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That fits with my impressions. I've met some Gulag survivors. A couple of them told me they had no idea why they were arrested and/or deported - one day, normal life was going on, and a few days later they were a thousand miles from home slaving away, for reasons totally unclear to them. It was Kafkaesque in the most literal sense (i.e. the fate of my namesake in "The Trial").
"Josef K."?
Aha-ha, I didn't figure that one out. My girl-friend back in Moscow liked reading Kafka ( she was ( well still is) an artistic type. But since she liked it, I put a mark on my list to never read it. All her "artsy" books were giving me indigestion, while she was finding everything I liked reading to be very "German" ( if I can use this word) and boring)))
But anyways, this is how the story goes ( the way I've heard it for the first time) of my family ( on mother's side);
When my grand-mother was five years old and my grand-aunt six, their parents were preparing them for what they should tell to the "kind people" who'd have heart to pick the orphans on the rail-way station, where their parents were planning to leave them, with small bundles of food. My great-grandfather was a NEPman ( meaning having his own business during New Economic Policy established by Lenin,) and later with a "new trend of thinking" in the government quite a few of these people were persecuted. The fact that he was a wealthy merchant before the revolution and his wife belonged to the old Russian gentry was not helping the family ( one could not be sure which reason exactly was putting them on a spot,) but they already knew that they were going to be deported, and they knew that their two young children wouldn't survive in the camp, so they were planning to leave them at the railway station.
There were three girls in family all together ( the first husband of my great-grandmother was the White Army officer from what I remember,) so the first girl was much older than the younger ones ( she was eighteen by that time.) That's an important fact to remember, because it happened to be so, that at this most crucial point she unexpectedly got married with some big wig in the Communist party. ( Well what do you know, there were a lot of good-looking women in this part of my family,) and as the story has it, her new husband asked his boss to ask Stalin personally to spare the family.
They were spared, but in many ways that as well has set the family apart, so I was witnessing family feud over the old events, being already the fourth generation)))
The story of Americans - mostly Communist idealists in the 1930s - who moved to the USSR to "build socialism." Most of them wound up in the Gulag. I haven't read the book, but it looks interesting. However, it doesn't fit Rebel's "Soviet Bloc" stipulation (that would be after World War II).
Josef I am not looking that much for gulag stories as we have this part documented but rather accounts by ordinary citizens who travelled to Soviet block countries and description of every day life in Soviet block as they saw it.
By the way, have you seen German movie The lives of others? What do you think?
Josef I am not looking that much for gulag stories as we have this part documented but rather accounts by ordinary citizens who travelled to Soviet block countries and description of every day life in Soviet block as they saw it.
By the way, have you seen German movie The lives of others? What do you think?
The Lives of Others is a very interesting and well-made movie. However, it's not completely accurate as to how the Stasi operated. For example, they wouldn't put one agent onto such long shifts for a high-value spying operation, precisely to prevent the sort of situation that developed in the movie (where the agent gets emotionally attached to the person he's spying on).
BTW, for a comical take on East Germany, see Goodbye, Lenin.
As for your request, I thought of a couple of travel books: Where Nights Are Longest by Colin Thubron (his trip through the Western part of the USSR around 1980), and The Big Red Train Ride by Eric Newby (account of the Trans-Siberian railway in the 1970s).
For some reason, I'm finding it harder to come up with stuff on the Warsaw Pact satellite countries that meets your criteria.
The Lives of Others is a very interesting and well-made movie. However, it's not completely accurate as to how the Stasi operated. For example, they wouldn't put one agent onto such long shifts for a high-value spying operation, precisely to prevent the sort of situation that developed in the movie (where the agent gets emotionally attached to the person he's spying on).
BTW, for a comical take on East Germany, see Goodbye, Lenin.
As for your request, I thought of a couple of travel books: Where Nights Are Longest by Colin Thubron (his trip through the Western part of the USSR around 1980), and The Big Red Train Ride by Eric Newby (account of the Trans-Siberian railway in the 1970s).
For some reason, I'm finding it harder to come up with stuff on the Warsaw Pact satellite countries that meets your criteria.
Lives of others was addressed to Western audiences so of course it was toned down and not 100% accurate but you have to admit the filmamkers paid attention to detail and depicted the atmosphere DDR in pretty accurate detail.
People in the West never really new what is the extent to which people living in the eastern block were under constant surveilance and also how difficult it was for an average citizen not to cooperate with the regime: if one wanted any kind of career: in sports, arts, science, army or statef administration, one had to compromised and be at least complacent.
There is a great moment where the neighbor who observed Stasi team is told that if she ever says anything the life of her family will be in danger.
That's who poeple became enslaved and forced to cooperate with the system.
It's a great movie and properly reflects dark and grim reality of live in Soviet Block. There are many people like Erasure here who want everybody believe that underneath that grim facade of Soviet regime there was more human face, yet from my experience it was the opposite: the human face of socialism was just a facade.
Josef, coming to Soviet Block from the West, even after being primed and prepared I could not believe what I saw. Being told about something and seen it is absolutely different. I saw scared and resigned people. Stupid joke or comment could get you in trouble, your coworkers and neighbors would denounce you to authorities just out of jealousy and police officers were gods who could do whatever they wanted and there was no place or a organization that people could go and complain of injustice.
I saw several Russian and otherf movies on the subject of life in Soviet Block countries yet Lives of Others is possibly the best in showing how can you subjugate entire societies and make people scared of their own thoughts. No wonder that all Soviet Block countries run away from Socialisim and any connections with Russia as fast as they could.
Thatnks for the sources, I am still waiting for someone to share their own experiences of visiting Soviet Block (including Soviet Union) ...
Josef, coming to Soviet Block from the West, even after being primed and prepared I could not believe what I saw. Being told about something and seen it is absolutely different. I saw scared and resigned people. Stupid joke or comment could get you in trouble, your coworkers and neighbors would denounce you to authorities just out of jealousy and police officers were gods who could do whatever they wanted and there was no place or a organization that people could go and complain of injustice.
Having spent several months in the USSR I know what you are talking about. However, I struggled to come up with a metaphor which would accurately represent life in the Bloc to people who hadn't experienced it directly. The best I could come up with: that it was like being stuck in a rather strict boarding school your whole life; or that it was like working for a company but not being able to leave the office at the end of the day.
Let's face it, "the free West" contains a lot of unfreedom. Mouthing off at your boss, or merely expressing unpopular opinions on certain topics, or even making a flip comment or joke, can get you fired, ostracized, or your life or career destroyed. And IMHO things are getting worse in this department, not better. This is more true in Europe than in America (with its stronger constitutional protection of free speech), but it happens in America too.
It's a great movie and properly reflects dark and grim reality of live in Soviet Block. There are many people like Erasure here who want everybody believe that underneath that grim facade of Soviet regime there was more human face, yet from my experience it was the opposite: the human face of socialism was just a facade.
There was more human face to it, ironically. That's what a lot of Russians understood in particular after the collapse of the Soviet system.
What they've realized, is that the unlimited power of money and the rich can be as ruthless and destructive as the power of the Soviet ideology, ( if not worse in certain departments.)
Having spent several months in the USSR I know what you are talking about. However, I struggled to come up with a metaphor which would accurately represent life in the Bloc to people who hadn't experienced it directly. The best I could come up with: that it was like being stuck in a rather strict boarding school your whole life; or that it was like working for a company but not being able to leave the office at the end of the day.
Let's face it, "the free West" contains a lot of unfreedom. Mouthing off at your boss, or merely expressing unpopular opinions on certain topics, or even making a flip comment or joke, can get you fired, ostracized, or your life or career destroyed. And IMHO things are getting worse in this department, not better. This is more true in Europe than in America (with its stronger constitutional protection of free speech), but it happens in America too.
Josef. The west is not free in an absolute terms. Of course immersed in a society and economics you have to comply with its standards. The difference however is that if you really want to you can get out of this system, you can even immigrate to a more suitable place. People in Russia and Soviet Block countries only dreamt about such opportunity and many simply escpaed at first opportunity.
There was more human face to it, ironically. That's what a lot of Russians understood in particular after the collapse of the Soviet system.
What they've realized, is that the unlimited power of money and the rich can be as ruthless and destructive as the power of the Soviet ideology, ( if not worse in certain departments.)
Maybe Russsians did but people opressed by Soviet System in former Soviet Block countries did not. For them there was no human face of the Soviet system. All of the former Soviet Block countries abandoned socialism and any asociation with Russia as soon as it was possible.
For me Soviet Union only had a human facade, I remember posters with smiling Russian kids, I remember propaganda talking about how happy they are when in fact the Soviet State could not provide them with much.
During Chernobyl catastrophe Soviet government did not care to disclose full extent of environmental impact even though doing so would save many lives. Then again, since when Soviets were ever concerned with human life?
Maybe Russsian did but may people opressed by Soviet System in former Soviet Block countries did not. For them there was no human face of the Soviet system.
We've gone over this before, but worth repeating: this isn't just a "Russian thing." You will find higher levels of communist nostalgia in countries like Hungary and the Central Asian republics than in Russia. This article by a Hungarian is an example:
We've gone over this before, but worth repeating: this isn't just a "Russian thing." You will find higher levels of communist nostalgia in countries like Hungary and the Central Asian republics than in Russia. This article by a Hungarian is an example:
I don't think this is the case of nostalgy. I have Polish friends in Florida and I know from them that nobody really misses communism in Poland, which is reflected in how people vote. There is however certain element of nostalgia as this is when these people spent their youth. Nobody misses neing beat up by police or expelled for your views from communist university yet I think it is hard to forget where you were when you were 18.
For many it is also a kind of "black humor" and for other not much more than a prop since they are too young to remember these times.
Talk you to young Hungarians or Czechs: most of them don't believe that only 30 years ago Western music was banned from the radio and every newspaper, book or TV program was censored for political complacency with the system.
Realities of Soviet Block were after all so absurd that many young people today can't simply can't believe that they actually happened.
Last edited by rebel12; 10-06-2012 at 11:06 PM..
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and as the story has it, her new husband asked his boss to ask Stalin personally to spare the family.
