Communism. Good or bad. What do you really know about Communism?

[palo5]

Originally Posted by bowlinggreen

But you still have Siberian penal colonies.

Krasnojarsk is mild. It's a nice city, actually, but I guess the prisoners don't see much of it. Prisoners all over the world have to work, it's nothing unusual. If they still had them working in mines in places like Norilsk, it would be newsworthy. That is a truly horrible place, and it's much colder

[palo5]

Originally Posted by xyzde69

Was the way of life very different when you changed your First Secretaries?
Did you observe differences in the Russian society between Stalin, Malenkov, Khrushchev or Brezhnev, or was it exactly the same Communism?

There were changes how the apparatus worked. Under Stalin, treatment of some people could be horrifying, but when he died it improved. Not for everyone, but many of the excesses stopped. I didn't know about most of this until later. I cried when Stalin died, and so did everyone I knew

The biggest changer was Gorbachev. He wanted to make things more transparent, spend less on the military, and get out of Afghanistan, which were good ideas. But some other ideas were nuts, such as trying to stop us drink alcohol

I don't think society changed a lot. Some wanted more freedoms, and it became visible. But I spent more time in DDR than Russia, and didn't see everything

[Estreeter]

Originally Posted by palo5

There were more than you think

From where other eastern bloc countries

Originally Posted by palo5

but it wasn't an easy place to get into, that's true

Praise the Lord on that one

[brk549]

Oswald entered with no problem and came back even easier.I wish we could find out what was going on there.

[palo5]

Originally Posted by Estreeter

From where other eastern bloc countries

W Germany mostly, but there were people from all over the world

Praise the Lord on that one

Australia is also hard to get into, and is patrolled all the time. You would know all about this

[Estreeter]

Originally Posted by palo5

W Germany mostly, but there were people from all over the world

Really I had no idea, learn something new every day
Why Are they fucking crazy

Originally Posted by palo5

Australia is also hard to get into, and is patrolled all the time. You would know all about this

Yes I do know all about it and am happy about it No documents , no entry is my policy Right and clean documents and you're welcome is also my policy

[cginok]

Originally Posted by brk549

Oswald entered with no problem and came back even easier.I wish we could find out what was going on there.

That's not exactly correct. Oswald was originally denied entry, then attempted suicide in order to delay his, forced, removal back to Sweden. In the meantime, the bureaucrats in Moscow relented and allowed him to stay. The KGB originally thought he was a CIA plant, then decided he wasn't, but kept him under surveillance for awhile, then decided that he was too much of a nutball to be a spy, and left him be. He left the USSR because he had become disillusioned about the "Workers Paradise" he thought the USSR was.

[cginok]

Originally Posted by palo5

Krasnojarsk is mild. It's a nice city, actually, but I guess the prisoners don't see much of it. Prisoners all over the world have to work, it's nothing unusual. If they still had them working in mines in places like Norilsk, it would be newsworthy. That is a truly horrible place, and it's much colder

Define "mild?" To people from northern climes, anything this side of freezing is mild. To those of us from southern climes, anything this side of 65F/20C is mild.

[rlg118]

"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."
- Winston Churchill

[Roubignol]

Originally Posted by palo5

But some other ideas were nuts, such as trying to stop us drink alcohol.

Hmmm... It was an excellent idea.
Every people who had a mother or a father alcoholic will tell you how bad alcohol is.
How many life would be saved without this bad and dangerous product?