By Andrew L. Jaffee

For those still wearing Che Guevara t-shirts and pining for the “good old days” of the Soviet (Russian) Empire, you may want to consult with the people who had the “pleasure” of living under communist domination. By and large, the peoples of the former Soviet “republics” have voted to move closer to Europe and the U.S. and away from Russia, where “influence stems from the former Soviet organs of repression.” Case in point: Lithuania, from the BBC:

Lithuania’s parliament has approved Gediminas Kirkilas as the new prime minister, ending weeks of political deadlock in the Baltic country.

Mr Kirkilas’ nomination by President Valdas Adamkus was backed in an 85-13 vote. Five lawmakers abstained. …

His confirmation follows the rejection by parliament last week of fellow Social Democrat Zigmantas Balcytis as prime minister.

Mr Kirkilas, 54, has said any government under his leadership will maintain close ties to the European Union and aim to join the eurozone as soon as possible.

The insider skinny: Adamkus is an ex-pat who grew up in Chicago, and certainly understands the benefits of democracy and free markets. Balcytis is an ex-communist apparatchik, and good riddance.

Similarly, Romanians, Ukrainians, Abkhazians, and Georgians have all turned westward. Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, have joined NATO following Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic.

The former Russian/Soviet-occupied Eastern European countries all have long memories of what it was like to live under totalitarian, communist rule. For example, during Russian occupation of the Baltic, thousands of Lithuanians were murdered, and at least 250,000 were deported to Siberia. Most never made it home from the cold, barren gulags (Russian “re-education camps”). Remember the Katyn Forest Massacre, where mostly Russian Soviet troops executed between 4,000 and 10,000 Polish soldiers? These are just a few examples of communist atrocities under Soviet rule.

Why do I emphasize Russian complicity in Soviet atrocities? Simple: Some have tried to paint the Soviet Union as some kind of distinctly “communist” phenomena. That’s like saying Germans had nothing to do with the Nazi Party during WWII. Sorry to disappoint the historical revisionists, but let’s give credit where credit is due. According to the U.S. Library of Congress:

The ethnic composition of the [Soviet communist] party reflected further disproportions between the party and the population as a whole (see table 26, Appendix A). In 1922 the share of Russian members in the party exceeded their proportion of the population by 19 percent. Since that time, the gap between Russians and other nationalities has narrowed. In 1979 Russians constituted 52 percent of the Soviet population; however, they constituted 60 percent of the party in 1981. Moreover, the percentage of Russians in the party apparatus was probably even greater than their percentage in the party as a whole.

My, how easy it is to don a Che Guevara t-shirt and talk of revolution when that same person lives in the comfort, security, and opulence of a nation like the U.S. or Canada. But the people who lived under communism see things a little more clearly. Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga most eloquently explained the differences between the mentality of the pseudo-revolutionaries and the peoples of the new democracies:

It’s much easier to tolerate a dictator when he’s dictating over somebody else’s life and not your own. We have suffered through half a century because dictators were allowed to proceed unchecked in the faint hope that they would somehow see the light, or reform, or simply by indifference to those who have been affected by their actions.

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Related: Europe, Communism / Socialism, Philosophy / Ideology, Baltic States

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