So, were the Soviets as bad as they were cracked up to be?

---

6/3/08


Yesterday we met with a professor at the Technical University of Dresden. Someone asked a question that I was sure was ridiculous. They asked if anyone in the community wishes they were still under Soviet control. I scoffed but then felt a little bashful as the professor said that many people do. Here is why…

We joke about the ugly apartments that the Soviets built. They are all grey, there is no paint at all on them and they are eye sores. These were given to people when they got married. Well they are small and pretty awful. People during the Soviet era did not care as much however because they had daycare, health care, women’s groups, and other various avenues for social interaction. Women could go to work because their children were cared for. Now, the people cannot afford to leave the awful apartments, there is no longer free childcare so women have to stay home to care for the children and there is no second income that could help them move out of the apartment, all the social groups are gone and people are bitter about it. I frankly don’t blame them. If I had all that and lost it and was stuck in this awful apartment, I would be more than a little upset myself.

It is so hard to make a judgment as to whether they were good or bad. I definitely think they fall in that gray area. Plus, I think it’s more of a case by case basis. To their own people they were pretty horrible. I think they did try to do more good in places where they knew there could be scrutiny, such as Germany.

Today we got to see the Berlin wall. That was amazing! All ideas I had of it were completely false. It surrounded what was called West Berlin. It is funny that it is known as the “free” part of Berlin, but actually it was the side that was surrounded by walls. The West Berlin part allowed people to graffiti the walls and such. On the East Berlin side, there was a death zone where you may very well be shot if you went past there, forget getting close enough to paint for a while. Plus, there weren’t exactly cans of spray paint in the stores either at that time.

I have always wondered how fast the wall went up and if people had a chance to get everyone over to the side of the wall they wanted to be on. What if people lived on one side of the wall and worked on another? Was anything done to account for that? I find it interesting that now there is a cobblestone line marking where the wall was. I am always curious as to where the line is drawn between remembering so it will never happen again and keeping something there that was a symbol of an abomination.

Today we also went into the Reichstag. While we did not get a chance to go into the place where actual business is conducted, we did get to go on top and got an amazing view of the city. I spotted where the Olympic torch was in the Berlin games of 1936. Something that made me think was that I have been inside English Parliament and the Reichstag now and I have never been in the US Capital because it is so hard to get in. You would think that I would have an easier time getting into my capital, but no. It is not as if the information and the jobs done in the Capital building are any more important than the ones in Parliament or the Reichstag.

Things to remember: Because there is no A/C in Europe, carrying several water bottles is justified and necessary, if you have surgery in a place where they have socialized health care, that is awesome, but demand the antibiotics, never be known as the one with the Advil or you will soon run out, and whenever you do find one, go for the Mexican food.

---