtárs" and "Elvtársnő" were basically the male and female equivalents of Comrade.
As others have mentioned, a good way to think about it is to take any situation where you'd address someone as Mr./Ms/Mrs. or by any other honorific, and replace that With Comrade.
This also varied a bit depending on the social circles you moved in, how "official" the setting and the relationship was and "who was watching" so to speak.
Edit: Some things I forgot to mention that just came to me.
While Elvtárs is the direct Hungarian equivalent of Comrade, it's a poor translation. The root word is "elv" which means "principle and (to a lesser extent) ideal" and "társ" means "partner / associate / mate / fellow". This kind of gives you a better (or at least more accurate) idea of the sentiment or meaning behind the word.
In the Soviet Uniton it was the same. The word for it was "tovarishch" in Russian, "biedrs" in Latvian and I guess there was something like this in every language. In official language you had to use them the same as mr.
I grew up in Soviet Republic of Estonia and none of the words mentioned in this thread were used in everyday lives. Each of the words has/had a slightly different meaning and were used only in case someone wanted to specifically convey that meaning.
In addition, the patronyms were not used either, just first (and last) name.
The takeaway is that there definately were pockets of USSR where things were different.
Hungarian here. Calling each other Comrade meant you both are party members. Originally was forbidden to call not party members so, and joining the party was not easy at all, people had to "earn" it, so comrade was kind of seen as a title of honor. It became more widespread later on, although coworkers would called a different title, soldiers called each other different titles and so on, so using this title indicated that you are talking in a political, ideological context.
Hungarian: elvtárs = comrade, kartárs = coworker so it would work roughly like this:
So its usage would indicate a political context.
I live in South America and have communist friends who refer each other as comrades, or even tovarisch.