Socialism….Up Close

Many of our veterans have experienced  daily life in other countries, and the stories they share help bring to light the fact that we are truly living in the greatest country in the world. The following is one of these stories- shared by one of our local veterans.

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With the rise of socialism in America, I need to share my  observations in the Soviet Union in May 1990.  Originally, I never wrote them.  They were merely my own version of common knowledge.  I presumed, wrongly so, that the world would always remember.

In 1989, beneficial change began for the wise build-up of military strength by our Reagan and Bush Presidencies and by Mikhail Gorbachev’s brave changes in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).  The Berlin Wall toppled.  Soviets peacefully withdrew their oppressive forces from Central and Eastern Europe.  Germany reunited.  Some non-Russian republics regained independence from the USSR.  And, Russian hopes rose for cooperation  with the West.  Socialism had not worked well for the them.  It was the end of the Cold War.  The world was optimistic. The major powers had not nuked each other into oblivion.

Both the Soviets and U. S. sought cooperation in nuclear power for spacecraft.  In 1990, I was a Cold War veteran, exploring the solar system after my Air Force retirement.  My military specialty had been nuclear survivability for spacecraft, aircraft and electronics.  In 1990 I had just done trade-offs for nuclear powered and propelled human spaceflight.  Delighted to be sent to Russia, I desperately refreshed my 30-year-stale language skills.

In Moscow: Three of us were hosted for meals, etc. by three friendly engineers, Herman “the German”, Sergei and Sergei.  Only Herman spoke English.  They were like the handymen in Bob Newhart’s comedy: Larry and his two brothers, Darryl and Darryl, who never spoke at all. I knew enough Russian to joke.  They got us a sightseeing van….with no windows.

I was given a single room in the “upscale” Belgrade Hotel, designed by Serbs.  It was dense with the most obnoxious tobacco smoke I’d ever choked on.  But the toilet was worse.  It was dry between flushes, by design.  The purpose of the water is to squelch stench!  They didn’t get it.  The TV had about ten channels, super boring in any language.  Some of my usual shirts were so flashy (compared to drab Soviet wear) that I had to repel strong pressures to swap.

I could read Russian well.  So I shopped Moscow on my own.  In each store the shelves were very bare.  I was surprised they were even open.  Gorbachev was very upset with low productivity, poor work ethic and inferior quality goods.  His perestroika (restructuring) had been policy for five years.  It was intended to make production responsive to consumers.  From what I saw, it wasn’t working anywhere.  People were desperate.

Red Square was fascinating: after 45 years, World War II veterans in uniforms with war medals were still common. The guards were all Asians, since troops from the far reaches were thought most likely to put down protests.  The giant department store was empty.  Long lines waited to see mummified Lenin in his tomb. Lenin died in 1924.  Many still visit it in 2020.  Why?  He tortured and killed tens of thousands to establish socialism, and to stamp out religion and adversaries.

Street venders were learning to be entrepreneurial.  But they had many unsold medium-size shirts that did not fit visitors.  None I met spoke English.  It was good language practice for me to negotiate for souvenirs.

Obninsk, the nuclear city:  We were bussed with other Americans 100 kilometers southwest to this showcase home of the first nuclear reactor for electric power.  This week-long nuclear -power technical exchange felt like most other conferences, except for added interpreters.  I presented our NASA and Texas A&M results, about how nuclear rockets would greatly reduce astronauts’ radiation exposure by quicker interplanetary trips.  Space is full of cosmic rays, deadly trapped radiation and deadly solar storms.

Our hosts catered to assumed American tastes -French fries thrice daily and Western movies. Their salty caviar, salty mineral water and warm Cokes sent me to my dictionary to order ordinary water.  I gave up breakfasts.  Instead I went for long unsupervised exploratory morning runs.  I saw a lot.  I learned a lot.

My badly needed laundry bundle was returned short.  I translated “I think I lost my underwear,” to ask the laundry ladies. Not lost.  Cottons just took much longer to dry on the clothes line.  Electric power in a show-case city for 36 years; and still no clothes driers?

During breaks and after evening events, many Russian delegates were anxious to talk with us.  Secret police agents (KGB founded by Lenin) hovered over all conversations.  But other Russians were shyly hanging back because few Americans spoke any Russian.  When they found out that I could speak some Russian, they crowded around me.  When they found out how poorly I spoke Russian they set aside their own embarrassment about their English.  We conversed enthusiastically and often in the mixed languages.

What they most wanted to learn was daily American life.  Gorbachev’s glasnost (openness) had been policy for four years.  World truth came in.  Like most all Russians, they now resented having been deceived by their government for their entire lives.  They’d been repeatedly told the USSR had the world’s highest standard of living.  “Evidence” was well-known; third world countries and Soviet-occupied Europe.  Western Europe and America had been kept unknown to them.  Under glasnost, some openly debated economics.  They understood capitalism…abstractly.  They thought they would become a capitalist country, so they feared unemployment.  But what was capitalist life like?

As I recall, each Russian family was given 100 square meters (1,076 sq. ft.) of living space.  “How much was I authorized?” they asked.  I felt awkward as I admitted I could buy whatever size home I chose.  I explained how mortgages worked.  Though ordinary, my home size was several of theirs.  And I had vehicles and yards. They had neither.  We had parallel technical training.  But they had no benefit for it.  There is no sizeable middle class in socialism, just a few elites and one bottom class.  Most dramatically different was my discretionary time.  I could go wherever and do whatever I chose.  I had many appliances that they did not.  They spent virtually all their off-job hours laboring to do life’s necessities….by old methods.

The Russians were curious.  I was fifty and still running a lot.  So they thought I must have been an athlete.  I wish.  When they also learned I had never smoked, one of them very suddenly and loudly realized, in English, “Americans want to live!”

Leningrad   (St. Petersburg):   Eleven of us went by rail to Leningrad, to closely examine TOPAZ reactors with 11 Russians.  We had a packed schedule.  We also learned up close about the Nazi siege of Leningrad.  It lasted 872 days, killing a million victims.  (But compare their siege to the 3.9 million Ukrainian farmers whom Stalin starved to death to set up his socialist farms.)  We saw the Winter Palace, Hermitage Museum and a ballet.  In my only free time I ran a “Two-day run” from before midnight to well after.  “White nights” (glowing clouds) let me see well. Only one American was a smoker.  Only one Russian a non-smoker.  Who loves life more?

Modeling the socialist economy:   By observation, my model became, and is: Where both supply and price are set by the state, inconvenience becomes part of the price. Normal relations of supply-demand- and price then hold.  I watched many instances where sellers had no profit incentive to provide good service.  Gorbachev was honest about his country’s poor work ethic.  He said Marxist-Leninist authoritarianism had helped give the people a “slave psychology”.

General observations on my entire trip:    Street crime was rampant; happy faces rare.  Amiable guide ladies voiced official positions e.g. since churches belonged to everyone, no one was allowed to pray there.  Our guides were thrilled to see the Moscow circus with us.  Normal citizens could not get tickets.  Our guides also treasured the sample size hard-to-get toiletries that I included in my tips.  Out of country phoning was nonsense; 3 day wait for an appointment.  Standing in long lines was widespread.  Many lines were for vodka rations.  Drunkenness had long been recognized as economy crippling.  But reduced alcohol production quotas had only hurt exports; thus rations.

Shortly after Russia:   My short stay in Norway dramatized the superiority of capitalism over socialism.  The clear view of Iceland (that drew everyone to my side of the plane) reminded me some small countries are better places than the USSR.  Our Leningrad-Eleven brainstormed in Washington D.C.  My “Tractors for Reactors” proposal addressed: Soviet vulnerability to poor crop years, farm machinery exports, and co-developing nuclear propulsion for interplanetary missions.  It was nixed by our Department of the Energy.  We bought two TOPAZ reactors; but never flew them.

Since my trip:  In 1991 Gorbachev was weakened by a military coup.  He resigned concurrently with the dissolution of the Soviet Union at the end of the year.  Russia did NOT achieve capitalism, where profits are reinvested.  Russian businesses suffer extortionism, where they “pay the roof” to avoid destruction by Mafia-like bosses.  All business became unreasonable.  How bad did it get in Russia?  Russia has over 650,000 orphans –  70% from the 1990’s and up to 95% are “social orphans” whose living parents have neglected, abused, or abandoned them.  Socialism and extortions hurt alike.

…And now, sadly, with our internet censorship, Antifa, political correctness, boycotts, and protest, Americans have less free speech than Russians did under Gorbachev’s Communism.

by Major Alan J. Willoughby, USAF (Ret.)

[copyrighted by A. J. Willoughby, October 2020]