I was 10 in 1966 when our family drove to Leipzig for us children to meet our grandparents for the very first and only time. Stopping off for rest in West Germany, we noticed how things there were far more advanced than the UK. Upon entering the East, it was like we'd entered through a backwards time machine, old cobbled streets, everywhere looking neglected and forlorn. The possessions of my grandparents were the same as my father remembered before he was sent off to war. This was how things used to be before consumerism was sold to the west, latest fashions, gizmos, etc. My grandma had to wait 10 years for a washing machine and it was one with a mangle that arrived, already disgarded by western housewives. They lived in a huge apartment block, moved out by authorities from their more rural pre war abode. Another visit to my mother's homeland in the Kaliningrad Oblast revealed good roads outside towns, but within, cobbled streets, huge craters, weeds everywhere (UK has unkempt areas like this, no money to upkeep community spaces). In the Oblast, Koenigsberg had modern bits, but lots of almost abandoned towns too, which pre war, were bustling with people. I saw hardly any people, no shops, no cars. Obviously, like anywhere else, priority given to certain areas over others. Same happened in UK to the coal area towns and villages, left to decay.
The former GDR is much better-looking now, and I fear we're observing the same kind of memory-holing we've seen about other historical experiences once those immediately touched by whatever event are gone. Think: Vietnam veterans, or even WW2.
I've never been to Russia, so I wouldn't know--and while I'm wary of online content showing this to be the case, suspicion is always warranted (which is furthermore supported by commentary solicited fro my Russian colleagues).
Perhaps, the folks that pine for the DDR days should look towards Russia as an example. Not the St. Petersburg to Moscow economy, but the "bywater" cities such as Ekatinburg or Volvograd as examples of how it could've played out.
While I'm sympathetic to such counter-arguments (hypotheticals), one could make essentially the same point about certain areas in the US and in the UK, with the rest of Western countries rapidly catching up. (Mind you, I'm not saying you're wrong.)
I was around for the GDR and the Fall of the Wall. When the Wall fell, the border stones were removed almost immediately. But you could still tell where the border had been. On the East side, the houses looked institutional — drab, in poor repair, with bare yards. On the West side the houses were well maintained, painted, with beautiful yards. In the mid-70s the official exchange rate was 1:1 but actually the East German Mark was worth about 20% of the West German Mark. The West was much more prosperous. Obviously so. The East German people hated their government and the Russian occupiers. There was great rejoicing on reunification. Then there was the somber realization of the difficulties of integrating a population that had lived a full generation under Communist rule. There is literally nothing to be nostalgic about.
I was almost 8 years old when the Wall fell, and I do recall these sentiments clearly.
My parents' generation in Austria all quipped, throughout the 1990s when the scale of the problems dawned upon Western experts™ and peoples alike, that there was a mismatch of expectations: East Germans (Europeans) were promised 'blossoming meadows' (Helmuth Kohl) and expected milk and honey to be brought; instead, it was West Germany paying social security and pension contributions/payments, with the expectation that at some point, East Germans would become as productive as their West German peers.
The notion about gov't surveillance, which has all but vanished from these discussions™ in public, is also a pertinent point. Or the shoot-to-kill order for the GDR's border troops.
I suppose there's quite some room for improvement in the West, but to be nostalgic about the Soviet Bloc, I dunno …
A tangent: it always rang hollow that the CCCP and its satellites were embargoed for some kind of ethical/moral reason.
Given what the capitalist corporations got up to in their home nations and abroad, and never ever had to own up to being more vile that the most homicidal kommissar.
They were not, and if you think the post-Nixon in China experience was strange, just look for Western (German) companies using cheap labour in the GDR …
I was 10 in 1966 when our family drove to Leipzig for us children to meet our grandparents for the very first and only time. Stopping off for rest in West Germany, we noticed how things there were far more advanced than the UK. Upon entering the East, it was like we'd entered through a backwards time machine, old cobbled streets, everywhere looking neglected and forlorn. The possessions of my grandparents were the same as my father remembered before he was sent off to war. This was how things used to be before consumerism was sold to the west, latest fashions, gizmos, etc. My grandma had to wait 10 years for a washing machine and it was one with a mangle that arrived, already disgarded by western housewives. They lived in a huge apartment block, moved out by authorities from their more rural pre war abode. Another visit to my mother's homeland in the Kaliningrad Oblast revealed good roads outside towns, but within, cobbled streets, huge craters, weeds everywhere (UK has unkempt areas like this, no money to upkeep community spaces). In the Oblast, Koenigsberg had modern bits, but lots of almost abandoned towns too, which pre war, were bustling with people. I saw hardly any people, no shops, no cars. Obviously, like anywhere else, priority given to certain areas over others. Same happened in UK to the coal area towns and villages, left to decay.
The former GDR is much better-looking now, and I fear we're observing the same kind of memory-holing we've seen about other historical experiences once those immediately touched by whatever event are gone. Think: Vietnam veterans, or even WW2.
Point taken, I was last in Russia in '19. The vistas in Moscow were impressive, yet only a few hundred miles east of there looked like Detroit.
I've never been to Russia, so I wouldn't know--and while I'm wary of online content showing this to be the case, suspicion is always warranted (which is furthermore supported by commentary solicited fro my Russian colleagues).
Perhaps, the folks that pine for the DDR days should look towards Russia as an example. Not the St. Petersburg to Moscow economy, but the "bywater" cities such as Ekatinburg or Volvograd as examples of how it could've played out.
While I'm sympathetic to such counter-arguments (hypotheticals), one could make essentially the same point about certain areas in the US and in the UK, with the rest of Western countries rapidly catching up. (Mind you, I'm not saying you're wrong.)
I was around for the GDR and the Fall of the Wall. When the Wall fell, the border stones were removed almost immediately. But you could still tell where the border had been. On the East side, the houses looked institutional — drab, in poor repair, with bare yards. On the West side the houses were well maintained, painted, with beautiful yards. In the mid-70s the official exchange rate was 1:1 but actually the East German Mark was worth about 20% of the West German Mark. The West was much more prosperous. Obviously so. The East German people hated their government and the Russian occupiers. There was great rejoicing on reunification. Then there was the somber realization of the difficulties of integrating a population that had lived a full generation under Communist rule. There is literally nothing to be nostalgic about.
I was almost 8 years old when the Wall fell, and I do recall these sentiments clearly.
My parents' generation in Austria all quipped, throughout the 1990s when the scale of the problems dawned upon Western experts™ and peoples alike, that there was a mismatch of expectations: East Germans (Europeans) were promised 'blossoming meadows' (Helmuth Kohl) and expected milk and honey to be brought; instead, it was West Germany paying social security and pension contributions/payments, with the expectation that at some point, East Germans would become as productive as their West German peers.
The notion about gov't surveillance, which has all but vanished from these discussions™ in public, is also a pertinent point. Or the shoot-to-kill order for the GDR's border troops.
I suppose there's quite some room for improvement in the West, but to be nostalgic about the Soviet Bloc, I dunno …
A tangent: it always rang hollow that the CCCP and its satellites were embargoed for some kind of ethical/moral reason.
Given what the capitalist corporations got up to in their home nations and abroad, and never ever had to own up to being more vile that the most homicidal kommissar.
They were not, and if you think the post-Nixon in China experience was strange, just look for Western (German) companies using cheap labour in the GDR …