I came across this interesting article…
A Russian Woman Working as a College Professor in the US Writes About the Sovietization of Amerika
Her father was a ‘closeted Christian’ in the Soviet Union… and she felt deprived of her culture.
She wrote:
“I have the feeling of extreme frustration. Our stories of people in the former Soviet space are constantly dismissed. I have no idea why. I think it happens because people still think that the ideas that existed in the Soviet Union are basically good – that it was the execution that was at times excessive. My father says what happened to us was not about the economic system. The economic system was just an excuse. This could happen anywhere – even under capitalism.
Totalitarianism is something that takes away from people the unbearable burden of freedom. It allows many people to hound and persecute with impunity. That is pleasant in many senses. There was a practice in the Soviet Union where people would be told to get together in groups at work and write letters to the newspaper to denounce famous poets or artists. We see that today in Twitter. People love that because it allows a little person to completely destroy somebody who has done something great.
This is very human. Once you have removed any moral or religious obstacles to that behavior, what’s to stop anybody?”