Maria Viaznikova is an ocean away from the country of her birth but she can still recall sitting in her family’s kitchen and listening to her father’s stories about how difficult life was under communism.
“My father was very involved politically and he used to argue with my mother, who was a member of the communist party. She always told us, ‘No words beyond these doors’,” said Viaznikova.
Viaznikova’s grandfather had been a political prisoner and her mother worried about anyone overhearing criticism of the party.
“She was really afraid for us — this was our childhood.”
In the 1980s, change came to the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev, who was later on elected as president in 1990. With his policies of “perestroika” and “glasnost” Gorbachev brought more openness and democratization to the country, as well as more open communication with the West.
Viaznikova said that the biggest changes came in the freedom to discuss things and to see how the other side lived.
“The first foreign TV shows appeared in Russia and new music groups — suddenly so many interesting people that weren’t just singing about the USSR. You could also hear foreign radio stations much more easily because before the signal would be blocked.”
Despite the changes, Viaznikova and her family chose to emigrate after she took a trip abroad and saw what life was like outside the Soviet Union. They came to Canada in 1998.
“We moved not because life was difficult but because we saw an opportunity, not only for us but for our daughter.”
Although Gorbachev is well remembered in the world he is remembered more for the Berlin Wall than for “perestroika”. He even received a Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for his work in forging international trust. The changes he made for Russia however didn’t seem to leave a very lasting legacy.
“I think there is a regression from the democratization of the 90s,” said Joan DeBardeleben, political science professor at Carleton University.
Viaznikova talked with her uncle who still lives in Russia and said that he described the situation in Russia as “Stalinism-like”.
“People are going to prison who took part in demonstrations and fought with police,” She said, referring to recent demonstrations against the conflict in Ukraine.
There has also been a clamp down in the Russian media, which today is all state owned.
“The media was relatively free in the 90s. And although it isn’t as bad as communist times, there has been an increase in the level of control,” said DeBardeleben. “It’s about setting boundaries that the state doesn’t want exceeded.”
Viaznikova expressed concern about the direction that Russia is heading in, not only with restrictions on freedom of expression but also with militarization.
“Putin is arming the country. I was in Russia during May two years ago and they were having the military parade. There were all new tanks, weapons and he was showing this with pride.”
Gorbachev’s policies introduced new ideas which created instability and eventually led to the unintentional collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Charles Sharpe, history professor at McGill University, suggested that the amount of state control and militarization today might be Putin’s way of keeping the country stable.
“Russia’s claim to being a great power isn’t from their economy, it’s from military power. If they want to remain that way and exert influence they have to show that off,” said Sharpe.
He also says that the changes in Russia could be due to a division in Russian culture between slavophiles and westernphiles.
“Westernphiles want to take things from the West to make the Russian empire better while slavophiles believe that Russian culture is distinct and has to find its own way,” said Sharpe. “That’s the big difference between Gorbachev and Putin.”
“Russian people are always looking for a Tsar in the end, it’s from our history. Tsar has to be strong, and Putin is strong,” said Viaznikova.
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