{"id":39,"date":"2020-04-04T09:45:31","date_gmt":"2020-04-04T08:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diplomaticpost.co.uk\/?p=10"},"modified":"2020-04-04T09:45:31","modified_gmt":"2020-04-04T08:45:31","slug":"communist-nostalgia-as-the-reality-of-bourgeois-democracy-hits-home-in-eastern-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diplomaticpost.co.uk\/communist-nostalgia-as-the-reality-of-bourgeois-democracy-hits-home-in-eastern-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Communist Nostalgia As The Reality Of Bourgeois Democracy Hits Home In Eastern Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Stalins approval rating hit a recent high in Russia as the reality of capitalism hits home<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

Stalins approval rating hit a record high amongst Russians recently showing a 70 percent approval rating of Josef Stalin published by the independent Levada Center pollster. (Stalin\u2019s Approval Rating Among Russians Hits Record High \u2014 Pol<\/a>, The Moscow Times, 16 April 2019)<\/p>\n\n\n

With this in mind it is worth examining some of the polls coming out of ex-socialist countries. Around about the time of 2010 up to the present a set of polls have been conducted in each post-socialist country. Having experienced 20 years of the wonderful free market experience a number of publications seemed to be shocked at the responses to them. The bourgeois press (from the Economist to Der Spiegel) couched this surprise longing for their socialist systems as \u2018nostalgia\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n

A fine continuation of the twist of words to suit their agenda when discussing really existing socialist states.<\/p>\n\n\n

This kind of con game has long existed when discussing any country that doesn\u2019t have a system of government the west approves of. You can see versions of these arguments in the Economist and Spiegel articles(linked below).<\/p>\n\n\n

Where any piece of data can be used as an attack on those states. \u201cIf the young want socialism their young and naive and not experienced enough in life. If the old that lived under socialism want their socialist systems back their \u2018nostalgic\u2019 for their youth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

The old instead provided detailed and nuanced reasons as to the reason they preferred their socialist systems. This is all the more remarkable given that most of those old enough to have lived under their socialist systems did so when revisionism was busy uprooting socialism. The years they experienced were the years of stagnation and decline which paved the way for full counter-revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Hungary<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cA remarkable 72% of Hungarians say that most people in their country are actually worse off today economically than they were under communism. Only 8% say most people in Hungary are better off, and 16% say things are about the same. In no other Central or Eastern European country surveyed did so many believe that economic life is worse now than during the communist era. This is the result of almost universal displeasure with the economy. Fully 94% describe the country\u2019s economy as bad, the highest level of economic discontent in the hard hit region of Central and Eastern Europe. Just 46% of Hungarians approve of their country\u2019s switch from a state-controlled economy to a market economy; 42% disapprove of the move away from communism. The public is even more negative toward Hungary\u2019s integration into Europe; 71% say their country has been weakened by the process.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

(<\/em>Hungary: Better Off Under Communism?<\/a> Pew Research, April 28 2010)<\/p>\n\n\n

East Germany<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cToday, 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, 57 percent, or an absolute majority, of eastern Germans defend the former East Germany. \u201cThe GDR had more good sides than bad sides. There were some problems, but life was good there,\u201d say 49 percent of those polled. Eight percent of eastern Germans flatly oppose all criticism of their former home and agree with the statement: \u201cThe GDR had, for the most part, good sides. Life there was happier and better than in reunified Germany today.\u201d (<\/em>Majority of Eastern Germans Feel Life Better under Communism<\/em><\/a>, Spiegel, July 03 2009)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

Romania<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n

The most incredible result was registered in a July 2010 IRES (Romanian Institute for Evaluation and Strategy) poll, according to which 41% of the respondents would have voted for Ceausescu, had he run for the position of president. And 63% of the survey participants said their life was better during communism, while only 23% attested that their life was worse then. Some 68% declared that communism was a good idea, just one that had been poorly applied.<\/p>\n\n\n

(In Romania, Opinion Polls Show nostalgia For Communism, <\/a>Balkan Analysis, 2011)<\/p>\n\n\n

Czech Republic<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

Roughly 28 percent of Czechs say they were better off under the Communist regime, according to a poll conducted by the polling institute SC&C and released Sunday.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

Only 23 percent said they had a better life now.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

More goods in shops, open borders and better cultural offer are considered the biggest successes of the system that was installed after 1989.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

On the other hand, the voucher privatisation, the worsening of human relations and work of the civil service are its biggest flaws, most Czechs said.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

(Poll: Many Czechs say they had better life under Communism,<\/a> Prague Daily Monitor, November 21 2011)<\/p>\n\n\n

Serbia<\/strong> :<\/p>\n\n\n

A poll shows that as many as 81 per cent of Serbians believe they lived best in the former Yugoslavia -\u201dduring the time of socialism\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

The survey focused on the respondents\u2019 views on the transition \u201cfrom socialism to capitalism\u201d, and a clear majority said they trusted social institutions the most during the rule of Yugoslav communist president Josip Broz Tito.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

The standard of living during Tito\u2019s rule from the Second World War to the 1980s was also assessed as best, whereas the Milosevic decade of the 1990s, and the subsequent decade since the fall of his regime are seen as \u201cmore or less the same\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

45 percent said they trusted social institutions most under communism with 23 percent chosing the 2001\u20132003 period when Zoran Djin\u0111ic was prime minister. Only 19 per cent selected present-day institutions.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

(Serbia Poll: Life Was Better Under Tito,<\/a> BalkanInsight, December 24 2010)<\/p>\n\n\n

Russia<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

The majority of Russians polled in a 2016 study said they would prefer living under the old Soviet Union and would like to see the socialist system and the Soviet state restored.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

(Most Russians Prefer Return of Soviet Union and Socialism: Poll<\/a>, Telesur, August 19 2017)<\/p>\n\n\n

Ex-Soviet bloc<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

Reflecting back on the breakup of the Soviet Union that happened 22 years ago next week, residents in seven out of 11 countries that were part of the union are more likely to believe its collapse harmed their countries than benefited them. Only Azerbaijanis, Kazakhstanis, and Turkmens are more likely to see benefit than harm from the breakup. Georgians are divided.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

(Former Soviet Countries See More Harm From Breakup,<\/a> Gallup, December 19 2013)<\/p>\n\n\n

Ukraine, Lithuania and Bulgaria<\/p>\n\n\n

The poll showed 30 percent of Ukrainians approved of the change to democracy in 2009, down from 72 percent in 1991. In Bulgaria and Lithuania the slide was to just over half the population from nearer three-quarters in 1991.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

(SPECIAL REPORT: In eastern Europe, people pine for socialism<\/a>, Reuters, November 8 2009)<\/h1>\n\n\n

Ex-Yugoslav states<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

People in the former Yugoslav countries, scarred by the ethnic wars from the 1990s and still outside the EU, are nostalgic for the socialist era of Josip Broz Tito when, unlike now, they traveled across Europe without visa.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cEverything was better then. There was no street crime, jobs were safe and salaries were enough for decent living,\u201d said Belgrade pensioner Koviljka Markovic, 70. \u201cToday I can hardly survive with my pension of 250 euros ($370 a month).\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

Bulgaria<\/strong> (seen as a golden era)<\/p>\n\n\n

In Bulgaria, the 33-year rule of the late dictator Todor Zhivkov begins to seem a golden era to some in comparison with the raging corruption and crime that followed his demise.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

Over 60 percent say they lived better in the past, even though shopping queues were routine, social connections were the only way to obtain more valuable goods, jeans and Coca Cola were off-limits and it took up to 10 years\u2019 waiting to buy a car.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cFor part of the Bulgarians (social) security turned out to be more precious than freedom,\u201d wrote historians Andrei Pantev and Bozhidar Gavrilov in a book on the 100 most influential people in the Balkan country\u2019s history.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

(<\/em>SPECIAL REPORT: In eastern Europe, people pine for socialism<\/em><\/a>, Reuters, November 8 2009)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

Why People Miss Their Socialist Systems<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

It\u2019s seemingly easy for the bourgeois press who have to report these unfavourable findings to dismiss them as mere nostalgia. \u201cOh everyone loved their youth,\u201d they clamour, \u201cit is their youth they are nostalgic for not socialism!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

It\u2019s therefore worth taking a look at what people themselves have to say about their lived realities.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cMost East German citizens had a nice life,\u201d he says. \u201cI certainly don\u2019t think that it\u2019s better here.\u201d By \u201chere,\u201d he means reunified Germany, which he subjects to questionable comparisons. \u201cIn the past there was the Stasi, and today (German Interior Minister Wolfgang) Sch\u00e4uble \u2014 or the GEZ (the fee collection centre of Germany\u2019s public broadcasting institutions) \u2014 are collecting information about us.\u201d In Birger\u2019s opinion, there is no fundamental difference between dictatorship and freedom. \u201cThe people who live on the poverty line today also lack the freedom to travel.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cFrom today\u2019s perspective, <\/em>I believe that we were driven out of paradise when the Wall came down,\u201d one person writes, and a 38-year-old man \u201cthanks God\u201d that he was able to experience living in the GDR, noting that it wasn\u2019t until after German reunification that he witnessed people who feared for their existence, beggars and homeless people. <\/em><\/strong>(<\/em>Majority of Eastern Germans Feel Life Better under Communism<\/em><\/a>, Spiegel, July 03 2009)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

Fortunately for us communists, Schroeder also has this to say:<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cI am afraid that a majority of eastern Germans do not identify with the current sociopolitical system.\u201d(Ibid)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

For the GDR we can see it doesn\u2019t seem to be nostalgia. There is no fundamental difference to a lack of being able to travel and being too poor to travel. Both have the same result. The fear the free market has driven into people, some of whom have ended up as \u2018beggars\u2019 and \u2018homeless\u2019 does not seem like a particular part of nostalgia either. Except maybe nostalgia to not become homeless or a beggar.<\/p>\n\n\n

Another point of attack we often see in the bourgeois press is that those that miss their socialist system do so because they were the poor and outs too comfortable in the security of the state. Here a successful businessman admits he has done quite well for himself under reunification and counter-revolution:<\/p>\n\n\n

Another man, a 51 year old who remarks that \u2018\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt it: I\u2019ve been fortunate,\u201dwhen he set up his business post reunification and did quite well for himself. This well to do man remarks<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cIn the past, a campground was a place where people enjoyed their freedom together,\u201d he says. What he misses most today is \u201cthat feeling of companionship and solidarity.\u201d(Ibid)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

And summing up bourgeois democracy quite succinctly:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cAs far as I\u2019m concerned, what we had in those days was less of a dictatorship than what we have today.<\/em><\/strong>\u201d<\/em>(Ibid)<\/p>\n\n\n

For Romania the article concludes that it is not some nostalgia for their communist past but \u201cpeople have felt increasing social and economic pressures and therefore their desire for social security guarantees has increased, regardless of education levels, age or social status.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

In other words the economic security has worsened under capitalism and an increase of economic pressure has been the result.<\/p>\n\n\n

For the Russians the missing of their socialist systems is simple \u2014 in 2017 Russians were spending more than half their income on food (Most Russians Prefer Return of Soviet Union and Socialism: Poll<\/a>, Telesur, August 19 2017). The return of capitalism has meant a complete stripping away of any security for the vast majority and incredible enrichment for a miniscule minority.<\/p>\n\n\n

For Bulgarians the issue is the same \u2014 the bulk of their income is now going on food:<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cWe lived better in the past,\u201d said Anelia Beeva, 31. \u201cWe went on holidays to the coast and the mountains, there were plenty of clothes, shoes, food. And now the biggest chunk of our incomes is spent on food. People with university degrees are unemployed and many go abroad.\u201d (<\/em>SPECIAL REPORT: In eastern Europe, people pine for socialism<\/em><\/a>, Reuters, November 8 2009)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

The worrying increase of Americanisation also seeping into Bulgarian culture as American influence is felt:<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cBulgaria is becoming Americanized,\u201d said renowned Bulgarian artist, Nikola Manev, who lives in Paris. \u201cI pick up the phone and they talk to me in English, I go to a restaurant and it\u2019s called Miami. Don\u2019t we have our own names for God\u2019s sake?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cLooking on the surface, I see new buildings, shops, shiny cars. But people have become sadder, more aggressive and unhappy,\u201d he said, prescribing spiritual cures.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

This autumn for the first time in many years, tickets at Sofia\u2019s theatres are selling out weeks in advance. (Ibid)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

Disillusionment With Bourgeois Democracy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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We can see also this has gone hand in glove with a disillusionment with bourgeois democracy. In fact the only 2 countries polled out of the 8 countries here were marked \u2018satisfied\u2019 with their democracy. (https:\/\/www.pewglobal.org\/2010\/04\/07\/hungary-dissatisfied-with-democracy-but-not-its-ideals\/<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n

Another common myth the bourgeois press propagated prior to the overthrow of socialism in 1989 was that Eastern Europe was somehow imprisoned in the soviet system. The term \u2018captive nations\u2019 was everywhere in the bourgeois press. The president of the US was required every year to declare something called \u2018Captive Nations Week\u2019. At the time people of Eastern Europe did not consider themselves \u2018captive\u2019 and even laughed at the term. (Eastern Europe: A Communist Kaleidoscope<\/a>, John Dornberg, 1980).<\/p>\n\n\n

Another implication from the bourgeois press and its propagandists was that Eastern Europe was \u2018free\u2019 prior to becoming the Eastern Bloc. Instead all states with the exception of Czechoslovakia were ruled by oppressive and dictatorial monarchs or despots of one kind or another.<\/p>\n\n\n

This disillusionment for bourgeois democracy can be seen with regard to Hungary. For instance, 70% think it is very important to live in a country with honest multiparty elections<\/em>, but only 17% believe this describes Hungary very well.<\/p>\n\n\n

The liberals who read this worry about a disillusionment with democracy and not the fact that bourgeois democracy is an illusion of democracy. In the West you can change the ruling party or president but you can\u2019t change the policies. The policies of privatisation of public services which can then be stripped and then be turned into profit seeking ventures. Rentiers on the local economy seeking to galvanise from the citizenry as much as it can get it\u2019s blood soaked hands on.<\/p>\n\n\n

This was beautifully illustrated by the EuroMaidan press putting out a propaganda poster recently in showing how \u2018democratic\u2019 Ukraine is versus Russia and Belarus.<\/p>\n\n\n

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One might also put out a propaganda poster of the GDP per capita of the 3 countries since 2000.<\/p>\n\n\n

GDP per capita in 2000<\/p>\n\n\n

Russia $1771<\/p>\n\n\n

Belarus $1276<\/p>\n\n\n

Ukraine $635<\/p>\n\n\n

(GDP per capita (current US$)<\/a>, World Bank)<\/p>\n\n\n

GDP per capita in 2017<\/p>\n\n\n

Russia $27,900<\/p>\n\n\n

Belarus $18,900<\/p>\n\n\n

Ukraine $8,800<\/p>\n\n\n

(GDP Per Capita,<\/a> CIA World Factbook)<\/p>\n\n\n

The culmination of Ukraine\u2019s democracy (it\u2019s rotation of corrupt plutocrats) has led to the election of a comedian with no political experience.<\/p>\n\n\n

The Hollowing Out Of The Labour Force As Western Markets Snap Up Their Labour Markets<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

The troubling economic situations in some of the post soviet countries is worsened by demographic decline. With the return of the ills of unemployment which has been accompanied by a huge drop in the birth rate. As mass privatisation and de-industrialisation entered the former GDR the former GDR required mass West German subsidies of 130 billion annually to the crumbling East German economy which has still not recovered.<\/p>\n\n\n

With ahopeless situation where they grew up East Germans migrated en mass. A stunning population decrease of 2.2 million people from 16.7 million in mid-1989 to 14.5 million in 2005. (Communist nostalgia in Eastern Europe: longing for the past<\/a>, Open Democracy, November 10 2015).<\/p>\n\n\n

In Bulgaria the devastating ramifications of economic privatisation and \u2018democratic transition\u2019 was the loss of jobs and professional occupations in Bulgarian villages.<\/p>\n\n\n

Mike Donkin, a BBC reporter and journalist, stated in 2006 that Bulgaria had the fastest rate of population decline in all of Europe: \u201cand the sense of abandonment is even greater in the countryside\u2026Scattered across the landscape now are dozens of deserted or almost deserted villages<\/a>\u201d. (Post Communist Nostalgia<\/a>, Maria Todorova and Zsuzsa Gille, 2010)<\/p>\n\n\n

The negligent liquidation of collective farms reduced them to subsistence farming and production (a 19th century mechanism). For these reasons Bulgaria has suffered economic and social devastation since the fall of socialism. This is why a strong sense of communist nostalgia exists today in Bulgaria, especially in the countryside. Again the young have had to leave the countryside. Most even opting to leave Bulgaria altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n

The same thing has happened to Poland.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cPoland is in a more dramatic version of the cycle of decline in which Britain found itself during the 1970s when we lost a net half a million residents over several years. As people leave, the economy is suppressed which encourages yet more people to up sticks and seek better opportunities abroad.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

And of course it tends to be the most entrepreneurial people who leave, while more conservative-minded workers stay behind. Job-creating businesses which might have been set up in Warsaw or Krakow end up being established in London or Berlin.\u201d<\/em>(Poland asking workers to come home is shocking indictment of EU membership says Ross Clark<\/a>, The Express, August 24 2019)<\/p>\n\n\n

The Polish economy was hit particularly hard by the 2008\/2009 crisis. Yet for the economy to be smaller in 2015 than it was in 2008 is a shocking indictment of the plundering of the East European economies.(Ibid)<\/p>\n\n\n

These issues of course are not some accident. They are the result of the anarchy of the market in which competing capitalist nations viciously compete to plunder raw resources, cheap labour, export opportunities and markets. Eastern Europe was systematically de-industrialised. They were to be places to dump western goods. And with the de industrialisation of their economies the jobs went to the west. The young packed their bags and left to seek jobs in Germany, Britain and France.<\/p>\n\n\n

The hopes of the petty bourgeois, the intellectuals and counter revolutionaries that assisted in the dismantling of the Soviet and Yugoslav systems had hoped to become like capitalist United States, Britain and Germany. Instead they have become like capitalist Mexico \u2014 a source of cheap labour for Western Europe\/North America. We can see how the bourgeois press has reacted to the developments in Poland with the New Yorker publishing such headlines as Is Poland Retreating from Democracy?<\/em><\/a>Or Politico with Is Poland a failing democracy?<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

The answer to Politico\u2019s question is a resounding yes.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

Having ruthlessly smashed the communists in Poland and 3 decades of Polish Nationalist propaganda means there is not room in Polish society to manoeuvrer to the left. The plummeting birthrates, the young Polish abandoning the country has brought the spectre of fascism to the fore.<\/p>\n\n\n

The Technological And Social Achievements Made During The Soviet Era<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

Socialism prompted an incredible leap forward in social and economic development. These were accompanied by huge investments in social programmes and public services. From healthcare to education and day-care centres were either free of charge. Social programmes and public services that were previously denied to hundreds of millions of people prior to World War 2.<\/p>\n\n\n

The communist system succeeded in transmitting socialist values to the populations of Eastern Europe but also in industrialising and radically transforming their economies. Huge infrastructure projects, manufacturing and industry dominated the economies in Eastern Europe. Prior to World War 2 their economies were largely agrarian and undeveloped.<\/p>\n\n\n

By the late 1970s, for example, Poland\u2019s state-owned steel company, Zjednoczenie Hutnictwa Zelasa i Stali,was bigger than Britains at the time. It ranked one notch ahead of Bethlehem Steel Corporation and one behind United States Steel in the world output listing. The Peoples Republic of Poland was also a major copper producer and exporter. The fourth largest coal producer in the world. Behind US, Russia and China. In the 1970s the Polish mining industry was so modernised it even sold machinery and expertise to the United States. (Eastern Europe: A Communist Kaleidoscope<\/a>, John Dornberg, 1980).<\/p>\n\n\n

Bulgaria completely industrialised its agricultural sector in the same time period. With 170 agro-industrial complexes which provided all of Europe with fresh fruits and vegetables, high-quality canned goods and preserves. One of Bulgaria’s state owned companies also managed Europe\u2019s largest international lorry fleets which carried tomatoes from Sofia to Denmark, black sea grapes to Holland and West German tools to Turkey. (Ibid)<\/p>\n\n\n

Hungary became the largest manufacturer of cross-country and city buses in all of Europe. Throughout the 1970s the Ikarus factory exported buses to the US for their municipal transit systems in Portland, Oregon, and Los Angeles. The Hungarian Peoples Republic was also advanced in the high technology of the time with the state-owned company Videoton producing equipment in electronics and data processing. Videoton was doing more than $300 million worth of business annually. (Ibid)<\/p>\n\n\n

The incredible levels of economic and social progress largely attributed to the healthcare and education programmes is a cornerstone to the growing disillusionment with bourgeois democracy and the capitalist system. The downturns following the counter-revolution have produced major public disapproval.<\/p>\n\n\n

For some of the east European countries this has led to a serious questioning of their decisions. Of a worse life than under post-soviet or Yugoslav conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n

For Poland (one of the countries to receive the most EU investment in an attempt to make it a \u2018model\u2019 for post socialist countries) this has meant a fundamental doubling down as the Catholic Church has returned to the fore of Polish society. This has involved the revival of a pre-World War 2 \u2018tradition\u2019 of teaching children to beat a Jewish effigy before hanging and burning it. (Jewish effigy hanged and burned in \u2018disturbing\u2019 Easter ritual in Poland<\/a>, The Independent, 23 April 2019 )<\/p>\n\n\n