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20 YEARS OF POST-SOVIET TUMULT
By Jan Sherbin
Philadelphia Inquirer
http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/128049453.html
Aug 19 2011
In August 1991, I visited the Soviet Union on a people-to-people
mission. The trip gave me a front-row seat to history: On Aug. 19, 20
years ago today, hard-line communists staged a coup and detained the
country's leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, in an attempt to curb his reforms.
The coup ended up having the opposite effect: Gorbachev surfaced three
days later and soon shockingly announced the end of Soviet communism.
Ukraine declared independence, followed by five more Soviet republics.
The Soviet Union would dissolve by year's end.
"What do these events mean?" I asked a young father at his country
house one post-coup afternoon. Picking up his kindergarten-age son,
he responded: "We will not know until Slava grows up."
Now Slava has grown up, and it's time to ask again what those events
meant for him and his father. Many Americans assumed democracy, free
enterprise, and free expression would flourish instantly in the former
Soviet Union. But no framework existed for fashioning them from the
debris of communism - nor did post-Soviet leaders necessarily want to.
Two decades later, life has become more stable in 15 new countries.
But the new era began with euphoria - "The sense of freedom was the
best thing I felt," Arpine Melikbekyan, an Armenian lawyer, told me -
and hurtled into disarray.
Before the collapse, many Soviets recognized that their system was
rotting. By the late '80s, it had deteriorated to the extent that
goods had disappeared from stores. "I remember walking into a food
store and seeing nothing but salt," said Yana Yablonovskaya, who was
in grade school in Siberia at the time. "I remember lines for bread,
milk, meat, and, yes, vodka."
The transition from planned to market economy has been stressful.
People had to learn to budget for services once covered by the
government, notably higher education and health care. Many retirees,
with pensions geared to the old economy, are destitute.
But others enjoy a wide array of goods, including the cars that
now clog the streets. People are free to start a business, travel
internationally, and worship.
New identities have surfaced, too. Ethnic tensions suppressed in
Soviet times erupted, as in Georgia and Chechnya. Populations shifted
as people sought economic opportunity. "A lot of our people left to
become guest workers in Kazakhstan and Russia," said Azizbek Tashbaev,
a university administrator in Kyrgyzstan.
His country experienced two revolutions. Now, he said, "we are the
first nation in Central Asia where a parliament runs the country."
A new generation with initiative is replacing one accustomed to
waiting for instructions. "The idea that we Armenians can create
our country ourselves gives me hope," said Melikbekyan. "The new
generation believes in building new states that will be better than
the Soviet Union," echoed Levan Khubulava, a Georgian musician.
U.S.-funded educational programs and people-to-people diplomacy are
facilitating this nation-building.
Despite corruption, limits on the press, and the gulf between the rich
and the rest, there is cause for optimism. Ukraine will host Europe's
soccer championship next year, and Russia the Winter Olympics in 2014.
Kyrgyzstan has seen a fivefold increase in colleges. The Baltic states
have joined the European Union and NATO.
For America's part, we are at peace with a former enemy; the Cold
War and Evil Empire exist only in history books. That's an excellent
resolution without a missile fired.
Jan Sherbin co-owns Glasnost Communications, a Cincinnati-based firm
that facilitates communication between people in America and the
former Soviet Union.
From: A. Papazian
By Jan Sherbin
Philadelphia Inquirer
http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/128049453.html
Aug 19 2011
In August 1991, I visited the Soviet Union on a people-to-people
mission. The trip gave me a front-row seat to history: On Aug. 19, 20
years ago today, hard-line communists staged a coup and detained the
country's leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, in an attempt to curb his reforms.
The coup ended up having the opposite effect: Gorbachev surfaced three
days later and soon shockingly announced the end of Soviet communism.
Ukraine declared independence, followed by five more Soviet republics.
The Soviet Union would dissolve by year's end.
"What do these events mean?" I asked a young father at his country
house one post-coup afternoon. Picking up his kindergarten-age son,
he responded: "We will not know until Slava grows up."
Now Slava has grown up, and it's time to ask again what those events
meant for him and his father. Many Americans assumed democracy, free
enterprise, and free expression would flourish instantly in the former
Soviet Union. But no framework existed for fashioning them from the
debris of communism - nor did post-Soviet leaders necessarily want to.
Two decades later, life has become more stable in 15 new countries.
But the new era began with euphoria - "The sense of freedom was the
best thing I felt," Arpine Melikbekyan, an Armenian lawyer, told me -
and hurtled into disarray.
Before the collapse, many Soviets recognized that their system was
rotting. By the late '80s, it had deteriorated to the extent that
goods had disappeared from stores. "I remember walking into a food
store and seeing nothing but salt," said Yana Yablonovskaya, who was
in grade school in Siberia at the time. "I remember lines for bread,
milk, meat, and, yes, vodka."
The transition from planned to market economy has been stressful.
People had to learn to budget for services once covered by the
government, notably higher education and health care. Many retirees,
with pensions geared to the old economy, are destitute.
But others enjoy a wide array of goods, including the cars that
now clog the streets. People are free to start a business, travel
internationally, and worship.
New identities have surfaced, too. Ethnic tensions suppressed in
Soviet times erupted, as in Georgia and Chechnya. Populations shifted
as people sought economic opportunity. "A lot of our people left to
become guest workers in Kazakhstan and Russia," said Azizbek Tashbaev,
a university administrator in Kyrgyzstan.
His country experienced two revolutions. Now, he said, "we are the
first nation in Central Asia where a parliament runs the country."
A new generation with initiative is replacing one accustomed to
waiting for instructions. "The idea that we Armenians can create
our country ourselves gives me hope," said Melikbekyan. "The new
generation believes in building new states that will be better than
the Soviet Union," echoed Levan Khubulava, a Georgian musician.
U.S.-funded educational programs and people-to-people diplomacy are
facilitating this nation-building.
Despite corruption, limits on the press, and the gulf between the rich
and the rest, there is cause for optimism. Ukraine will host Europe's
soccer championship next year, and Russia the Winter Olympics in 2014.
Kyrgyzstan has seen a fivefold increase in colleges. The Baltic states
have joined the European Union and NATO.
For America's part, we are at peace with a former enemy; the Cold
War and Evil Empire exist only in history books. That's an excellent
resolution without a missile fired.
Jan Sherbin co-owns Glasnost Communications, a Cincinnati-based firm
that facilitates communication between people in America and the
former Soviet Union.
From: A. Papazian