Tampa Tribune (Florida)
August 19, 2011 Friday
FINAL EDITION
‘An excellent resolution, without a missile fired’
BY JAN SHERBIN, Special to The Tampa Tribune
In August 1991 I visited the Soviet Union on a people-to-people
friendship mission. My trip incorporated an unadvertised bonus — a
front-row seat to history: The morning of the 19th, a hard-line
communist coup detained the country’s top leader, to curb his reforms.
Mikhail Gorbachev surfaced three days later, and the coup had the
opposite effect.
During my short visit, Gorbachev shockingly announced the termination
of Soviet communism. Ukraine, followed by five more Soviet republics,
seized the opportunity to declare independence. Dramatic events
continued after my departure, with the Soviet Union’s dissolution by
the end of the year.
“What do these events mean for you?” I asked a young father who
treated me to a post-coup afternoon at his little dacha. Picking up
his kindergarten son, he responded, “I think we will not know until
Slava grows up.”
Now Slava has grown up, and it is time to ask: What have these events
meant for people like Slava and his father?
Many Americans assumed democracy, free enterprise and free expression
would flourish instantly. But no framework existed for fashioning them
from the debris of communism, nor did leaders necessarily choose to
steer there. The new era that opened with euphoria hurtled into fear
and disarray. Everything from living conditions to politics
degenerated. Twenty years later, life has settled into a more stable
reality, tailored to each of the 15 new countries.
“The sense of freedom was the best thing I felt for me and my
country,” says Armenian lawyer Arpine Melikbekyan.
Georgian musician Levan Khubulava felt this freedom as one of choice,
in opinions, politics, consumer goods and education.
Before the collapse, many Soviet people recognized their system was
rotting. By the late ’80s, everyday life had deteriorated such that
consumer goods disappeared from stores. “I remember walking into a
food store and seeing nothing but packages of salt,” says Yana
Yablonovskaya, who was in primary school in Irkutsk, Siberia. “I
remember lines for bread, for milk, for meat, and yes, for vodka.
Between ages 9 and 11, I had only one pair of pants, besides my school
uniform. Not because my family was poor but because there was nothing
available in stores.”
The post-Soviet transition from a planned to a market economy has been
stressful. In the new system, people need to budget for services that
were covered in Soviet times by the government, most notably higher
education and medical care. Many retirees live a sad life, as pensions
geared to the old system do not sustain them.
But now people enjoy a wide array of pleasing consumer goods,
replacing the dull, limited Soviet goods. Entrepreneurs start their
own businesses. Traffic and parking in cities have become congested as
people buy cars. (In Soviet times, only one in 10 households owned a
car.) New freedoms enable people to travel internationally and attend
houses of worship.
New identities have surfaced; without one hub, one people became many.
Ethnic tensions suppressed in Soviet times, such as in Georgia,
Chechnya and Nagorno-Karabakh, erupted. Populations shift as people
seek economic opportunity.
“A lot of our people — about half a million — left to become guest
workers in Kazakhstan, Russia and other countries,” says Azizbek
Tashbaev, a university administrator in Kyrgyzstan , whose population
now stands at 5.4 million. “Lots of physicians, teachers and other
professionals left as well.” His country experienced two revolutions
while struggling to find its political footing. Now, he says proudly,
“We are the first nation in Central Asia where a parliament runs the
country.”
A new generation with initiative to shape their future is replacing a
generation accustomed to waiting for instructions. “The idea that we
Armenians can create our country ourselves gives me hope,” says
Melikbekyan.
“The new generation believes in building new, independent states that
will be better than the Soviet Union,” Khubulava echoes. U.S.-funded
educational programs and people-to-people diplomacy are facilitating
nation-building.
Despite political haggling, widespread corruption, limits on
journalistic expression and a gulf between rich and middle class,
prospects overall look auspicious. Ukraine will host international
travelers for the 2012 European soccer cup — Russia, the 2014 Olympic
Winter Games. Kyrgyzstan has experienced a five-fold increase in the
number of colleges. The Baltic countries have joined the European
Union and NATO.
Prospects look good for us, too. We are now at peace with a former
enemy, and the Cold War and Evil Empire exist only in history books.
An excellent resolution, without a missile fired. We can raise a glass
of vodka to that!