Charlie Shugart
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Thanks QJ, Bob, Herb, Steady and Martines.
I'm not an expert at anything, much less the subject of the social and political climate of the former USSR.
But here's my opinion:
The Soviet Communist government did collapse.
And it left a huge void because the Russian people knew nothing about freedom or self-governing.
When I was there the government was on the verge of collapse- and the feelings of glasnost prevailed. But where was the leadership?
Example: the sidewalks of Moscow over-flowed with trash and garbage because nobody knew whose responsibility it was to pick it up.
Our guides told us that under Communist rule the people pretended to work and the government pretended to pay them.
But what now?
The people had gone directly from the hundreds of years of the dictatorial rule of Tzarist Russia to the dictatorial rule of a Communist government.
Then suddenly to freedom.
No chance to learn the ways to succeed as a democracy in a free market economy.
But they were trying, and they still are.
Unfortunately, such a situation is perfect for "hardliners" to work their ways into positions of power.
From the very beginning of Russia's "freedom," I've worried about who will step into the void and take over. I still worry.
And I still wish them luck- because they need it.
Charlie
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