Essay: Why is there nostalgia for communism?

Why is there nostalgia for communism? Simple, it is a rational response to a dramatic and sudden transformation from one way of life to the other. Eastern Europe is more and more nostalgic every day. It is infected by a phenomenon called “Red Nostalgia”, but what is this thing that Eastern Europe yearns for? In Johannes Hofer’s 1688 medical dissertation he created the term “nostalgia” by merging the greek terms “Nostos” and “Algos”. Nostos is the greek word, “to return home”, while Algos means grief. Nostalgia represents a desire for a way something or somewhere used to be. However,  To truly answer why the nostalgia exists, one must look at how history arranged itself after 1989. Eastern Europe was under the influence of the communist system of government that the Soviets had so effectively spread across the region after 1948. The clear division between the different types of communism in the region was based around the oppressive nature of the regime. Some countries like Poland did not experience serious oppression under the regime, whereas countries like Bulgaria and Romania saw thousands of their citizens brutally murdered. After the fall of communism during the 1989-1990 period Eastern Europe experienced a huge cultural shift. From the outside perspective the opening of their borders after the fall of communism expanded their horizons. However, the internal cultures within the region were violently shaken, and in some cases completely destroyed. The following twenty plus years were ones of violent change and shiftings toward modern societies. In her book “Post-Communist Nostalgia” Maria Todorova draws a simile between weather and change stating, “Forces of change stormed across the region, moving, as weather mostly does, from West to East.” The shifts were focused on a conglomeration of capitalism, democracy, marketization and “Europeanization”, which can only be explained as a chaotic path towards modernization. The way of life during communism was hard and often very oppressive, but it was the economic and cultural  hardships that followed the 1990 events that caused people to call for how life used to be. While communism will be investigated across a broad grouping of countries in this research, Russia is an excellent example to introduce the topic. Ever since the hammer and sickle was lowered from the Kremlin in December of 1991 almost fifty percent of the Russian population still regrets the collapse of the USSR. In a 2016 study by the Levada Center(Independent Russian Polling/Research Center) found that fifty-six percent of their population still regret the fall of communism. They found that in the group of people that answered that they regretted the fall of communism, attributed their reasoning to the destruction that it caused to their economic system. To set the stage, our research is not aimed at finding reasons why people miss communism. Prior research has already shown that economics, security and culture are the main reasons that people are nostalgic for communism. The purpose of our research is to investigate how certain attributes of communist regimes positively or negatively affect Red Nostalgia across the former, soviet influenced communist countries. Our research proposes that Red Nostalgia is dulled or intensified by the brutality of the regime during the communist period, the socio economic development in the post communist period, and the cultural backwardness of the countries before and after communism. The first of the the affecting topics that we will address is that of brutality within the regimes.
Since the end of World War One an estimated 35 to 45 million people were murdered under the brutal hand of communism. So, why do these parts of the world seek to reestablish or reminisce over it? Some attribute the violence and brutality of communism all the way back to its father, Karl Marx. In his book , the Communist Manifesto he states, “You must, therefore, confess that by “individual” you mean no other person than the bourgeois, than the middle-class owner of property. This person must indeed, be swept out of the way, and made impossible” (Published by Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1973 edition, page 66). Many scholars contend that Marx did not in fact intend for this to be taken literally. Instead he was talking about an elimination of landowners over a long period of time, and reformation of the economic system, not killing of the masses. However, ever since the reign of communism, it seems that wherever it goes, so does death, brutality and oppression of the people. Our definition for the brutality we are researching is, a governing systems oppression of basic human rights before and after the fall of communism,  to include political freedoms, religious freedoms, and eradication of the “unwanted” and dissidents. The main former communist regimes that we will be discussing in reference to brutality are Poland, Hungary the former Czechoslovakia, and the most relevant of the Balkan countries.
The former communist countries in the Balkans are some of the majority that look back and are wanting to return to what they consider to be the “good old days”. Since the fall of communism, a sense of injustice has developed among the Balkan countries, life is perceived to have been better off during those times. After looking at some of their brutal histories, it is baffling that they would feel this way. The first former communist regime that we will look at is Bulgaria. Bulgaria was under the soviet bloc from 1946-1990, and was one of the more oppressive and brutal regimes. One of the events that Bulgarian communism is most famous for is the atrocities committed against their own citizens in the Belene Death Camp. Belene, which was open from 1949-1959, was one of the many forced labor camps that was run under the government of communist Bulgaria. It was copied version of the Soviet Gulags (гулаг), except the torture and violence was on steroids. During its time in operation almost 15,000(Todorov) people were imprisoned there, and 18,000-30,000 (Todorov)were executed by the ‘People’s Court’ their during the first few months of communist reign. All of these atrocities happening to politicians, military officers, and many regular citizens in their very own country. However, as time has passed on, the memory of Belene and the mass slaughters that took place there has all but vanished from history, and the population of Bulgaria are falling deeper and deeper towards the return of true communism. “Capitalism’s failure to lift living standards, impose the rule of law and tame flourishing corruption and nepotism have given way to fond memories of the times when the jobless rate was zero, food was cheap and social safety was high”(Mudeva). It is disturbing that the failure of capitalism and the consequences that came with it are what blotted out memories like Belene from Bulgarian society. Though less oppressive, much like Bulgaria, the Romanians are also drifting back towards the dark decades they spent under communism.
Communist Romania under the leadership of Nicolae Ceausescu was one of oppression, murder, depravity and lack of basic necessities, and all this while he lived in his palace. Romanian Communism can be characterized as a time of oppression, and abuse by the Securitate(Romanian Secret Police) and the communist government. During the 25 years of communism under Nicolae Ceausescu the Securitate were relentless with the citizens and general population. They encouraged and pressured people into reporting family members and neighbors that might harbor anti-government sentiments. Artists, poets and journalists were often rounded up and executed for expressing anything other than complete support of the government. While many that tried to flee the country were caught and executed, some just disappeared completely. During a period in the late 80’s Ceausescu had distanced Romania from the USSR, putting his own spin in communism. Because of this separation, the American government agreed to help Romania with small interest loans. Being the deplorable dictator that he was, Ceausescu used the money to improve not the economy or quality of living for his people, but improve the expressiveness of his capital city. He remodeled the streets after those in Paris and he built a large ‘White House’ for himself and his wife, which was equipped with a gold plated bathroom. He then began a mass exportation of agricultural and mechanical products so that he could pay back the American loans. By doing so, he left his people, poorer, hungrier and more oppressed than ever. A plaque on the entrance to a museum dedicated to Communist Romania reads, “The greatest victory of communism, was to create people without a memory—a brainwashed new man unable to remember what he was, what he had, or what he did before communism”(L.P., The Economist). It seems that somehow, during the time of transition post 1990, the people of Romania once again became a ‘people without memory’, for they began yearning for what life was like during communism, they imagine it to be better. Unfortunately, on a socioeconomic scale life for the Romanians has not improved that much. Despite their acceptance into the EU in 2007 little has changed for their living standards and wages per capita. While economically their lives now are not necessarily better, they do not face the abuse, murder, and oppression that they faced under communism.
The last former communist regime in from the Balkans to be discussed in relation to brutality is the former Yugoslavia. In 1948, after the end of WWII, Josip Tito became the communist dictator over Yugoslavia. The first big push that he put into effect was to separate Yugoslavia from the USSR’s type of communism. Much like Ceausescu, he was determined to create a Yugoslav Communism, one that would fit his needs and what he saw as the countries needs. To do this, any civilians, military members, and politicians that were allegiant to the USSR or soviet communism were greatly oppressed, and more often than not murdered. After WWII, the Serbians were estimated to have murdered upwards of 600,000 people, with Tito’s regime following close behind at 500,000(Rummel). During Tito’s time in office, he organized murder squads within his secret service and he unleashed them on Croatian dissidents and exiles. Between the years of 1970-1989, 22(Rummel) Croatians were killed in West Germany by Tito’s murder squads. In 1990, almost ten years after Josip Tito had died, the USSR fell and all chaos hit. Between 1990 and 2000 a series of ethnic conflicts(also called wars of interdependence) were fought between the former Yugoslav states. Some of the conflicts included the wars in Kosovo, Bosnia, and the Bosnian Genocide, the first Genocide in Europe since WWII. The former regime was riddled with death and murder, still affected by the residual effects of the brutal life under communism. According to the International Center for Transitional Justice, 140,000 people(ICTJ) were killed or murdered during the conflicts.
Poland, possibly the least brutal of all the countries under the Soviet Bloc was cited in a New York Times article as “Poland: Stalin’s House on a Soft Foundation”(New York Times, Kaufman). The title is ever deserving as Poland was one of the countries that Communist leaders failed to really establish solid roots in. Historically Poland was Roman Catholic, so religious ideals did not match up at all. Communism went in and out of power before WWII, but finally somewhat settled in after WWII. In the most simple of terms, when the people of Poland finally settled down, the person put as head of the communist party was a 8 year exile who had a lot of making up to do. Wladyslaw Gomulka had been exiled by Joseph Stalin in 1948, and once he was appointed in 1956 he spent most of his first years working to make good on all of the promises he had made to appease the people. For the average Pole, life was good. However in 1968 the communist government began a anti-semitic ‘crusade’, and the vast majority of Jews in Poland fled. The 1970 Food Prices Protest is ultimately what brought Gomulka’s regime down. The new party leader, Edward Gierek, spent much of his first couple of years trying to appease the people, but the neglect of the economy took its toll as factories stopped producing and Poland fell further into debt to the west. The Country went through another series of leaders, that finally ended under a former Military General who gave in to democratization due to failing CP numbers. Poland experienced a wishy washy communism that never took root. The CP leaders never had a strong enough hold on the country to use the brutal system the inflicted on many others.
The former Czech republic operated under some of the same trends that Poland did, except for the fact that the CR was actually a relatively brutal regime. During the communist ‘infection’ after WWII, the CR was known for anti-semitic movement and its brutal, public show trials. The show trials took place during a violent, transitional justice period as communism began its spread across Europe. The targeted victims of the trials were 180 Jews (Burns), military leaders, catholics, and democratic politicians. This unfortunate group of people became the scapegoat for the atrocities of the war. The new regime began breaching the line between church and stage, and eventually took complete control of it. The government began confiscating church property, killing and imprisoning priests that stood up against them and even inserting secret police into clergy positions, so that they could keep an eye on the general population. And finally, to cap off a ‘by the book’ communist regime, the government took control of the media and arts community, dictating what could and couldn’t be published, written or painted. The final and probably most brutal of all of the countries that have been discussed is Hungary.
Hungary was an extremely repressive and brutal environment to live in during and post WWII. During the takeover of Hungary in 1945 the Russians are estimated to have raped an estimated 800,000 (Hunter) men and women. It was a systematic rape promoted by the Russian government that was meant to tear apart social and family ties. Despite the Hungarian government being stoutley opposed to abortion, they temporarily lifted the ban because rape pregnancies were rampant and out of control. However, despite the government’s efforts to help the victims the new communist regime quickly settled and and began silencing the survivors. Post-War communism hushed the vast majority of the survivors, while forcing them to cheer on their anti-fascist liberators. The second subject that we visit in our research is how the socio-economic status of a country has affected the levels of nostalgia.
In our research we decided to investigate why and how Socio-Economic Development or decline has affected a country’s sense of nostalgia for the past. We specifically look at how the rise or fall of the economic situation has allowed the level of “Red Nostalgia” to wax or wane. To be specific, we defined a country’s economic situation as wages per capita, unemployment rates,  GDP growth/decline rate and corruption perceptions. When the flag of the USSR came down the Kremlin’s flagpole on 26th of December 1991 and was replaced with the Russian flag, millions of people within the former soviet bloc were prepared for all the wealth and freedom that supposedly would come with democracy. However, each country would have to travel a long and arduous road before it could start reaping the benefits of democracy.
In a 2005 interview with BBC news, President Vladimir Putin voiced his disdain for the fall of the USSR saying that fall was  “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century”(BBC News). While his true regret for the fall of communism may never be known, in this situation he was specifically addressing the economic fallout that occured after December 26, 1991. In the interview he went on to remind the world of the millions of people who suffered through a horrific transition to democracy. The notional force between the Soviet Bloc and the West known as the Iron Curtain, quickly became a Curtain of Tears, for it still had the transition to face.
For some, the world is a better, freer and brighter place after finally pushing through the transition and developing an independent, self sustaining country. However, for many others the promise of prosperity under democracy never came. For some, membership in the EU post communism was a welcomed invitation. It was a sign of acceptance, and symbol of the support that the west would provide them. For countries like Bulgaria, Romania and the former Yugoslav countries, membership in the EU has been a sign of embarrassment for them, they feel like they are being treated as one of the “others”. Membership for those states was a last resort option to try and prevent the total collapse of their country. The irritation towards the EU has also caused inter-society problems. Their is more than ever a sense of mistrust towards the elites of these countries, because they were the advocates for joining the EU in the first place. A sense of injustice towards Democracy has formed in many of the countries in the former Soviet Bloc since the 2007 Global financial crisis. During the 1999-2000 era, many struggling countries were finally seeing some positive progress under democracy, but after the economic crisis, the wounds of the post communist transition were once again deepened. 7 years of socio-economic progress down the drain, and the western remedy called Democracy had never been more distrusted by the people in the former soviet bloc. For some of the Eastern countries, the hopes and dreams of catching up with their rich western neighbors was all but crushed. The feeling of hope was replaced with a notion of injustice because of the growing gap between the wealthy and poor. One of the countries most devastated by the economic regime change in 1991 was Hungary, and it was once again one of the worst affected by the Global Economic Crisis. In a 2009 poll issued by Ipsos International, a Hungarian Polling company, they recorded that of the Hungarians that were adults in 1989, almost 70% (Szonda Ipsos, 2009) of them said that they were not happy with the outcome of the change in economic and political regimes.
David’s Part—Within the former Communist bloc we see an increasing distrust of democracy among the young and old populations.  According to the PEW Research center, support for democracy is about the same among younger (18-39 years of age) and older (ages 40+ years of age) members of society (Starr). Despite this, a majority of the populations across Central and Eastern Europe are hopeful about free markets (Starr). Of the 18 countries in this poll, only two of them, Czech Republic and Poland, had a higher percentage of young people who are significantly more supportive of democracy than those over 40 (Starr). The percentages in the Czech Republic came out to 58% of young adults in support of democracy compared to the 43% for those 40+ years of age (Starr). Poland only had difference of 10% between the two age groups with the young coming it at 52% and the 40+ at 42% (Starr). However, such enthusiasm is quickly eclipsed by the severe disillusionment and struggling economies we see across Eastern Europe.
One of the main dangers to developing democracies and economies in the region is apathy.  This phenomenon of Red Nostalgia is not completely unfounded, but it breeds contempt, apathy, and according to Bulgarian sociologist, Vladimir Shopov, it “ ‘…it dries out the energy for meaningful change’ ” (Mudeva). Polls across Eastern Europe reveal the stunning levels of disenchantment with democracy along with distrust, if not outright hate, for the elites who made them European Union citizens over the years (Mudeva). These polls indicated some of the biggest falls in support of democracy have taken place in Ukraine, Bulgaria, Lithuania, and Hungary (Mudeva).  In Bulgaria, for example, several citizens in the town of Belene, the site of an infamous but largely forgotten prison, state how they lived better back in the days of Todor Zhivkov due to more availability of food and freedom to travel (Mudeva). With the high amounts of corruption and chaos present in the Balkans, it is easy to see how people across the spectrum would pine for the good old days under Communist rule.
The global financial crisis from 2007-2009 only added fuel to the fire.  With the worldwide financial recession happening, it quickly put an end to several years of steady growth and only served to put a sour taste in the mouth of Eastern Europeans who had believed in the promises of capitalism from the West (Mudeva). Any hopes of catching up to the West were quickly destroyed by this crisis and widened the gap between the rich and poor of the Eastern European nations (Mudeva). We see other countries express similar monetary sentiments, like Koviljka Markovic a Belgrade pensioner, “ ‘Everything was better then. There was no street crime, jobs were safe and salaries were enough for decent living…Today I can hardly survive with my pension of 250 euros ($370 a month)’ ” (Mudeva). To many Bulgarians, the rule of Todor Zhivkov seems to be a “…golden era to some in comparison with the raging corruption and crime that followed his demise” (Mudeva). Despite the long queues for groceries, cars and other valuable goods, over 60 percent stated how they lived better in the past under authoritarian, Communist rule than in present day Bulgaria (Mudeva).  Further polling by Boriana Dimitrova of the Bulgarian agency, Alpha Research, has revealed, “People are losing faith that one can achieve success in an honest, decent way. Success is totally criminalized” (Mudeva). She states that the sense of injustice in the Balkans is very strong due to the gross imbalance of power that exists in the region (Mudeva).  With all of this in mind, it is easy to see why such a group would look to the past for comfort or to reminisce about days gone by, despite that fact they were under the thumb of communist regimes.
Eastern Europe has often been perceived as radically different, even considered culturally backward by some in the West. Despite this stigma, the region has made great efforts to join with Western Europe and bring about change with the fall of the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, all is not well with Eastern Europe as they have tried to join the West in the modern era. The disillusionment with new forms of government, wars, and ethnic conflict have bolstered the popularity of the phenomenon known as Red Nostalgia.  Many people, seek to return to the good old days under the Soviet Union.
Cultural backwardness, in comparison to the West, is often used to refer to countries whose society, economy, and technology are underdeveloped. These countries are often experiencing growing pains or have stopped growing altogether.  Across the region, the lack of development has caused many to become disillusioned with their current government and try to revert to communism instead. One of the finest examples of this relationship between backwardness and nostalgia takes place in Romania from Dr. Rossen Vassilev. His work details the failures of Post-Communism across Eastern Europe, most notably
Romania.
He asserts that with great disillusionment with the anti-Communist revolution of 1989 came this new wave of nostalgia for the past (Vassilev).  After the fall of the USSR, many countries like Romania eagerly sought new forms of government. However, as Dr. Vassilev put it, “The growing exasperation with the impoverishment, corruption, street crime…that have accompanied the transition to market-oriented capitalism and Western-style democracy has produced a growing nostalgia for the Communist past among many ordinary people” (Vassilev).  The last section of the quote is truly profound, because we see this nostalgia growing from the common people.  Dr. Vassilev points out how it is not the elites who are driving this return to Communism, but the “…ordinary people (who are not part of their countries’ new cosmopolitan and pro-Western elites”. Frustrated by the lack of growth and disillusionment with their countries’ progress, people are beginning to remember the USSR with fondness on what they believe were good times under the Communist regime. According the Romanian Evaluation and Strategy Survey, 45% of Romanians believe they would have better lives if their revolution had not occurred at all! (Vassilev). Another disturbing statistic reveals that 61% of those who participated in this survey say they live in worse conditions now than under the Communist dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu (Vassilev).
This same cultural backwardness and its ties to Communist nostalgia can be seen just as visibly in the country of Bulgaria. The work of Kristen Ghodsee reveals the rise and fall of Bulgaria’s women and the longing for the days under the USSR. Like Romania, we see a rise in Communist nostalgia due in part to the stunted growth and cultural backwardness of Bulgaria in the Post Communist era.  Women have especially felt this change with the decline in labor, economic opportunity, and resurrection in Bulgarian society’s strong patriarchal values (Ghodsee 24). Although Bulgarian women still support equality of the sexes, they continually refer to the old system with fondness (Ghodsee 25). Even though discrimination still existed under the Soviet model, there was a great commitment to “…women’s education and women’s full incorporation into the public sphere that resulted in some of the highest labour force participation rates for women in the world” (Ghodsee 25).  Since the collapse of Communism, we have seen a very quick reversal on this opportunity for women with the decline in the economy and failure of capitalism, women have been the victims of this male-centered cultural backwardness.  Contrary to popular belief in the West, and others who fought against the idea of Communism, emancipation of women was one of the main goals of the socialist system and made great strides to achieve equality for both sexes (Ghodsee 30). However, things took a turn for the worse with the fall of the USSR and the emergence of capitalism in Bulgaria. Despite the efforts of NGOs and international agencies, there is little public interest in the struggles of Bulgarian women (Ghodsee 32). The author points out that a contributing factor to this might be because of the lack of actively organized protests against the circumstances that seem to be taking them out of the Bulgarian workforce (Ghodsee 32). To make matters worse, the extremely low birth rates among ethnic Bulgarian women, compared to Turkish and Roma women, has caused a row about the decline of the so called “…ethno-nation” (Ghodsee 33).  At the moment, popular opinion places the blame on women, in conjunction with the communist state, as being responsible for this decline, coupled with the low birthrates Bulgarian women have had since 2000 (Ghodsee 33).  All too often, young women are conned into the sex work crime syndicate that has been running rampant throughout Eastern Europe (Ghodsee 34). Some do it out of desperation, while others are scammed into thinking they will find high paying work in the West. Before they know it, their travel documents are confiscated and they are forced to pay their debts through sex work (Ghodsee 34). To this day, we still see a large portion of the sex trade coming through and out of Bulgaria.
With this in mind, it is easy to see how Bulgaria is experiencing a period of cultural backwardness with this reduction in the roles of women.  Such regression serves to show in the cases of certain countries, their cultural backwardness has contributed to the desire for the old system of Communism. Despite this pining for the good old days, Ghodsee reminds us that there is no perfect government system in place (Ghodsee 35).  Just like with Romania, the yearning for days gone by has been contributed to, in part, by this underdeveloped, stagnated, cultural backwardness of these East European countries.